October 1
Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
October 1
Daily Saints – 1 October.
Feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She is popularly known as “The Little Flower of Jesus” or simply “The Little Flower”.
She is the patron saint of Missionaries; HIV/AIDS sufferers; radio care-a-thons; florists and gardeners; loss of parents; tuberculosis, sick people; against bodily ills, illness or sickness, air crews or pilots; aviators, black missions, florists and flower growers, foreign missions, loss of parents, parish missions, restoration of religious freedom in Russia, tuberculosis, World Youth Day 2013.
Therese Martin was the last of nine children born to St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azelie Guérin Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France.
However, only five of these children lived to reach adulthood and all four of her sisters became nuns.
Due to Therese’s weak and frail condition at birth, she was taken care of by a nurse for her first year and a half. Because of this care, she became a lively, mischievous and self-confident child. But Zelie was not blind to her baby’s faults.
Therese was, she wrote, “incredibly stubborn. When she has said ‘no’, nothing will make her change her mind. One could put her in the cellar for the whole day.”
Therese’s candor appeared early and was unusual. The little one would run to her mother and confess: “Mama, I hit Celine (her sister) once-but I won’t do it again.”
Tragedy and loss came quickly to Therese when her mother died of breast cancer when she was four and a half years old. As a result, her father and sisters babied young Therese.
She had a spirit that wanted everything. Her sixteen year old sister Pauline became her second mother – which made the second loss even worse when Pauline entered the Carmelite convent five years later.
A few months later, Therese became so ill with a fever that people thought she was dying. When Therese saw her sisters praying to statue of Mary in her room, Therese also prayed. She saw Mary smile at her and suddenly she was cured.
She tried to keep the grace of the cure secret but people found out and badgered her with questions about what Mary was wearing, what she looked like. When she refused to give in to their curiosity, they passed the story that she had made the whole thing up.
It was shortly after Pauline’s departure that Therese decided to join her at Lisieux’s Carmelite Convent. During her long illness, her resolve to join the Carmelites grew even stronger. “I am convinced that the thought of one day becoming a Carmelite made me live,” she later declared.
After her illness, Therese was more than ever determined to do something great for God and for others. She thought of herself as a new Joan of Arc, dedicated to the rescue not only of France but of the whole world.
Without realizing it, by the time she was eleven years old she had developed the habit of mental prayer. She would find a place between her bed and the wall and in that solitude think about God, life, eternity.
At the age of eleven, on May 8, 1884, Therese received her first “kiss of love”, a sense of being “united” with Jesus, of His giving Himself to her, as she gave herself to Him.
Her eucharistic hunger made her long for daily communion. Confirmation, “the sacrament of Love,” which she received on June 14, 1884, filled Therese with ecstasy.
Shortly thereafter though, the young Martin girl experienced a peculiarly vicious attack of scruples. This lasted seventeen months. She lived in constant fear of sinning; the most abhorrent and absurd thoughts disturbed her peace. She wept often.
During this time her sister, Marie, became very close with Therese, and helped her to overcome these fears.
When her other sisters, Marie and Leonie, left to join religious orders (the Carmelites and Poor Clares, respectively), Therese was left alone with her last sister Celine and her father. This was very hard on Therese, who at the age of thirteen, had now lost her “third” mother.
Therese tells us that she wanted to be good but that she had an odd way of going about. This spoiled little Queen of her father’s wouldn’t do housework. She thought if she made the beds she was doing a great favor!
Every time Therese even imagined that someone was criticizing her or didn’t appreciate her, she burst into tears. Then she would cry because she had cried! Any inner wall she built to contain her wild emotions crumpled immediately before the tiniest comment.
Therese wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join Pauline and Marie but how could she convince others that she could handle the rigors of Carmelite life, if she couldn’t handle her own emotional outbursts? She had prayed that Jesus would help her but there was no sign of an answer.
On Christmas day in 1886, the fourteen-year-old hurried home from church. In France, young children left their shoes by the hearth at Christmas, and then parents would fill them with gifts. By fourteen, most children outgrew this custom. But her sister Celine didn’t want Therese to grow up. So they continued to leave presents in “baby” Therese’s shoes.
As she and Celine climbed the stairs to take off their hats, their father’s voice rose up from the parlor below. Standing over the shoes, he sighed, “Thank goodness that’s the last time we shall have this kind of thing!”
Therese froze, and her sister looked at her helplessly. Celine knew that in a few minutes Therese would be in tears over what her father had said.
But the tantrum never came. Something incredible had happened to Therese. Jesus had come into her heart and done what she could not do herself. He had made her more sensitive to her father’s feelings than her own.
She swallowed her tears, walked slowly down the stairs, and exclaimed over the gifts in the shoes, as if she had never heard a word her father said. The following year she entered the convent. In her autobiography she referred to this Christmas as her “conversion.”
Grace received at Mass in the summer of 1887 left her with a vision of standing at the foot of the Cross, collecting the blood of Jesus and giving it to souls. Convinced that her prayers and sufferings could bring people to Christ, she boldly asked Jesus to give her some sign that she was right. He did.
In the early summer of 1887, a criminal, Henri Pranzini, was convicted of the murder of two women and a child. He was sentenced to the guillotine. The convicted man, according to police reports, showed no inclination to repent.
Therese immediately stormed heaven for Pranzini’s conversion. She prayed for weeks and had Mass offered for him. There was still no change in the attitude of the condemned man.
The newspaper La Croix, in describing Pranzini’s execution, noted the man had refused to go to confession. Then on September 1, 1887, as the executioner was about to put his head onto the guillotine block, the unfortunate criminal seized the crucifix a priest offered him and, the newspaper noted, “kissed the Sacred Wounds three times.”
Therese wept for joy, her “first child” had obtained God’s mercy. Therese hoped that many others would follow once she was in the Carmel.
Therese be known as the Little Flower but she had a will of steel. When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, the formerly shy little girl went to the bishop. When the bishop also said no, she decided to go over his head, as well.
Her father and sister took her on a pilgrimage to Rome to try to get her mind off this crazy idea. Therese loved it. It was the one time when being little worked to her advantage!
Because she was young and small she could run everywhere, touch relics and tombs without being yelled at. Finally they went for an audience with the Pope. They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn’t stop Therese.
As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent. She had to be carried out by two of the guards! But the Vicar General who had seen her courage was impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent that her sisters Pauline and Marie had already joined.
Her romantic ideas of convent life and suffering soon met up with reality in a way she had never expected. Her father suffered a series of strokes that left him affected not only physically but mentally.
When he began hallucinating and grabbed for a gun as if going into battle, he was taken to an asylum for the insane. Horrified, Therese learned of the humiliation of the father she adored and admired and of the gossip and pity of their so-called friends. As a cloistered nun she couldn’t even visit her father.
This began a horrible time of suffering when she experienced such dryness in prayer that she stated “Jesus isn’t doing much to keep the conversation going.” She was so grief-stricken that she often fell asleep in prayer.
She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms so that God must love her when she slept during prayer.
A great peace came over her when she made her profession on September 8, 1890. It was the reading of St. John of the Cross, an unusual choice at the time, which brought her relief.
Therese’s father made one last visit to the Carmel in May, 1892. He died peacefully two years later, in 1894, with Celine at his side. Celine then joined her three sisters at Carmel in September of 1894.
Therese knew as a Carmelite nun she would never be able to perform great deeds. “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”
She took every chance to sacrifice, no matter how small it would seem. She smiled at the sisters she didn’t like. She ate everything she was given without complaining – so that she was often given the worst leftovers.
One time she was accused of breaking a vase when she was not at fault. Instead of arguing she sank to her knees and begged forgiveness.
These little sacrifices cost her more than bigger ones, for these went unrecognized by others. No one told her how wonderful she was for these little secret humiliations and good deeds.
When Pauline was elected prioress, she asked Therese for the ultimate sacrifice. Because of politics in the convent, many of the sisters feared that the family Martin would taken over the convent.
Therefore Pauline asked Therese to remain a novice, in order to allay the fears of the others that the three sisters would push everyone else around. This meant she would never be a fully professed nun, that she would always have to ask permission for everything she did.
This sacrifice was made a little sweeter when Celine entered the convent after her father’s death. Four of the sisters were now together again.
Therese continued to worry about how she could achieve holiness in the life she led. She didn’t want to just be good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought there must be a way for people living hidden, little lives like hers.
“I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.”
“We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: “Whosoever is a little one, come to me.” It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less.”
And so she abandoned herself to Jesus and her life became a continual acceptance of the will of the Lord.
But Therese felt incapable of the tiniest charity, the smallest expression of concern and patience and understanding. So she surrendered her life to Christ with the hope that he would act through her.
Life in the Carmel had its problems too: the clashes of communal life, the cold, the new diet and the difficulties of prayer (two hours’ prayer and four and a half hours of liturgy).
One day, she leaned over the wash pool with a group of Sisters, laundering handkerchiefs. One of the Sisters splashed the hot, dirty water into Therese’s face, not once, not twice, but continually.
Remember the terrible temper that Therese had? She was near to throwing one of her best tantrums, but said nothing! Christ helped her to accept this lack of consideration on the part of her fellow Sister, and she found a certain peace.
She worried about her vocation: “I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is Love!”
When an antagonist was elected prioress, new political suspicions and plottings sprang up. The concern over the Martin sisters perhaps was not exaggerated. In this small convent they now made up one-fifth of the population. Despite this and the fact that Therese was a permanent novice they put her in charge of the other novices.
Then in 1896, she coughed up blood. She kept working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later everyone knew it.
Worst of all she had lost her joy and confidence and felt she would die young without leaving anything behind.
Pauline had already had her writing down her memories for journal and now she wanted her to continue — so they would have something to circulate on her life after her death.
Therese defined her path to God and holiness as ‘The Little Way’, which consisted of child-like love and trust in God. She had an on-going correspondence with Carmelite missionaries in China, often stating how much she wanted to come work with them.
Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation. But she tried to remain smiling and cheerful — and succeeded so well that some thought she was only pretending to be ill.
Her one dream as the work she would do after her death, helping those on earth. “I will return,” she said. “My heaven will be spent on earth.”
It became apparent in the summer of 1897 that Therese would not rally from her illness and she received Extreme Unction in July.
Therese died at 7:20 PM on September 30, 1897 at age 24. She died believing that her life was really just beginning for God, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Her final words were, “Oh, my God, I love you!”
“When one loves, one does not calculate.”
“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.”
“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”
“If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”
“I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbors’defects–not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.”
“My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.”
“Trust and trust alone should lead us to love”
“Then, overcome by joy, I cried, ‘Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.”
“A soul in a state of grace has nothing to fear of demons who are cowards.”
“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”
“What beauty? I don’t see my beauty at all; I see only the graces I’ve received from God. You always misunderstand me; you don’t know, then, that I’m only a little seedling, a little almond.”
“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”
“I understood that love comprises all vocations – that love is everything, and because it is eternal, embraces all times and places.”
“To live in love is to sail forever, spreading seeds of joy and peace in hearts.”
“Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
“Kindness is my only guiding star. In its light, I sail a straight route, I have my motto written on my sail: ‘To live in love.”
“Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.”
“Love can accomplish all things. Things that are most impossible become easy where love is at work.”
Feast of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. She is popularly known as “The Little Flower of Jesus” or simply “The Little Flower”.
She is the patron saint of Missionaries; HIV/AIDS sufferers; radio care-a-thons; florists and gardeners; loss of parents; tuberculosis, sick people; against bodily ills, illness or sickness, air crews or pilots; aviators, black missions, florists and flower growers, foreign missions, loss of parents, parish missions, restoration of religious freedom in Russia, tuberculosis, World Youth Day 2013.
Therese Martin was the last of nine children born to St. Louis Martin and St. Marie-Azelie Guérin Martin on January 2, 1873, in Alencon, France.
However, only five of these children lived to reach adulthood and all four of her sisters became nuns.
Due to Therese’s weak and frail condition at birth, she was taken care of by a nurse for her first year and a half. Because of this care, she became a lively, mischievous and self-confident child. But Zelie was not blind to her baby’s faults.
Therese was, she wrote, “incredibly stubborn. When she has said ‘no’, nothing will make her change her mind. One could put her in the cellar for the whole day.”
Therese’s candor appeared early and was unusual. The little one would run to her mother and confess: “Mama, I hit Celine (her sister) once-but I won’t do it again.”
Tragedy and loss came quickly to Therese when her mother died of breast cancer when she was four and a half years old. As a result, her father and sisters babied young Therese.
She had a spirit that wanted everything. Her sixteen year old sister Pauline became her second mother – which made the second loss even worse when Pauline entered the Carmelite convent five years later.
A few months later, Therese became so ill with a fever that people thought she was dying. When Therese saw her sisters praying to statue of Mary in her room, Therese also prayed. She saw Mary smile at her and suddenly she was cured.
She tried to keep the grace of the cure secret but people found out and badgered her with questions about what Mary was wearing, what she looked like. When she refused to give in to their curiosity, they passed the story that she had made the whole thing up.
It was shortly after Pauline’s departure that Therese decided to join her at Lisieux’s Carmelite Convent. During her long illness, her resolve to join the Carmelites grew even stronger. “I am convinced that the thought of one day becoming a Carmelite made me live,” she later declared.
After her illness, Therese was more than ever determined to do something great for God and for others. She thought of herself as a new Joan of Arc, dedicated to the rescue not only of France but of the whole world.
Without realizing it, by the time she was eleven years old she had developed the habit of mental prayer. She would find a place between her bed and the wall and in that solitude think about God, life, eternity.
At the age of eleven, on May 8, 1884, Therese received her first “kiss of love”, a sense of being “united” with Jesus, of His giving Himself to her, as she gave herself to Him.
Her eucharistic hunger made her long for daily communion. Confirmation, “the sacrament of Love,” which she received on June 14, 1884, filled Therese with ecstasy.
Shortly thereafter though, the young Martin girl experienced a peculiarly vicious attack of scruples. This lasted seventeen months. She lived in constant fear of sinning; the most abhorrent and absurd thoughts disturbed her peace. She wept often.
During this time her sister, Marie, became very close with Therese, and helped her to overcome these fears.
When her other sisters, Marie and Leonie, left to join religious orders (the Carmelites and Poor Clares, respectively), Therese was left alone with her last sister Celine and her father. This was very hard on Therese, who at the age of thirteen, had now lost her “third” mother.
Therese tells us that she wanted to be good but that she had an odd way of going about. This spoiled little Queen of her father’s wouldn’t do housework. She thought if she made the beds she was doing a great favor!
Every time Therese even imagined that someone was criticizing her or didn’t appreciate her, she burst into tears. Then she would cry because she had cried! Any inner wall she built to contain her wild emotions crumpled immediately before the tiniest comment.
Therese wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join Pauline and Marie but how could she convince others that she could handle the rigors of Carmelite life, if she couldn’t handle her own emotional outbursts? She had prayed that Jesus would help her but there was no sign of an answer.
On Christmas day in 1886, the fourteen-year-old hurried home from church. In France, young children left their shoes by the hearth at Christmas, and then parents would fill them with gifts. By fourteen, most children outgrew this custom. But her sister Celine didn’t want Therese to grow up. So they continued to leave presents in “baby” Therese’s shoes.
As she and Celine climbed the stairs to take off their hats, their father’s voice rose up from the parlor below. Standing over the shoes, he sighed, “Thank goodness that’s the last time we shall have this kind of thing!”
Therese froze, and her sister looked at her helplessly. Celine knew that in a few minutes Therese would be in tears over what her father had said.
But the tantrum never came. Something incredible had happened to Therese. Jesus had come into her heart and done what she could not do herself. He had made her more sensitive to her father’s feelings than her own.
She swallowed her tears, walked slowly down the stairs, and exclaimed over the gifts in the shoes, as if she had never heard a word her father said. The following year she entered the convent. In her autobiography she referred to this Christmas as her “conversion.”
Grace received at Mass in the summer of 1887 left her with a vision of standing at the foot of the Cross, collecting the blood of Jesus and giving it to souls. Convinced that her prayers and sufferings could bring people to Christ, she boldly asked Jesus to give her some sign that she was right. He did.
In the early summer of 1887, a criminal, Henri Pranzini, was convicted of the murder of two women and a child. He was sentenced to the guillotine. The convicted man, according to police reports, showed no inclination to repent.
Therese immediately stormed heaven for Pranzini’s conversion. She prayed for weeks and had Mass offered for him. There was still no change in the attitude of the condemned man.
The newspaper La Croix, in describing Pranzini’s execution, noted the man had refused to go to confession. Then on September 1, 1887, as the executioner was about to put his head onto the guillotine block, the unfortunate criminal seized the crucifix a priest offered him and, the newspaper noted, “kissed the Sacred Wounds three times.”
Therese wept for joy, her “first child” had obtained God’s mercy. Therese hoped that many others would follow once she was in the Carmel.
Therese be known as the Little Flower but she had a will of steel. When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, the formerly shy little girl went to the bishop. When the bishop also said no, she decided to go over his head, as well.
Her father and sister took her on a pilgrimage to Rome to try to get her mind off this crazy idea. Therese loved it. It was the one time when being little worked to her advantage!
Because she was young and small she could run everywhere, touch relics and tombs without being yelled at. Finally they went for an audience with the Pope. They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn’t stop Therese.
As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent. She had to be carried out by two of the guards! But the Vicar General who had seen her courage was impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent that her sisters Pauline and Marie had already joined.
Her romantic ideas of convent life and suffering soon met up with reality in a way she had never expected. Her father suffered a series of strokes that left him affected not only physically but mentally.
When he began hallucinating and grabbed for a gun as if going into battle, he was taken to an asylum for the insane. Horrified, Therese learned of the humiliation of the father she adored and admired and of the gossip and pity of their so-called friends. As a cloistered nun she couldn’t even visit her father.
This began a horrible time of suffering when she experienced such dryness in prayer that she stated “Jesus isn’t doing much to keep the conversation going.” She was so grief-stricken that she often fell asleep in prayer.
She consoled herself by saying that mothers loved children when they lie asleep in their arms so that God must love her when she slept during prayer.
A great peace came over her when she made her profession on September 8, 1890. It was the reading of St. John of the Cross, an unusual choice at the time, which brought her relief.
Therese’s father made one last visit to the Carmel in May, 1892. He died peacefully two years later, in 1894, with Celine at his side. Celine then joined her three sisters at Carmel in September of 1894.
Therese knew as a Carmelite nun she would never be able to perform great deeds. “Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”
She took every chance to sacrifice, no matter how small it would seem. She smiled at the sisters she didn’t like. She ate everything she was given without complaining – so that she was often given the worst leftovers.
One time she was accused of breaking a vase when she was not at fault. Instead of arguing she sank to her knees and begged forgiveness.
These little sacrifices cost her more than bigger ones, for these went unrecognized by others. No one told her how wonderful she was for these little secret humiliations and good deeds.
When Pauline was elected prioress, she asked Therese for the ultimate sacrifice. Because of politics in the convent, many of the sisters feared that the family Martin would taken over the convent.
Therefore Pauline asked Therese to remain a novice, in order to allay the fears of the others that the three sisters would push everyone else around. This meant she would never be a fully professed nun, that she would always have to ask permission for everything she did.
This sacrifice was made a little sweeter when Celine entered the convent after her father’s death. Four of the sisters were now together again.
Therese continued to worry about how she could achieve holiness in the life she led. She didn’t want to just be good, she wanted to be a saint. She thought there must be a way for people living hidden, little lives like hers.
“I have always wanted to become a saint. Unfortunately when I have compared myself with the saints, I have always found that there is the same difference between the saints and me as there is between a mountain whose summit is lost in the clouds and a humble grain of sand trodden underfoot by passers-by. Instead of being discouraged, I told myself: God would not make me wish for something impossible and so, in spite of my littleness, I can aim at being a saint. It is impossible for me to grow bigger, so I put up with myself as I am, with all my countless faults. But I will look for some means of going to heaven by a little way which is very short and very straight, a little way that is quite new.”
“We live in an age of inventions. We need no longer climb laboriously up flights of stairs; in well-to-do houses there are lifts. And I was determined to find a lift to carry me to Jesus, for I was far too small to climb the steep stairs of perfection. So I sought in holy Scripture some idea of what this life I wanted would be, and I read these words: “Whosoever is a little one, come to me.” It is your arms, Jesus, that are the lift to carry me to heaven. And so there is no need for me to grow up: I must stay little and become less and less.”
And so she abandoned herself to Jesus and her life became a continual acceptance of the will of the Lord.
But Therese felt incapable of the tiniest charity, the smallest expression of concern and patience and understanding. So she surrendered her life to Christ with the hope that he would act through her.
Life in the Carmel had its problems too: the clashes of communal life, the cold, the new diet and the difficulties of prayer (two hours’ prayer and four and a half hours of liturgy).
One day, she leaned over the wash pool with a group of Sisters, laundering handkerchiefs. One of the Sisters splashed the hot, dirty water into Therese’s face, not once, not twice, but continually.
Remember the terrible temper that Therese had? She was near to throwing one of her best tantrums, but said nothing! Christ helped her to accept this lack of consideration on the part of her fellow Sister, and she found a certain peace.
She worried about her vocation: “I feel in me the vocation of the Priest. I have the vocation of the Apostle. Martyrdom was the dream of my youth and this dream has grown with me. Considering the mystical body of the Church, I desired to see myself in them all. Charity gave me the key to my vocation. I understood that the Church had a Heart and that this Heart was burning with love. I understood that Love comprised all vocations, that Love was everything, that it embraced all times and places…in a word, that it was eternal! Then in the excess of my delirious joy, I cried out: O Jesus, my Love…my vocation, at last I have found it…My vocation is Love!”
When an antagonist was elected prioress, new political suspicions and plottings sprang up. The concern over the Martin sisters perhaps was not exaggerated. In this small convent they now made up one-fifth of the population. Despite this and the fact that Therese was a permanent novice they put her in charge of the other novices.
Then in 1896, she coughed up blood. She kept working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later everyone knew it.
Worst of all she had lost her joy and confidence and felt she would die young without leaving anything behind.
Pauline had already had her writing down her memories for journal and now she wanted her to continue — so they would have something to circulate on her life after her death.
Therese defined her path to God and holiness as ‘The Little Way’, which consisted of child-like love and trust in God. She had an on-going correspondence with Carmelite missionaries in China, often stating how much she wanted to come work with them.
Her pain was so great that she said that if she had not had faith she would have taken her own life without hesitation. But she tried to remain smiling and cheerful — and succeeded so well that some thought she was only pretending to be ill.
Her one dream as the work she would do after her death, helping those on earth. “I will return,” she said. “My heaven will be spent on earth.”
It became apparent in the summer of 1897 that Therese would not rally from her illness and she received Extreme Unction in July.
Therese died at 7:20 PM on September 30, 1897 at age 24. She died believing that her life was really just beginning for God, promising to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Her final words were, “Oh, my God, I love you!”
“When one loves, one does not calculate.”
“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.”
“Miss no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look, there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for love.”
“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”
“If every tiny flower wanted to be a rose, spring would lose its loveliness.”
“I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbors’defects–not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.”
“My whole strength lies in prayer and sacrifice, these are my invincible arms; they can move hearts far better than words, I know it by experience.”
“Trust and trust alone should lead us to love”
“Then, overcome by joy, I cried, ‘Jesus, my love. At last I have found my vocation. My vocation is love. In the heart of the Church, my mother, I will be love, and then I will be all things.”
“A soul in a state of grace has nothing to fear of demons who are cowards.”
“For me, prayer is a surge of the heart; it is a simple look turned toward heaven, it is a cry of recognition and of love, embracing both trial and joy.”
“What beauty? I don’t see my beauty at all; I see only the graces I’ve received from God. You always misunderstand me; you don’t know, then, that I’m only a little seedling, a little almond.”
“You know well enough that Our Lord does not look so much at the greatness of our actions, nor even at their difficulty, but at the love with which we do them.”
“I understood that love comprises all vocations – that love is everything, and because it is eternal, embraces all times and places.”
“To live in love is to sail forever, spreading seeds of joy and peace in hearts.”
“Our Lord does not so much look at the greatness of our actions, or even at their difficulty, as at the love with which we do them.”
“Kindness is my only guiding star. In its light, I sail a straight route, I have my motto written on my sail: ‘To live in love.”
“Let us love, since that is what our hearts were made for.”
“Love can accomplish all things. Things that are most impossible become easy where love is at work.”
Close
October 2
Daily Saints – 2 October.
Feast of Guardian Angels.
The term guardian angels refers to the belief that each person has an angel who is available to shepherd their soul through life, and help bring them to God.
Angels are servants and messengers from God. “Angel” in Greek means messenger. In unseen ways the angels help us on our earthly pilgrimage by assisting us in work and study, helping us in temptation and protecting us from physical danger.
A guardian angel is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom, or country.
Saint Jerome wrote that the human soul is so valuable in heaven that every human person has a guardian angel from the moment the person comes into being. These pure spirits, which we can neither see nor feel, play an important role in our lives.
Guardian angels assist us in work or study. In times of temptation, these spiritual beings direct us to do good.
Thomas Aquinas said that angels are the most excellent of creatures because they have the greatest intelligence next to God.
Perhaps the guardian angels are best known for protecting us from physical danger, but their main role is to care for the salvation of our souls.
Whenever we meet with danger or discouragement, our guardian angel is our personal, heavenly bodyguard. The angels also offer prayers to God for us.
Belief in the reality of angels, their mission as messengers of God, and man’s interaction with them, goes back to the earliest times.
Cherubim kept Adam and Eve from slipping back into Eden; angels saved Lot and helped destroy the cities of the plains.
In Exodous Moses follows an angel, and at one point an angel is appointed leader of Israel. In Exodus 32:34, God said to Moses: “my angel shall go before thee.”
At a much later period, we have the story of Tobias, which might serve for a commentary on the words of Psalm 91:11: “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” (Cf. Psalm 33:8 and 34:5)
Michael is mentioned at several points, Raphael figures large in the story of Tobit, and Gabriel delivered the Annunciation of the coming of Christ.
The belief that angels can be guides and intercessors for men can be found in Job 33:23-6, and in Daniel 10:13 angels seem to be assigned to certain countries.
The concept of each soul having a personal guardian angel, is also an ancient one, and long accepted by the Church. Each person on earth has a guardian angel who watches over him and helps him to attain his salvation.
It has been a common theological opinion that this angelical guardianship begins at the moment of birth; prior to this, the child would be protected by the mother’s guardian angel.
But this is not certain, and since we now know that the soul is infused at the moment of conception, it may be that the angelic guardianship also begins at that moment.
In any case, this protection continues throughout our whole life and ceases only when our probation on earth ends, namely, at the moment of death.
Our guardian angel accompanies our soul to purgatory or heaven, and becomes our coheir in the heavenly kingdom.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith (CCC. 328).”
From our birth until our death, man is surrounded by the protection and intercession of angels, particularly our guardian angel: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life (CCC. 336).”
The feast celebrating the angels who helped bring us to God began in many local calendars centuries ago, and was widely known by the 16th century.
Pope Paul V placed a feast venerating the angels on the general calendar on 27 September 1608.
Ferdinand of Austria requested that it be extended to all areas in the Holy Roman Empire. Initially placed after the feast of Michael the Archangel, it was seen as a kind of supplement to that date.
Pope Clement X elevated the feast, celebrated 2 October, to an obligatory double for the whole Church. On 5 April 1883, Pope Leo XIII raised the feast to the rank of a double major.
Father Giovangiuseppe Califano recounted how, one day, a newly appointed bishop confessed to Pope John XXIII “that he could not sleep at night due to an anxiety which was caused by the responsibility of his office.” The pope told him, “You know, I also thought the same when I was elected pope. But one day, I dreamed about my guardian angel, and it told me not to take everything so seriously.”
Traditional prayer to your angel guardian:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen
There was an old Irish custom that suggested including in bedtime prayers a request for the Blessed Mother to tell one of the name of their guardian angel, and supposedly within a few days one would “know” the name by which they could address their angel.
An old Dominican tradition encouraged each novice to give a name to their Guardian Angel so that they could speak to him by name and thus feel closer and more friendly with him.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments discourages assigning names to angels beyond those revealed in scripture: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “On this road man is threatened by many dangers both from within and without, and therefore as guardians are appointed for men who have to pass by an unsafe road, so an angel is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer.”
“Let us invoke the Queen of angels and saints, that she may grant us, supported by our guardian angels, to be authentic witnesses to the Lord’s paschal mystery”- March 31, 1997 Regina Caeli address, Pope Saint John Paul II
“How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.” – Saint Jerome in his commentary on Matthew
In his 2014 homily for the Feast of Holy Guardian Angels, October 2, Pope Francis told those gathered for daily Mass to be like children who pay attention to their “traveling companion.” “No one journeys alone and no one should think that they are alone,” Pope Francis said.
“According to the teaching of the Roman catechism, we must remember how admirable was the intention of divine Providence in entrusting to the angels the mission of watching over all mankind, and over individual human beings, lest they should fall victims to the grave dangers which they encounter. In this earthly life, when children have to make their way along a path beset with obstacles and snares, their fathers take care to call upon the help of those who can look after them and come to their aid in adversity. In the same way our Father in heaven has charged his angels to come to our assistance during our earthly journey which leads us to our blessed fatherland, so that, protected by the angels’ help and care, we may avoid the snares upon our path, subdue our passions and, under this angelic guidance, follow always the straight and sure road which leads to Paradise. Everyone of us is entrusted to the care of an angel. That is why we must have a lively and profound devotion to our own Guardian Angel, and why we should often and trustfully repeat the dear prayer we were taught in the days of our childhood. May we never fail in this devotion to the angels! During our earthly pilgrimage we may often run the risk of having to face the natural elements in turmoil, or the wrath of men who may seek to do us harm. But our Guardian Angel is always present. Let us never forget him and always remember to pray to him.” – Pope Saint John XXIII
“Be alert in your every action as one should be who is accompanied by angels in all your ways, for that mission has been enjoined upon them. In whatever lodging, in whatever nook or corner you may find yourself, cherish a reverence for your guardian angel. In his presence do not dare to do anything you would not do in mine. Or do you doubt his presence because you do not see him? Would it really help if you did hear him, or touch him, or smell him? Remember, there are realities whose existence has not been proven by mere sight.” – St. Bernard
“Brethren, we will love God’s angels with a most affectionate love; for they will be our heavenly co-heirs some day, these spirits who now are sent by the Father to be our protectors and our guides. With such bodyguards, what are we to fear? They can neither be subdued nor deceived; nor is there any possibility at all that they should go astray who are to guard us in all our ways. They are trustworthy, they are intelligent, they are strong — why, then, do we tremble? We need only to follow them, remain close to them, and we will dwell in the protection of the Most High God. So as often as you sense the approach of any grave temptation or some crushing sorrow hangs over you, invoke your protector, your leader, your helper in every situation. Call out to him and say: Lord, save us, we are perishing.” – St. Bernard
“When Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.” – St. John Chrysostom
“Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.” – St. Basil the Great
“Those closest to God in heaven, the seraphim, are called the fiery ones because more than the other angels they take their fervor and ardor from the intense fire of God.” – St. Robert Bellarmine
“When tempted, invoke your Angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.” – St. John Bosco
“Our Guardian Angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them.” – St. John Vianney
“The first thing about the Angels that we ought to imitate, is their consciousness of the Presence of God.” – St. John Vianney
“It is our Angels who ask God to grant us a deep sorrow for our sins.” – St. John Vianney
“The Angels take great pleasure in helping us with our enterprises, when they are in accordance with God’s will.” – St. John Vianney
“What joy it is to know that when we go out of the house, we are never alone en route.” – St. John Vianney
“With what humility should we assist at Mass, if we realized that our Guardian Angel was kneeling beside us, prostrate before the Majesty of God! With what eagerness should we not ask him to offer our prayers to Jesus Christ!” – St. John Vianney
“How happy is that guardian angel who accompanies a soul to Holy Mass!” – St. John Vianney
“If the Angels could envy, they would envy us for Holy Communion.” – Pope St. Pius X
“We should show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“Make yourself familiar with the Angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.” – St. Francis de Sales
“I have great reverence for Saint Michael the Archangel; he had no example to follow in doing the will of God, and yet he fulfilled God’s will faithfully.” – St. Faustina Kowalska
“The powers of hell will assail the dying Christian; but his angel guardian will come to console him. His patrons, and St. Michael, who has been appointed by God to defend his faithful servants in their last combat with the devils, will come to his aid.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori
“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine
“Ask your angel to console and assist you in your last moments.” – St. John Bosco
“What a consolation it is to know one is always in the care of a celestial spirit, who does not abandon us (how admirable) even when we disgust God! How sweet is this great truth for the believer! Who, then, does the devout soul fear who tries to love Jesus, having always close by such a great warrior?” – St. Padre Pio
“Know that he is still powerful against Satan and his satellites; his charity has not diminished, nor will he ever fail in defending us.” – St. Padre Pio
“Develop the beautiful habit of always thinking of him; that near us is a celestial spirit, who, from the cradle to the tomb, does not leave us for an instant, guides us, protects us as a friend, a brother; will always be a consolation to us especially in our saddest moments.” – St. Padre Pio
“Jesus has placed near you an Angel from Heaven who is always looking after you; he carries you in his hands lest your foot strike against a stone.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“You do not see him, and yet he is the one who…has preserved your soul…he is the one who removes from you the occasions of sin.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“Your Guardian Angel is covering you with his wings, and Jesus, the purity of virgins, reposes in your heart. You do not see your treasures; Jesus is sleeping and the Angel remains in his mysterious silence. However, they are there with Mary who is hiding you also under her veil!…” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“One evening, when I was suffering more than usual, I was complaining to Jesus and telling him that I would not have prayed so much if I had known that He was not going to cure me, and I asked Him why I had to be sick this way. My angel answered me as follows: ‘If Jesus afflicts you in your body, it is always to purify you in your soul. Be good.’ “Oh, how many times during my long illness did I not experience such consoling words in my heart! But I never profited by them.” “From the moment I got up from my sick bed…My guardian angel began to be my master and guide. He corrected me every time I did something wrong, and he taught me to speak but little, and only when I was spoken to.” – St. Gemma Galgani
“One day, when I was at adoration, and my spirit seemed to be dying for Him, and I could no longer hold back my tears, I saw a spirit of great beauty who spoke these words to me: ‘Don’t cry — says the Lord.’ After a moment I asked, ‘Who are you?’ He answered me, ‘I am one of the seven spirits who stand before the throne of God day and night and give Him ceaseless praise.’ Yet this spirit did not soothe my yearning, but roused me to even greater longing for God. This spirit is very beautiful, and his beauty comes from close union with God. This spirit does not leave me for a single moment, but accompanies me everywhere.” – St. Faustina
Here are 20 things to remember:-
1. Ward off demons:
Sometimes we visualize moral decision-making as a debate between a bad angel whispering in one ear and a good angel speaking wisely in the other. There is a truth to this: according to St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the roles of the guardian angels is to fight off demons (Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 113, Articles 2-6).
2. Protect us from harm:
Guardian angels generally protect us from both spiritual and physical harm, according to Aquinas. This belief is rooted in Scripture. For example, Psalm 91:11-12 declares, “For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”
3. Strengthen us against temptation:
Guardian angels do not just ward off evil, they also strengthen us so we can do it ourselves. As St. Bernard says in a sermon, “As often, therefore, as a most serious temptation is perceived to weigh upon you and an excessive trial is threatening, call to your guard, your leader, your helper in your needs, in your tribulation; cry to him and say: ‘Lord, save us; we perish!’”
4. Embolden us:
St. Bernard also says that with angels such as these at our side we should have no fear. We should have the courage to live out our faith boldly and confront whatever life might throw our way. As he puts it, “Why should we fear under such guardians? Those who keep us in all our ways can neither be overcome nor be deceived, much less deceive. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; why do we tremble?”
5. Intervene miraculously to save us from trouble:
Guardian angels not only ‘guard,’ they also can ‘save’ us when we are already in trouble. This is illustrated by the story of Peter in Acts 12, when an angel helps break the apostle out of prison. The story suggests that it is his own personal angel that has intervened (see verse 15). Of course, we cannot count on such miracles. But it’s an added comfort to know that they are possible.
6. Guard us from birth:
Church Fathers once debated whether guardian angels were assigned at birth or at baptism. St. Jerome argued decisively for the former. His basis was Matthew 18:10, which is a crucially important Scriptural passage that supports the existence of guardian angels. In the verse Jesus says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” The reason that we get guardian angels at birth is that their aid is associated with our nature as rational beings, rather than belonging to the order of grace, according to Aquinas.
7. Guard all of us—including unbelievers:
This conclusion follows from the above. Aquinas also makes this clear in explaining that God never leaves any of us, including sinners. As the great dogmatic theologian Ludwig Ott explained, “According to the general teaching of the theologians, however, not only every baptized person, but every human being, including unbelievers, has his own special guardian angel from his birth.” Pope Benedict XVI also taught that guardian angels are “ministers of the divine care for every human being.”
8. Remind us of the dignity of persons:
This follows from all that has been said before. It is particularly evident from Matthew 18:10 where Jesus instructs us not to ‘despise’ the ‘little ones’ because they have angels watching over them. As St. Jerome puts it, “The worth of souls is so great that from birth each one has an angel assigned to him for protection.” Piper emphasizes how the presence of guardian angels should lead us to a greater respect for our fellow Christians: “Therefore don’t despise this simple, unimpressive disciple of Jesus! Let his angelic entourage remind you whose son he is.”
9. Remind us of God’s care for all:
Aquinas explains how the angels operate in accordance with God’s providential plan for all men. It follows that these angels serve as a reminder of His care for us.
10. Bring our needs to God:
Akin says that guardian angels act as intercessors who bring our requests directly to God based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 about angels beholding the face of God.
11. Bring us closer to God:
It follows from the above that guardian angels also aid in bringing us nearer to God. Even when God seems distant, just remember that the guardian angel assigned to you personally is at the same time beholding God directly, as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes.
12. Move us to the good:
Guardian angels also move us to the good. As Aquinas writes, “It is moreover manifest that as regards things to be done human knowledge and affection can vary and fail from good in many ways; and so it was necessary that angels should be deputed for the guardianship of men, in order to regulate them and move them to good” This includes prompting us to perform good works, according to Aquinas.
13. Reinforce God’s commands:
According to Aquinas, one of the roles of our angelic guardians is helping us use our reason to pursue virtue. In particular, he says the angels help us in developing prudence by serving as God’s “universal instructor,” passing on God’s precepts.
14. Illuminate the truth:
Angels “propose the intelligible truth to men” through sensible things, according to Aquinas. Although he does not elaborate on this point, this it is a basic teaching of the Church that the material world points to invisible spiritual realities. As St. Paul says in Romans 1:20, “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.”
15. Strengthen our minds:
A second way that angels enlighten us, Aquinas says, is by reinforcing our intellects. As he puts it, “The human intellect as the inferior, is strengthened by the action of the angelic intellect”.
16. Communicate through our imagination:
In addition to working through our senses and intellects, our guardian angels also influence us through our imaginations, according to Aquinas, who gives the example of Joseph’s dreams. But it might not be something as obvious as a dream; it could also be through more subtle means like a ‘phantasm,’ which could be defined as an image brought to the senses or the imagination.
17. Influence our wills:
Angels cannot directly move the will, but, according to Aquinas, they can indirectly influence it through our senses and intellect, as stated above. This means that our guardian angels influence every part of our being for the better—our senses, intellect, and will.
18. Aid in our salvation:
The ultimate goal of all that guardian angels do is to aid in our salvation, according to Aquinas. “Angels are sent to minister, and that efficaciously indeed, for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, if we consider the ultimate effect of their guardianship, which is the realizing of that inheritance,” Aquinas writes. Here he is drawing from Hebrews 1:14, which states, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
19. Remind us of our ultimate goal:
Inspired by Christ’s words in Matthew 18:10, St. Augustine suggests that guardian angels remind us that our ultimate goal is the beatific vision of God: “As, then, they see, so shall we also see; but not yet do we thus see. Wherefore the apostle uses the words cited a little ago, Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. This vision is reserved as the reward of our faith; and of it the Apostle John also says, When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2. By the face of God we are to understand His manifestation, and not a part of the body similar to that which in our bodies we call by that name” (City of God, Book 22, Chapter 29).
20. Never leave us:
Guardian angels assume their duties at our birth and maintain them up to our death. For Aquinas, this is just an extension of the broader truth that we never completely leave God’s care, even in sin and doubt: “Now it is evident that neither man, nor anything at all, is entirely withdrawn from the providence of God: for in as far as a thing participates being, so far is it subject to the providence that extends over all being. God indeed is said to forsake man, according to the ordering of His providence, but only in so far as He allows man to suffer some defect of punishment or of fault. In like manner it must be said that the angel guardian never forsakes a man entirely…”
(from the article of Stephen Beale)
Feast of Guardian Angels.
The term guardian angels refers to the belief that each person has an angel who is available to shepherd their soul through life, and help bring them to God.
Angels are servants and messengers from God. “Angel” in Greek means messenger. In unseen ways the angels help us on our earthly pilgrimage by assisting us in work and study, helping us in temptation and protecting us from physical danger.
A guardian angel is assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom, or country.
Saint Jerome wrote that the human soul is so valuable in heaven that every human person has a guardian angel from the moment the person comes into being. These pure spirits, which we can neither see nor feel, play an important role in our lives.
Guardian angels assist us in work or study. In times of temptation, these spiritual beings direct us to do good.
Thomas Aquinas said that angels are the most excellent of creatures because they have the greatest intelligence next to God.
Perhaps the guardian angels are best known for protecting us from physical danger, but their main role is to care for the salvation of our souls.
Whenever we meet with danger or discouragement, our guardian angel is our personal, heavenly bodyguard. The angels also offer prayers to God for us.
Belief in the reality of angels, their mission as messengers of God, and man’s interaction with them, goes back to the earliest times.
Cherubim kept Adam and Eve from slipping back into Eden; angels saved Lot and helped destroy the cities of the plains.
In Exodous Moses follows an angel, and at one point an angel is appointed leader of Israel. In Exodus 32:34, God said to Moses: “my angel shall go before thee.”
At a much later period, we have the story of Tobias, which might serve for a commentary on the words of Psalm 91:11: “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;” (Cf. Psalm 33:8 and 34:5)
Michael is mentioned at several points, Raphael figures large in the story of Tobit, and Gabriel delivered the Annunciation of the coming of Christ.
The belief that angels can be guides and intercessors for men can be found in Job 33:23-6, and in Daniel 10:13 angels seem to be assigned to certain countries.
The concept of each soul having a personal guardian angel, is also an ancient one, and long accepted by the Church. Each person on earth has a guardian angel who watches over him and helps him to attain his salvation.
It has been a common theological opinion that this angelical guardianship begins at the moment of birth; prior to this, the child would be protected by the mother’s guardian angel.
But this is not certain, and since we now know that the soul is infused at the moment of conception, it may be that the angelic guardianship also begins at that moment.
In any case, this protection continues throughout our whole life and ceases only when our probation on earth ends, namely, at the moment of death.
Our guardian angel accompanies our soul to purgatory or heaven, and becomes our coheir in the heavenly kingdom.
“See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father” (Matthew 18:10).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “the existence of the spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls ‘angels’ is a truth of faith (CCC. 328).”
From our birth until our death, man is surrounded by the protection and intercession of angels, particularly our guardian angel: “Beside each believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd leading him to life (CCC. 336).”
The feast celebrating the angels who helped bring us to God began in many local calendars centuries ago, and was widely known by the 16th century.
Pope Paul V placed a feast venerating the angels on the general calendar on 27 September 1608.
Ferdinand of Austria requested that it be extended to all areas in the Holy Roman Empire. Initially placed after the feast of Michael the Archangel, it was seen as a kind of supplement to that date.
Pope Clement X elevated the feast, celebrated 2 October, to an obligatory double for the whole Church. On 5 April 1883, Pope Leo XIII raised the feast to the rank of a double major.
Father Giovangiuseppe Califano recounted how, one day, a newly appointed bishop confessed to Pope John XXIII “that he could not sleep at night due to an anxiety which was caused by the responsibility of his office.” The pope told him, “You know, I also thought the same when I was elected pope. But one day, I dreamed about my guardian angel, and it told me not to take everything so seriously.”
Traditional prayer to your angel guardian:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear, to whom His love commits me here, ever this day be at my side, to light and guard, to rule and guide. Amen
There was an old Irish custom that suggested including in bedtime prayers a request for the Blessed Mother to tell one of the name of their guardian angel, and supposedly within a few days one would “know” the name by which they could address their angel.
An old Dominican tradition encouraged each novice to give a name to their Guardian Angel so that they could speak to him by name and thus feel closer and more friendly with him.
The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments discourages assigning names to angels beyond those revealed in scripture: Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael.
According to St. Thomas Aquinas, “On this road man is threatened by many dangers both from within and without, and therefore as guardians are appointed for men who have to pass by an unsafe road, so an angel is assigned to each man as long as he is a wayfarer.”
“Let us invoke the Queen of angels and saints, that she may grant us, supported by our guardian angels, to be authentic witnesses to the Lord’s paschal mystery”- March 31, 1997 Regina Caeli address, Pope Saint John Paul II
“How great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard it.” – Saint Jerome in his commentary on Matthew
In his 2014 homily for the Feast of Holy Guardian Angels, October 2, Pope Francis told those gathered for daily Mass to be like children who pay attention to their “traveling companion.” “No one journeys alone and no one should think that they are alone,” Pope Francis said.
“According to the teaching of the Roman catechism, we must remember how admirable was the intention of divine Providence in entrusting to the angels the mission of watching over all mankind, and over individual human beings, lest they should fall victims to the grave dangers which they encounter. In this earthly life, when children have to make their way along a path beset with obstacles and snares, their fathers take care to call upon the help of those who can look after them and come to their aid in adversity. In the same way our Father in heaven has charged his angels to come to our assistance during our earthly journey which leads us to our blessed fatherland, so that, protected by the angels’ help and care, we may avoid the snares upon our path, subdue our passions and, under this angelic guidance, follow always the straight and sure road which leads to Paradise. Everyone of us is entrusted to the care of an angel. That is why we must have a lively and profound devotion to our own Guardian Angel, and why we should often and trustfully repeat the dear prayer we were taught in the days of our childhood. May we never fail in this devotion to the angels! During our earthly pilgrimage we may often run the risk of having to face the natural elements in turmoil, or the wrath of men who may seek to do us harm. But our Guardian Angel is always present. Let us never forget him and always remember to pray to him.” – Pope Saint John XXIII
“Be alert in your every action as one should be who is accompanied by angels in all your ways, for that mission has been enjoined upon them. In whatever lodging, in whatever nook or corner you may find yourself, cherish a reverence for your guardian angel. In his presence do not dare to do anything you would not do in mine. Or do you doubt his presence because you do not see him? Would it really help if you did hear him, or touch him, or smell him? Remember, there are realities whose existence has not been proven by mere sight.” – St. Bernard
“Brethren, we will love God’s angels with a most affectionate love; for they will be our heavenly co-heirs some day, these spirits who now are sent by the Father to be our protectors and our guides. With such bodyguards, what are we to fear? They can neither be subdued nor deceived; nor is there any possibility at all that they should go astray who are to guard us in all our ways. They are trustworthy, they are intelligent, they are strong — why, then, do we tremble? We need only to follow them, remain close to them, and we will dwell in the protection of the Most High God. So as often as you sense the approach of any grave temptation or some crushing sorrow hangs over you, invoke your protector, your leader, your helper in every situation. Call out to him and say: Lord, save us, we are perishing.” – St. Bernard
“When Mass is being celebrated, the sanctuary is filled with countless angels who adore the Divine Victim immolated on the altar.” – St. John Chrysostom
“Beside each believer stands an Angel as protector and shepherd, leading him to life.” – St. Basil the Great
“Those closest to God in heaven, the seraphim, are called the fiery ones because more than the other angels they take their fervor and ardor from the intense fire of God.” – St. Robert Bellarmine
“When tempted, invoke your Angel. He is more eager to help you than you are to be helped! Ignore the devil and do not be afraid of him: He trembles and flees at the sight of your Guardian Angel.” – St. John Bosco
“Our Guardian Angels are our most faithful friends, because they are with us day and night, always and everywhere. We ought often to invoke them.” – St. John Vianney
“The first thing about the Angels that we ought to imitate, is their consciousness of the Presence of God.” – St. John Vianney
“It is our Angels who ask God to grant us a deep sorrow for our sins.” – St. John Vianney
“The Angels take great pleasure in helping us with our enterprises, when they are in accordance with God’s will.” – St. John Vianney
“What joy it is to know that when we go out of the house, we are never alone en route.” – St. John Vianney
“With what humility should we assist at Mass, if we realized that our Guardian Angel was kneeling beside us, prostrate before the Majesty of God! With what eagerness should we not ask him to offer our prayers to Jesus Christ!” – St. John Vianney
“How happy is that guardian angel who accompanies a soul to Holy Mass!” – St. John Vianney
“If the Angels could envy, they would envy us for Holy Communion.” – Pope St. Pius X
“We should show our affection for the angels, for one day they will be our co-heirs just as here below they are our guardians and trustees appointed and set over us by the Father.” – St. Bernard of Clairvaux
“Make yourself familiar with the Angels, and behold them frequently in spirit. Without being seen, they are present with you.” – St. Francis de Sales
“I have great reverence for Saint Michael the Archangel; he had no example to follow in doing the will of God, and yet he fulfilled God’s will faithfully.” – St. Faustina Kowalska
“The powers of hell will assail the dying Christian; but his angel guardian will come to console him. His patrons, and St. Michael, who has been appointed by God to defend his faithful servants in their last combat with the devils, will come to his aid.” – St. Alphonsus Liguori
“It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels.” – St. Augustine
“Ask your angel to console and assist you in your last moments.” – St. John Bosco
“What a consolation it is to know one is always in the care of a celestial spirit, who does not abandon us (how admirable) even when we disgust God! How sweet is this great truth for the believer! Who, then, does the devout soul fear who tries to love Jesus, having always close by such a great warrior?” – St. Padre Pio
“Know that he is still powerful against Satan and his satellites; his charity has not diminished, nor will he ever fail in defending us.” – St. Padre Pio
“Develop the beautiful habit of always thinking of him; that near us is a celestial spirit, who, from the cradle to the tomb, does not leave us for an instant, guides us, protects us as a friend, a brother; will always be a consolation to us especially in our saddest moments.” – St. Padre Pio
“Jesus has placed near you an Angel from Heaven who is always looking after you; he carries you in his hands lest your foot strike against a stone.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“You do not see him, and yet he is the one who…has preserved your soul…he is the one who removes from you the occasions of sin.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“Your Guardian Angel is covering you with his wings, and Jesus, the purity of virgins, reposes in your heart. You do not see your treasures; Jesus is sleeping and the Angel remains in his mysterious silence. However, they are there with Mary who is hiding you also under her veil!…” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“One evening, when I was suffering more than usual, I was complaining to Jesus and telling him that I would not have prayed so much if I had known that He was not going to cure me, and I asked Him why I had to be sick this way. My angel answered me as follows: ‘If Jesus afflicts you in your body, it is always to purify you in your soul. Be good.’ “Oh, how many times during my long illness did I not experience such consoling words in my heart! But I never profited by them.” “From the moment I got up from my sick bed…My guardian angel began to be my master and guide. He corrected me every time I did something wrong, and he taught me to speak but little, and only when I was spoken to.” – St. Gemma Galgani
“One day, when I was at adoration, and my spirit seemed to be dying for Him, and I could no longer hold back my tears, I saw a spirit of great beauty who spoke these words to me: ‘Don’t cry — says the Lord.’ After a moment I asked, ‘Who are you?’ He answered me, ‘I am one of the seven spirits who stand before the throne of God day and night and give Him ceaseless praise.’ Yet this spirit did not soothe my yearning, but roused me to even greater longing for God. This spirit is very beautiful, and his beauty comes from close union with God. This spirit does not leave me for a single moment, but accompanies me everywhere.” – St. Faustina
Here are 20 things to remember:-
1. Ward off demons:
Sometimes we visualize moral decision-making as a debate between a bad angel whispering in one ear and a good angel speaking wisely in the other. There is a truth to this: according to St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the roles of the guardian angels is to fight off demons (Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 113, Articles 2-6).
2. Protect us from harm:
Guardian angels generally protect us from both spiritual and physical harm, according to Aquinas. This belief is rooted in Scripture. For example, Psalm 91:11-12 declares, “For he commands his angels with regard to you, to guard you wherever you go. With their hands they shall support you, lest you strike your foot against a stone.”
3. Strengthen us against temptation:
Guardian angels do not just ward off evil, they also strengthen us so we can do it ourselves. As St. Bernard says in a sermon, “As often, therefore, as a most serious temptation is perceived to weigh upon you and an excessive trial is threatening, call to your guard, your leader, your helper in your needs, in your tribulation; cry to him and say: ‘Lord, save us; we perish!’”
4. Embolden us:
St. Bernard also says that with angels such as these at our side we should have no fear. We should have the courage to live out our faith boldly and confront whatever life might throw our way. As he puts it, “Why should we fear under such guardians? Those who keep us in all our ways can neither be overcome nor be deceived, much less deceive. They are faithful; they are prudent; they are powerful; why do we tremble?”
5. Intervene miraculously to save us from trouble:
Guardian angels not only ‘guard,’ they also can ‘save’ us when we are already in trouble. This is illustrated by the story of Peter in Acts 12, when an angel helps break the apostle out of prison. The story suggests that it is his own personal angel that has intervened (see verse 15). Of course, we cannot count on such miracles. But it’s an added comfort to know that they are possible.
6. Guard us from birth:
Church Fathers once debated whether guardian angels were assigned at birth or at baptism. St. Jerome argued decisively for the former. His basis was Matthew 18:10, which is a crucially important Scriptural passage that supports the existence of guardian angels. In the verse Jesus says, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always look upon the face of my heavenly Father.” The reason that we get guardian angels at birth is that their aid is associated with our nature as rational beings, rather than belonging to the order of grace, according to Aquinas.
7. Guard all of us—including unbelievers:
This conclusion follows from the above. Aquinas also makes this clear in explaining that God never leaves any of us, including sinners. As the great dogmatic theologian Ludwig Ott explained, “According to the general teaching of the theologians, however, not only every baptized person, but every human being, including unbelievers, has his own special guardian angel from his birth.” Pope Benedict XVI also taught that guardian angels are “ministers of the divine care for every human being.”
8. Remind us of the dignity of persons:
This follows from all that has been said before. It is particularly evident from Matthew 18:10 where Jesus instructs us not to ‘despise’ the ‘little ones’ because they have angels watching over them. As St. Jerome puts it, “The worth of souls is so great that from birth each one has an angel assigned to him for protection.” Piper emphasizes how the presence of guardian angels should lead us to a greater respect for our fellow Christians: “Therefore don’t despise this simple, unimpressive disciple of Jesus! Let his angelic entourage remind you whose son he is.”
9. Remind us of God’s care for all:
Aquinas explains how the angels operate in accordance with God’s providential plan for all men. It follows that these angels serve as a reminder of His care for us.
10. Bring our needs to God:
Akin says that guardian angels act as intercessors who bring our requests directly to God based on Jesus’ words in Matthew 18:10 about angels beholding the face of God.
11. Bring us closer to God:
It follows from the above that guardian angels also aid in bringing us nearer to God. Even when God seems distant, just remember that the guardian angel assigned to you personally is at the same time beholding God directly, as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes.
12. Move us to the good:
Guardian angels also move us to the good. As Aquinas writes, “It is moreover manifest that as regards things to be done human knowledge and affection can vary and fail from good in many ways; and so it was necessary that angels should be deputed for the guardianship of men, in order to regulate them and move them to good” This includes prompting us to perform good works, according to Aquinas.
13. Reinforce God’s commands:
According to Aquinas, one of the roles of our angelic guardians is helping us use our reason to pursue virtue. In particular, he says the angels help us in developing prudence by serving as God’s “universal instructor,” passing on God’s precepts.
14. Illuminate the truth:
Angels “propose the intelligible truth to men” through sensible things, according to Aquinas. Although he does not elaborate on this point, this it is a basic teaching of the Church that the material world points to invisible spiritual realities. As St. Paul says in Romans 1:20, “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.”
15. Strengthen our minds:
A second way that angels enlighten us, Aquinas says, is by reinforcing our intellects. As he puts it, “The human intellect as the inferior, is strengthened by the action of the angelic intellect”.
16. Communicate through our imagination:
In addition to working through our senses and intellects, our guardian angels also influence us through our imaginations, according to Aquinas, who gives the example of Joseph’s dreams. But it might not be something as obvious as a dream; it could also be through more subtle means like a ‘phantasm,’ which could be defined as an image brought to the senses or the imagination.
17. Influence our wills:
Angels cannot directly move the will, but, according to Aquinas, they can indirectly influence it through our senses and intellect, as stated above. This means that our guardian angels influence every part of our being for the better—our senses, intellect, and will.
18. Aid in our salvation:
The ultimate goal of all that guardian angels do is to aid in our salvation, according to Aquinas. “Angels are sent to minister, and that efficaciously indeed, for those who shall receive the inheritance of salvation, if we consider the ultimate effect of their guardianship, which is the realizing of that inheritance,” Aquinas writes. Here he is drawing from Hebrews 1:14, which states, “Are they not all ministering spirits sent to serve, for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?”
19. Remind us of our ultimate goal:
Inspired by Christ’s words in Matthew 18:10, St. Augustine suggests that guardian angels remind us that our ultimate goal is the beatific vision of God: “As, then, they see, so shall we also see; but not yet do we thus see. Wherefore the apostle uses the words cited a little ago, Now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. This vision is reserved as the reward of our faith; and of it the Apostle John also says, When He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 1 John 3:2. By the face of God we are to understand His manifestation, and not a part of the body similar to that which in our bodies we call by that name” (City of God, Book 22, Chapter 29).
20. Never leave us:
Guardian angels assume their duties at our birth and maintain them up to our death. For Aquinas, this is just an extension of the broader truth that we never completely leave God’s care, even in sin and doubt: “Now it is evident that neither man, nor anything at all, is entirely withdrawn from the providence of God: for in as far as a thing participates being, so far is it subject to the providence that extends over all being. God indeed is said to forsake man, according to the ordering of His providence, but only in so far as He allows man to suffer some defect of punishment or of fault. In like manner it must be said that the angel guardian never forsakes a man entirely…”
(from the article of Stephen Beale)
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October 2
Guardian Angels
October 3
Daily Saints – 3 October.
Feast of Saint Gerard of Brogne.
Gerard was born in c.895 at Staves, Namur, Belgium to a wealthy family. He was the son of Stance and Plectrude and was raised in a military atmosphere.
From his youth, he had a reputation for being friendly and kind. For a time he was a soldier and courtier of the Count of Namur.
One day after a hunting trip with friends the group returned to his family estate tired and hungry. After he had invited everyone in to rest and eat Gerard slipped away to a little chapel that on his property and prayed for a long time.
He found that his tired body seemed rested and he forgot all about his hunger. The idea occurred to Gerard that if people only realized the joy of praying, they would want to pray all the time.
Disappointed by court life, and ashamed of the many privileges he received from his family and military post, Gerard realized that he was called to the monastic life.
He found Belgian monasteries too lax in their discipline. While visiting France in 917 on a mission from the Count, Gerard decided the life of the monks of Saint Denis was right for him.
He settled his worldly affairs, and took vows at the monastery. There Gerard became an example to other monks in following the Rule, and in his devotion to prayer.
His life, and his encouragement of the brothers, helped Saint Denis becoming an example for monasteries throughout Europe.
He was ordained, but wrestled with feelings of inadequacy as a priest. After 11 years, the abbot asked Gerard to return home to form a monastery there.
Abbot of the new monastery, he soon gained renown for his strict observance of the Benedictine Rule. This led many religious and political leaders to request that he reform monasteries throughout Flanders, Lorraine, and Champagne.
When he realised his life on earth was nearly over, Gerard asked for permission to return to his hermitage back in Brogne. He died there peacefully on this day in 959.
Feast of Saint Gerard of Brogne.
Gerard was born in c.895 at Staves, Namur, Belgium to a wealthy family. He was the son of Stance and Plectrude and was raised in a military atmosphere.
From his youth, he had a reputation for being friendly and kind. For a time he was a soldier and courtier of the Count of Namur.
One day after a hunting trip with friends the group returned to his family estate tired and hungry. After he had invited everyone in to rest and eat Gerard slipped away to a little chapel that on his property and prayed for a long time.
He found that his tired body seemed rested and he forgot all about his hunger. The idea occurred to Gerard that if people only realized the joy of praying, they would want to pray all the time.
Disappointed by court life, and ashamed of the many privileges he received from his family and military post, Gerard realized that he was called to the monastic life.
He found Belgian monasteries too lax in their discipline. While visiting France in 917 on a mission from the Count, Gerard decided the life of the monks of Saint Denis was right for him.
He settled his worldly affairs, and took vows at the monastery. There Gerard became an example to other monks in following the Rule, and in his devotion to prayer.
His life, and his encouragement of the brothers, helped Saint Denis becoming an example for monasteries throughout Europe.
He was ordained, but wrestled with feelings of inadequacy as a priest. After 11 years, the abbot asked Gerard to return home to form a monastery there.
Abbot of the new monastery, he soon gained renown for his strict observance of the Benedictine Rule. This led many religious and political leaders to request that he reform monasteries throughout Flanders, Lorraine, and Champagne.
When he realised his life on earth was nearly over, Gerard asked for permission to return to his hermitage back in Brogne. He died there peacefully on this day in 959.
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October 3
Saint Gerard of Brogne
October 4
Daily Saints – 4 October.
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.
He is the patron saint of animal welfare societies, animals, birds, ecologists, ecology, environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, families, lace makers, lace workers, merchants, needle workers, peace, tapestry workers, zoos and against dying alone, against fire.
Francis was born on 1181 at Assisi, Umbria, Italy as Francis Bernardone. He was the son of Pietro Bernadone, a rich cloth merchant who owned farmland around Assisi, and his mother was a beautiful Frenchwoman.
Francis was not in want during his youth; he was spoiled, indulging himself with fine food, wine, and wild celebrations.
By age 14, he had left school and become known as a rebellious teenager who frequently drank, partied and broke the city curfew. He was also known for his charm and vanity.
In these privileged surroundings, Francis of Assisi learned the skills of archery, wrestling and horsemanship. He was expected to follow his father into the family textile business but was bored by the prospect of life in the cloth trade.
Instead of planning a future as a merchant, he began daydreaming of a future as a knight; knights were Medieval action heroes, and if Francis had any ambition, it was to be a war hero like them. It wouldn’t be long before the opportunity for warfare beckoned.
In 1202 war broke between Assisi and Perugia, and Francis eagerly took his place with the cavalry. Little did he know at the time, his experience with war would change him forever.
Francis and the men of Assisi came under heavy attack, and in the face of superior numbers, they took flight.
The whole battlefield was soon covered with the bodies of butchered, mutilated men, screaming in agony. Most of the surviving Assisi troops were immediately put to death.
Unskilled and with no combat experience, Francis was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, he was considered worthy of a decent ransom, and the soldiers decided to spare his life.
He and the other wealthy troops were taken as prisoners, led off to a dank underground cell. Francis would spend nearly a year in such miserable conditions — awaiting his father’s payment — during which time he may well have contracted a serious disease.
Also during this time, he would later report, he began to receive visions from God.
After a year of negotiations, Francis’ ransom was accepted, and he was released from prison in 1203. Strangely, the experience didn’t seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.
Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse — no problem for the son of a wealthy father.
And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.
But Francis never got farther than one day’s ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did.
What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle — the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.
When he came back to Assisi, however, Francis was a very different man. Francis’ conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis’ turn to wait.
Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God’s grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn’t just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on.
One day, as legend has it, while riding on a horse in the local countryside, Francis encountered a leper. Prior to the war, Francis would have run from the leper, but on this occasion, his behavior was very different.
Viewing the leper as a symbol of moral conscience — or as Jesus incognito, according to some religious scholars — he embraced and kissed him, later describing the experience as a feeling of sweetness in his mouth. After this incident, Francis felt an indescribable freedom. His earlier lifestyle had lost all of its appeal.
Subsequently, Francis, now in his early 20s, began turning his focus toward God. Instead of working, he spent an ever-increasing amount of time at a remote mountain hideaway as well as in old, quiet churches around Assisi, praying, looking for answers, and helping nurse lepers.
During this time, while praying before an old Byzantine crucifix at the church of San Damiano, Francis reportedly heard the voice of Christ, who told him to rebuild the Christian Church and to live a life of extreme poverty.
Francis obeyed and devoted himself to Christianity. He began preaching around Assisi and was soon joined by 12 loyal followers.
Some regarded Francis as a madman or a fool, but others viewed him as one of the greatest examples of how to live the Christian ideal since Jesus Christ himself.
Whether he was really touched by God, or simply a man misinterpreting hallucinations brought on by mental illness and/or poor health, Francis of Assisi quickly became well-known throughout the Christian world.
After his epiphany at the church of San Damiano, Francis experienced another defining moment in his life. In order to raise money to rebuild the Christian church, he sold a bolt of cloth from his father’s shop, along with his horse.
His father became furious upon learning of his son’s actions and subsequently dragged Francis before the local bishop.
The bishop told Francis to return his father’s money, to which his reaction was extraordinary: He stripped off his clothes, and along with them, returned the money back to his father, declaring that God was now the only father he recognized.
This event is credited as Francis’ final conversion, and there is no indication that Francis and his father ever spoke again thereafter.
The bishop gave Francis a rough tunic, and dressed in these new humble clothes, Francis left Assisi.
Unluckily for him, the first people he met on the road were a group of dangerous thieves, who beat him badly. Despite his wounds, Francis was elated. From now on, he would live according to the Gospel.
Francis’ embrace of Christ-like poverty was a radical notion at the time. The Christian church was tremendously rich, much like the people heading it, which concerned Francis and many others, who felt that the long-held apostolic ideals had eroded.
Francis set out on a mission to restore Jesus Christ’s own, original values to the now-decadent church. With his incredible charisma, he drew thousands of followers to him.
They listened to Francis’ sermons and joined in his way of life; his followers became known as Franciscan friars.
Continuously pushing himself in the quest for spiritual perfection, Francis was soon preaching in up to five villages per day, teaching a new kind of emotional and personal Christian religion that everyday people could understand.
He even went so far as to preach to animals, which garnered criticism from some and earned him the nickname “God’s fool.” But Francis’ message was spread far and wide, and thousands of people were captivated by what they heard.
Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect.
When someone told him of a priest living openly with a woman and asked him if that meant the Mass was polluted, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands — because those hands had held God.
Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat…and loving God.
With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places.
He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. “Here is our rule,” Francis said — as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that.
He was going to do what no one thought possible any more — live by the Gospel. Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe!
Francis never wanted to found a religious order — this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God’s brotherhood.
His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class.
Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope.
Francis’ brotherhood included all of God’s creation. Much has been written about Francis’ love of nature but his relationship was deeper than that.
In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God’s care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave.
Another famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat.
When Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. You can imagine what the pope thought when this beggar approached him! As a matter of fact he threw Francis out.
But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.
Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them.
Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved, he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead.
Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn’t have time to put on a role. Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride.
When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, “Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you.” Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice.
Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought.
In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren’t killed.
Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, “I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one — but both of us would be murdered.”
Francis was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases.
In 1224 Francis reportedly received a vision that left him with the stigmata of Christ — marks resembling the wounds Jesus Christ suffered when he was crucified, through his hands and the gaping lance wound in his side.
This made Francis the first person to receive the holy wounds of the stigmata. They would remain visible for the rest of his life.
Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron.
Francis spoke to “Brother Fire”: “Brother Fire, the Most High has made you strong and beautiful and useful. Be courteous to me now in this hour, for I have always loved you, and temper your heat so that I can endure it.” And Francis reported that Brother Fire had been so kind that he felt nothing at all.
As Francis approached his death, many predicted that he was a saint in the making. When his health began to decline more rapidly, Francis went home.
Knights were sent from Assisi to guard him and to make sure that no one from neighboring towns would carry him off (the body of a saint was viewed, at the time, as an extremely valuable relic that would bring, among many things, glory to the town where it rested).
On his deathbed, Francis said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.”
He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior’s permission to have his clothes removed when the last hour came in order that he could expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.
Francis died on October 4, 1226, at the age of 44, in Assisi, Italy.
In the Middle Ages people who believed to be possessed by Beelzebub especially called upon the intercession of Saint Francis, the theory being that he was the demon‘s opposite number in heaven.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
“Do all you can to preach the gospel and if necessary use words!”
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.”
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”
“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”
“We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.”
“Nor did demons crucify Him; it is you who have crucified Him and crucify Him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.”
“My dear son, be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently.”
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”
“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self.”
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received–only what you have given.”
“Blessed are those who endure in peace for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.”
“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
“O you, who imagine you have still a long time before you to enjoy the vanities of the world, how strangely you deceive yourselves! There cometh a day and an hour of which you will not think, and which you do not know.”
“Alms are an inheritance and a justice which is due to the poor and which Jesus has levied upon us.”
“Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.”
“Jesus is happy to come with us, as truth is happy to be spoken, as life to be lived, as light to be lit, as love is to be loved, as joy to be given, as peace to be spread.”
“Praised be my Lord and God, with all His creatures, and especially our brother the sun, who brings us the day and brings us the light; fair is he, and he shines with great splendor. O Lord, he is a sign to us of you! Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for this stars, set clear and lovely in the heaven.”
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
“It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.” Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do his work.” – from a letter written to all the faithful by Saint Francis of Assisi
Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi.
He is the patron saint of animal welfare societies, animals, birds, ecologists, ecology, environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, families, lace makers, lace workers, merchants, needle workers, peace, tapestry workers, zoos and against dying alone, against fire.
Francis was born on 1181 at Assisi, Umbria, Italy as Francis Bernardone. He was the son of Pietro Bernadone, a rich cloth merchant who owned farmland around Assisi, and his mother was a beautiful Frenchwoman.
Francis was not in want during his youth; he was spoiled, indulging himself with fine food, wine, and wild celebrations.
By age 14, he had left school and become known as a rebellious teenager who frequently drank, partied and broke the city curfew. He was also known for his charm and vanity.
In these privileged surroundings, Francis of Assisi learned the skills of archery, wrestling and horsemanship. He was expected to follow his father into the family textile business but was bored by the prospect of life in the cloth trade.
Instead of planning a future as a merchant, he began daydreaming of a future as a knight; knights were Medieval action heroes, and if Francis had any ambition, it was to be a war hero like them. It wouldn’t be long before the opportunity for warfare beckoned.
In 1202 war broke between Assisi and Perugia, and Francis eagerly took his place with the cavalry. Little did he know at the time, his experience with war would change him forever.
Francis and the men of Assisi came under heavy attack, and in the face of superior numbers, they took flight.
The whole battlefield was soon covered with the bodies of butchered, mutilated men, screaming in agony. Most of the surviving Assisi troops were immediately put to death.
Unskilled and with no combat experience, Francis was quickly captured by enemy soldiers. Dressed like an aristocrat and wearing expensive new armor, he was considered worthy of a decent ransom, and the soldiers decided to spare his life.
He and the other wealthy troops were taken as prisoners, led off to a dank underground cell. Francis would spend nearly a year in such miserable conditions — awaiting his father’s payment — during which time he may well have contracted a serious disease.
Also during this time, he would later report, he began to receive visions from God.
After a year of negotiations, Francis’ ransom was accepted, and he was released from prison in 1203. Strangely, the experience didn’t seem to change him. He gave himself to partying with as much joy and abandon as he had before the battle.
Finally a call for knights for the Fourth Crusade gave him a chance for his dream. But before he left Francis had to have a suit of armor and a horse — no problem for the son of a wealthy father.
And not just any suit of armor would do but one decorated with gold with a magnificent cloak. Any relief we feel in hearing that Francis gave the cloak to a poor knight will be destroyed by the boasts that Francis left behind that he would return a prince.
But Francis never got farther than one day’s ride from Assisi. There he had a dream in which God told him he had it all wrong and told him to return home. And return home he did.
What must it have been like to return without ever making it to battle — the boy who wanted nothing more than to be liked was humiliated, laughed at, called a coward by the village and raged at by his father for the money wasted on armor.
When he came back to Assisi, however, Francis was a very different man. Francis’ conversion did not happen over night. God had waited for him for twenty-five years and now it was Francis’ turn to wait.
Francis started to spend more time in prayer. He went off to a cave and wept for his sins. Sometimes God’s grace overwhelmed him with joy. But life couldn’t just stop for God. There was a business to run, customers to wait on.
One day, as legend has it, while riding on a horse in the local countryside, Francis encountered a leper. Prior to the war, Francis would have run from the leper, but on this occasion, his behavior was very different.
Viewing the leper as a symbol of moral conscience — or as Jesus incognito, according to some religious scholars — he embraced and kissed him, later describing the experience as a feeling of sweetness in his mouth. After this incident, Francis felt an indescribable freedom. His earlier lifestyle had lost all of its appeal.
Subsequently, Francis, now in his early 20s, began turning his focus toward God. Instead of working, he spent an ever-increasing amount of time at a remote mountain hideaway as well as in old, quiet churches around Assisi, praying, looking for answers, and helping nurse lepers.
During this time, while praying before an old Byzantine crucifix at the church of San Damiano, Francis reportedly heard the voice of Christ, who told him to rebuild the Christian Church and to live a life of extreme poverty.
Francis obeyed and devoted himself to Christianity. He began preaching around Assisi and was soon joined by 12 loyal followers.
Some regarded Francis as a madman or a fool, but others viewed him as one of the greatest examples of how to live the Christian ideal since Jesus Christ himself.
Whether he was really touched by God, or simply a man misinterpreting hallucinations brought on by mental illness and/or poor health, Francis of Assisi quickly became well-known throughout the Christian world.
After his epiphany at the church of San Damiano, Francis experienced another defining moment in his life. In order to raise money to rebuild the Christian church, he sold a bolt of cloth from his father’s shop, along with his horse.
His father became furious upon learning of his son’s actions and subsequently dragged Francis before the local bishop.
The bishop told Francis to return his father’s money, to which his reaction was extraordinary: He stripped off his clothes, and along with them, returned the money back to his father, declaring that God was now the only father he recognized.
This event is credited as Francis’ final conversion, and there is no indication that Francis and his father ever spoke again thereafter.
The bishop gave Francis a rough tunic, and dressed in these new humble clothes, Francis left Assisi.
Unluckily for him, the first people he met on the road were a group of dangerous thieves, who beat him badly. Despite his wounds, Francis was elated. From now on, he would live according to the Gospel.
Francis’ embrace of Christ-like poverty was a radical notion at the time. The Christian church was tremendously rich, much like the people heading it, which concerned Francis and many others, who felt that the long-held apostolic ideals had eroded.
Francis set out on a mission to restore Jesus Christ’s own, original values to the now-decadent church. With his incredible charisma, he drew thousands of followers to him.
They listened to Francis’ sermons and joined in his way of life; his followers became known as Franciscan friars.
Continuously pushing himself in the quest for spiritual perfection, Francis was soon preaching in up to five villages per day, teaching a new kind of emotional and personal Christian religion that everyday people could understand.
He even went so far as to preach to animals, which garnered criticism from some and earned him the nickname “God’s fool.” But Francis’ message was spread far and wide, and thousands of people were captivated by what they heard.
Francis must have known about the decay in the Church, but he always showed the Church and its people his utmost respect.
When someone told him of a priest living openly with a woman and asked him if that meant the Mass was polluted, Francis went to the priest, knelt before him, and kissed his hands — because those hands had held God.
Slowly companions came to Francis, people who wanted to follow his life of sleeping in the open, begging for garbage to eat…and loving God.
With companions, Francis knew he now had to have some kind of direction to this life so he opened the Bible in three places.
He read the command to the rich young man to sell all his good and give to the poor, the order to the apostles to take nothing on their journey, and the demand to take up the cross daily. “Here is our rule,” Francis said — as simple, and as seemingly impossible, as that.
He was going to do what no one thought possible any more — live by the Gospel. Francis took these commands so literally that he made one brother run after the thief who stole his hood and offer him his robe!
Francis never wanted to found a religious order — this former knight thought that sounded too military. He thought of what he was doing as expressing God’s brotherhood.
His companions came from all walks of life, from fields and towns, nobility and common people, universities, the Church, and the merchant class.
Francis practiced true equality by showing honor, respect, and love to every person whether they were beggar or pope.
Francis’ brotherhood included all of God’s creation. Much has been written about Francis’ love of nature but his relationship was deeper than that.
In one famous story, Francis preached to hundreds of birds about being thankful to God for their wonderful clothes, for their independence, and for God’s care. The story tells us the birds stood still as he walked among him, only flying off when he said they could leave.
Another famous story involves a wolf that had been eating human beings. Francis intervened when the town wanted to kill the wolf and talked the wolf into never killing again. The wolf became a pet of the townspeople who made sure that he always had plenty to eat.
When Francis wanted approval for his brotherhood, he went straight to Rome to see Pope Innocent III. You can imagine what the pope thought when this beggar approached him! As a matter of fact he threw Francis out.
But when he had a dream that this tiny man in rags held up the tilting Lateran basilica, he quickly called Francis back and gave him permission to preach.
Sometimes this direct approach led to mistakes that he corrected with the same spontaneity that he made them.
Once he ordered a brother who hesitated to speak because he stuttered to go preach half-naked. When Francis realized how he had hurt someone he loved, he ran to town, stopped the brother, took off his own clothes, and preached instead.
Francis acted quickly because he acted from the heart; he didn’t have time to put on a role. Once he was so sick and exhausted, his companions borrowed a mule for him to ride.
When the man who owned the mule recognized Francis he said, “Try to be as virtuous as everyone thinks you are because many have a lot of confidence in you.” Francis dropped off the mule and knelt before the man to thank him for his advice.
Another example of his directness came when he decided to go to Syria to convert the Moslems while the Fifth Crusade was being fought.
In the middle of a battle, Francis decided to do the simplest thing and go straight to the sultan to make peace. When he and his companion were captured, the real miracle was that they weren’t killed.
Instead Francis was taken to the sultan who was charmed by Francis and his preaching. He told Francis, “I would convert to your religion which is a beautiful one — but both of us would be murdered.”
Francis was torn between a life devoted entirely to prayer and a life of active preaching of the Good News. He decided in favor of the latter, but always returned to solitude when he could. He wanted to be a missionary in Syria or in Africa, but was prevented by shipwreck and illness in both cases.
In 1224 Francis reportedly received a vision that left him with the stigmata of Christ — marks resembling the wounds Jesus Christ suffered when he was crucified, through his hands and the gaping lance wound in his side.
This made Francis the first person to receive the holy wounds of the stigmata. They would remain visible for the rest of his life.
Years of poverty and wandering had made Francis ill. When he began to go blind, the pope ordered that his eyes be operated on. This meant cauterizing his face with a hot iron.
Francis spoke to “Brother Fire”: “Brother Fire, the Most High has made you strong and beautiful and useful. Be courteous to me now in this hour, for I have always loved you, and temper your heat so that I can endure it.” And Francis reported that Brother Fire had been so kind that he felt nothing at all.
As Francis approached his death, many predicted that he was a saint in the making. When his health began to decline more rapidly, Francis went home.
Knights were sent from Assisi to guard him and to make sure that no one from neighboring towns would carry him off (the body of a saint was viewed, at the time, as an extremely valuable relic that would bring, among many things, glory to the town where it rested).
On his deathbed, Francis said over and over again the last addition to his Canticle of the Sun, “Be praised, O Lord, for our Sister Death.”
He sang Psalm 141, and at the end asked his superior’s permission to have his clothes removed when the last hour came in order that he could expire lying naked on the earth, in imitation of his Lord.
Francis died on October 4, 1226, at the age of 44, in Assisi, Italy.
In the Middle Ages people who believed to be possessed by Beelzebub especially called upon the intercession of Saint Francis, the theory being that he was the demon‘s opposite number in heaven.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
“Do all you can to preach the gospel and if necessary use words!”
“The deeds you do may be the only sermon some persons will hear today.”
“It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
“While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart.”
“We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way.”
“No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have no enemy except yourselves.”
“We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.”
“Nor did demons crucify Him; it is you who have crucified Him and crucify Him still, when you delight in your vices and sins.”
“My dear son, be patient, because the weaknesses of the body are given to us in this world by God for the salvation of the soul. So they are of great merit when they are borne patiently.”
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”
“All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle.”
“A single sunbeam is enough to drive away many shadows.”
“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to His beloved is that of overcoming self.”
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take with you nothing that have received–only what you have given.”
“Blessed are those who endure in peace for by You, Most High, shall they be crowned.”
“He who works with his hands is a laborer. He who works with his hands and his head is a craftsman. He who works with his hands and his head and his heart is an artist.”
“O you, who imagine you have still a long time before you to enjoy the vanities of the world, how strangely you deceive yourselves! There cometh a day and an hour of which you will not think, and which you do not know.”
“Alms are an inheritance and a justice which is due to the poor and which Jesus has levied upon us.”
“Sanctify yourself and you will sanctify society.”
“Jesus is happy to come with us, as truth is happy to be spoken, as life to be lived, as light to be lit, as love is to be loved, as joy to be given, as peace to be spread.”
“Praised be my Lord and God, with all His creatures, and especially our brother the sun, who brings us the day and brings us the light; fair is he, and he shines with great splendor. O Lord, he is a sign to us of you! Praised be my Lord for our sister the moon, and for this stars, set clear and lovely in the heaven.”
“Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
“It was through his archangel, Saint Gabriel, that the Father above made known to the the holy and glorious Virgin Mary that the worthy, holy and glorious Word of the Father would come from heaven and take from her womb the real flesh of our human frailty. Though he was wealthy beyond reckoning, he still willingly chose to be poor with his blessed mother. And shortly before his passion he celebrated the Passover with his disciples. Then he prayed to his Father saying: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup be taken from me.” Nevertheless, he reposed his will in the will of his Father. The Father willed that his blessed and glorious Son, whom he gave to us and who was born for us, should through his own blood offer himself as a sacrificial victim on the altar of the cross. This was to be done not for himself through whom all things were made, but for our sins. It was intended to leave us an example of how to follow in his footsteps. And he desires all of us to be saved through him, and to receive him with pure heart and chaste body. Let us also love our neighbors as ourselves. Let us have charity and humility. Let us give alms because these cleanse our souls from the stains of sin. Men lose all the material things they leave behind them in this world, but they carry with them the reward of their charity and the alms they give. For these they will receive from the Lord the reward and recompense they deserve. We must not be wise according to the flesh. Rather we must be simple, humble and pure. We should never desire to be over others. Instead, we ought to be servants who are submissive to every human being for God’s sake. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on all who live in this way and persevere in it to the end. He will permanently dwell in them. They will be the Father’s children who do his work.” – from a letter written to all the faithful by Saint Francis of Assisi
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October 4
Saint Francis of Assisi
October 5
Daily Saints – 5 October.
Feast of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska.
Faustina was born on 25 August 1905 at Glogowiec, Poland as Elena (Helena) Kowalska as the third child of ten, into a very devout but poor family.
She attended school for just three years and while still a young girl left home to work as a maid and thus help to support her family.
Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
She attended school for only three semesters. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent, but her parents would not give her permission, because they still needed her help to support the family.
Being of age at 16, Helen left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents. In her desire to be obedient to them, Faustina tried to stifle the inner voice of her vocation.
In 1924, Faustina experienced her first vision of Jesus. While at a dance with her sister, Natalia, Faustina saw a suffering Jesus and then went to a Cathedral.
According to Faustina, Jesus instructed her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent.
In her Diary she recalls that one day she saw the flagellated Christ, who spoke to her in these words: “How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting me off?” This was the turning point at which she finally resolved to become a nun.
Faustina packed her bags at once and departed the following morning. When she arrived in Warsaw, she entered Saint James Church in Warsaw, the first church she came across, and attended Mass.
While in Warsaw, Faustina approached many different convents, but was turned away every time. She was judged on her appearances and sometimes rejected for poverty.
Finally, the mother superior for the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy decided to take in Faustina on the condition that she could pay for her own religious habit.
Working as a housekeeper, Faustina began to save her money and make deposits to the Convent.
On April 30, 1926, at 20-years-old, she finally received her habit and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1928, she took her first religious vows as a nun.
During her 13 years in various houses, she was a cook, gardener, and porter. She had a special devotion to Mary Immaculate, to the Sacrament, and to Reconciliation, which led to a deep mystical interior life. She began to have visions, receive revelations, and experience hidden stigmata.
On February 22, 1931, Faustina was visited by Jesus, who presented himself as the “King of Divine Mercy” wearing a white garment with red and pale rays coming from his heart.
In her diary, Faustina writes: “In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, ‘paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'”
Jesus entrusted her with the mission of proclaiming to the whole world the truth of Divine Mercy.
He conveyed to her His will that a Feast of Divine Mercy be instituted on the first Sunday after Easter.
He also dictated to her a special prayer, called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, promising that all those who pray it will know His Mercy both in their lifetime and at their death.
Faustina, not knowing how to paint, asked around her Plock convent for help but was denied. In 1932, Faustina returned to Warsaw. On May 1, 1933 she took her final vows in Lagiewniki and became a perpetual sister of Our Lady of Mercy.
After taking her vows, Faustina was transferred to Vilnius, where she met Father Michael Sopocko, the appointed confessor to the nuns.
During her first confession with Sopocko, Faustina told him about her conversations with Jesus and his plan for her. Father Sopocko insisted she be evaluated by a psychiatrist.
Faustina passed all the required tests and was determined sane, leading Sopocko to support her religious efforts.
Faustina told Sopocko about the Divine Mercy image and it was Sopocko who introduced her to Kazimierowski, the artist of the first Divine Mercy painting.
Sopocko encouraged her to start keeping a diary and to record all of her conversations with Jesus. She began recording these mystical experiences in a diary; being nearly illiterate, it was written phonetically, without quotation marks or punctuation, and runs to nearly 700 pages.
A bad translation reached Rome in 1958, and was labelled heretical. However, when Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) became Archbishop of Krakow, he was besieged by requests for a reconsideration.
He ordered a better translation made, and Vatican authorities realized that instead of heresy, the work proclaimed God’s love. It was published as Divine Mercy in my Soul.
Many people did not believe Faustina at first. The sisters in her own convent thought that Jesus could not possibly have selected her for this great favor.
After all, she was an uneducated peasant girl. Her superiors often refused to give her permission to carry out Jesus’ requests.
Church theologians, too, doubted her word. Jesus told Faustina that he loved her obedience and that his will would be done in the end.
About 10 years later, Faustina contracted tuberculosis. Soon she was too weak to manage the heavy gardening assigned to her. So she was given the job of gatekeeper. She was able to show mercy to the poor people who came to the convent looking for food.
Once Jesus came to the door as a poor young man. After he had eaten the soup and bread Faustina gave him, she recognized him. Jesus told her he had come to experience with great joy her tender love and mercy.
Her special devotion to Mary Immaculate and to the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation gave her the strength to bear all her sufferings as an offering to God on behalf of the Church and those in special need, especially great sinners and the dying.
Faustina’s health significantly deteriorated by the end of 1937. Her visions intensified and she was said to be looking forward to the end of her life.
On October 5, 1938, Faustina died in Krakow at the age of 33.
“Suffering is the greatest treasure on earth; it purifies the soul. In suffering, we learn who our true friend is.”
“Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing.”
“Jesus loves hidden souls. A hidden flower is the most fragrant. I must strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the Heart of Jesus.”
“If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.”
“Prepare for great battles. Know that you are now on a great stage where all heaven and earth are watching you. Fight like a knight, so that I can reward you. Do not be unduly fearful, because you are not alone.”
“It is a great thing to know how to make use of the present moment.”
“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”
“Your holy will is the life of my soul.”
“Today the Lord said to me, ‘Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.”
“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. I will spend all my free moments at the feet of the Master hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.”
“A soul does not benefit as it should from the sacrament of confession if it is not humble. Pride keeps it in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery.”
“He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.”
“When I see that the burden is beyond my strength, I do not consider or analyze it or probe into it, but I run like a child to the Heart of Jesus and say only one word to Him: “You can do all things.” And then I keep silent, because I know that Jesus Himself will intervene in the matter, and as for me, instead of tormenting myself, I use that time to love Him.”
“O my Jesus, each of Your saints reflects one of Your virtues; I desire to reflect Your compas-sionate heart, full of mercy; I want to glorify it. Let Your mercy, O Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life.” (Diary, 1242)
“Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.”
Feast of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska.
Faustina was born on 25 August 1905 at Glogowiec, Poland as Elena (Helena) Kowalska as the third child of ten, into a very devout but poor family.
She attended school for just three years and while still a young girl left home to work as a maid and thus help to support her family.
Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
She attended school for only three semesters. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent, but her parents would not give her permission, because they still needed her help to support the family.
Being of age at 16, Helen left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek in order to find the means of supporting herself and of helping her parents. In her desire to be obedient to them, Faustina tried to stifle the inner voice of her vocation.
In 1924, Faustina experienced her first vision of Jesus. While at a dance with her sister, Natalia, Faustina saw a suffering Jesus and then went to a Cathedral.
According to Faustina, Jesus instructed her to leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent.
In her Diary she recalls that one day she saw the flagellated Christ, who spoke to her in these words: “How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting me off?” This was the turning point at which she finally resolved to become a nun.
Faustina packed her bags at once and departed the following morning. When she arrived in Warsaw, she entered Saint James Church in Warsaw, the first church she came across, and attended Mass.
While in Warsaw, Faustina approached many different convents, but was turned away every time. She was judged on her appearances and sometimes rejected for poverty.
Finally, the mother superior for the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy decided to take in Faustina on the condition that she could pay for her own religious habit.
Working as a housekeeper, Faustina began to save her money and make deposits to the Convent.
On April 30, 1926, at 20-years-old, she finally received her habit and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament and in 1928, she took her first religious vows as a nun.
During her 13 years in various houses, she was a cook, gardener, and porter. She had a special devotion to Mary Immaculate, to the Sacrament, and to Reconciliation, which led to a deep mystical interior life. She began to have visions, receive revelations, and experience hidden stigmata.
On February 22, 1931, Faustina was visited by Jesus, who presented himself as the “King of Divine Mercy” wearing a white garment with red and pale rays coming from his heart.
In her diary, Faustina writes: “In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus said to me, ‘paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'”
Jesus entrusted her with the mission of proclaiming to the whole world the truth of Divine Mercy.
He conveyed to her His will that a Feast of Divine Mercy be instituted on the first Sunday after Easter.
He also dictated to her a special prayer, called the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, promising that all those who pray it will know His Mercy both in their lifetime and at their death.
Faustina, not knowing how to paint, asked around her Plock convent for help but was denied. In 1932, Faustina returned to Warsaw. On May 1, 1933 she took her final vows in Lagiewniki and became a perpetual sister of Our Lady of Mercy.
After taking her vows, Faustina was transferred to Vilnius, where she met Father Michael Sopocko, the appointed confessor to the nuns.
During her first confession with Sopocko, Faustina told him about her conversations with Jesus and his plan for her. Father Sopocko insisted she be evaluated by a psychiatrist.
Faustina passed all the required tests and was determined sane, leading Sopocko to support her religious efforts.
Faustina told Sopocko about the Divine Mercy image and it was Sopocko who introduced her to Kazimierowski, the artist of the first Divine Mercy painting.
Sopocko encouraged her to start keeping a diary and to record all of her conversations with Jesus. She began recording these mystical experiences in a diary; being nearly illiterate, it was written phonetically, without quotation marks or punctuation, and runs to nearly 700 pages.
A bad translation reached Rome in 1958, and was labelled heretical. However, when Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) became Archbishop of Krakow, he was besieged by requests for a reconsideration.
He ordered a better translation made, and Vatican authorities realized that instead of heresy, the work proclaimed God’s love. It was published as Divine Mercy in my Soul.
Many people did not believe Faustina at first. The sisters in her own convent thought that Jesus could not possibly have selected her for this great favor.
After all, she was an uneducated peasant girl. Her superiors often refused to give her permission to carry out Jesus’ requests.
Church theologians, too, doubted her word. Jesus told Faustina that he loved her obedience and that his will would be done in the end.
About 10 years later, Faustina contracted tuberculosis. Soon she was too weak to manage the heavy gardening assigned to her. So she was given the job of gatekeeper. She was able to show mercy to the poor people who came to the convent looking for food.
Once Jesus came to the door as a poor young man. After he had eaten the soup and bread Faustina gave him, she recognized him. Jesus told her he had come to experience with great joy her tender love and mercy.
Her special devotion to Mary Immaculate and to the sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation gave her the strength to bear all her sufferings as an offering to God on behalf of the Church and those in special need, especially great sinners and the dying.
Faustina’s health significantly deteriorated by the end of 1937. Her visions intensified and she was said to be looking forward to the end of her life.
On October 5, 1938, Faustina died in Krakow at the age of 33.
“Suffering is the greatest treasure on earth; it purifies the soul. In suffering, we learn who our true friend is.”
“Love endures everything, love is stronger than death, love fears nothing.”
“Jesus loves hidden souls. A hidden flower is the most fragrant. I must strive to make the interior of my soul a resting place for the Heart of Jesus.”
“If the angels were capable of envy, they would envy us for two things: one is the receiving of Holy Communion, and the other is suffering.”
“Prepare for great battles. Know that you are now on a great stage where all heaven and earth are watching you. Fight like a knight, so that I can reward you. Do not be unduly fearful, because you are not alone.”
“It is a great thing to know how to make use of the present moment.”
“The past does not belong to me; the future is not mine; with all my soul I try to make use of the present moment.”
“Your holy will is the life of my soul.”
“Today the Lord said to me, ‘Daughter, when you go to confession, to this fountain of My mercy, the Blood and Water which came forth from My Heart always flows down upon your soul and ennobles it. Every time you go to confession, immerse yourself entirely in My mercy, with great trust, so that I may pour the bounty of My grace upon your soul. When you approach the confessional, know this, that I Myself am waiting there for you. I am only hidden by the priest, but I Myself act in your soul. Here the misery of the soul meets the God of mercy. Tell souls that from this fount of mercy souls draw graces solely with the vessel of trust. If their trust is great, there is no limit to My generosity. The torrents of grace inundate humble souls. The proud remain always in poverty and misery, because My grace turns away from them to humble souls.”
“I will not allow myself to be so absorbed in the whirlwind of work as to forget about God. I will spend all my free moments at the feet of the Master hidden in the Blessed Sacrament.”
“A soul does not benefit as it should from the sacrament of confession if it is not humble. Pride keeps it in darkness. The soul neither knows how, nor is it willing, to probe with precision the depths of its own misery. It puts on a mask and avoids everything that might bring it recovery.”
“He who knows how to forgive prepares for himself many graces from God. As often as I look upon the cross, so often will I forgive with all my heart.”
“When I see that the burden is beyond my strength, I do not consider or analyze it or probe into it, but I run like a child to the Heart of Jesus and say only one word to Him: “You can do all things.” And then I keep silent, because I know that Jesus Himself will intervene in the matter, and as for me, instead of tormenting myself, I use that time to love Him.”
“O my Jesus, each of Your saints reflects one of Your virtues; I desire to reflect Your compas-sionate heart, full of mercy; I want to glorify it. Let Your mercy, O Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life.” (Diary, 1242)
“Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God.”
Close
October 5
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
October 6
Daily Saints – 6 October.
Feast of Saint Bruno.
He is the patron saint of possessed people.
Bruno was born in Cologne about 1030. His mother was St. Matilda, patroness of Maude, widow of King Henry I.
Little is known of his early years, except that he studied theology in the present-day French city of Reims before returning to his native land, where he was most likely ordained a priest in approximately 1055.
Returning to Reims the following year, he soon became head of the school he had attended there, after its director Heriman left to enter consecrated religious life in 1057.
Bruno led and taught at the school for nearly two decades, acquiring an excellent reputation as a philosopher and theologian, until he was named chancellor of the local diocese in 1075.
Bruno’s time as chancellor coincided with an uproar in Reims over the behavior of its new bishop Manasses de Gournai. Suspended by the decision of a local council, the bishop appealed to Rome while attacking and robbing the houses of his opponents.
Bruno left the diocese during this period, though he was considered as a possible successor to Manasses after the bishop’s final deposition in 1080. The chancellor, however, was not interested in leading the Church of Reims.
The persecution by the simoniacal archbishop of Rheims, Manasses, hastened his resolve to enter a life of solitude.
Legend puts it this way. A famous professor had died. While the Office of the Dead was being chanted at his funeral, he suddenly raised himself up from the coffin and said: “By the just judgment of God have I been accused, judged, damned.” Thereupon Bruno decided to renounce the world.
Bruno and two of his friends had resolved to renounce their worldly goods and positions and enter religious life.
After a spell as a solitary near the Benedictine abbey of Molesme, in 1084 he and six others decided to look for a far more remote retreat.
Bruno was inspired by a dream to seek guidance from the bishop later canonized as Saint Hugh of Grenoble, who was one of Bruno’s former pupils.
But they found that the night before they arrived Hugh had dreamed of seeing seven stars settle in the isolated valley of Chartreuse in the high, bleak mountains of Savoy, some thirty miles away.
The seven went there and built a chapel with small wooden huts round it for themselves. This eventually became the famous monastery of La Grande Chartreuse. (“Chartreuse” – from which comes the word Carthusians)
In 1088, one of Bruno’s former students was elected as Pope Urban II. Six years into his life as an alpine monk, Bruno was called to leave his remote monastery to assist the Pope in his struggle against a rival papal claimant as well as the hostile Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.
Bruno served as a close adviser to the Pope during a critical period of reform. Around this time, he also rejected another chance to become a bishop, this time in the Italian region of Calabria.
While he obtained the Pope’s permission to return to monastic life, Bruno was required to remain in Italy to help the Pope periodically, rather than returning to his monastery in France.
During the 1090s Bruno befriended Count Roger of Sicily and Calabria, who granted land to his group of monks and enabled the founding of a major monastery in 1095.
The monks were known, then as now, for their strict practice of asceticism, poverty, and prayer; and for their unique organizational form, combining the solitary life of hermits with the collective life of more conventional monks.
St. Bruno died on October 6, 1101, after making a notable profession of faith which was preserved for posterity. In this final testimony, he gave particular emphasis to the doctrine of Christ’s Eucharistic presence, which had already begun to be questioned in parts of the Western Church.
“I believe,” he attested, “in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation.”
“While the world changes, the cross stands firm.”
“Only those who have experienced the solitude and the silence of the wilderness can know the benefit and divine joy they bring to those who love them.”
“No act is charitable if it is not just.”
“In the solitude and silence of the wilderness…, for their labor in the contest, God gives his athletes the reward they desire: a peace that the world does not know and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
“If the bow is stretched for too long, it becomes slack and unfit for its purpose.”
“By your work you show what you love and what you know.”
“When you observe true obedience with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture.”
“The unclean spirit enters easily into a man, and easily goes out from him.”
“For the devil may tempt the good, but he cannot find rest in them; for he is shaken violently, and upset, and driven out, now by their prayers, now by their tears of repentance, and now by their almsgiving and similar good works.”
Feast of Saint Bruno.
He is the patron saint of possessed people.
Bruno was born in Cologne about 1030. His mother was St. Matilda, patroness of Maude, widow of King Henry I.
Little is known of his early years, except that he studied theology in the present-day French city of Reims before returning to his native land, where he was most likely ordained a priest in approximately 1055.
Returning to Reims the following year, he soon became head of the school he had attended there, after its director Heriman left to enter consecrated religious life in 1057.
Bruno led and taught at the school for nearly two decades, acquiring an excellent reputation as a philosopher and theologian, until he was named chancellor of the local diocese in 1075.
Bruno’s time as chancellor coincided with an uproar in Reims over the behavior of its new bishop Manasses de Gournai. Suspended by the decision of a local council, the bishop appealed to Rome while attacking and robbing the houses of his opponents.
Bruno left the diocese during this period, though he was considered as a possible successor to Manasses after the bishop’s final deposition in 1080. The chancellor, however, was not interested in leading the Church of Reims.
The persecution by the simoniacal archbishop of Rheims, Manasses, hastened his resolve to enter a life of solitude.
Legend puts it this way. A famous professor had died. While the Office of the Dead was being chanted at his funeral, he suddenly raised himself up from the coffin and said: “By the just judgment of God have I been accused, judged, damned.” Thereupon Bruno decided to renounce the world.
Bruno and two of his friends had resolved to renounce their worldly goods and positions and enter religious life.
After a spell as a solitary near the Benedictine abbey of Molesme, in 1084 he and six others decided to look for a far more remote retreat.
Bruno was inspired by a dream to seek guidance from the bishop later canonized as Saint Hugh of Grenoble, who was one of Bruno’s former pupils.
But they found that the night before they arrived Hugh had dreamed of seeing seven stars settle in the isolated valley of Chartreuse in the high, bleak mountains of Savoy, some thirty miles away.
The seven went there and built a chapel with small wooden huts round it for themselves. This eventually became the famous monastery of La Grande Chartreuse. (“Chartreuse” – from which comes the word Carthusians)
In 1088, one of Bruno’s former students was elected as Pope Urban II. Six years into his life as an alpine monk, Bruno was called to leave his remote monastery to assist the Pope in his struggle against a rival papal claimant as well as the hostile Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV.
Bruno served as a close adviser to the Pope during a critical period of reform. Around this time, he also rejected another chance to become a bishop, this time in the Italian region of Calabria.
While he obtained the Pope’s permission to return to monastic life, Bruno was required to remain in Italy to help the Pope periodically, rather than returning to his monastery in France.
During the 1090s Bruno befriended Count Roger of Sicily and Calabria, who granted land to his group of monks and enabled the founding of a major monastery in 1095.
The monks were known, then as now, for their strict practice of asceticism, poverty, and prayer; and for their unique organizational form, combining the solitary life of hermits with the collective life of more conventional monks.
St. Bruno died on October 6, 1101, after making a notable profession of faith which was preserved for posterity. In this final testimony, he gave particular emphasis to the doctrine of Christ’s Eucharistic presence, which had already begun to be questioned in parts of the Western Church.
“I believe,” he attested, “in the sacraments that the Church believes and holds in reverence, and especially that what has been consecrated on the altar is the true Flesh and the true Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which we receive for the forgiveness of our sins and in the hope of eternal salvation.”
“While the world changes, the cross stands firm.”
“Only those who have experienced the solitude and the silence of the wilderness can know the benefit and divine joy they bring to those who love them.”
“No act is charitable if it is not just.”
“In the solitude and silence of the wilderness…, for their labor in the contest, God gives his athletes the reward they desire: a peace that the world does not know and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
“If the bow is stretched for too long, it becomes slack and unfit for its purpose.”
“By your work you show what you love and what you know.”
“When you observe true obedience with prudence and enthusiasm, it is clear that you wisely pick the most delightful and nourishing fruit of divine Scripture.”
“The unclean spirit enters easily into a man, and easily goes out from him.”
“For the devil may tempt the good, but he cannot find rest in them; for he is shaken violently, and upset, and driven out, now by their prayers, now by their tears of repentance, and now by their almsgiving and similar good works.”
Close
October 6
Saint Bruno
October 7
Daily Saints – 7 October.
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted to honor Mary for the Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571.
In the 16th century Pope Pius V was having trouble with the Ottoman Turks, who were a real danger to Christianity.
After months of disagreements and bickering, he was able to unite Spain, Venice, and the States of the Church in a naval expedition to fight the Turks. The two navies met in the Gulf of Lepanto in Greece on October 7, 1571.
On the same day, the Rosary Confraternity of Rome was meeting at the Dominican headquarters there. The group recited the Rosary for the special intention of the Christians at battle.
The Christians defeated the Turks in a spectacular victory and believed it was the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin that won the victory.
Pope Pius V dedicated the day as one of thanksgiving to ‘Our Lady of Victory’. Pope Gregory XIII later changed the name to the feast of ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’.
At Belgrade the Turks were defeated on the Feast of Our Lady ad Nives in 1716. A second victory gained that year on the Octave of the Assumption determined Pope Clement XI to command the Feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church.
Leo XIII added the invocation “Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us,” to the Litany of Loretto.
The development of the rosary has a long history. First a practice developed of praying 150 Our Fathers in imitation of the 150 Psalms. Then there was a parallel practice of praying 150 Hail Marys. Soon a mystery of Jesus’ life was attached to each Hail Mary.
People who couldn’t read began praying 150 Hail Marys instead of 150 Psalms, the equivalent of three of our modern rosaries covering the original three sets of mysteries.
The origin of the devotion is probably the vision granted to St. Dominic in which the Blessed Virgin bade him use it as a means of overcoming heresy.
Tradition tells us that the great Dominican beheld this vision in 1206 when he was mourning the inroads made by the Albigensian heretics.
Later the signal defeat of these heretics at the battle of Muret in the same century was attributed to the recitation of the rosary by St. Dominic.
The development of the prayer form of holy rosary owes much to the followers of Saint Dominic. One of them, Alan de la Roche, was known as “the apostle of the rosary.” He founded the first Confraternity of the Rosary in the 15th century.
In the 16th century, the rosary was developed to its present form—with the 15 mysteries: joyful, sorrowful and glorious. In 2002, Pope John Paul II added five Mysteries of Light to this devotion.
The story of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary focuses on the intercessory power of Mary. It shows that when Christians are in danger, they can go to Mary.
When an individual is in pain, discouraged, or having trouble accepting God’s will, he or she can also go to Mary. She will pray to her Son for anyone who calls on her. Anyone who prays to Mary no longer feels alone because she prays with them and for them.
Mary encouraged praying the Rosary in her apparitions. At Lourdes when she appeared to Saint Bernadette, Mary had a Rosary. As Bernadette prayed it, Mary joined in on the Glory Be prayers. At Fatima Mary exhorted the three children who saw her to pray the Rosary for peace.
The Rosary is a deep prayer because as we recite the Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes, we meditate on the mysteries in the lives of Jesus and Mary. No wonder it pleases Our Lady when we pray the Rosary.
It is a form of contemplative prayer, mental and vocal prayer, which brings down God’s blessing on the Church.
It is a biblically inspired prayer which is centered on meditation on the salvific mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, who was so closely associated with her Son in his redeeming activity.
Our Rosary, a circle of beads, is like a garland offered to Mary because we pray a prayer on each bead.
Pope Benedict XVI invites all families to pray the Rosary for the intentions of the Pope, the mission of the Church and peace. “It is as if every year Our Lady invited us to rediscover the beauty of this prayer, so simple and profound.” The Rosary, a “contemplative and Christocentric prayer, inseparable from the meditation of Sacred Scripture,” is “the prayer of the Christian who advances in the pilgrimage of faith, in the following of Jesus, preceded by Mary,” said the Pontiff.
“The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” -Saint Padre Pio
“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” – Blessed Pope Pius IX
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” – Saint Francis de Sales
“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.” – St. Padre Pio
“Go to the Madonna. Love her! Always say the Rosary. Say it well. Say it as often as you can! Be souls of prayer. Never tire of praying, it is what is essential. Prayer shakes the Heart of God, it obtains necessary graces!” – St. Padre Pio
“The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you’ll be amazed at the results.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“Say the Holy Rosary. Blessed be that monotony of Hail Mary’s which purifies the monotony of your sins!” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“You always leave the Rosary for later, and you end up not saying it at all because you are sleepy. If there is no other time, say it in the street without letting anybody notice it. It will, moreover, help you to have presence of God.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“If you say the Holy Rosary every day, with a spirit of faith and love, our Lady will make sure she leads you very far along her Son’s path.” – St. Josemaria Escriva.
“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” – Pope Pius XI
“The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of Our Lord and of His Mystical Body, then teach him the Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary — or he will get the gift of faith.” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
“The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.” – Pope Leo XIII
“No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary” – Bishop Hugh Doyle
“Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world.” – Saint Dominic.
“If you say the Rosary faithfully unto death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, ‘you will receive a never-fading crown of glory’ (1 St. Peter 5:4).” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many—on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!” – St. Bernardine of Siena.
“Recite your Rosary with faith, with humility, with confidence, and with perseverance.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God…and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.” – Pope Saint Pius X.
“Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“The Rosary is a priceless treasure inspired by God.” – St. Louis De Monfort.
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” – Sr. Lucia of Fatima.
“How beautiful is the family that recites the Rosary every evening.” – Pope John Paul II.
“The Rosary is a prayer both so humble and simple and a theologically rich in Biblical content. I beg you to pray it.” – St. John Paul II.
“The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.” – Pope John XXIII.
“There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family… than the daily recitation of the Rosary.” – Pope Pius XII.
“We put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our times.” -Pope Pius XII.
“The rosary is the scourge of the devil” – Pope Adrian VI.
“When lovers are together, they spend hours and hours repeating the same thing: I love you! What is missing in the people who think the Rosary monotonous, is Love.” – Sr. Lucia of Fatima.
“When people love and recite the Rosary they find it makes them better.” – St. Anthony Mary Claret.
“For Christians, the first of books is the Gospel and the Rosary is actually the abridgement of the Gospel.” – Lacordaire.
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
“The purpose of the rosary is to help us meditate on the great mysteries of our salvation. Pius XII called it a compendium of the gospel. The main focus is on Jesus—his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Our Fathers remind us that Jesus’ Father is the initiator of salvation. The Hail Marys remind us to join with Mary in contemplating these mysteries. They also make us aware that Mary was and is intimately joined with her Son in all the mysteries of his earthly and heavenly existence. The Glory Bes remind us that the purpose of all life is the glory of the Trinity.
The rosary appeals to many. It is simple. The constant repetition of words helps create an atmosphere in which to contemplate the mysteries of God. We sense that Jesus and Mary are with us in the joys and sorrows of life. We grow in hope that God will bring us to share in the glory of Jesus and Mary forever.”
One day, St. Dominic prayed to Our Lady that she would force the devils who possessed a man to reveal the truth about devotion to her. The devils were forced by Our Lady to reveal: Listen to what the devils said, “Now that we are forced to speak we must also tell you this: Nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins and by means of this they obtain God’s forgiveness and mercy.”
“When you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.” – Our Lady to St. Dominic.
“You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.” – Our Lady to Blessed Alan de la Roche.
When St. Alphonsus of Liguori was already old, sick, and in a wheelchair, a lay brother used to wheel him around the cloister of his monastery in the evening so he could take some fresh air. Engaging the brother in conversation, St. Alphonsus asked him:
“Did you pray your rosary today?”
“I don’t remember,” the brother answered,
“Then, let us pray it now,” the Saint said.
“But you are already so tired. What difference does it make if we don’t pray the rosary for one day?” protested the brother.
St. Alphonsus answered: “If I did not pray my rosary for even one day, I would fear for my eternal salvation.”
Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted to honor Mary for the Christian victory over the Turks at Lepanto on October 7, 1571.
In the 16th century Pope Pius V was having trouble with the Ottoman Turks, who were a real danger to Christianity.
After months of disagreements and bickering, he was able to unite Spain, Venice, and the States of the Church in a naval expedition to fight the Turks. The two navies met in the Gulf of Lepanto in Greece on October 7, 1571.
On the same day, the Rosary Confraternity of Rome was meeting at the Dominican headquarters there. The group recited the Rosary for the special intention of the Christians at battle.
The Christians defeated the Turks in a spectacular victory and believed it was the intercessory power of the Blessed Virgin that won the victory.
Pope Pius V dedicated the day as one of thanksgiving to ‘Our Lady of Victory’. Pope Gregory XIII later changed the name to the feast of ‘Our Lady of the Rosary’.
At Belgrade the Turks were defeated on the Feast of Our Lady ad Nives in 1716. A second victory gained that year on the Octave of the Assumption determined Pope Clement XI to command the Feast of the Rosary to be celebrated by the universal Church.
Leo XIII added the invocation “Queen of the most Holy Rosary, pray for us,” to the Litany of Loretto.
The development of the rosary has a long history. First a practice developed of praying 150 Our Fathers in imitation of the 150 Psalms. Then there was a parallel practice of praying 150 Hail Marys. Soon a mystery of Jesus’ life was attached to each Hail Mary.
People who couldn’t read began praying 150 Hail Marys instead of 150 Psalms, the equivalent of three of our modern rosaries covering the original three sets of mysteries.
The origin of the devotion is probably the vision granted to St. Dominic in which the Blessed Virgin bade him use it as a means of overcoming heresy.
Tradition tells us that the great Dominican beheld this vision in 1206 when he was mourning the inroads made by the Albigensian heretics.
Later the signal defeat of these heretics at the battle of Muret in the same century was attributed to the recitation of the rosary by St. Dominic.
The development of the prayer form of holy rosary owes much to the followers of Saint Dominic. One of them, Alan de la Roche, was known as “the apostle of the rosary.” He founded the first Confraternity of the Rosary in the 15th century.
In the 16th century, the rosary was developed to its present form—with the 15 mysteries: joyful, sorrowful and glorious. In 2002, Pope John Paul II added five Mysteries of Light to this devotion.
The story of the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary focuses on the intercessory power of Mary. It shows that when Christians are in danger, they can go to Mary.
When an individual is in pain, discouraged, or having trouble accepting God’s will, he or she can also go to Mary. She will pray to her Son for anyone who calls on her. Anyone who prays to Mary no longer feels alone because she prays with them and for them.
Mary encouraged praying the Rosary in her apparitions. At Lourdes when she appeared to Saint Bernadette, Mary had a Rosary. As Bernadette prayed it, Mary joined in on the Glory Be prayers. At Fatima Mary exhorted the three children who saw her to pray the Rosary for peace.
The Rosary is a deep prayer because as we recite the Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes, we meditate on the mysteries in the lives of Jesus and Mary. No wonder it pleases Our Lady when we pray the Rosary.
It is a form of contemplative prayer, mental and vocal prayer, which brings down God’s blessing on the Church.
It is a biblically inspired prayer which is centered on meditation on the salvific mysteries of Christ in union with Mary, who was so closely associated with her Son in his redeeming activity.
Our Rosary, a circle of beads, is like a garland offered to Mary because we pray a prayer on each bead.
Pope Benedict XVI invites all families to pray the Rosary for the intentions of the Pope, the mission of the Church and peace. “It is as if every year Our Lady invited us to rediscover the beauty of this prayer, so simple and profound.” The Rosary, a “contemplative and Christocentric prayer, inseparable from the meditation of Sacred Scripture,” is “the prayer of the Christian who advances in the pilgrimage of faith, in the following of Jesus, preceded by Mary,” said the Pontiff.
“The Rosary is the ‘weapon’ for these times.” -Saint Padre Pio
“Give me an army saying the Rosary and I will conquer the world.” – Blessed Pope Pius IX
“The greatest method of praying is to pray the Rosary.” – Saint Francis de Sales
“Some people are so foolish that they think they can go through life without the help of the Blessed Mother. Love the Madonna and pray the rosary, for her Rosary is the weapon against the evils of the world today. All graces given by God pass through the Blessed Mother.” – St. Padre Pio
“Go to the Madonna. Love her! Always say the Rosary. Say it well. Say it as often as you can! Be souls of prayer. Never tire of praying, it is what is essential. Prayer shakes the Heart of God, it obtains necessary graces!” – St. Padre Pio
“The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you’ll be amazed at the results.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“Say the Holy Rosary. Blessed be that monotony of Hail Mary’s which purifies the monotony of your sins!” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“For those who use their intelligence and their study as a weapon, the Rosary is most effective. Because that apparently monotonous way of beseeching Our Lady as children do their Mother, can destroy every seed of vainglory and pride.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“You always leave the Rosary for later, and you end up not saying it at all because you are sleepy. If there is no other time, say it in the street without letting anybody notice it. It will, moreover, help you to have presence of God.” – St. Josemaria Escriva
“If you say the Holy Rosary every day, with a spirit of faith and love, our Lady will make sure she leads you very far along her Son’s path.” – St. Josemaria Escriva.
“The Rosary is a powerful weapon to put the demons to flight and to keep oneself from sin…If you desire peace in your hearts, in your homes, and in your country, assemble each evening to recite the Rosary. Let not even one day pass without saying it, no matter how burdened you may be with many cares and labors.” – Pope Pius XI
“The rosary is the book of the blind, where souls see and there enact the greatest drama of love the world has ever known; it is the book of the simple, which initiates them into mysteries and knowledge more satisfying than the education of other men; it is the book of the aged, whose eyes close upon the shadow of this world, and open on the substance of the next. The power of the rosary is beyond description.” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen
“If you wish to convert anyone to the fullness of the knowledge of Our Lord and of His Mystical Body, then teach him the Rosary. One of two things will happen. Either he will stop saying the Rosary — or he will get the gift of faith.” – Archbishop Fulton Sheen.
“The Rosary is the most excellent form of prayer and the most efficacious means of attaining eternal life. It is the remedy for all our evils, the root of all our blessings. There is no more excellent way of praying.” – Pope Leo XIII
“No one can live continually in sin and continue to say the Rosary: either they will give up sin or they will give up the Rosary” – Bishop Hugh Doyle
“Never will anyone who says his Rosary every day be led astray. This is a statement that I would gladly sign with my blood.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“When the Holy Rosary is said well, it gives Jesus and Mary more glory and is more meritorious than any other prayer.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“One day, through the Rosary and the Scapular, Our Lady will save the world.” – Saint Dominic.
“If you say the Rosary faithfully unto death, I do assure you that, in spite of the gravity of your sins, ‘you will receive a never-fading crown of glory’ (1 St. Peter 5:4).” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“You must know that when you ‘hail’ Mary, she immediately greets you! Don’t think that she is one of those rude women of whom there are so many—on the contrary, she is utterly courteous and pleasant. If you greet her, she will answer you right away and converse with you!” – St. Bernardine of Siena.
“Recite your Rosary with faith, with humility, with confidence, and with perseverance.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“The Rosary is the most beautiful and the most rich in graces of all prayers; it is the prayer that touches most the Heart of the Mother of God…and if you wish peace to reign in your homes, recite the family Rosary.” – Pope Saint Pius X.
“Even if you are on the brink of damnation, even if you have one foot in hell, even if you have sold your soul to the devil as sorcerers do who practice black magic, and even if you are a heretic as obstinate as a devil, sooner or later you will be converted and will amend your life and will save your soul, if—and mark well what I say—if you say the Holy Rosary devoutly every day until death for the purpose of knowing the truth and obtaining contrition and pardon for your sins.” – Saint Louis de Montfort.
“The Rosary is a priceless treasure inspired by God.” – St. Louis De Monfort.
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.” – Sr. Lucia of Fatima.
“How beautiful is the family that recites the Rosary every evening.” – Pope John Paul II.
“The Rosary is a prayer both so humble and simple and a theologically rich in Biblical content. I beg you to pray it.” – St. John Paul II.
“The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.” – Pope John XXIII.
“There is no surer means of calling down God’s blessings upon the family… than the daily recitation of the Rosary.” – Pope Pius XII.
“We put great confidence in the Holy Rosary for the healing of evils which afflict our times.” -Pope Pius XII.
“The rosary is the scourge of the devil” – Pope Adrian VI.
“When lovers are together, they spend hours and hours repeating the same thing: I love you! What is missing in the people who think the Rosary monotonous, is Love.” – Sr. Lucia of Fatima.
“When people love and recite the Rosary they find it makes them better.” – St. Anthony Mary Claret.
“For Christians, the first of books is the Gospel and the Rosary is actually the abridgement of the Gospel.” – Lacordaire.
“The Most Holy Virgin in these last times in which we live has given a new efficacy to the recitation of the Rosary to such an extent that there is no problem, no matter how difficult it is, whether temporal or above all spiritual, in the personal life of each one of us, of our families…that cannot be solved by the Rosary. There is no problem, I tell you, no matter how difficult it is, that we cannot resolve by the prayer of the Holy Rosary.”
“The purpose of the rosary is to help us meditate on the great mysteries of our salvation. Pius XII called it a compendium of the gospel. The main focus is on Jesus—his birth, life, death, and resurrection. The Our Fathers remind us that Jesus’ Father is the initiator of salvation. The Hail Marys remind us to join with Mary in contemplating these mysteries. They also make us aware that Mary was and is intimately joined with her Son in all the mysteries of his earthly and heavenly existence. The Glory Bes remind us that the purpose of all life is the glory of the Trinity.
The rosary appeals to many. It is simple. The constant repetition of words helps create an atmosphere in which to contemplate the mysteries of God. We sense that Jesus and Mary are with us in the joys and sorrows of life. We grow in hope that God will bring us to share in the glory of Jesus and Mary forever.”
One day, St. Dominic prayed to Our Lady that she would force the devils who possessed a man to reveal the truth about devotion to her. The devils were forced by Our Lady to reveal: Listen to what the devils said, “Now that we are forced to speak we must also tell you this: Nobody who perseveres in saying the Rosary will be damned, because she obtains for her servants the grace of true contrition for their sins and by means of this they obtain God’s forgiveness and mercy.”
“When you give a sermon, urge people to say my Rosary, and in this way your words will bear much fruit for souls.” – Our Lady to St. Dominic.
“You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary.” – Our Lady to Blessed Alan de la Roche.
When St. Alphonsus of Liguori was already old, sick, and in a wheelchair, a lay brother used to wheel him around the cloister of his monastery in the evening so he could take some fresh air. Engaging the brother in conversation, St. Alphonsus asked him:
“Did you pray your rosary today?”
“I don’t remember,” the brother answered,
“Then, let us pray it now,” the Saint said.
“But you are already so tired. What difference does it make if we don’t pray the rosary for one day?” protested the brother.
St. Alphonsus answered: “If I did not pray my rosary for even one day, I would fear for my eternal salvation.”
Close
October 7
Our Lady of the Rosary
October 8
Daily Saints – 8 October.
Feast of Saint Pelagia the Penitent.
Pelagia the Penitent was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, living a life of frivolity and prostitution.
One day, while she was still a dancer, Pelagia was passing by a church dressed with her very elegant and provocative clothing.
Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa, was preaching at that moment. Believers turned their faces away from the sinner, but the bishop glanced after her.
Struck by the outer beauty of Pelagia and having foreseen the spiritual greatness within her, the saint Nonnus prayed in his cell for a long time to the Lord for the sinner. He told his fellow bishops and priests that the prostitute put them all to shame.
He explained that she took great care to adorn her body in order to appear beautiful in the eyes of men. “We… take no thought for the adornment of our wretched souls,” he said.
On the following day, when Saint Nonnus was teaching in the church about the dread Last Judgment and its consequences, Pelagia came.
The teaching made a tremendous impression upon her. With the fear of God and weeping tears of repentance, she asked the saint for Baptism. Seeing her sincere and full repentance, Bishop Nonnus baptized her.
By night the devil appeared to Pelagia, urging her to return to her former life. She prayed, signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, and the devil vanished.
Three days after her baptism, Pelagia gathered up her valuables and took them to Bishop Nonnus. The bishop ordered that they be distributed among the poor saying, “Let this be wisely dispersed, so that these riches gained by sin may become a wealth of righteousness.”
After this Saint Pelagia journeyed to Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. She lived there in a cell, disguised as the monk Pelagius, living in ascetic seclusion, and attaining great spiritual gifts.
When she died, she was buried in her cell. She was known as “the beardless monk” until her sex was discovered when she died.
Feast of Saint Pelagia the Penitent.
Pelagia the Penitent was head of a dance troupe in Palestinian Antioch, living a life of frivolity and prostitution.
One day, while she was still a dancer, Pelagia was passing by a church dressed with her very elegant and provocative clothing.
Saint Nonnus, Bishop of Edessa, was preaching at that moment. Believers turned their faces away from the sinner, but the bishop glanced after her.
Struck by the outer beauty of Pelagia and having foreseen the spiritual greatness within her, the saint Nonnus prayed in his cell for a long time to the Lord for the sinner. He told his fellow bishops and priests that the prostitute put them all to shame.
He explained that she took great care to adorn her body in order to appear beautiful in the eyes of men. “We… take no thought for the adornment of our wretched souls,” he said.
On the following day, when Saint Nonnus was teaching in the church about the dread Last Judgment and its consequences, Pelagia came.
The teaching made a tremendous impression upon her. With the fear of God and weeping tears of repentance, she asked the saint for Baptism. Seeing her sincere and full repentance, Bishop Nonnus baptized her.
By night the devil appeared to Pelagia, urging her to return to her former life. She prayed, signed herself with the Sign of the Cross, and the devil vanished.
Three days after her baptism, Pelagia gathered up her valuables and took them to Bishop Nonnus. The bishop ordered that they be distributed among the poor saying, “Let this be wisely dispersed, so that these riches gained by sin may become a wealth of righteousness.”
After this Saint Pelagia journeyed to Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives. She lived there in a cell, disguised as the monk Pelagius, living in ascetic seclusion, and attaining great spiritual gifts.
When she died, she was buried in her cell. She was known as “the beardless monk” until her sex was discovered when she died.
Close
October 8
Saint Pelagia
October 9
Daily Saints – 9 October.
Feast of St. John Henry Newman.
John Henry Newman was born in London at 80 Old Bond Street on February 21, 1801. His father, John Newman, was a private banker in the City of London, the son of a Mayfair grocer, originally of Cambridgeshire. His mother, Jemima (née Fourdrinier), was the daughter of a printer of Norman Huguenot stock, whose family had become well known for its innovative paper-making. Newman’s parents married in 1799 and had six children, John Henry being the eldest, followed by two younger sons and three daughters.
His family were ordinary church-going members of the Church of England. They had no strong religious tendencies, but John Henry did develop a love for the Bible. He went to a private boarding school in Ealing for eight years, where he experienced a spiritual conversion which was to determine the rest of his life as a quest for spiritual perfection.
As a young man, he continued his studies at Trinity College, Oxford and came under the influence of other colleagues who taught him to think critically about theology. He was a very successful student and read widely. He was elected to a coveted Fellowship of leading Oriel College. He was ordained and worked as a curate and later a Vicar of the University Church and had a charismatic influence on his parishioners and members of the community.
He worked as a College Tutor and later began to research many theological works which put him at the forefront of religious writers. His studies of the Fathers of the Church led him to realise the importance of the resurrection, the incarnational and sacramental nature of the Christianity and the Church and reinforced his love of the Bible, his experience of personal conversion and the importance of a critical theology. Historical research made Newman suspect that the Roman Catholic Church was in closest continuity with the Church that Jesus established.
A series of events within the Church of England caused him to question his spiritual path within the Anglican faith. He withdrew from Oxford and for three years led a very strict religious life, praying for light and guidance. In 1845, he knew his path lay within Catholicism and on 9th October of that year, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.
His choice to convert to Catholicisim meant he was ostracized by his family and friends. Undeterred, he set out to study for the priesthood and he was ordained a priest in Rome. He returned to England and founded the first Oratorian Congregation in Birmingham, with a second in London and established the Oratory School in Birmingham. In 1851 the Bishops of Ireland decided that there should be a separate University for Catholic students. John Henry became its founder and first Rector, establishing what is known today as University College Dublin.
On his return to England, John Henry faced much opposition, misunderstanding, suspicion and resentment by some in authority, and many of his projects including a Catholic magazine, and a new translation of the Bible met with failure.
In 1879, Pope Leo XIII made John Henry Newman a Cardinal in tribute to his extraordinary work and devotion. He died on 11 August 1890 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England of pneumonia.
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
“Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.”
“Growth is the only evidence of life.”
“Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”
“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”
“The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.”
“Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.”
“It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.”
“A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.”
“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: “Go down again – I dwell among the people.”
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”
“Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.”
“God has created all things for good; all things for their greatest good; everything for its own good. What is the good of one is not the good of another; what makes one man happy would make another unhappy. God has determined, unless I interfere with His plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can best be, what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it me.”
“God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him.”
“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his – if, indeed I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”
“I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.”
“Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last. This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church. They cast off the form of truth, because it never has been to them more than a form. They endure not, because they never have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and they never have had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need.”
“You must be patient, you must wait for the eye of the soul to be formed in you. Religious truth is reached, not by reasoning, but by an inward perception. Anyone can reason; only disciplined, educated, formed minds can perceive.”
“Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!
Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,
Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith,
Home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.”
Feast of St. John Henry Newman.
John Henry Newman was born in London at 80 Old Bond Street on February 21, 1801. His father, John Newman, was a private banker in the City of London, the son of a Mayfair grocer, originally of Cambridgeshire. His mother, Jemima (née Fourdrinier), was the daughter of a printer of Norman Huguenot stock, whose family had become well known for its innovative paper-making. Newman’s parents married in 1799 and had six children, John Henry being the eldest, followed by two younger sons and three daughters.
His family were ordinary church-going members of the Church of England. They had no strong religious tendencies, but John Henry did develop a love for the Bible. He went to a private boarding school in Ealing for eight years, where he experienced a spiritual conversion which was to determine the rest of his life as a quest for spiritual perfection.
As a young man, he continued his studies at Trinity College, Oxford and came under the influence of other colleagues who taught him to think critically about theology. He was a very successful student and read widely. He was elected to a coveted Fellowship of leading Oriel College. He was ordained and worked as a curate and later a Vicar of the University Church and had a charismatic influence on his parishioners and members of the community.
He worked as a College Tutor and later began to research many theological works which put him at the forefront of religious writers. His studies of the Fathers of the Church led him to realise the importance of the resurrection, the incarnational and sacramental nature of the Christianity and the Church and reinforced his love of the Bible, his experience of personal conversion and the importance of a critical theology. Historical research made Newman suspect that the Roman Catholic Church was in closest continuity with the Church that Jesus established.
A series of events within the Church of England caused him to question his spiritual path within the Anglican faith. He withdrew from Oxford and for three years led a very strict religious life, praying for light and guidance. In 1845, he knew his path lay within Catholicism and on 9th October of that year, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church.
His choice to convert to Catholicisim meant he was ostracized by his family and friends. Undeterred, he set out to study for the priesthood and he was ordained a priest in Rome. He returned to England and founded the first Oratorian Congregation in Birmingham, with a second in London and established the Oratory School in Birmingham. In 1851 the Bishops of Ireland decided that there should be a separate University for Catholic students. John Henry became its founder and first Rector, establishing what is known today as University College Dublin.
On his return to England, John Henry faced much opposition, misunderstanding, suspicion and resentment by some in authority, and many of his projects including a Catholic magazine, and a new translation of the Bible met with failure.
In 1879, Pope Leo XIII made John Henry Newman a Cardinal in tribute to his extraordinary work and devotion. He died on 11 August 1890 at Edgbaston, Birmingham, West Midlands, England of pneumonia.
“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”
“Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.”
“Growth is the only evidence of life.”
“Nothing would be done at all if one waited until one could do it so well that no one could find fault with it.”
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”
“Ten thousand difficulties do not make one doubt.”
“The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.”
“Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.”
“It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.”
“A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.”
“I sought to hear the voice of God and climbed the topmost steeple, but God declared: “Go down again – I dwell among the people.”
“We can believe what we choose. We are answerable for what we choose to believe.”
“Good is never accomplished except at the cost of those who do it, truth never breaks through except through the sacrifice of those who spread it.”
“God has created all things for good; all things for their greatest good; everything for its own good. What is the good of one is not the good of another; what makes one man happy would make another unhappy. God has determined, unless I interfere with His plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually, He calls me by my name, He knows what I can do, what I can best be, what is my greatest happiness, and He means to give it me.”
“God knows what is my greatest happiness, but I do not. There is no rule about what is happy and good; what suits one would not suit another. And the ways by which perfection is reached vary very much; the medicines necessary for our souls are very different from each other. Thus God leads us by strange ways; we know He wills our happiness, but we neither know what our happiness is, nor the way. We are blind; left to ourselves we should take the wrong way; we must leave it to Him.”
“God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission – I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. Somehow I am necessary for His purposes, as necessary in my place as an Archangel in his – if, indeed I fail, He can raise another, as He could make the stones children of Abraham. Yet I have a part in this great work; I am a link in a chain, a bond of connexion between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place, while not intending it, if I do but keep His commandments and serve Him in my calling.”
“I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.”
“Without self-knowledge you have no root in yourselves personally; you may endure for a time, but under affliction or persecution your faith will not last. This is why many in this age (and in every age) become infidels, heretics, schismatics, disloyal despisers of the Church. They cast off the form of truth, because it never has been to them more than a form. They endure not, because they never have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and they never have had experience of His power and love, because they have never known their own weakness and need.”
“You must be patient, you must wait for the eye of the soul to be formed in you. Religious truth is reached, not by reasoning, but by an inward perception. Anyone can reason; only disciplined, educated, formed minds can perceive.”
“Lead Thou me on!
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on!
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path; but now
Lead Thou me on!
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will. Remember not past years!
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on.
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile!
Meantime, along the narrow rugged path,
Thyself hast trod,
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith,
Home to my God.
To rest forever after earthly strife
In the calm light of everlasting life.”
Close
October 9
Saint John Henry Newman
October 10
Daily Saints – 10 October.
Feast of St. Francis Borgia.
He is the patron saint against earthquakes.
Francis Borgia was born October 28, 1510 in Gandia, Valencia, Spain as the son of the Duke of Gandia, the great grandson, from his father’s side, of Pope Alexander VI, the notorious Borgia pope, and from his mother’s side, the great grandson of King Ferdinand of Aragon.
Francis’ grandmother joined her daughther in a convent of Poor Clares after the death of her husband and held a pious influence in the court of the Borgia, to which Francis is indebted. It was with these two women that holiness penetrated into the scandalous lineage of the Borgia family.
Francis grew to be a pious young man, posessed of many natural gifts and a favorite at the court of Charles V. It is recounted that one day Francis passed through Alcalá, followed by his escort, and exchanged an emotional glance with a poor man being escorted to prison by the Inquisition. This man was Ignatius of Loyola, and at this moment Francis could not have had any idea what an important role this man would play in his destiny.
In 1539 Francis was appointed Viceroy of Catalonia, and four years later, upon the death of his father, the Duke of Gandia. He built a university there, received the degree of Doctor in Theology, and invited the Jesuits to his duchy.
He lived a happy, peaceful life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children. But unlike so many other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian gentleman, a true man of God and his great joy was to receive Holy Communion often. But a series of events—including the death of his beloved wife—made Francis Borgia rethink his priorities. He gave up public life, gave away his possessions, and joined the new and little-known Society of Jesus.
Francis entered the Society of Jesus in 1548, but was ordered by the Pope to remain in the world until he had fulfilled his obligations to his ten children and his duchy. Two years later he left Gandia, never to return, and joined the Jesuits in Rome and became a Jesuit priest. So many people came to his first Mass that they had to set up an altar outdoors, but his Superior tested him by treating him in exactly the opposite way he had been used to all his forty-one years of life.
He who had once been a Duke had to help the cook, carrying wood for the fire and sweeping the kitchen. When he served food to the priests and brothers, he had to kneel down in front of them all and beg them to forgive him for being so clumsy! Still he never once complained or grumbled. The only time he became angry was when anyone treated him with respect as if he was still a Duke.
Once a doctor who had to take care of a painful wound Francis had gotten said to him: “I am afraid, my lord, that I have to hurt your grace.” The saint answered that he would not hurt him more than he was right then by calling him “my lord” and “your grace.”
It was not too long before the humble priest accomplished wonderful works for God’s glory as he preached everywhere and advised many important people. He convinced Ignatius to found the Roman College, and a year later he left for Spain, where his preaching and example sparked a renewal of religious fervour in the country, drawing pilgrims from far and wide to hear him preach.
In 1556 he was placed in charge of all the missions of the Society, and his energetic work transformed them. He also initiated the missions to Peru, New Spain and Brazil.
He was elected as general on July 2, 1565, and although in poor health for his last years, he executed the governance and initiated projects of the Society with great energy. He introduced so many reforms to the society of Jesus that he was considered in some ways to be its second founder. Through all such success, St. Francis Borgia remained completely humble.
Francis was a man of contemplation and action in the fullest sense, and clearly drew much strength from the silence of his prayer.
In 1571 the pope sent Francis to Spain and Portugal. He grew increasingly ill on this embassy and died after returning to Rome on September 30, 1572, in Ferrara, Spain.
“I have great doubts about the salvation of those who do not have special devotion to Mary.”
Feast of St. Francis Borgia.
He is the patron saint against earthquakes.
Francis Borgia was born October 28, 1510 in Gandia, Valencia, Spain as the son of the Duke of Gandia, the great grandson, from his father’s side, of Pope Alexander VI, the notorious Borgia pope, and from his mother’s side, the great grandson of King Ferdinand of Aragon.
Francis’ grandmother joined her daughther in a convent of Poor Clares after the death of her husband and held a pious influence in the court of the Borgia, to which Francis is indebted. It was with these two women that holiness penetrated into the scandalous lineage of the Borgia family.
Francis grew to be a pious young man, posessed of many natural gifts and a favorite at the court of Charles V. It is recounted that one day Francis passed through Alcalá, followed by his escort, and exchanged an emotional glance with a poor man being escorted to prison by the Inquisition. This man was Ignatius of Loyola, and at this moment Francis could not have had any idea what an important role this man would play in his destiny.
In 1539 Francis was appointed Viceroy of Catalonia, and four years later, upon the death of his father, the Duke of Gandia. He built a university there, received the degree of Doctor in Theology, and invited the Jesuits to his duchy.
He lived a happy, peaceful life with his wife Eleanor and their eight children. But unlike so many other powerful nobles, Francis was a perfect Christian gentleman, a true man of God and his great joy was to receive Holy Communion often. But a series of events—including the death of his beloved wife—made Francis Borgia rethink his priorities. He gave up public life, gave away his possessions, and joined the new and little-known Society of Jesus.
Francis entered the Society of Jesus in 1548, but was ordered by the Pope to remain in the world until he had fulfilled his obligations to his ten children and his duchy. Two years later he left Gandia, never to return, and joined the Jesuits in Rome and became a Jesuit priest. So many people came to his first Mass that they had to set up an altar outdoors, but his Superior tested him by treating him in exactly the opposite way he had been used to all his forty-one years of life.
He who had once been a Duke had to help the cook, carrying wood for the fire and sweeping the kitchen. When he served food to the priests and brothers, he had to kneel down in front of them all and beg them to forgive him for being so clumsy! Still he never once complained or grumbled. The only time he became angry was when anyone treated him with respect as if he was still a Duke.
Once a doctor who had to take care of a painful wound Francis had gotten said to him: “I am afraid, my lord, that I have to hurt your grace.” The saint answered that he would not hurt him more than he was right then by calling him “my lord” and “your grace.”
It was not too long before the humble priest accomplished wonderful works for God’s glory as he preached everywhere and advised many important people. He convinced Ignatius to found the Roman College, and a year later he left for Spain, where his preaching and example sparked a renewal of religious fervour in the country, drawing pilgrims from far and wide to hear him preach.
In 1556 he was placed in charge of all the missions of the Society, and his energetic work transformed them. He also initiated the missions to Peru, New Spain and Brazil.
He was elected as general on July 2, 1565, and although in poor health for his last years, he executed the governance and initiated projects of the Society with great energy. He introduced so many reforms to the society of Jesus that he was considered in some ways to be its second founder. Through all such success, St. Francis Borgia remained completely humble.
Francis was a man of contemplation and action in the fullest sense, and clearly drew much strength from the silence of his prayer.
In 1571 the pope sent Francis to Spain and Portugal. He grew increasingly ill on this embassy and died after returning to Rome on September 30, 1572, in Ferrara, Spain.
“I have great doubts about the salvation of those who do not have special devotion to Mary.”
Close
October 10
Saint Francis Borgia
October 11
Daily Saints – 11 October.
Feast of St. Pope John XXIII.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the small village of Sotto il Monte in Italy, on November 25, 1881. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor parents who made their living by sharecropping.
In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Roncalli returned to Rome for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary, and as publisher of the diocesan paper. His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921, Fr. Roncalli was made national director in Italy of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He also found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City.
In 1925, he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey, and finally in France. During World War II, he became well acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders. With the help of Germany’s ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000 Jewish people. Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953, he was finally a residential bishop.
A month short of entering his 78th year, Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope, taking the name John after his father and the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. Pope John took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial, and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962, he was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis. His most famous encyclicals were ‘Mother and Teacher’ (1961) and ‘Peace on Earth’ (1963).
Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.” Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed… errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”
He was, like his own sister before him, diagnosed with stomach cancer, which was a terminal diagnosis for that time. In his last months, he offered to negotiate peace between the Soviet Union and the United States, then at the height of the Cold War. The offer, although declined, was popular in both countries. In the wake of the news, John XXIII was the first pope to be honored as the Time Magazine Man of the Year.
On his deathbed, Pope John said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.” “Good Pope John” died on June 3, 1963 at age 81.
His passionate views on equality were summed up in his statement, “We were all made in God’s image, and thus, we are all Godly alike.”
“To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems.”
“Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.”
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”
“A peaceful man does more good than a learned one.”
“In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God.”
“The family is the first essential cell of human society.”
“What unites us, is much greater than what divides us.”
“Whoever has a heart full of love always has something to give.”
“Listen to everything, forget much, correct little.”
“… just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.”
“Never Hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another.”
“Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less.”
“Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church.”
“If God created shadows it was to better emphasise the light.”
“In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God.”
“Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity.”
“Christian life means sacrifice.”
“Preoccupation about the future, which arise from self-love, delay the work of God in us and hinder His purposes.”
“Authority is mainly a moral power; therefore, it must first call upon the conscience, that is, upon the duty that each person has to contribute willingly to the common good.”
“The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.”
“The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection.”
“O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love…”
Feast of St. Pope John XXIII.
Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli was born in the small village of Sotto il Monte in Italy, on November 25, 1881. He was the fourth of fourteen children born to poor parents who made their living by sharecropping.
In Bergamo’s diocesan seminary, he joined the Secular Franciscan Order. After his ordination in 1904, Fr. Roncalli returned to Rome for canon law studies. He soon worked as his bishop’s secretary, Church history teacher in the seminary, and as publisher of the diocesan paper. His service as a stretcher-bearer for the Italian army during World War I gave him a firsthand knowledge of war. In 1921, Fr. Roncalli was made national director in Italy of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. He also found time to teach patristics at a seminary in the Eternal City.
In 1925, he became a papal diplomat, serving first in Bulgaria, then in Turkey, and finally in France. During World War II, he became well acquainted with Orthodox Church leaders. With the help of Germany’s ambassador to Turkey, Archbishop Roncalli helped save an estimated 24,000 Jewish people. Named a cardinal and appointed patriarch of Venice in 1953, he was finally a residential bishop.
A month short of entering his 78th year, Cardinal Roncalli was elected pope, taking the name John after his father and the two patrons of Rome’s cathedral, St. John Lateran. Pope John took his work very seriously but not himself. His wit soon became proverbial, and he began meeting with political and religious leaders from around the world. In 1962, he was deeply involved in efforts to resolve the Cuban missile crisis. His most famous encyclicals were ‘Mother and Teacher’ (1961) and ‘Peace on Earth’ (1963).
Pope John XXIII enlarged the membership in the College of Cardinals and made it more international. At his address at the opening of the Second Vatican Council, he criticized the “prophets of doom” who “in these modern times see nothing but prevarication and ruin.” Pope John XXIII set a tone for the Council when he said, “The Church has always opposed… errors. Nowadays, however, the Spouse of Christ prefers to make use of the medicine of mercy rather than that of severity.”
He was, like his own sister before him, diagnosed with stomach cancer, which was a terminal diagnosis for that time. In his last months, he offered to negotiate peace between the Soviet Union and the United States, then at the height of the Cold War. The offer, although declined, was popular in both countries. In the wake of the news, John XXIII was the first pope to be honored as the Time Magazine Man of the Year.
On his deathbed, Pope John said: “It is not that the gospel has changed; it is that we have begun to understand it better. Those who have lived as long as I have…were enabled to compare different cultures and traditions, and know that the moment has come to discern the signs of the times, to seize the opportunity and to look far ahead.” “Good Pope John” died on June 3, 1963 at age 81.
His passionate views on equality were summed up in his statement, “We were all made in God’s image, and thus, we are all Godly alike.”
“To keep me from sin and straying from Him, God has used devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. My life vows destined to be spent in the light irradiating from the tabernacle, and it is to the Heart of Jesus that I dare go for the solution of all my problems.”
“Men are like wine – some turn to vinegar, but the best improve with age.”
“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”
“A peaceful man does more good than a learned one.”
“In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God.”
“The family is the first essential cell of human society.”
“What unites us, is much greater than what divides us.”
“Whoever has a heart full of love always has something to give.”
“Listen to everything, forget much, correct little.”
“… just as food is necessary to the life of the body, so good reading is necessary to the life of the soul.”
“Never Hesitate to hold out your hand; never hesitate to accept the outstretched hand of another.”
“Prayer is the raising of the mind to God. We must always remember this. The actual words matter less.”
“Before everything else, fidelity to the Church: One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic. Jesus did not found several churches, but one single Church.”
“If God created shadows it was to better emphasise the light.”
“In this world of ours, every believer must be a spark of light, a center of love, a vivifying ferment for the mass; and it will be that all the more as, in the depths of his being, he lives in communion with God.”
“Every man has the right to life, to bodily integrity.”
“Christian life means sacrifice.”
“Preoccupation about the future, which arise from self-love, delay the work of God in us and hinder His purposes.”
“Authority is mainly a moral power; therefore, it must first call upon the conscience, that is, upon the duty that each person has to contribute willingly to the common good.”
“The Rosary is a magnificent and universal prayer for the needs of the Church, the nations and the entire world.”
“The Rosary is a school for learning true Christian perfection.”
“O Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I would like to be filled with love for You; keep me closely united with You, may my heart be near to Yours. I want to be to You like the apostle John. O Mary of the Rosary, keep me recollected when I say these prayers of yours; bind me forever, with your rosary, to Jesus of the Blessed Sacrament. Blessed be Jesus, my love…”
Close
October 11
Saint Pope John XXIII
October 12
Daily Saints – 12 October.
Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar (Nuestra Senora del Pilar).
The first Marian apparition in history appeared to Saint James the Apostle, the brother of Saint John the Evangelist, on the bank of the river Ebro in Saragossa, Spain. Unlike every other recorded apparition, this one took place during the earthly life of the Mother of God.
According to tradition, she had promised Saint James that when he needed it most in his difficult mission to the pagans in today’s Spain, she would appear to him to encourage him.
Becoming the apostle of what today is Spain, St. James was having a hard time evangelizing the northern region of Zaragoza. One night, as he prayed asking help for his plight, he suddenly beheld a great light in the midst of which he saw Our Lady surrounded by a multitude of angels.
The Virgin appeared with the Child Jesus standing on a pillar and asked Saint James and his eight disciples to build a church on the site, promising that “it will stand from that moment until the end of time in order that God may work miracles and wonders through my intercession for all those who place themselves under my patronage.” Blessed Mother consoled her son James, and assured him help for his endeavors.
Not long after, St. James was recalled to Jerusalem where he was the first apostle to suffer martyrdom. As he prepared to endure death by beheading, Our Lady and her angels again were visibly present to him fortifying and consoling him.
According to ancient Spanish tradition, this apparition occurred on January 2nd, 40 AD. Her Feast day is celebrated on October 12th.
The church of Our Lady of the Pilar in Zaragoza, is the first church dedicated to Mary in history and it remains standing to this day, having survived invasions and wars – in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 three bombs were dropped on the church and none of them exploded.
Our Lady is also said to have given the small wooden statue of the apparition to Saint James which now stands on a pillar in the church.
Nuestra Señora del Pilar is the patron of Spain and all Hispanic peoples. October 12, 1492, the feast of the Virgin of the Pillar, is the day Christopher Colombus first sighted American land, and when the first Mass in the Americas was celebrated.
Feast of Our Lady of the Pillar (Nuestra Senora del Pilar).
The first Marian apparition in history appeared to Saint James the Apostle, the brother of Saint John the Evangelist, on the bank of the river Ebro in Saragossa, Spain. Unlike every other recorded apparition, this one took place during the earthly life of the Mother of God.
According to tradition, she had promised Saint James that when he needed it most in his difficult mission to the pagans in today’s Spain, she would appear to him to encourage him.
Becoming the apostle of what today is Spain, St. James was having a hard time evangelizing the northern region of Zaragoza. One night, as he prayed asking help for his plight, he suddenly beheld a great light in the midst of which he saw Our Lady surrounded by a multitude of angels.
The Virgin appeared with the Child Jesus standing on a pillar and asked Saint James and his eight disciples to build a church on the site, promising that “it will stand from that moment until the end of time in order that God may work miracles and wonders through my intercession for all those who place themselves under my patronage.” Blessed Mother consoled her son James, and assured him help for his endeavors.
Not long after, St. James was recalled to Jerusalem where he was the first apostle to suffer martyrdom. As he prepared to endure death by beheading, Our Lady and her angels again were visibly present to him fortifying and consoling him.
According to ancient Spanish tradition, this apparition occurred on January 2nd, 40 AD. Her Feast day is celebrated on October 12th.
The church of Our Lady of the Pilar in Zaragoza, is the first church dedicated to Mary in history and it remains standing to this day, having survived invasions and wars – in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 three bombs were dropped on the church and none of them exploded.
Our Lady is also said to have given the small wooden statue of the apparition to Saint James which now stands on a pillar in the church.
Nuestra Señora del Pilar is the patron of Spain and all Hispanic peoples. October 12, 1492, the feast of the Virgin of the Pillar, is the day Christopher Colombus first sighted American land, and when the first Mass in the Americas was celebrated.
Close
October 12
Our Lady of the Pillar
October 13
Daily Saints – 13 October.
Saint Edward
St. Edward the Confessor was one of the great kings of England. Because he is the patron saint of University founder Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., his feast day has traditionally been a day of celebration for Notre Dame.
Saint Edward
St. Edward the Confessor was one of the great kings of England. Because he is the patron saint of University founder Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., his feast day has traditionally been a day of celebration for Notre Dame.
Edward the Confessor’s name reflects less his own piety or status as a sacramental minister than the fact that he is a saint who did not suffer martyrdom. In ancient Christian tradition, saints were those who had been martyred for Christ. As Christianity grew, and local persecutions did not define sainthood as much, different titles were given to saints to designate their particular path to holiness. Confessors were those whose lives confessed the creed in a nonviolent manner.
Edward is a particularly prominent saint, as he was the last Anglo-Saxon king before the Norman conquest of England, which happened during the reign of his successor.
Edward was the seventh son of King Æthelred the Unready, and the first son of Æthelred’s second wife, Emma of Normandy. Edward was born between 1003 and 1005 in Oxfordshire, England.
When Edward was a child, England was plagued by Viking raids. A Viking chieftain, Sweyn, seized the English throne in 1013, causing several decades of turmoil and fighting. Sweyn’s son took over the throne and married Edward’s mother Emma, subsequently banishing Edward and his brothers. Edward was exiled most likely to Normandy but finally returned to England in 1042, invited back to take up the English throne. He was crowned king of England in 1043 in Winchester Cathedral. Winchester was the seat of the Saxon kings before Westminster Abbey, which, incidentally, Edward began the construction of. Westminster Abbey is a beautiful example of Norman Romanesque architecture, and it exhibits the Norman sensibilities of Edward, who spent large amounts of time in exile in Normandy.
Edward the Confessor was the first Anglo-Saxon and the only English king to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. There is considerable dispute over whether his canonization was politically motivated, or whether his cult grew from devoted Englishmen and women who truly loved King Edward. Edward has long been a patron saint of England, before finally being replaced by Saint George.
Edward died of an illness in 1066, and his relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica. St. Edward’s Hall, a men’s residence hall on campus, is named after this English king because he was the patron saint of Father Edward Sorin, C.S.C., founder of the University. The stained glass window above comes from the chapel in St. Edward’s hall, and this statue of St. Edward stands in the courtyard in front; he holds a model of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in his hand.
Today marks Founder’s Day for the University of Notre Dame, as it is the celebration of Edward Sorin’s “name day,” i.e., the feast of the saint after whom he is named. In Notre Dame’s earlier years, classes were canceled and the day was marked by games, performances, and a large feast. Today the University commemorates Founder’s Day with a special Mass in the Basilica, celebrated by the university president. For more about the history of Founder’s Day, watch the video below.
Whether or not King Edward was “saintly,” as popular imagination defines it, does not diminish his extraordinary legacy in the building of Westminster Abbey. Westminster has been a home for countless English Catholics and Christians for nearly a millennium. It has been a home for pilgrims seeking a space to pray, beautiful liturgy, and heavenly music.
Much like his namesake Edward, Fr. Edward Sorin was also known for a rather prickly temperament—not a particularly “saintly” disposition. Fr. Edward Sorin, like Edward the Confessor, founded a place that became much larger than the cult of his own personality, which became a place for prayer, learning, and growth, that has been a source of grace for countless visitors and students for almost two hundred years.
St. Edward the Confessor, patron saint of Father Edward Sorin—pray for us!
Close
October 13
Saint Edward
October 14
Daily Saints – 14 October.
Feast of Pope Saint Callistus I.
He is the patron saint of Cemetery workers.
Callistus seems to have been a slave in the Trastevere area of Rome whose earliest years seemed quite unpromising. He was a slave in the imperial Roman household. Put in charge of the bank by his master, he lost the money deposited, fled, and was caught. After serving time for a while, he was released to make some attempt to recover the money. Apparently he carried his zeal too far, being arrested for brawling in a Jewish synagogue. This time he was condemned to work in the mines of Sardinia.
Matters went from bad to worse when he was sent to work in the mines, possibly for causing a public disturbance. However, Callistus may also simply have been sentenced due to a persecution of Christians, as he was among the many believers eventually freed on the initiative of Pope St. Victor I.
During the subsequent reign of Pope Zephyrinus, Callistus became a deacon and the caretaker of a major Roman Christian cemetery (which still bears his name as the “Cemetery of St. Callistus”), in addition to advising the Pope on theological controversies of the day. He was a natural candidate to follow Zephyrinus, when the latter died.
Callistus was elected pope in 217, but a minority followed the more rigorist Hippolytus as anti-pope, thus making Callistus’s papacy from 217 to 222 quite a controversial time.
Hippolytus accused Pope Callistus of sympathizing with heretics, and resented the new Pope’s clarification that even the most serious sins could be absolved after sincere confession. The Pope’s assertion of divine mercy also scandalized the North African Christian polemicist Tertullian, already in schism from the Church in Carthage, who also erroneously held that certain sins were too serious to be forgiven through confession.
Considered in light of this error, Hippolytus’ catalogue of sins allegedly “permitted” by Callistus – including extramarital sex and early forms of contraception – may in fact represent offenses which the Pope never allowed, but which he was willing to absolve in the case of penitents seeking reconciliation with the Church.
Even so, Callistus could not persuade Hippolytus’ followers of his rightful authority as Pope during his own lifetime. He defended the faith against the Adoptionist and Modalist heresies regarding the Holy Trinity and the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church, however, has always acknowledged the orthodoxy and holiness of Pope St. Callistus I, particularly since the time of his martyrdom – traditionally ascribed to an anti-Christian mob – in 222. According to another version, under the reign of Alexander Severus, he was thrown into prison, and then was tortured by starvation in prison and scourged daily. Finally Callistus was thrown from a window of the house headlong into a well, where he drowned.
St. Callistus’ own intercession after death may also have made possible the historic reconciliation between his opponent Hippolytus, and the later Pope Pontian. The Pope and former antipope were martyred together in 236, and both subsequently canonized.
Feast of Pope Saint Callistus I.
He is the patron saint of Cemetery workers.
Callistus seems to have been a slave in the Trastevere area of Rome whose earliest years seemed quite unpromising. He was a slave in the imperial Roman household. Put in charge of the bank by his master, he lost the money deposited, fled, and was caught. After serving time for a while, he was released to make some attempt to recover the money. Apparently he carried his zeal too far, being arrested for brawling in a Jewish synagogue. This time he was condemned to work in the mines of Sardinia.
Matters went from bad to worse when he was sent to work in the mines, possibly for causing a public disturbance. However, Callistus may also simply have been sentenced due to a persecution of Christians, as he was among the many believers eventually freed on the initiative of Pope St. Victor I.
During the subsequent reign of Pope Zephyrinus, Callistus became a deacon and the caretaker of a major Roman Christian cemetery (which still bears his name as the “Cemetery of St. Callistus”), in addition to advising the Pope on theological controversies of the day. He was a natural candidate to follow Zephyrinus, when the latter died.
Callistus was elected pope in 217, but a minority followed the more rigorist Hippolytus as anti-pope, thus making Callistus’s papacy from 217 to 222 quite a controversial time.
Hippolytus accused Pope Callistus of sympathizing with heretics, and resented the new Pope’s clarification that even the most serious sins could be absolved after sincere confession. The Pope’s assertion of divine mercy also scandalized the North African Christian polemicist Tertullian, already in schism from the Church in Carthage, who also erroneously held that certain sins were too serious to be forgiven through confession.
Considered in light of this error, Hippolytus’ catalogue of sins allegedly “permitted” by Callistus – including extramarital sex and early forms of contraception – may in fact represent offenses which the Pope never allowed, but which he was willing to absolve in the case of penitents seeking reconciliation with the Church.
Even so, Callistus could not persuade Hippolytus’ followers of his rightful authority as Pope during his own lifetime. He defended the faith against the Adoptionist and Modalist heresies regarding the Holy Trinity and the Person of Jesus Christ.
The Catholic Church, however, has always acknowledged the orthodoxy and holiness of Pope St. Callistus I, particularly since the time of his martyrdom – traditionally ascribed to an anti-Christian mob – in 222. According to another version, under the reign of Alexander Severus, he was thrown into prison, and then was tortured by starvation in prison and scourged daily. Finally Callistus was thrown from a window of the house headlong into a well, where he drowned.
St. Callistus’ own intercession after death may also have made possible the historic reconciliation between his opponent Hippolytus, and the later Pope Pontian. The Pope and former antipope were martyred together in 236, and both subsequently canonized.
Close
October 14
Pope Saint Callistus I
October 15
Daily Saints – 15 October.
Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila.
She is the patron saint of sick people; Bodily illnesses; headaches; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; opposition of Church authorities; people ridiculed for their piety; sickness, against heart disease.
Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada was born in the Castilian city of Avila on 28 March 1515. She was the third child of Alphonsus and Beatrice. Her family descended from Jewish merchants who had converted to Christianity during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Her father Alphonsus had become an ardent Catholic, with a collection of spiritual books of the type his daughter would later compose herself.
As a child, Teresa felt captivated by the thought of eternity and the vision of God granted to the saints in heaven. Inspired by the stories of the saints, at the age of seven, Teresa recruited her younger brother Roderigo as a travel companion and set out for Africa where they intended to become martyrs for the faith. Their plan was foiled when they were captured by an uncle, who returned them to their disgruntled parents.
When Teresa was 14, her mother died, causing the girl a profound grief that prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. Along with this good resolution, however, she also developed immoderate interests in reading popular fiction (consisting, at that time, mostly of medieval tales of knighthood) and caring for her own appearance. As a teenager, she cared only about boys, clothes, flirting, and rebelling.
Alphonsus decided his teenage daughter needed a change of environment, and sent her to be educated in a convent of Augustinian nuns. Teresa found their life dull at first, but soon came to some understanding of its spiritual advantages.
Illness forced her to leave the convent during her second year. But the influence of her devout uncle Peter, along with her reading of the letters of the monk and Church Father St. Jerome, convinced Teresa that the surest road to salvation lay in forsaking marriage, property, and worldly pleasures completely. Against the will of her father, who wanted her to postpone the decision, she joined the Carmelite Order. She also thought that it was the only safe place for someone like her.
Teresa became a professed member of the order at age 20, but soon developed a serious illness that forced her to return home. She experienced severe pain and physical paralysis for two years, and was expected to die when she went into a coma for four days. But she insisted on returning to the Carmelite monastery as soon as she was able, even though she remained in a painful and debilitated state. Yet instead of helping her spiritually, her sickness became an excuse to stop her prayer completely.
For the next three years the young nun made remarkable progress in her spiritual life, developing the practice of recalling herself into the presence of God through quiet contemplation. As her health returned, however, Teresa lapsed into a more routine prayer life. While she remained an obedient Carmelite, she would not re-establish this close personal connection to God for almost twenty years. Teresa got more involved in flattery, vanity and gossip than spiritual guidance. These weren’t great sins perhaps but they kept her from God.
When she was nearly 40, however, Teresa found herself dramatically called back to the practice of contemplative mental prayer. She experienced profound changes within her own soul, and remarkable visions that seemed to come from God. Under the direction of her confessors, Teresa wrote about some of these experiences in an autobiography that she completed in 1565.
Her biggest fault was her friendships. Though she wasn’t sinning, she was very attached to her friends until God told her to stop. Some friends, however, did not like what was happening to her and got together to discuss some “remedy” for her. Concluding that she had been deluded by the devil, they sent a Jesuit to analyze her. The Jesuit reassured her that her experiences were from God.
Jesus once said to her in a vision, “I would create the universe again just to hear you say that you love me”. Teresa suffered discouragement when rumors of her visions spread through the convent and she was the subject of gossip and mockery. When complaining to Jesus about this injustice, He simply said, “Teresa, that’s how I treat my friends”. She responded, “No wonder you have so few!” But since Christ has so few friends, she felt they should be good ones.
Teresa had always been accustomed to contemplate Christ’s presence within her after receiving him in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Now, however, she understood that the presence she received did not simply fade: God was, in fact, with her always, and had been all along. It was simply a matter of putting herself in his presence, with love and attention – as one could do at any moment.
This revolution in her spiritual life enabled Teresa to play a significant role in the renewal of the Church that followed the Council of Trent. She proposed a return of the Carmelites to their original rule of life, a simple and austere form of monasticism – founded on silence and solitude – that had received papal approval in the 12th century and was believed to date back to the Old Testament prophet Elijah.
Together with her close collaborator, the priest and writer later canonized as Saint John of the Cross, she founded what is known today as the Order of Discalced Carmelites – “discalced,” meaning barefoot, symbolizing the simplicity to which they chose to return the order after a period of corruption. The reform met with fierce opposition, but resulted in the founding of 30 monasteries during her life.
Teresa’s health failed her for the last time while she was traveling through Salamanca in 1582. She accepted her dramatic final illness as God’s chosen means of calling her into his presence forever.
“O my Lord, and my spouse, the desired hour is now come,” she stated. “The hour is at last come, wherein I shall pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for.” St. Teresa of Avila died on Oct. 15, 1582 at the age of 67.
“Love does everything.”
“The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.”
“I threw myself down in despair before an image of the Mother of God. With many tears, I implored the Holy Virgin to become my mother now. Uttered with the simplicity of a child, this prayer was heard. From that hour on, I never prayed to the Virgin in vain.”
“To get to know God’s friends is a very good way of ‘having’ Him.”
“Much harm may result from bad company and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse rather than what is better.”
“Mental prayer is, as I see it, simply a friendly intercourse and frequent solitary conversation with Him who, as we know, loves us.”
“Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.”
“[God’s] voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us…”
“Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to St. Joseph; for I know not how any man can think of the Queen of the angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Infant Jesus, without giving thanks to St. Joseph for the services he rendered them then.”
“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”
“Truth suffers, but never dies.”
“Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.”
“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”
“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can – namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”
“Always think of yourself as everyone’s servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.”
“Never compare one person with another: comparisons are odious.”
“God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.”
“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.”
“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one be”
“May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each n every one of us”
“I bore these sufferings with great composure, in fact with joy, except at first when the pain was too severe. What followed seemed to hurt less. I was completely surrendered to the will of God even if he intended to burden me like this forever….Without Him I truly could not have borne so much with so much joy.”
“The hour is at last come, wherein I shall pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for.”
“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”
“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can – namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”
“Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.”
“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.”
“Reflect upon the providence and wisdom of God in all created things and praise Him in them all.”
“We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.”
“The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.”
“Pain is never permanent.”
“Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world.Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world.”
“Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”
“For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.”
Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila.
She is the patron saint of sick people; Bodily illnesses; headaches; lacemakers; laceworkers; loss of parents; people in need of grace; people in religious orders; opposition of Church authorities; people ridiculed for their piety; sickness, against heart disease.
Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada was born in the Castilian city of Avila on 28 March 1515. She was the third child of Alphonsus and Beatrice. Her family descended from Jewish merchants who had converted to Christianity during the reign of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Her father Alphonsus had become an ardent Catholic, with a collection of spiritual books of the type his daughter would later compose herself.
As a child, Teresa felt captivated by the thought of eternity and the vision of God granted to the saints in heaven. Inspired by the stories of the saints, at the age of seven, Teresa recruited her younger brother Roderigo as a travel companion and set out for Africa where they intended to become martyrs for the faith. Their plan was foiled when they were captured by an uncle, who returned them to their disgruntled parents.
When Teresa was 14, her mother died, causing the girl a profound grief that prompted her to embrace a deeper devotion to the Virgin Mary as her spiritual mother. Along with this good resolution, however, she also developed immoderate interests in reading popular fiction (consisting, at that time, mostly of medieval tales of knighthood) and caring for her own appearance. As a teenager, she cared only about boys, clothes, flirting, and rebelling.
Alphonsus decided his teenage daughter needed a change of environment, and sent her to be educated in a convent of Augustinian nuns. Teresa found their life dull at first, but soon came to some understanding of its spiritual advantages.
Illness forced her to leave the convent during her second year. But the influence of her devout uncle Peter, along with her reading of the letters of the monk and Church Father St. Jerome, convinced Teresa that the surest road to salvation lay in forsaking marriage, property, and worldly pleasures completely. Against the will of her father, who wanted her to postpone the decision, she joined the Carmelite Order. She also thought that it was the only safe place for someone like her.
Teresa became a professed member of the order at age 20, but soon developed a serious illness that forced her to return home. She experienced severe pain and physical paralysis for two years, and was expected to die when she went into a coma for four days. But she insisted on returning to the Carmelite monastery as soon as she was able, even though she remained in a painful and debilitated state. Yet instead of helping her spiritually, her sickness became an excuse to stop her prayer completely.
For the next three years the young nun made remarkable progress in her spiritual life, developing the practice of recalling herself into the presence of God through quiet contemplation. As her health returned, however, Teresa lapsed into a more routine prayer life. While she remained an obedient Carmelite, she would not re-establish this close personal connection to God for almost twenty years. Teresa got more involved in flattery, vanity and gossip than spiritual guidance. These weren’t great sins perhaps but they kept her from God.
When she was nearly 40, however, Teresa found herself dramatically called back to the practice of contemplative mental prayer. She experienced profound changes within her own soul, and remarkable visions that seemed to come from God. Under the direction of her confessors, Teresa wrote about some of these experiences in an autobiography that she completed in 1565.
Her biggest fault was her friendships. Though she wasn’t sinning, she was very attached to her friends until God told her to stop. Some friends, however, did not like what was happening to her and got together to discuss some “remedy” for her. Concluding that she had been deluded by the devil, they sent a Jesuit to analyze her. The Jesuit reassured her that her experiences were from God.
Jesus once said to her in a vision, “I would create the universe again just to hear you say that you love me”. Teresa suffered discouragement when rumors of her visions spread through the convent and she was the subject of gossip and mockery. When complaining to Jesus about this injustice, He simply said, “Teresa, that’s how I treat my friends”. She responded, “No wonder you have so few!” But since Christ has so few friends, she felt they should be good ones.
Teresa had always been accustomed to contemplate Christ’s presence within her after receiving him in the sacrament of Holy Communion. Now, however, she understood that the presence she received did not simply fade: God was, in fact, with her always, and had been all along. It was simply a matter of putting herself in his presence, with love and attention – as one could do at any moment.
This revolution in her spiritual life enabled Teresa to play a significant role in the renewal of the Church that followed the Council of Trent. She proposed a return of the Carmelites to their original rule of life, a simple and austere form of monasticism – founded on silence and solitude – that had received papal approval in the 12th century and was believed to date back to the Old Testament prophet Elijah.
Together with her close collaborator, the priest and writer later canonized as Saint John of the Cross, she founded what is known today as the Order of Discalced Carmelites – “discalced,” meaning barefoot, symbolizing the simplicity to which they chose to return the order after a period of corruption. The reform met with fierce opposition, but resulted in the founding of 30 monasteries during her life.
Teresa’s health failed her for the last time while she was traveling through Salamanca in 1582. She accepted her dramatic final illness as God’s chosen means of calling her into his presence forever.
“O my Lord, and my spouse, the desired hour is now come,” she stated. “The hour is at last come, wherein I shall pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for.” St. Teresa of Avila died on Oct. 15, 1582 at the age of 67.
“Love does everything.”
“The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.”
“I threw myself down in despair before an image of the Mother of God. With many tears, I implored the Holy Virgin to become my mother now. Uttered with the simplicity of a child, this prayer was heard. From that hour on, I never prayed to the Virgin in vain.”
“To get to know God’s friends is a very good way of ‘having’ Him.”
“Much harm may result from bad company and we are inclined by nature to follow what is worse rather than what is better.”
“Mental prayer is, as I see it, simply a friendly intercourse and frequent solitary conversation with Him who, as we know, loves us.”
“Prayer and comfortable living are incompatible.”
“[God’s] voice reaches us through words spoken by good people, through listening to spiritual talks, and reading sacred literature. God calls to us in countless little ways all the time. Through illnesses and suffering and through sorrow he calls to us…”
“Those who give themselves to prayer should in a special manner have always a devotion to St. Joseph; for I know not how any man can think of the Queen of the angels, during the time that she suffered so much with the Infant Jesus, without giving thanks to St. Joseph for the services he rendered them then.”
“For prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God.”
“Truth suffers, but never dies.”
“Prayer is an act of love; words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts from thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.”
“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”
“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can – namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”
“Always think of yourself as everyone’s servant; look for Christ Our Lord in everyone and you will then have respect and reverence for them all.”
“Never compare one person with another: comparisons are odious.”
“God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.”
“Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything.”
“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one be”
“May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be content knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each n every one of us”
“I bore these sufferings with great composure, in fact with joy, except at first when the pain was too severe. What followed seemed to hurt less. I was completely surrendered to the will of God even if he intended to burden me like this forever….Without Him I truly could not have borne so much with so much joy.”
“The hour is at last come, wherein I shall pass out of this exile, and my soul shall enjoy in thy company what it hath so earnestly longed for.”
“Be gentle to all and stern with yourself.”
“We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can – namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us.”
“Our body has this defect that, the more it is provided care and comforts, the more needs and desires it finds.”
“The closer one approaches to God, the simpler one becomes.”
“Reflect upon the providence and wisdom of God in all created things and praise Him in them all.”
“We need no wings to go in search of Him, but have only to look upon Him present within us.”
“The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.”
“Pain is never permanent.”
“Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world.Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world.”
“Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.”
“For mental prayer in my opinion is nothing else than an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with him who we know loves us. The important thing is not to think much but to love much and so do that which best stirs you to love. Love is not great delight but desire to please God in everything.”
Close
October 15
Saint Teresa of Avila
October 16
Daily Saints – 16 October.
Feast of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.
She is the patron saint of those suffering with polio, devotees of the Sacred Heart, loss of parents.
Margaret was born in 1647 in France as the only daughter of Claude and Philiberte Lamyn Alacoque. From early childhood, Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament, and as preferring silence and prayer to childhood play.
After her First Communion at the age of nine, she practised in secret severe corporal mortification, until rheumatic fever confined her to bed for four years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health. In recognition of this favor, she added the name Mary to her baptismal name of Margaret.
According to her later account of her life, she had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience and continued to practice austerity.
Alacoque lost her father at a young age, and the family’s assets were held by a relative who refused to hand them over, plunging her family into poverty. During this time, her only consolation was frequent visits to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the local church.
When she was 17, however, the family regained their fortune and her mother encouraged her to socialize, in the hopes of her finding a suitable husband. Out of obedience, and believing that her childhood vow was no longer binding, she began to accompany her brothers in the social events, attending dances and balls.
One night, after returning home from a ball for Carnival dressed in her finery, she experienced a vision of Christ, scourged and bloody. He reproached her for her forgetfulness of him; yet he also reassured her by demonstrating that his Heart was filled with love for her, because of the childhood promise she had made to his Blessed Mother. As a result, she determined to fulfill her vow and entered, when almost 24 years of age, the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial on 25 May 1671, intending to become a nun.
A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity. A fellow novice termed Margaret Mary humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.
On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” with the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her.
During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. These visions showed her the “form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a ‘Holy hour’ on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.” The Lord Jesus requested His love be made evident through her. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
In her vision, she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night meditating on Jesus’ Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, a practice, known as “The Holy Hour,” that later became widespread.
In December 1673, Jesus appeared to Margaret Mary again, and allowed her to rest her head on His heart. His human heart was to be the symbol of His divine-human love. He revealed to her the wonders of His love. He explained to her that he wished to make these wonders known to all the world, and that He chose her for His work.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator.
A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.
Finally, all opposition from the community, regarding Margaret’s visions, ended in 1683, when Margaret Mary became the assistant to the Superior. St. Margaret Mary, who later became known as Novice Mistress, led the monastery in observing the Feast of the Sacred Heart privately, and inspired the construction of a chapel built to honor the Sacred Heart.
Margaret Mary died a couple of years later, at the age of 43, on October 17, 1690, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
“My greatest happiness is to be before the Blessed Sacrament, where my heart is, as it were, in Its center.”
“Look upon yourself as a tree planted beside the water, which bears its fruit in due season; the more it is shaken by the wind, the deeper it strikes its roots into the ground.”
“This divine heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.”
“You know that there is no middle course, and that it is a question of being saved or lost for all eternity. It depends on us: either we may choose to love God eternally with the Saints in Heaven …. or else renounce their happiness by giving to nature all for which it craves.”
“If we wish to have the love of the Divine Heart as our guest, we must empty and detach our heart from its affection for creatures and for ourselves.”
“One cannot love without suffering. He [Jesus] showed us this very clearly upon the cross, where He was consumed for love of us. And it is still the same every day in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar… Since love makes lovers one in likeness, if we love, let us model our lives on His.”
“Cling to God, and leave all the rest to Him: He will not let you perish. Your soul is very dear to Him, He wishes to save it.”
“We must never be discouraged or give way to anxiety. . . but ever have recourse to the adorable Heart of Jesus.”
“Keep your heart in peace and let nothing trouble you, not even your faults. You must humble yourself and amend them peacefully, without being discouraged or cast down, for God’s dwelling is in peace.”
“Go courageously to God, along the way He has traced out for you, steadfastly embracing the means He offers you.”
“I think He intends to try you like gold in the crucible, so as to number you amongst His most faithful servants. Therefore you must lovingly embrace all occasions of suffering, considering them as precious tokens of His love. To suffer in silence and without complaint is what He asks of you.”
“Have recourse trustfully to Gods loving kindness and He will not forsake you, for He longs to bestow His graces. Though you may have had the misfortune to offend Him, He is always ready to receive you, provided you return humbly to Him.”
“One just soul can attain pardon for a thousand sinners.”
“He will take good care to provide what is necessary for our sanctification, provided we are careful to accept everything according to His designs.”
Feast of Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque.
She is the patron saint of those suffering with polio, devotees of the Sacred Heart, loss of parents.
Margaret was born in 1647 in France as the only daughter of Claude and Philiberte Lamyn Alacoque. From early childhood, Margaret was described as showing intense love for the Blessed Sacrament, and as preferring silence and prayer to childhood play.
After her First Communion at the age of nine, she practised in secret severe corporal mortification, until rheumatic fever confined her to bed for four years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health. In recognition of this favor, she added the name Mary to her baptismal name of Margaret.
According to her later account of her life, she had visions of Jesus Christ, which she thought were a normal part of human experience and continued to practice austerity.
Alacoque lost her father at a young age, and the family’s assets were held by a relative who refused to hand them over, plunging her family into poverty. During this time, her only consolation was frequent visits to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the local church.
When she was 17, however, the family regained their fortune and her mother encouraged her to socialize, in the hopes of her finding a suitable husband. Out of obedience, and believing that her childhood vow was no longer binding, she began to accompany her brothers in the social events, attending dances and balls.
One night, after returning home from a ball for Carnival dressed in her finery, she experienced a vision of Christ, scourged and bloody. He reproached her for her forgetfulness of him; yet he also reassured her by demonstrating that his Heart was filled with love for her, because of the childhood promise she had made to his Blessed Mother. As a result, she determined to fulfill her vow and entered, when almost 24 years of age, the Visitation Convent at Paray-le-Monial on 25 May 1671, intending to become a nun.
A Visitation nun was “not to be extraordinary except by being ordinary,” but the young nun was not to enjoy this anonymity. A fellow novice termed Margaret Mary humble, simple, and frank, but above all, kind and patient under sharp criticism and correction. She could not meditate in the formal way expected, though she tried her best to give up her “prayer of simplicity.” Slow, quiet, and clumsy, she was assigned to help an infirmarian who was a bundle of energy.
On December 21, 1674, three years a nun, she received the first of her revelations. She felt “invested” with the presence of God, though always afraid of deceiving herself in such matters. The request of Christ was that his love for humankind be made evident through her.
During the next 13 months, Christ appeared to her at intervals. These visions showed her the “form of the devotion, the chief features being reception of Holy Communion on the first Friday of each month, Eucharistic adoration during a ‘Holy hour’ on Thursdays, and the celebration of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.” The Lord Jesus requested His love be made evident through her. He also asked that a feast of reparation be instituted.
In her vision, she was instructed to spend an hour every Thursday night meditating on Jesus’ Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, a practice, known as “The Holy Hour,” that later became widespread.
In December 1673, Jesus appeared to Margaret Mary again, and allowed her to rest her head on His heart. His human heart was to be the symbol of His divine-human love. He revealed to her the wonders of His love. He explained to her that he wished to make these wonders known to all the world, and that He chose her for His work.
Like all saints, Margaret Mary had to pay for her gift of holiness. Some of her own sisters were hostile. Theologians who were called in declared her visions delusions and suggested that she eat more heartily. Later, parents of children she taught called her an impostor, an unorthodox innovator.
A new confessor, the Jesuit Claude de la Colombière, recognized her genuineness and supported her. Against her great resistance, Christ called her to be a sacrificial victim for the shortcomings of her own sisters, and to make this known.
Finally, all opposition from the community, regarding Margaret’s visions, ended in 1683, when Margaret Mary became the assistant to the Superior. St. Margaret Mary, who later became known as Novice Mistress, led the monastery in observing the Feast of the Sacred Heart privately, and inspired the construction of a chapel built to honor the Sacred Heart.
Margaret Mary died a couple of years later, at the age of 43, on October 17, 1690, while being anointed. She said: “I need nothing but God, and to lose myself in the heart of Jesus.”
“My greatest happiness is to be before the Blessed Sacrament, where my heart is, as it were, in Its center.”
“Look upon yourself as a tree planted beside the water, which bears its fruit in due season; the more it is shaken by the wind, the deeper it strikes its roots into the ground.”
“This divine heart is an abyss filled with all blessings, and into the poor should submerge all their needs. It is an abyss of joy in which all of us can immerse our sorrows. It is an abyss of lowliness to counteract our foolishness, an abyss of mercy for the wretched, an abyss of love to meet our every need.”
“You know that there is no middle course, and that it is a question of being saved or lost for all eternity. It depends on us: either we may choose to love God eternally with the Saints in Heaven …. or else renounce their happiness by giving to nature all for which it craves.”
“If we wish to have the love of the Divine Heart as our guest, we must empty and detach our heart from its affection for creatures and for ourselves.”
“One cannot love without suffering. He [Jesus] showed us this very clearly upon the cross, where He was consumed for love of us. And it is still the same every day in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar… Since love makes lovers one in likeness, if we love, let us model our lives on His.”
“Cling to God, and leave all the rest to Him: He will not let you perish. Your soul is very dear to Him, He wishes to save it.”
“We must never be discouraged or give way to anxiety. . . but ever have recourse to the adorable Heart of Jesus.”
“Keep your heart in peace and let nothing trouble you, not even your faults. You must humble yourself and amend them peacefully, without being discouraged or cast down, for God’s dwelling is in peace.”
“Go courageously to God, along the way He has traced out for you, steadfastly embracing the means He offers you.”
“I think He intends to try you like gold in the crucible, so as to number you amongst His most faithful servants. Therefore you must lovingly embrace all occasions of suffering, considering them as precious tokens of His love. To suffer in silence and without complaint is what He asks of you.”
“Have recourse trustfully to Gods loving kindness and He will not forsake you, for He longs to bestow His graces. Though you may have had the misfortune to offend Him, He is always ready to receive you, provided you return humbly to Him.”
“One just soul can attain pardon for a thousand sinners.”
“He will take good care to provide what is necessary for our sanctification, provided we are careful to accept everything according to His designs.”
Close
October 16
Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque
October 17
Daily Saints – 17 October.
Feast of Saint Ignatius of Antioch.
He is the patron saint against throat diseases.
Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity at a young age. Later in his life, Ignatius was chosen to serve as Bishop of Antioch. This disciple of the beloved Disciple John was consecrated Bishop around the year 69 by the Apostle Peter, the first Pope. Theodoret of Cyrrhus claimed that St. Peter himself left directions that Ignatius be appointed to the episcopal see of Antioch.
Ignatius called himself Theophorus (God Bearer). A tradition arose that he was one of the children whom Jesus took in his arms and blessed.
A holy man who was deeply loved by the Christian faithful, he always made it his special care to defend “orthodoxy” (right teaching) and “orthopraxy” (right practice) among the early Christians.
In 107, during the reign of the brutal Emperor Trajan, this holy Bishop was wrongfully sentenced to death because he refused to renounce the Christian faith. He was taken under guard to Rome where he was to be brutally devoured by wild beasts in a public spectacle.
During the journey to Rome, Ignatius and his entourage of soldiers made a number of stops in Asia Minor. Along the route Ignatius wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. In his Chronicle, Eusebius gives the date of Ignatius’s death as AA 2124 (2124 years after Abraham), i.e. the 11th year of Trajan’s reign, AD 108.
Ignatius himself wrote that he would be thrown to the beasts, and in the fourth century Eusebius reports tradition that this came to pass, which is then repeated by Jerome, who is the first to explicitly mention “Lions”. John Chrysostom is the first to allude to the Colosseum as the place of Ignatius’ martyrdom.
Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. He made good use of the time by writing seven letters of encouragement, instruction and inspiration to the Christians in those communities.
Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith. The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom.
“It is better to be silent and be real, than to talk and not be real.”
“The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.”
“Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.”
“I would rather die and come to Jesus Christ than be king over the entire earth. Him I seek who died for us; Him I love who rose again because of us.”
“I am God’s wheat, and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become the pure bread of Christ.”
“There is one Physician, of flesh and of spirit, originate and unoriginate, God in man, true Life in death, son of Mary and son of God, first passible and then impassible: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David, and for drink I desire His Blood, which is love incorruptible.”
“I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way… Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God.”
“They that are of the flesh cannot do the works of the Spirit, neither can they that are spiritual do the works of the flesh, even as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith.”
“May nothing entice me till I happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs – let them come to me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ.”
“Even though I be bound in the Name, I have not yet become perfected in Jesus Christ.
Feast of Saint Ignatius of Antioch.
He is the patron saint against throat diseases.
Born in Syria, Ignatius converted to Christianity at a young age. Later in his life, Ignatius was chosen to serve as Bishop of Antioch. This disciple of the beloved Disciple John was consecrated Bishop around the year 69 by the Apostle Peter, the first Pope. Theodoret of Cyrrhus claimed that St. Peter himself left directions that Ignatius be appointed to the episcopal see of Antioch.
Ignatius called himself Theophorus (God Bearer). A tradition arose that he was one of the children whom Jesus took in his arms and blessed.
A holy man who was deeply loved by the Christian faithful, he always made it his special care to defend “orthodoxy” (right teaching) and “orthopraxy” (right practice) among the early Christians.
In 107, during the reign of the brutal Emperor Trajan, this holy Bishop was wrongfully sentenced to death because he refused to renounce the Christian faith. He was taken under guard to Rome where he was to be brutally devoured by wild beasts in a public spectacle.
During the journey to Rome, Ignatius and his entourage of soldiers made a number of stops in Asia Minor. Along the route Ignatius wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna. In his Chronicle, Eusebius gives the date of Ignatius’s death as AA 2124 (2124 years after Abraham), i.e. the 11th year of Trajan’s reign, AD 108.
Ignatius himself wrote that he would be thrown to the beasts, and in the fourth century Eusebius reports tradition that this came to pass, which is then repeated by Jerome, who is the first to explicitly mention “Lions”. John Chrysostom is the first to allude to the Colosseum as the place of Ignatius’ martyrdom.
Ignatius is well known for the seven letters he wrote on the long journey from Antioch to Rome. He made good use of the time by writing seven letters of encouragement, instruction and inspiration to the Christians in those communities.
Five of these letters are to churches in Asia Minor; they urge the Christians there to remain faithful to God and to obey their superiors. He warns them against heretical doctrines, providing them with the solid truths of the Christian faith. The sixth letter was to Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who was later martyred for the faith. The final letter begs the Christians in Rome not to try to stop his martyrdom.
“It is better to be silent and be real, than to talk and not be real.”
“The only thing I ask of you is to allow me to offer the libation of my blood to God. I am the wheat of the Lord; may I be ground by the teeth of the beasts to become the immaculate bread of Christ.”
“Take heed, then, often to come together to give thanks to God, and show forth His praise. For when you assemble frequently in the same place, the powers of Satan are destroyed, and the destruction at which he aims is prevented by the unity of your faith.”
“I would rather die and come to Jesus Christ than be king over the entire earth. Him I seek who died for us; Him I love who rose again because of us.”
“I am God’s wheat, and I shall be ground by the teeth of beasts, that I may become the pure bread of Christ.”
“There is one Physician, of flesh and of spirit, originate and unoriginate, God in man, true Life in death, son of Mary and son of God, first passible and then impassible: Jesus Christ our Lord.”
“I have no taste for corruptible food nor for the pleasures of this life. I desire the Bread of God, which is the Flesh of Jesus Christ, who was of the seed of David, and for drink I desire His Blood, which is love incorruptible.”
“I am writing to all the churches to let it be known that I will gladly die for God if only you do not stand in my way… Let me be food for the wild beasts, for they are my way to God.”
“They that are of the flesh cannot do the works of the Spirit, neither can they that are spiritual do the works of the flesh, even as faith cannot do the works of unbelief, nor unbelief the works of faith.”
“May nothing entice me till I happily make my way to Jesus Christ! Fire, cross, struggles with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, mangling of limbs – let them come to me, provided only I make my way to Jesus Christ.”
“Even though I be bound in the Name, I have not yet become perfected in Jesus Christ.
Close
October 17
Saint Ignatius of Antioch
October 18
Daily Saints – 18 October.
Feast of Saint Luke, the Evangelist.
He is the Patron Saint of Artists, Painters, Brewers, bachelors, surgeons, students, Butchers, Notaries, Physicians, bookbinders, doctors, glass makers, glassworkers, glaziers, gold workers, goldsmiths, lacemakers, lace workers, sculptors, stained glass workers, unmarried men.
Saint Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile in Antioch, Syria. He was a physician and it is believed that he may have also been a slave, as it was not uncommon in his day for slaves to be educated in medicine so the family would have a resident physician.
St. Paul calls him “our beloved physician.” Believed to be one of the earliest converts to Christianity. Probably travelled as a ship’s doctor.
Luke joined Paul at Troas in the year 51, accompanying him from Macedonia to Philippi. It is very possible that Luke provided medical assistance to Paul when he had been beaten, stoned or nearly drowned while evangelizing to the Western Roman Empire. Luke explains in the introduction to his gospel that his writings were inspired by close association with Paul and his companions.
Luke appears in Acts during Paul’s second journey, remains at Philippi for several years until Paul returns from his third journey, accompanies Paul to Jerusalem, and remains near him when he is imprisoned in Caesarea. During these two years, Luke had time to seek information and interview persons who had known Jesus. He accompanied Paul on the dangerous journey to Rome where he was a faithful companion. Luke remained with Paul to the end of his life, even during his imprisonment and sufferings, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11).
According to St. Jerome, St. Luke died in Achaia (Greece) at the age of 84, and it is unknown whether or not he died a martyr’s death. One of the legends says that Luke was martyred by idolatrous priests in Greece by being hanged from an olive tree.
His name means “bringer of light” (=luke).
Luke wrote one of the major portions of the New Testament, a two-volume work comprising the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles. In the two books he shows the parallel between the life of Christ and that of the Church. His Gospel was probably written between 70 and 85 A.D. He is the only Gentile Christian among the Gospel writers. Epiphanius states that Luke was one of the Seventy Apostles (Panarion 51.11).
Luke’s unique character may best be seen by the emphases of his Gospel, which has been given a number of subtitles:
1) The Gospel of Mercy
2) The Gospel of Universal Salvation
3) The Gospel of the Poor
4) The Gospel of Absolute Renunciation
5) The Gospel of Prayer and the Holy Spirit
6) The Gospel of Joy.
St. Luke’s Gospel is principally concerned with salvation and mercy; in it are preserved some of our Lord’s most moving parables, like those of the lost sheep and the prodigal son. The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man who ignored him is told in Luke’s gospel, as is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Dante calls St. Luke the “historian of the meekness of Christ.” It is also St. Luke who tells us the greater part of what we know about our Lord’s childhood. Luke’s Gospel is, above all, the Gospel of the Merciful Heart of Jesus. It emphasizes the fact that Christ is the salvation of all men, especially of the repentant sinner and of the lowly.
The Gospel of Luke stresses the importance of evangelizing to the Gentiles. In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27), and we hear the story of the one grateful leper who is a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19).
Unlike the Jewish writings, women have an important place in Luke’s gospel. Luke writes about the women who accompanied Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and Martha and Mary and “many other women who used their own resources to help Jesus and his disciples” (8:1). Luke also writes about the birth of Christ from Mary’s point of view and she is especially important in Luke’s gospel.
Christian tradition, starting from the 8th century, states that he was the first iconpainter. Luke painted icons of Mary and Jesus has been common, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy. The tradition also has support from the Saint Thomas Christians of India who claim to still have one of the Theotokos icons that Saint Luke painted and which St. Thomas brought to India. He was also said to have painted Saints Peter and Paul, and to have illustrated a gospel book with a full cycle of miniatures.
Feast of Saint Luke, the Evangelist.
He is the Patron Saint of Artists, Painters, Brewers, bachelors, surgeons, students, Butchers, Notaries, Physicians, bookbinders, doctors, glass makers, glassworkers, glaziers, gold workers, goldsmiths, lacemakers, lace workers, sculptors, stained glass workers, unmarried men.
Saint Luke was born a Greek and a Gentile in Antioch, Syria. He was a physician and it is believed that he may have also been a slave, as it was not uncommon in his day for slaves to be educated in medicine so the family would have a resident physician.
St. Paul calls him “our beloved physician.” Believed to be one of the earliest converts to Christianity. Probably travelled as a ship’s doctor.
Luke joined Paul at Troas in the year 51, accompanying him from Macedonia to Philippi. It is very possible that Luke provided medical assistance to Paul when he had been beaten, stoned or nearly drowned while evangelizing to the Western Roman Empire. Luke explains in the introduction to his gospel that his writings were inspired by close association with Paul and his companions.
Luke appears in Acts during Paul’s second journey, remains at Philippi for several years until Paul returns from his third journey, accompanies Paul to Jerusalem, and remains near him when he is imprisoned in Caesarea. During these two years, Luke had time to seek information and interview persons who had known Jesus. He accompanied Paul on the dangerous journey to Rome where he was a faithful companion. Luke remained with Paul to the end of his life, even during his imprisonment and sufferings, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11).
According to St. Jerome, St. Luke died in Achaia (Greece) at the age of 84, and it is unknown whether or not he died a martyr’s death. One of the legends says that Luke was martyred by idolatrous priests in Greece by being hanged from an olive tree.
His name means “bringer of light” (=luke).
Luke wrote one of the major portions of the New Testament, a two-volume work comprising the third Gospel and Acts of the Apostles. In the two books he shows the parallel between the life of Christ and that of the Church. His Gospel was probably written between 70 and 85 A.D. He is the only Gentile Christian among the Gospel writers. Epiphanius states that Luke was one of the Seventy Apostles (Panarion 51.11).
Luke’s unique character may best be seen by the emphases of his Gospel, which has been given a number of subtitles:
1) The Gospel of Mercy
2) The Gospel of Universal Salvation
3) The Gospel of the Poor
4) The Gospel of Absolute Renunciation
5) The Gospel of Prayer and the Holy Spirit
6) The Gospel of Joy.
St. Luke’s Gospel is principally concerned with salvation and mercy; in it are preserved some of our Lord’s most moving parables, like those of the lost sheep and the prodigal son. The story of Lazarus and the Rich Man who ignored him is told in Luke’s gospel, as is the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Dante calls St. Luke the “historian of the meekness of Christ.” It is also St. Luke who tells us the greater part of what we know about our Lord’s childhood. Luke’s Gospel is, above all, the Gospel of the Merciful Heart of Jesus. It emphasizes the fact that Christ is the salvation of all men, especially of the repentant sinner and of the lowly.
The Gospel of Luke stresses the importance of evangelizing to the Gentiles. In the Gospel of Luke we hear Jesus praising the faith of Gentiles such as the widow of Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian (Lk.4:25-27), and we hear the story of the one grateful leper who is a Samaritan (Lk.17:11-19).
Unlike the Jewish writings, women have an important place in Luke’s gospel. Luke writes about the women who accompanied Jesus, such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna, and Martha and Mary and “many other women who used their own resources to help Jesus and his disciples” (8:1). Luke also writes about the birth of Christ from Mary’s point of view and she is especially important in Luke’s gospel.
Christian tradition, starting from the 8th century, states that he was the first iconpainter. Luke painted icons of Mary and Jesus has been common, particularly in Eastern Orthodoxy. The tradition also has support from the Saint Thomas Christians of India who claim to still have one of the Theotokos icons that Saint Luke painted and which St. Thomas brought to India. He was also said to have painted Saints Peter and Paul, and to have illustrated a gospel book with a full cycle of miniatures.
Close
October 18
Saint Luke, the Evangelist
October 19
Daily Saints – 19 October.
Feast of Saint Paul of the Cross.
Saint Paul of the Cross, originally named Paolo Francesco Danei, was born on 3 January 1694, in Italy. His parents were Luca and Anna Maria Massari Danei. Paul was the second of sixteen children, six of whom survived infancy; and learned at an early age the reality of death and the uncertainty of life.
Paul received his early education from a priest who kept a school for boys, in Cremolino, Lombardy. He made great progress and at the age of fifteen he left school and returned to his home at Castellazzo. In his early years he taught catechism in churches near his home.
Paul experienced a conversion to a life of prayer at the age of 19. Influenced by his reading of the “Treatise on the Love of God” by Saint Francis de Sales and the direction he received from priests of the Capuchin Order it became his lifelong conviction that God is most easily found in the Passion of Christ.
In 1715, Paul left his work helping his father to join a crusade against the Turks who were threatening the Venetian Republic, but soon realized that the life of a soldier was not his calling. He returned to help in the family business. On his way home he stopped at Novello, where he helped an aging, childless couple until the end of 1716. They offered to make him their heir, but he declined. His uncle, Father Christopher Danei, tried to arrange a marriage, but Paul had no plans to marry. When his uncle died, he kept for himself only the priest’s Breviary.
When he was 26 years old, Paul had a series of prayer-experiences which made it clear to him that God was inviting him to form a community who would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus. In a vision, he saw himself clothed in the habit he and his companions would wear: a long, black tunic on the front of which was a heart surmounted by a white cross, and in the heart was written “Passion of Jesus Christ”. On seeing it, he heard these words spoken to him: “This is to show how pure the heart must be that bears the holy name of Jesus graven upon it”. The first name Paul received for his community was “the Poor of Jesus”; later they came to be known as the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, or the Passionists.
St. Paul of the Cross was an extraordinary preacher who possessed many of the mystical gifts including prophecy, bi-location, supernatural perfumes, visions, power over nature and levitation. Recognized as a Saint during his lifetime, he was usually met by throngs of people who were anxious to obtain a piece of his habit as a relic, to touch him or to request a cure or a favor. God was with him everywhere he went, and his preaching missions were attended not only by almost all the local townspeople, but also those of the surrounding towns, so that at huge crowds were present at all his missions.
Once while giving a mission in Orbetello, there was a great commotion in the soldiers’ barracks. One of the soldiers, screaming in terror, was being dragged and jostled by an invisible force. St. Paul was brought to the scene and with his crucifix held high, he commanded the spirit to depart. When the devil resisted, he ordered the soldier to make an act of contrition. The Saint then demanded the departure of the devil. No longer able to resist, the evil spirit left. The soldier confessed his sins and thereafter enjoyed peace of soul and mind.
He was to give a talk at Santaflora. Because of his great popularity, the church was crowded. An even greater number of people gathered in the square outside the church. So that both groups could hear him, the Saint stood at the church door and began to speak. The day was clear and bright, but suddenly the sky became dark and rain began to fall in torrents. The people immediately panicked and ran about in confusion. Seeing in this disturbance the work of the devil, the missionary held his crucifix high and blessed the air. Immediately the sky cleared and the people returned to their places. To the wonderment of all, everyone in the square was completely dry, whereas a moment before they had been thoroughly wet.
During another sermon to the people gathered outdoors, the sky suddenly became dark and threatened a terrible storm. Assuring his listeners that it was the work of the devil to prevent the good they were gaining, Paul blessed the black clouds with his crucifix. To the amazement of the people, the rain fell all around, but not a drop of water touched the Saint or the members of his audience.
The Saint was scheduled to conduct a mission on the Isle of Elba and was in need of a ship to take him there. The Saint approached a sea captain, who indicated that his ship was badly damaged from a storm at sea and had been drawn up on shore. The Saint told the captain not to worry, that through the power of God their journey would be successful. Captain Fanciullo, an eyewitness, tells what took place.
“Wherefore the master, with his sailors and myself, began to haul the vessel towards the sea. The servant of God, too, taking his crucifix from his breast, held it up with his left hand, and with his right helped to haul. In an instant the vessel was in the sea, and both I and others standing by thought it a miracle to get it into the sea with so few hands. I saw Father Paul embark and set sail for Porto Ferrajo, on the Isle of Elba, which they happily reached. News reached us that no sooner were they disembarked, than the vessel split in two and sank.”
Once St. Paul of the Cross was walking beside a farmer who was driving his two young oxen. When the animals became agitated and began giving the farmer some trouble, he blasphemed so badly that the Saint began to admonish him. Becoming even angrier, the farmer leveled a gun at the Saint. Horrified more at the indecent language than he was frightened for his own life, the Saint drew his crucifix from his belt and held it high, saying: “Since you will not respect this crucifix, these oxen will.” As if they understood, the oxen fell immediately to their knees before the image of the crucified Saviour. At the sight of the miracle, the farmer threw down his gun, begged pardon of the Saint and soon went to Confession and reconciled himself to God.
He died on 18 October 1775 at Rome, Italy of natural causes.
“The service of God does not require good words and good desires, but efficient workmanship, fervor and courage”
“When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to
preach to you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent
sermon!”
“The Mass is the most favorable occasion to speak with the eternal Father, because then we
offer Him His only Son as a victim for our salvation. Before celebrating, reflect on the sufferings of your Redeemer, commune peaceably with Him, even in the midst of dryness; carry to the altar the needs of the entire world.”
“How wonderful are the treasures which are enclosed in the divine Eucharist! I exhort you, even though you live in the world, to receive Communion often, but with piety. Holy Communion is the most efficacious means of uniting one’s self to God. Always prepare yourself well for this sacred banquet. Have a very pure heart, and watch over your tongue, for it is on the tongue that the Sacred Host is laid. Carry Our Lord home with you after your thanksgiving, and let your heart be a living tabernacle for Jesus. Visit Him often in this interior tabernacle, offering Him your homage, and the sentiments of gratitude with which divine love will inspire you. Preserve carefully the sentiments of love with which you are filled after Communion.”
“when you have committed a fault, humble yourself before God, and cast your fault into the infinite ocean of, charity, and at once it will be effaced from your soul; at the same time all distrust will disappear.”
“Build an oratory within yourself, and there have Jesus on the altar of your heart. Speak to Him often while you are doing your work. Speak to Him of His holy love, of His holy sufferings and of the sorrows of most holy Mary”
“If, during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in purgatory, God will see that help be not denied us after death.”
“In times of aridity arouse your spirit gently, by acts of love; then rest in the will of God. It is thus that the soul gives the strongest proof of her fidelity to God. Make a bouquet of the sufferings of Jesus, and place it on the bosom of your soul, as I have told you. You can from time to time call them to mind, and say sweetly to your Saviour: ‘Oh good Jesus, …. Ah, what sufferings! what sorrows! O my God! for what are Thou all wounded! Ah, dear sufferings! dear wounds! I wish to keep you always in my heart’.”
“Suffering is brief; joy will be eternal.”
Feast of Saint Paul of the Cross.
Saint Paul of the Cross, originally named Paolo Francesco Danei, was born on 3 January 1694, in Italy. His parents were Luca and Anna Maria Massari Danei. Paul was the second of sixteen children, six of whom survived infancy; and learned at an early age the reality of death and the uncertainty of life.
Paul received his early education from a priest who kept a school for boys, in Cremolino, Lombardy. He made great progress and at the age of fifteen he left school and returned to his home at Castellazzo. In his early years he taught catechism in churches near his home.
Paul experienced a conversion to a life of prayer at the age of 19. Influenced by his reading of the “Treatise on the Love of God” by Saint Francis de Sales and the direction he received from priests of the Capuchin Order it became his lifelong conviction that God is most easily found in the Passion of Christ.
In 1715, Paul left his work helping his father to join a crusade against the Turks who were threatening the Venetian Republic, but soon realized that the life of a soldier was not his calling. He returned to help in the family business. On his way home he stopped at Novello, where he helped an aging, childless couple until the end of 1716. They offered to make him their heir, but he declined. His uncle, Father Christopher Danei, tried to arrange a marriage, but Paul had no plans to marry. When his uncle died, he kept for himself only the priest’s Breviary.
When he was 26 years old, Paul had a series of prayer-experiences which made it clear to him that God was inviting him to form a community who would live an evangelical life and promote the love of God revealed in the Passion of Jesus. In a vision, he saw himself clothed in the habit he and his companions would wear: a long, black tunic on the front of which was a heart surmounted by a white cross, and in the heart was written “Passion of Jesus Christ”. On seeing it, he heard these words spoken to him: “This is to show how pure the heart must be that bears the holy name of Jesus graven upon it”. The first name Paul received for his community was “the Poor of Jesus”; later they came to be known as the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, or the Passionists.
St. Paul of the Cross was an extraordinary preacher who possessed many of the mystical gifts including prophecy, bi-location, supernatural perfumes, visions, power over nature and levitation. Recognized as a Saint during his lifetime, he was usually met by throngs of people who were anxious to obtain a piece of his habit as a relic, to touch him or to request a cure or a favor. God was with him everywhere he went, and his preaching missions were attended not only by almost all the local townspeople, but also those of the surrounding towns, so that at huge crowds were present at all his missions.
Once while giving a mission in Orbetello, there was a great commotion in the soldiers’ barracks. One of the soldiers, screaming in terror, was being dragged and jostled by an invisible force. St. Paul was brought to the scene and with his crucifix held high, he commanded the spirit to depart. When the devil resisted, he ordered the soldier to make an act of contrition. The Saint then demanded the departure of the devil. No longer able to resist, the evil spirit left. The soldier confessed his sins and thereafter enjoyed peace of soul and mind.
He was to give a talk at Santaflora. Because of his great popularity, the church was crowded. An even greater number of people gathered in the square outside the church. So that both groups could hear him, the Saint stood at the church door and began to speak. The day was clear and bright, but suddenly the sky became dark and rain began to fall in torrents. The people immediately panicked and ran about in confusion. Seeing in this disturbance the work of the devil, the missionary held his crucifix high and blessed the air. Immediately the sky cleared and the people returned to their places. To the wonderment of all, everyone in the square was completely dry, whereas a moment before they had been thoroughly wet.
During another sermon to the people gathered outdoors, the sky suddenly became dark and threatened a terrible storm. Assuring his listeners that it was the work of the devil to prevent the good they were gaining, Paul blessed the black clouds with his crucifix. To the amazement of the people, the rain fell all around, but not a drop of water touched the Saint or the members of his audience.
The Saint was scheduled to conduct a mission on the Isle of Elba and was in need of a ship to take him there. The Saint approached a sea captain, who indicated that his ship was badly damaged from a storm at sea and had been drawn up on shore. The Saint told the captain not to worry, that through the power of God their journey would be successful. Captain Fanciullo, an eyewitness, tells what took place.
“Wherefore the master, with his sailors and myself, began to haul the vessel towards the sea. The servant of God, too, taking his crucifix from his breast, held it up with his left hand, and with his right helped to haul. In an instant the vessel was in the sea, and both I and others standing by thought it a miracle to get it into the sea with so few hands. I saw Father Paul embark and set sail for Porto Ferrajo, on the Isle of Elba, which they happily reached. News reached us that no sooner were they disembarked, than the vessel split in two and sank.”
Once St. Paul of the Cross was walking beside a farmer who was driving his two young oxen. When the animals became agitated and began giving the farmer some trouble, he blasphemed so badly that the Saint began to admonish him. Becoming even angrier, the farmer leveled a gun at the Saint. Horrified more at the indecent language than he was frightened for his own life, the Saint drew his crucifix from his belt and held it high, saying: “Since you will not respect this crucifix, these oxen will.” As if they understood, the oxen fell immediately to their knees before the image of the crucified Saviour. At the sight of the miracle, the farmer threw down his gun, begged pardon of the Saint and soon went to Confession and reconciled himself to God.
He died on 18 October 1775 at Rome, Italy of natural causes.
“The service of God does not require good words and good desires, but efficient workmanship, fervor and courage”
“When you are alone in your room, take your crucifix, kiss its five wounds reverently, tell it to
preach to you a little sermon, and then listen to the words of eternal life that it speaks to your heart; listen to the pleading of the thorns, the nails, the precious Blood. Oh, what an eloquent
sermon!”
“The Mass is the most favorable occasion to speak with the eternal Father, because then we
offer Him His only Son as a victim for our salvation. Before celebrating, reflect on the sufferings of your Redeemer, commune peaceably with Him, even in the midst of dryness; carry to the altar the needs of the entire world.”
“How wonderful are the treasures which are enclosed in the divine Eucharist! I exhort you, even though you live in the world, to receive Communion often, but with piety. Holy Communion is the most efficacious means of uniting one’s self to God. Always prepare yourself well for this sacred banquet. Have a very pure heart, and watch over your tongue, for it is on the tongue that the Sacred Host is laid. Carry Our Lord home with you after your thanksgiving, and let your heart be a living tabernacle for Jesus. Visit Him often in this interior tabernacle, offering Him your homage, and the sentiments of gratitude with which divine love will inspire you. Preserve carefully the sentiments of love with which you are filled after Communion.”
“when you have committed a fault, humble yourself before God, and cast your fault into the infinite ocean of, charity, and at once it will be effaced from your soul; at the same time all distrust will disappear.”
“Build an oratory within yourself, and there have Jesus on the altar of your heart. Speak to Him often while you are doing your work. Speak to Him of His holy love, of His holy sufferings and of the sorrows of most holy Mary”
“If, during life, we have been kind to the suffering souls in purgatory, God will see that help be not denied us after death.”
“In times of aridity arouse your spirit gently, by acts of love; then rest in the will of God. It is thus that the soul gives the strongest proof of her fidelity to God. Make a bouquet of the sufferings of Jesus, and place it on the bosom of your soul, as I have told you. You can from time to time call them to mind, and say sweetly to your Saviour: ‘Oh good Jesus, …. Ah, what sufferings! what sorrows! O my God! for what are Thou all wounded! Ah, dear sufferings! dear wounds! I wish to keep you always in my heart’.”
“Suffering is brief; joy will be eternal.”
Close
October 19
Saint Paul of the Cross
October 20
Daily Saints – 20 October.
Feast of Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin.
She was born on 6 October 1888 at Brendola, Italy as Anna Francesca Boscardin at Brendola, Veneto. In her family and town she was known as Annette. She was a member of a peasant family.
Her father, Angelo Boscardin, was jealous, violent, and frequently drunk. As a child she could only attend school irregularly, as she was needed to help at home and in the fields. When she did attend school she also worked as a servant in a nearby home.
She did not display any particular talents, was thought to be not particularly intelligent, and was often the target of insulting jokes. These included being referred to as a “goose” for her slowness and lack of intelligence. She was allowed to make her First Holy Communion at eight and a half years old, when the authorised age in those years was eleven.
At twelve years old, she was accepted into the parish association of the “Children of Mary” association. The parish priest gave her a catechism as a gift. They found it in the pocket of her habit, when she died, at 34 years old.
After being rejected for admission to one order because of her slowness, she was accepted as a member of the Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Heart at Vicenza in 1904, taking the name “Maria Bertilla”. She herself internalized some of her earlier criticism, telling the novice-mistress of the order, “I can’t do anything. I’m a poor thing, a goose. Teach me. I want to be a saint.”
She worked there as a kitchen maid and laundress for three years. She was then sent to Treviso to learn nursing at the municipal hospital there, which was under the direction of her order. During her training period, she was once placed to work in the kitchen. However, upon completing her training, she was promoted to working with victims of diphtheria in the hospital’s children’s ward.
During the air raids of Treviso following the disastrous Battle of Caporetto, the hospital fell under the control of the military. Sister Bertilla was noted for her unwavering care of her patients, particularly those who were too ill to be moved to safety. This devotion to duty attracted the attention of the authorities of a local military hospital. However, her superioress did not appreciate Sister Bertilla’s work and reassigned her to work in the laundry, a position she remained in for four months until being reassigned by a higher superior, who put Sister Bertilla in charge of the children’s isolation ward at the hospital.
Shortly thereafter, Sister Bertilla’s already poor health got worse. A painful tumor which she had had for several years had progressed to the point of requiring an operation, which she did not survive. She died on 20 October 1922 of cancer at Treviso, Italy.
“Here I am, Lord, to do your will whatever comes.”
“I can’t do anything. I’m a poor thing, a goose. Teach me. I want to be a saint.”
Feast of Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin.
She was born on 6 October 1888 at Brendola, Italy as Anna Francesca Boscardin at Brendola, Veneto. In her family and town she was known as Annette. She was a member of a peasant family.
Her father, Angelo Boscardin, was jealous, violent, and frequently drunk. As a child she could only attend school irregularly, as she was needed to help at home and in the fields. When she did attend school she also worked as a servant in a nearby home.
She did not display any particular talents, was thought to be not particularly intelligent, and was often the target of insulting jokes. These included being referred to as a “goose” for her slowness and lack of intelligence. She was allowed to make her First Holy Communion at eight and a half years old, when the authorised age in those years was eleven.
At twelve years old, she was accepted into the parish association of the “Children of Mary” association. The parish priest gave her a catechism as a gift. They found it in the pocket of her habit, when she died, at 34 years old.
After being rejected for admission to one order because of her slowness, she was accepted as a member of the Teachers of Saint Dorothy, Daughters of the Sacred Heart at Vicenza in 1904, taking the name “Maria Bertilla”. She herself internalized some of her earlier criticism, telling the novice-mistress of the order, “I can’t do anything. I’m a poor thing, a goose. Teach me. I want to be a saint.”
She worked there as a kitchen maid and laundress for three years. She was then sent to Treviso to learn nursing at the municipal hospital there, which was under the direction of her order. During her training period, she was once placed to work in the kitchen. However, upon completing her training, she was promoted to working with victims of diphtheria in the hospital’s children’s ward.
During the air raids of Treviso following the disastrous Battle of Caporetto, the hospital fell under the control of the military. Sister Bertilla was noted for her unwavering care of her patients, particularly those who were too ill to be moved to safety. This devotion to duty attracted the attention of the authorities of a local military hospital. However, her superioress did not appreciate Sister Bertilla’s work and reassigned her to work in the laundry, a position she remained in for four months until being reassigned by a higher superior, who put Sister Bertilla in charge of the children’s isolation ward at the hospital.
Shortly thereafter, Sister Bertilla’s already poor health got worse. A painful tumor which she had had for several years had progressed to the point of requiring an operation, which she did not survive. She died on 20 October 1922 of cancer at Treviso, Italy.
“Here I am, Lord, to do your will whatever comes.”
“I can’t do anything. I’m a poor thing, a goose. Teach me. I want to be a saint.”
Close
October 20
Saint Maria Bertilla Boscardin
October 21
Daily Saints – 21 October.
Feast of Saint Malchus of Syria.
Malchus was born near 4th century Antioch, Syria. He was the only child of a farming family. He worked as a shepherd, spending his time in the field in prayer. His family hoped he would marry, but Malchus felt a call to the religious life and slipped away from home and became a monk; he lived as a vegetarian, eating only dates, cheese and milk.
When Malchus’ father died, he left the monastery against his abbot’s orders to return home and help his family. On the road he and a group of pilgrims were kidnapped by Saracen raiders and sold into slavery. He was forced to marry another slave, but converted her to Christianity, and the two lived as brother and sister. They eventually escaped, returning to Malchus’ old monastery where they lived the religious life; Malchus was often called on to tell his story as a lesson about disobeying your abbot. Legend says that while they were on the road to the monastery, the escaped slaves were protected by a lion. Died on c.390.
Feast of Saint Malchus of Syria.
Malchus was born near 4th century Antioch, Syria. He was the only child of a farming family. He worked as a shepherd, spending his time in the field in prayer. His family hoped he would marry, but Malchus felt a call to the religious life and slipped away from home and became a monk; he lived as a vegetarian, eating only dates, cheese and milk.
When Malchus’ father died, he left the monastery against his abbot’s orders to return home and help his family. On the road he and a group of pilgrims were kidnapped by Saracen raiders and sold into slavery. He was forced to marry another slave, but converted her to Christianity, and the two lived as brother and sister. They eventually escaped, returning to Malchus’ old monastery where they lived the religious life; Malchus was often called on to tell his story as a lesson about disobeying your abbot. Legend says that while they were on the road to the monastery, the escaped slaves were protected by a lion. Died on c.390.
Close
October 21
Saint Malchus of Syria
October 22
Daily Saints – 22 October.
Feast of Saint John Paul II.
He is the patron saint of World Youth Day (co-Patron), World Meeting of Families 2015 (co-Patron), Young Catholics, Families.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born on 18 May 1920 at Wadowice, Poland. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. Although he was born into a loving family, his early life was marked by suffering and loss. His older sister, Olga, died in infancy.
His mother Emilia, whose health was poor, had completed her pregnancy amidst a thousand difficulties, even though doctors had advised her not to continue with it. Her constitution had been so severely compromised that the nine years after his birth were punctuated by continuous hospitalization and constantly ebbing strength until her death. His mother died in 1929 when he was nine years old.
His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died heroically serving those stricken with scarlet fever in 1932 when he was 12 years old. After these incidents, Wojtyla became closer to his father, whom he credits as the source of his religious faith.
“After her death and, later, the death of my older brother, I was left alone with my father, a deeply religious man. Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived …his example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.”
He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Young Karol attended Kraków’s Jagiellonian University in 1938 where he studied Polish language, literature, theater and poetry. He also performed in local theatrical productions, co-founding the Rhapsodic Theater of Kraków. It was during this time that he met his spiritual mentor, Jan Tyranowski, and was introduced to the Carmelite mysticism of St. John of the Cross. This meeting profoundly changed the course of his life, leading him to the priesthood. However, his studies were interrupted when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939.
In order to remain in the country, Karol was forced to work in a stone quarry as well as night shifts at the Solvay chemical plant. During this time, Karol suffered the loss of his father, who died of a heart attack on February 18, 1941. In 1944, he miraculously survived being hit by a German truck. Through all this, he recounts the maturing of his vocation and the formation of his priestly identity.
While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology. Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon Fr. Wojtyla earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland’s University of Lublin.
Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.
Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome’s main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel.
He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul’s ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy.
“Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II’s 1979 encyclical, ‘Redeemer of the Human Race’. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.” His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later.
John Paul II began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union, but the governments in those countries prevented that.
One of the most well-remembered photos of John Paul II’s pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people.
In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities. Pope John Paul II died in the Apostolic Palace at 9:37 p.m. on Saturday, 2 April 2005, the vigil of Sunday in albis or Divine Mercy Sunday, which he had instituted.
“Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978.
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”
“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
“Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men.”
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”
“A person’s rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use.”
“Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.”
“Friendship, as has been said, consists in a full commitment of the will to another person with a view to that person’s good.”
“The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.”
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”
“Only through the Eucharist is it possible to live the heroic virtues of Christianity: charity, to the point of forgiving one’s enemies; love for those who make us suffer; chastity in every age and situation of life; patience in suffering and when one is shocked by the silence of God in the tragedies of history or of one’s own personal existence. You must always be Eucharistic souls in order to be authentic Christians.”
“Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.”
“I plead with you–never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”
“Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.”
“Young people are threatened… by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.”
“When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.”
“Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.”
“Love consists of a commitment which limits one’s freedom – it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one’s freedom on behalf of another.”
“God is always on the side of the suffering. His omnipotence is manifested precisely in the fact that he freely accepted suffering. He could have chosen not to do so. He could have chosen to demonstrate his omnipotence even at the moment of the Crucifixion. In fact, it was proposed to him: “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15.32) But he did not accept that challenge. The fact that he stayed on the Cross until the end, the fact that on the Cross he could say, as do all who suffer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15.34) If the agony on the Cross had not happened, the truth that God is Love would have been unfounded. Yes! God is Love and precisely for this he gave his Son, to reveal himself completely as Love. Christ is the One who “loved…to the end.” (John 13.1) “To the end” means to the last breath.”
“To save means to liberate from evil. This does not refer only to social evils, such as injustice, coercion, exploitation. Nor does it refer only to disease, catasrophes, natural cataclysms, and everything that has been considered disaster in the history of humanity. To save means to liberate from radical, ultimate evil. Death itself is no longer that kind of evil, if followed by the Resurrection. And the Resurrection comes about through the work of Christ. Through the work of the Reddemer death ceases to be an ultimate evil; it becomes subject to the power of life. The world does no have such power. The world, which is capable of perfecting therapeutic techniques in various fields, does not have the power to liberate man from death. And therefore the world cannot be a source of salvation for man. Only God saves, and He saves the whole of humanity in Christ.”
“The essential usefulness of faith consists in the fact that, through faith, man achieves the good of his rational nature. And he achieves it by giving his response to God, as is his duty – a duty not only to God, but to himself. Christ did everything in order to convince us of the importance of this response. Man is called upon to give this response with inner freedom so that it will radiate that veritatis splendor (splendor of truth) so essential to human dignity. Christ wants to awaken faith in human hearts. He wants them to respond to the word of the Father, but he wants this in full respect for human dignity. In the very search for faith an implicit faith is already present, and therefore the necessary condition for salvation is already satisfied.”
“What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith…Joseph of Nazareth is a “just man” because he totally “lives by faith.” He is holy because his faith is truly heroic. Sacred Scripture says little of him. It does not record even one word spoken by Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. And yet, even without words, he shows the depth of his faith, his greatness. Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God. We see how the word of the Living God penetrates deeply into the sould of that man, that just man. And we, do we know how to listen to the word of God? Do we know how to absorb it into the depths of our human personalities? Do we open our conscience in the presend of this word?”
“Many people today are disoriented and lost in search of genuine fellowship. Often their lives are either too superficial or shattered by brokenness. Their work often is dehumanizing. They long for an experience of genuine encounter with others, for true fellowship. Well, is this not precisely the vocation of a parish? Are we not called to be a warm, brotherly family together? Are we not people united together in the household of God through our common life? Your parish is not mainly a structure, a geographical area or a building. The parish is first and foremost a community of the faithful. This is the task of a parish today: to be a community, to rediscover its identity as a community. You are not a Christian all by yourself. To be a Christian means to believe and to live one’s faith together with others. For we are all members of the body of Christ…. For fellowship to grow, the priest’s role is not enough, even though he plays an essential role. The commitment of all parishioners is needed. Each of their contributions is vital.”
Feast of Saint John Paul II.
He is the patron saint of World Youth Day (co-Patron), World Meeting of Families 2015 (co-Patron), Young Catholics, Families.
Karol Jozef Wojtyla was born on 18 May 1920 at Wadowice, Poland. He was the second of two sons born to Karol Wojtyla and Emilia Kaczorowska. Although he was born into a loving family, his early life was marked by suffering and loss. His older sister, Olga, died in infancy.
His mother Emilia, whose health was poor, had completed her pregnancy amidst a thousand difficulties, even though doctors had advised her not to continue with it. Her constitution had been so severely compromised that the nine years after his birth were punctuated by continuous hospitalization and constantly ebbing strength until her death. His mother died in 1929 when he was nine years old.
His eldest brother Edmund, a doctor, died heroically serving those stricken with scarlet fever in 1932 when he was 12 years old. After these incidents, Wojtyla became closer to his father, whom he credits as the source of his religious faith.
“After her death and, later, the death of my older brother, I was left alone with my father, a deeply religious man. Day after day I was able to observe the austere way in which he lived …his example was in a way my first seminary, a kind of domestic seminary.”
He made his First Holy Communion at age 9 and was confirmed at 18. Young Karol attended Kraków’s Jagiellonian University in 1938 where he studied Polish language, literature, theater and poetry. He also performed in local theatrical productions, co-founding the Rhapsodic Theater of Kraków. It was during this time that he met his spiritual mentor, Jan Tyranowski, and was introduced to the Carmelite mysticism of St. John of the Cross. This meeting profoundly changed the course of his life, leading him to the priesthood. However, his studies were interrupted when Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939.
In order to remain in the country, Karol was forced to work in a stone quarry as well as night shifts at the Solvay chemical plant. During this time, Karol suffered the loss of his father, who died of a heart attack on February 18, 1941. In 1944, he miraculously survived being hit by a German truck. Through all this, he recounts the maturing of his vocation and the formation of his priestly identity.
While working in a quarry and a chemical factory, he enrolled in an “underground” seminary in Kraków. Ordained in 1946, he was immediately sent to Rome where he earned a doctorate in theology. Back in Poland, a short assignment as assistant pastor in a rural parish preceded his very fruitful chaplaincy for university students. Soon Fr. Wojtyla earned a doctorate in philosophy and began teaching that subject at Poland’s University of Lublin.
Communist officials allowed Wojtyla to be appointed auxiliary bishop of Kraków in 1958, considering him a relatively harmless intellectual. They could not have been more wrong! Bishop Wojtyla attended all four sessions of Vatican II and contributed especially to its Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Appointed as archbishop of Kraków in 1964, he was named a cardinal three years later.
Elected pope in October 1978, he took the name of his short-lived, immediate predecessor. Pope John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. In time, he made pastoral visits to 124 countries, including several with small Christian populations. John Paul II promoted ecumenical and interfaith initiatives, especially the 1986 Day of Prayer for World Peace in Assisi. He visited Rome’s main synagogue and the Western Wall in Jerusalem; he also established diplomatic relations between the Holy See and Israel.
He improved Catholic-Muslim relations, and in 2001 visited a mosque in Damascus, Syria. The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, a key event in John Paul’s ministry, was marked by special celebrations in Rome and elsewhere for Catholics and other Christians. Relations with the Orthodox Churches improved considerably during his papacy.
“Christ is the center of the universe and of human history” was the opening line of John Paul II’s 1979 encyclical, ‘Redeemer of the Human Race’. In 1995, he described himself to the United Nations General Assembly as “a witness to hope.” His 1979 visit to Poland encouraged the growth of the Solidarity movement there and the collapse of communism in central and eastern Europe 10 years later.
John Paul II began World Youth Day and traveled to several countries for those celebrations. He very much wanted to visit China and the Soviet Union, but the governments in those countries prevented that.
One of the most well-remembered photos of John Paul II’s pontificate was his one-on-one conversation in 1983, with Mehmet Ali Agca, who had attempted to assassinate him two years earlier. In his 27 years of papal ministry, John Paul II wrote 14 encyclicals and five books, canonized 482 saints and beatified 1,338 people.
In the last years of his life, he suffered from Parkinson’s disease and was forced to cut back on some of his activities. Pope John Paul II died in the Apostolic Palace at 9:37 p.m. on Saturday, 2 April 2005, the vigil of Sunday in albis or Divine Mercy Sunday, which he had instituted.
“Open wide the doors to Christ,” urged John Paul II during the homily at the Mass where he was installed as pope in 1978.
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”
“Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.”
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
“Violence and arms can never resolve the problems of men.”
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”
“A person’s rightful due is to be treated as an object of love, not as an object for use.”
“Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.”
“Friendship, as has been said, consists in a full commitment of the will to another person with a view to that person’s good.”
“The great danger for family life, in the midst of any society whose idols are pleasure, comfort and independence, lies in the fact that people close their hearts and become selfish.”
“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.”
“The future starts today, not tomorrow.”
“Only through the Eucharist is it possible to live the heroic virtues of Christianity: charity, to the point of forgiving one’s enemies; love for those who make us suffer; chastity in every age and situation of life; patience in suffering and when one is shocked by the silence of God in the tragedies of history or of one’s own personal existence. You must always be Eucharistic souls in order to be authentic Christians.”
“Have no fear of moving into the unknown. Simply step out fearlessly knowing that I am with you, therefore no harm can befall you; all is very, very well. Do this in complete faith and confidence.”
“I plead with you–never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
“As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.”
“Science can purify religion from error and superstition. Religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”
“Social justice cannot be attained by violence. Violence kills what it intends to create.”
“Young people are threatened… by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire.”
“When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society.”
“Love between man and woman cannot be built without sacrifices and self-denial.”
“Love consists of a commitment which limits one’s freedom – it is a giving of the self, and to give oneself means just that: to limit one’s freedom on behalf of another.”
“God is always on the side of the suffering. His omnipotence is manifested precisely in the fact that he freely accepted suffering. He could have chosen not to do so. He could have chosen to demonstrate his omnipotence even at the moment of the Crucifixion. In fact, it was proposed to him: “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” (Mark 15.32) But he did not accept that challenge. The fact that he stayed on the Cross until the end, the fact that on the Cross he could say, as do all who suffer, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15.34) If the agony on the Cross had not happened, the truth that God is Love would have been unfounded. Yes! God is Love and precisely for this he gave his Son, to reveal himself completely as Love. Christ is the One who “loved…to the end.” (John 13.1) “To the end” means to the last breath.”
“To save means to liberate from evil. This does not refer only to social evils, such as injustice, coercion, exploitation. Nor does it refer only to disease, catasrophes, natural cataclysms, and everything that has been considered disaster in the history of humanity. To save means to liberate from radical, ultimate evil. Death itself is no longer that kind of evil, if followed by the Resurrection. And the Resurrection comes about through the work of Christ. Through the work of the Reddemer death ceases to be an ultimate evil; it becomes subject to the power of life. The world does no have such power. The world, which is capable of perfecting therapeutic techniques in various fields, does not have the power to liberate man from death. And therefore the world cannot be a source of salvation for man. Only God saves, and He saves the whole of humanity in Christ.”
“The essential usefulness of faith consists in the fact that, through faith, man achieves the good of his rational nature. And he achieves it by giving his response to God, as is his duty – a duty not only to God, but to himself. Christ did everything in order to convince us of the importance of this response. Man is called upon to give this response with inner freedom so that it will radiate that veritatis splendor (splendor of truth) so essential to human dignity. Christ wants to awaken faith in human hearts. He wants them to respond to the word of the Father, but he wants this in full respect for human dignity. In the very search for faith an implicit faith is already present, and therefore the necessary condition for salvation is already satisfied.”
“What emanates from the figure of Saint Joseph is faith…Joseph of Nazareth is a “just man” because he totally “lives by faith.” He is holy because his faith is truly heroic. Sacred Scripture says little of him. It does not record even one word spoken by Joseph, the carpenter of Nazareth. And yet, even without words, he shows the depth of his faith, his greatness. Saint Joseph is a man of great spirit. He is great in faith, not because he speaks his own words, but above all because he listens to the words of the Living God. He listens in silence. And his heart ceaselessly perseveres in the readiness to accept the Truth contained in the word of the Living God. We see how the word of the Living God penetrates deeply into the sould of that man, that just man. And we, do we know how to listen to the word of God? Do we know how to absorb it into the depths of our human personalities? Do we open our conscience in the presend of this word?”
“Many people today are disoriented and lost in search of genuine fellowship. Often their lives are either too superficial or shattered by brokenness. Their work often is dehumanizing. They long for an experience of genuine encounter with others, for true fellowship. Well, is this not precisely the vocation of a parish? Are we not called to be a warm, brotherly family together? Are we not people united together in the household of God through our common life? Your parish is not mainly a structure, a geographical area or a building. The parish is first and foremost a community of the faithful. This is the task of a parish today: to be a community, to rediscover its identity as a community. You are not a Christian all by yourself. To be a Christian means to believe and to live one’s faith together with others. For we are all members of the body of Christ…. For fellowship to grow, the priest’s role is not enough, even though he plays an essential role. The commitment of all parishioners is needed. Each of their contributions is vital.”
Close
October 22
Saint John Paul II
October 23
Daily Saints – 23 October.
Feast of Saint John of Capistrano.
He is patron saint of military chaplains, lawyers, judges, and jurists.
John was born in 1386 at Capistrano in the Italian Province of the Abruzzi. His father was a German knight and died when he was still young. St. John became a lawyer and attained the position of governor of Perugia. When war broke out between Perugia and Malatesta in 1416, St. John tried to broker a peace. Unfortunately, his opponents ignored the truce. He was betrayed and John became a prisoner of war.
He began to question his life’s direction. He decided to change his way of life completely. Encountering Saint Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans. After the death of his wife, abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416.
He and St. James of the March were fellow students under St. Bernardine of Siena, who inspired him to institute the devotion to the holy Name of Jesus and His Mother. John began his brilliant preaching apostolate with a deacon in 1420.
After his ordination he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia preaching penance and establishing numerous communities of Franciscan renewal. He reportedly healed the sick by making the Sign of the Cross over them. He also wrote extensively, mainly against the heresies of the day.
The Franciscan Order itself was in turmoil over the interpretation and observance of the Rule of St. Francis. Through John’s tireless efforts and his expertise in law, the heretical Fraticelli were suppressed and the “Spirituals” were freed from interference in their stricter observance.
John of Capistrano helped bring about a brief reunion with the Greek and Armenian Churches. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, St. John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus III to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456.
Worn out by his efforts, Capistrano was an easy prey to an infection after the battle. Three months later, on 23 October 1456, he died at Illok, Hungary, but his army delivered Europe from the Muslims.
“The Lord who made the beginning, will take care of the finish”.
“Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others. They must learn from their eminent teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed them, when he said: You are the salt of the earth. But what if salt goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (St. John of Capistrano; from the treatise “Mirror of the Clergy”)
Feast of Saint John of Capistrano.
He is patron saint of military chaplains, lawyers, judges, and jurists.
John was born in 1386 at Capistrano in the Italian Province of the Abruzzi. His father was a German knight and died when he was still young. St. John became a lawyer and attained the position of governor of Perugia. When war broke out between Perugia and Malatesta in 1416, St. John tried to broker a peace. Unfortunately, his opponents ignored the truce. He was betrayed and John became a prisoner of war.
He began to question his life’s direction. He decided to change his way of life completely. Encountering Saint Francis of Assisi in a dream, he resolved to embrace poverty, chastity, and obedience with the Franciscans. After the death of his wife, abandoning his possessions and social status, John joined the religious order in October 1416.
He and St. James of the March were fellow students under St. Bernardine of Siena, who inspired him to institute the devotion to the holy Name of Jesus and His Mother. John began his brilliant preaching apostolate with a deacon in 1420.
After his ordination he traveled throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and Russia preaching penance and establishing numerous communities of Franciscan renewal. He reportedly healed the sick by making the Sign of the Cross over them. He also wrote extensively, mainly against the heresies of the day.
The Franciscan Order itself was in turmoil over the interpretation and observance of the Rule of St. Francis. Through John’s tireless efforts and his expertise in law, the heretical Fraticelli were suppressed and the “Spirituals” were freed from interference in their stricter observance.
John of Capistrano helped bring about a brief reunion with the Greek and Armenian Churches. When Mohammed II was threatening Vienna and Rome, St. John, at the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus III to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456.
Worn out by his efforts, Capistrano was an easy prey to an infection after the battle. Three months later, on 23 October 1456, he died at Illok, Hungary, but his army delivered Europe from the Muslims.
“The Lord who made the beginning, will take care of the finish”.
“Those who are called to the table of the Lord must glow with the brightness that comes from the good example of a praiseworthy and blameless life. They must completely remove from their lives the filth and uncleanness of vice. Their upright lives must make them like the salt of the earth for themselves and for the rest of mankind. The brightness of their wisdom must make them like the light of the world that brings light to others. They must learn from their eminent teacher, Jesus Christ, what he declared not only to his apostles and disciples, but also to all the priests and clerics who were to succeed them, when he said: You are the salt of the earth. But what if salt goes flat? How can you restore its flavor? Then it is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” (St. John of Capistrano; from the treatise “Mirror of the Clergy”)
Close
October 23
Saint John of Capistrano
October 24
Daily Saints – 24 October.
Feast of Saint Anthony Mary Claret.
He is the patron saint of Textile merchants, weavers, savings (taught the poor the importance of savings), Catholic press.
Anthony Mary Claret was born in Catalonia, the northeastern corner of Spain, in a town called Sallent on 23 December 1807. He was the fifth son of Juan Claret and Josefa Clará’s eleven children. His father owned a small textile factory but was not rich.
Anthony grew up in a Christian environment and at a very early age had a strong sense of the eternal life that Christ wanted all men and women to enjoy. He wanted to spare sinners eternal unhappiness and felt moved to work for their salvation. When he was about eleven years old, a bishop visited his school and asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation, he responded: “A priest.”
As soon as Anthony was old enough, he began working as an apprentice weaver. When he turned 17, his father sent him to Barcelona to study the latest techniques in textile manufacturing and to work in the large textile mills. He did so well in the textile design school that he began receiving offers from large textile companies. Even though he had the talent to succeed, he turned down the offers and returned home after experiencing the emptiness of worldly achievements.
The words of the Gospel kept resounding in his heart: “what good is it for man to win the world if he loses his soul?” He began to study Latin to prepare to enter the Seminary. He wanted to be a Carthusian Monk. His father was ready to accept the will of God but preferred to see him become a diocesan priest.
Anthony decided to enter the local diocesan seminary in the city of Vic. He was 21 years old. After a year of studies, he decided to pursue his monastic vocation and left for a nearby monastery. On the way there, he was caught in a big storm. He realized that his health was not the best and withdrew from his decision to go to the monastery.
He was ordained a priest at 27 years of age and was assigned to his hometown parish. The town soon became too small for his missionary zeal and the political situation —hostile to the Church— limited his apostolic activity. He decided to go to Rome to offer himself to serve in foreign missions. Things did not work out as expected and he decided to join the Jesuits to pursue his missionary dream.
While in the Jesuit Novitiate, he developed a strange illness, which led his superiors to think that God might have other plans for him. Once again, he had to return home to keep searching for God’s will in his life.
Back in a parish of Catalonia, Claret began preaching popular missions all over. He traveled on foot, attracting large crowds with his sermons. Some days he preached up to seven sermons in a day and spent 10 hours listening to confessions. He dedicated to Mary all his apostolic efforts. He felt forged as an apostle and sent to preach by Mary.
Anthony spent 10 years giving popular missions and retreats, always placing great emphasis on the Eucharist and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was said that his rosary was never out of his hand.
His popularity spread- people sought him for spiritual and physical help. By the end of 1842, the Pope gave him the title of “apostolic missionary.” Aware of the power of the press, in 1847, he organized with other priests a Religious Press. Claret began writing books and pamphlets, making the message of God accessible to all social groups.
The increasing political restlessness in Spain continued to endanger his life and curtail his apostolic activities. So, he accepted an offer to preach in the Canary Islands, where he spent 14 months. In spite of his great success there too, he decided to return to Spain to carry out one of his dreams: the organization of an order of missionaries to share in his work.
On July 16, 1849, he gathered a group of priests who shared his dream. This is the beginning of the ‘Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary’, today also known as ‘Claretian Fathers and Brothers’. Days later, he received a new assignment: he was named Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. He was forced to leave the newly founded community to respond to the call of God in the New World.
After two months of travel, he reached the Island of Cuba and began his episcopal ministry by dedicating it to Mary. He visited the church where the image of Our Lady of Charity, patroness of Cuba was venerated. Soon he realized the urgent need for human and Christian formation, especially among the poor.
He called Antonia Paris to begin there the religious community they had agreed to found back in Spain. He was concerned for all aspects of human development and applied his great creativity to improve the conditions of the people under his pastoral care.
Among his great initiatives were: trade or vocational schools for disadvantaged children and credit unions for the use of the poor. He wrote books about rural spirituality and agricultural methods, which he himself tested first. He visited jails and hospitals, defended the oppressed and denounced racism. The expected reaction came soon. He began to experience persecution and finally when preaching in the city of Holguín, a man stabbed him on the cheek in an attempt to kill him. For Claret this was a great cause of joy. Anthony succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to a prison term.
During his 6 years in Cuba he visited the extensive Archdiocese three times…town by town. In the first years, records show, he confirmed 100,000 people and performed 9,000 sacramental marriages.
Claret was called back to Spain in 1857 to serve as confessor to the Queen of Spain, Isabella II. He had a natural dislike for aristocratic life. He loved poverty and the simplest lifestyle. He accepted in obedience but requested to be allowed to continue some missionary work. Whenever he had to travel with the Queen, he used the opportunity to preach in different towns throughout Spain.
In a time where the Queens and Kings chose the bishops for vacant dioceses, Claret played an important role in the selection of holy and dedicated bishops for Spain and its colonies.
The eleven years he spent as confessor to the Queen of Spain were particularly painful, because the enemies of the Church directed toward him all kinds of slanders and personal ridicule. In 1868 a new revolution dethroned the Queen and sent her with her family into exile. Claret’s life was also in danger, so he accompanied her to France. This gave him the opportunity to preach the Gospel in Paris. He stayed with them for a while, then went to Rome where he was received by Pope Pius IX in a private audience.
On December 8, 1869, seven hundred bishops from all over the world gathered in Rome for the First Vatican Council. Claret was one of the Council Fathers. His presence became noticeable when the subject of papal infallibility was discussed, which Claret defended vehemently. This teaching became a dogma of faith for all Catholics at this Council.
The Italian revolution interrupted the process of the Council, which was never concluded. Claret’s health deteriorated, so he returned to France accompanied by the Superior General of the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, his congregation.
In France, Claret joined his missionaries who were also in exile. Soon he found out, that there was a warrant for his arrest. He decided to go into hiding in a Cistercian Monastery in the French southern town of Fontfroide. There he died on 24 October 1870 at the age of 62. As his last request, he dictated to his missionaries the words that are to appear on his tombstone: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.”
“Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders.”
“Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically.”
“An apostolic missionary must have both heart and tongue ablaze with charity.”
“The rosary should be said daily…We should meditate on the mysteries, applying them to the circumstances of our own lives.”
“Woe to me if I do not preach and warn them, for I would be held responsible for their condemnation.”
“The Christian who desires to follow Jesus carrying his cross must bear in mind that the name “Christian” means “learner or imitator of Christ” and that if he wishes to bear that noble title worthily he must above all do as Christ charges us in the Gospel: We must oppose or deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow him.”
“Although the sinner does not believe in Hell, he shall nevertheless go there if he has the misfortune to die in mortal sin.”
“I keep in mind the teaching laid down by St. John of the Cross which states: “If anyone affirms that one can reach perfection without practicing exterior mortification, do not believe him; and even though he confirm this assertion by working miracles, know that his contentions are nothing but illusions.”
“As for me, I look to St. Paul for my example, for he mortified himself, and said publicly: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself may become a castaway.” All the saints until now have done in like manner. Venerable Rodriquez says that the Blessed Virgin said to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, that no spiritual grace comes to the soul, commonly speaking, except by way of prayer and bodily afflictions. There is an old principle which goes: “Woe to those who are enemies of mortification and of the cross of Christ!”
“The faith I have when I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is so strong that I find it impossible to express what I feel… When the time comes to leave I must force myself to overcome the inclination to prolong my stay with Jesus.”
“Books are the food of the soul. Good and wholesome food given to a hungry body will nourish it, but if the food is poisonous, it will be injurious to the system. The same happens with reading. If people read good and instructive books at regular and proper times, it will strengthen and nourish them greatly.”
“I live, but my life is that of Christ’s. And in possessing me, my poor Lord possesses nothing. And I, in possessing Him, possess everything.”
Feast of Saint Anthony Mary Claret.
He is the patron saint of Textile merchants, weavers, savings (taught the poor the importance of savings), Catholic press.
Anthony Mary Claret was born in Catalonia, the northeastern corner of Spain, in a town called Sallent on 23 December 1807. He was the fifth son of Juan Claret and Josefa Clará’s eleven children. His father owned a small textile factory but was not rich.
Anthony grew up in a Christian environment and at a very early age had a strong sense of the eternal life that Christ wanted all men and women to enjoy. He wanted to spare sinners eternal unhappiness and felt moved to work for their salvation. When he was about eleven years old, a bishop visited his school and asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. Without hesitation, he responded: “A priest.”
As soon as Anthony was old enough, he began working as an apprentice weaver. When he turned 17, his father sent him to Barcelona to study the latest techniques in textile manufacturing and to work in the large textile mills. He did so well in the textile design school that he began receiving offers from large textile companies. Even though he had the talent to succeed, he turned down the offers and returned home after experiencing the emptiness of worldly achievements.
The words of the Gospel kept resounding in his heart: “what good is it for man to win the world if he loses his soul?” He began to study Latin to prepare to enter the Seminary. He wanted to be a Carthusian Monk. His father was ready to accept the will of God but preferred to see him become a diocesan priest.
Anthony decided to enter the local diocesan seminary in the city of Vic. He was 21 years old. After a year of studies, he decided to pursue his monastic vocation and left for a nearby monastery. On the way there, he was caught in a big storm. He realized that his health was not the best and withdrew from his decision to go to the monastery.
He was ordained a priest at 27 years of age and was assigned to his hometown parish. The town soon became too small for his missionary zeal and the political situation —hostile to the Church— limited his apostolic activity. He decided to go to Rome to offer himself to serve in foreign missions. Things did not work out as expected and he decided to join the Jesuits to pursue his missionary dream.
While in the Jesuit Novitiate, he developed a strange illness, which led his superiors to think that God might have other plans for him. Once again, he had to return home to keep searching for God’s will in his life.
Back in a parish of Catalonia, Claret began preaching popular missions all over. He traveled on foot, attracting large crowds with his sermons. Some days he preached up to seven sermons in a day and spent 10 hours listening to confessions. He dedicated to Mary all his apostolic efforts. He felt forged as an apostle and sent to preach by Mary.
Anthony spent 10 years giving popular missions and retreats, always placing great emphasis on the Eucharist and devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. It was said that his rosary was never out of his hand.
His popularity spread- people sought him for spiritual and physical help. By the end of 1842, the Pope gave him the title of “apostolic missionary.” Aware of the power of the press, in 1847, he organized with other priests a Religious Press. Claret began writing books and pamphlets, making the message of God accessible to all social groups.
The increasing political restlessness in Spain continued to endanger his life and curtail his apostolic activities. So, he accepted an offer to preach in the Canary Islands, where he spent 14 months. In spite of his great success there too, he decided to return to Spain to carry out one of his dreams: the organization of an order of missionaries to share in his work.
On July 16, 1849, he gathered a group of priests who shared his dream. This is the beginning of the ‘Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary’, today also known as ‘Claretian Fathers and Brothers’. Days later, he received a new assignment: he was named Archbishop of Santiago de Cuba. He was forced to leave the newly founded community to respond to the call of God in the New World.
After two months of travel, he reached the Island of Cuba and began his episcopal ministry by dedicating it to Mary. He visited the church where the image of Our Lady of Charity, patroness of Cuba was venerated. Soon he realized the urgent need for human and Christian formation, especially among the poor.
He called Antonia Paris to begin there the religious community they had agreed to found back in Spain. He was concerned for all aspects of human development and applied his great creativity to improve the conditions of the people under his pastoral care.
Among his great initiatives were: trade or vocational schools for disadvantaged children and credit unions for the use of the poor. He wrote books about rural spirituality and agricultural methods, which he himself tested first. He visited jails and hospitals, defended the oppressed and denounced racism. The expected reaction came soon. He began to experience persecution and finally when preaching in the city of Holguín, a man stabbed him on the cheek in an attempt to kill him. For Claret this was a great cause of joy. Anthony succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to a prison term.
During his 6 years in Cuba he visited the extensive Archdiocese three times…town by town. In the first years, records show, he confirmed 100,000 people and performed 9,000 sacramental marriages.
Claret was called back to Spain in 1857 to serve as confessor to the Queen of Spain, Isabella II. He had a natural dislike for aristocratic life. He loved poverty and the simplest lifestyle. He accepted in obedience but requested to be allowed to continue some missionary work. Whenever he had to travel with the Queen, he used the opportunity to preach in different towns throughout Spain.
In a time where the Queens and Kings chose the bishops for vacant dioceses, Claret played an important role in the selection of holy and dedicated bishops for Spain and its colonies.
The eleven years he spent as confessor to the Queen of Spain were particularly painful, because the enemies of the Church directed toward him all kinds of slanders and personal ridicule. In 1868 a new revolution dethroned the Queen and sent her with her family into exile. Claret’s life was also in danger, so he accompanied her to France. This gave him the opportunity to preach the Gospel in Paris. He stayed with them for a while, then went to Rome where he was received by Pope Pius IX in a private audience.
On December 8, 1869, seven hundred bishops from all over the world gathered in Rome for the First Vatican Council. Claret was one of the Council Fathers. His presence became noticeable when the subject of papal infallibility was discussed, which Claret defended vehemently. This teaching became a dogma of faith for all Catholics at this Council.
The Italian revolution interrupted the process of the Council, which was never concluded. Claret’s health deteriorated, so he returned to France accompanied by the Superior General of the Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, his congregation.
In France, Claret joined his missionaries who were also in exile. Soon he found out, that there was a warrant for his arrest. He decided to go into hiding in a Cistercian Monastery in the French southern town of Fontfroide. There he died on 24 October 1870 at the age of 62. As his last request, he dictated to his missionaries the words that are to appear on his tombstone: “I have loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore I die in exile.”
“Love is the most necessary of all virtues. Love in the person who preaches the word of God is like fire in a musket. If a person were to throw a bullet with his hands, he would hardly make a dent in anything; but if the person takes the same bullet and ignites some gunpowder behind it, it can kill. It is much the same with the word of God. If it is spoken by someone who is filled with the fire of charity- the fire of love of God and neighbor- it will work wonders.”
“Christian perfection consists in three things: praying heroically, working heroically, and suffering heroically.”
“An apostolic missionary must have both heart and tongue ablaze with charity.”
“The rosary should be said daily…We should meditate on the mysteries, applying them to the circumstances of our own lives.”
“Woe to me if I do not preach and warn them, for I would be held responsible for their condemnation.”
“The Christian who desires to follow Jesus carrying his cross must bear in mind that the name “Christian” means “learner or imitator of Christ” and that if he wishes to bear that noble title worthily he must above all do as Christ charges us in the Gospel: We must oppose or deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow him.”
“Although the sinner does not believe in Hell, he shall nevertheless go there if he has the misfortune to die in mortal sin.”
“I keep in mind the teaching laid down by St. John of the Cross which states: “If anyone affirms that one can reach perfection without practicing exterior mortification, do not believe him; and even though he confirm this assertion by working miracles, know that his contentions are nothing but illusions.”
“As for me, I look to St. Paul for my example, for he mortified himself, and said publicly: “I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps when I have preached to others I myself may become a castaway.” All the saints until now have done in like manner. Venerable Rodriquez says that the Blessed Virgin said to St. Elizabeth of Hungary, that no spiritual grace comes to the soul, commonly speaking, except by way of prayer and bodily afflictions. There is an old principle which goes: “Woe to those who are enemies of mortification and of the cross of Christ!”
“The faith I have when I am in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament is so strong that I find it impossible to express what I feel… When the time comes to leave I must force myself to overcome the inclination to prolong my stay with Jesus.”
“Books are the food of the soul. Good and wholesome food given to a hungry body will nourish it, but if the food is poisonous, it will be injurious to the system. The same happens with reading. If people read good and instructive books at regular and proper times, it will strengthen and nourish them greatly.”
“I live, but my life is that of Christ’s. And in possessing me, my poor Lord possesses nothing. And I, in possessing Him, possess everything.”
Close
October 24
Saint Anthony Mary Claret
October 25
Daily Saints – 25 October.
Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian.
Patron saints of cobblers; curriers; glove makers; lace makers; lace workers; leather workers; saddle makers; saddlers; shoemakers; tanners; weavers.
Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were brothers born to a noble Roman family. They fled persecution for their faith and ended up at Soissons. Together, they evangelized Gaul in the middle of the third century. Working from Soissons, they preached the streets by day and made shoes by night. They earned enough by their trade to support themselves and also to aid the poor. Their charity, piety, and contempt of material things impressed the locals and many were converted to Christianity.
The brothers refused to yield to the persecutors of the Faith who wanted Crispin and Crispinian to apostatize. Rictus Varus, governor of Belgic Gaul, tortured and thrown them into the river with millstones around their necks. Though they survived, they were beheaded by the Emperor c. 285-286.
Feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian.
Patron saints of cobblers; curriers; glove makers; lace makers; lace workers; leather workers; saddle makers; saddlers; shoemakers; tanners; weavers.
Sts. Crispin and Crispinian were brothers born to a noble Roman family. They fled persecution for their faith and ended up at Soissons. Together, they evangelized Gaul in the middle of the third century. Working from Soissons, they preached the streets by day and made shoes by night. They earned enough by their trade to support themselves and also to aid the poor. Their charity, piety, and contempt of material things impressed the locals and many were converted to Christianity.
The brothers refused to yield to the persecutors of the Faith who wanted Crispin and Crispinian to apostatize. Rictus Varus, governor of Belgic Gaul, tortured and thrown them into the river with millstones around their necks. Though they survived, they were beheaded by the Emperor c. 285-286.
Close
October 25
Saints Crispin and Crispinian
October 26
Saint of the Day – 26 October
St Pope Evaristus (c 44 – c 108) – Martyr, Bishop of Rome – Pope Evaristus accounted as the fifth Bishop of Rome, holding office from c 99 to his death c 108. He was also known as Aristus.
He succeeded Saint Anacletus on the throne of Saint Peter, elected during the second general persecution, under the reign of Domitian. That emperor no doubt did not know that the Christian pontificate was being perpetuated in the shadows of the catacombs. The text of the Liber Pontificalis, says of the new pope:
St Pope Evaristus (c 44 – c 108) – Martyr, Bishop of Rome – Pope Evaristus accounted as the fifth Bishop of Rome, holding office from c 99 to his death c 108. He was also known as Aristus.
He succeeded Saint Anacletus on the throne of Saint Peter, elected during the second general persecution, under the reign of Domitian. That emperor no doubt did not know that the Christian pontificate was being perpetuated in the shadows of the catacombs. The text of the Liber Pontificalis, says of the new pope:
“Evaristus, born in Greece of a Jewish father named Juda, originally from the city of Bethlehem, reigned for thirteen years, six months and two days, under the reigns of Domitian, Nerva and Trajan, from the Consulate of Valens and Veter (96) until that of Gallus and Bradua (108). This pontiff divided among the priests the titles of the city of Rome. By a constitution he established seven deacons who were to assist the bishop and serve as authentic witnesses for him. During the three ordinations which he conducted in the month of December, he promoted six priests, two deacons and five bishops, destined for various churches. Evaristus received the crown of martyrdom. He was buried near the body of Blessed Peter in the Vatican, on the sixth day of the Calends of November (25 October 108). The episcopal throne remained vacant for nineteen days.”
It was at the same time as Saint Ignatius, the illustrious bishop of Antioch, that Pope Saint Evaristus gave his life by martyrdom. The acts of his martyrdom are lost but we perceive that the same faith, heroism and devotion united the churches of the East and of the West. He is often represented with a sword because he was decapitated, or with a crib, because it is believed that he was born in Bethlehem, from which his father migrated.
Close
October 26
Saint Pope Evaristus
October 27
Daily Saints – 27 October.
St. Frumentius of Ethiopia.
Frumentius was born in Tyre, Lebanon. He and his brother Aedesius, while still mere boys, accompanied their uncle Metropius on a voyage to Abyssinia. When their ship stopped at one of the harbor of the Red Sea, people of the neighborhood massacred the whole crew, with the exception of Edesius and Frumentius, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favor of the king, who raised them to positions of trust. Aedesius became royal cup bearer, and Fruementius became a secretary. Shortly before his death, the King, gave them liberty.
The widowed queen, however, prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist her in the education of the young prince Erazanes and in the administration of the kingdom during the prince’s minority. They remained and (especially Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christianity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants, who were temporarily in the country, to practice their faith openly by meeting at places of public worship; later they also converted some of the natives.
When the prince came of age, Edesius returned to his friends and relatives at Tyre and was ordained priest, but did not return to Abyssinia. Frumentius, on the other hand, who was eager for the conversion of Abyssinia, accompanied Edesius as far as Alexandria, where he requested St. Athanasius to send a bishop and some priests to Abyssinia. St. Athanasius considered Frumentius himself the most suitable person for bishop and consecrated him.
Frumentius returned to Abyssinia, erected his episcopal see at Axum, baptized King Aeizanas, who had meanwhile succeeded to the throne, built many churches, and spread the Christian Faith throughout Abyssinia. The people called him Abuna (Our Father) or Abba Salama (Father of Peace), titles still given to the head of the Abyssinian Church. Abyssinian tradition credits him with the first Ethiopian translation of the New Testament.
He converted many people to Christianity before his death in 380. He is the patron of Ethiopia. His brother, Aedesius, was also canonized.
St. Frumentius of Ethiopia.
Frumentius was born in Tyre, Lebanon. He and his brother Aedesius, while still mere boys, accompanied their uncle Metropius on a voyage to Abyssinia. When their ship stopped at one of the harbor of the Red Sea, people of the neighborhood massacred the whole crew, with the exception of Edesius and Frumentius, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The two boys soon gained the favor of the king, who raised them to positions of trust. Aedesius became royal cup bearer, and Fruementius became a secretary. Shortly before his death, the King, gave them liberty.
The widowed queen, however, prevailed upon them to remain at the court and assist her in the education of the young prince Erazanes and in the administration of the kingdom during the prince’s minority. They remained and (especially Frumentius) used their influence to spread Christianity. First they encouraged the Christian merchants, who were temporarily in the country, to practice their faith openly by meeting at places of public worship; later they also converted some of the natives.
When the prince came of age, Edesius returned to his friends and relatives at Tyre and was ordained priest, but did not return to Abyssinia. Frumentius, on the other hand, who was eager for the conversion of Abyssinia, accompanied Edesius as far as Alexandria, where he requested St. Athanasius to send a bishop and some priests to Abyssinia. St. Athanasius considered Frumentius himself the most suitable person for bishop and consecrated him.
Frumentius returned to Abyssinia, erected his episcopal see at Axum, baptized King Aeizanas, who had meanwhile succeeded to the throne, built many churches, and spread the Christian Faith throughout Abyssinia. The people called him Abuna (Our Father) or Abba Salama (Father of Peace), titles still given to the head of the Abyssinian Church. Abyssinian tradition credits him with the first Ethiopian translation of the New Testament.
He converted many people to Christianity before his death in 380. He is the patron of Ethiopia. His brother, Aedesius, was also canonized.
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October 27
Saint Frumentius of Ethiopia
October 28
Daily Saints – 28 October.
Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, disciples of Jesus Christ.
St. Jude is the patron saint of desperate situations, forgotten, lost or impossible causes, hospital workers, hospitals.
Jude was the son of Cleophas, who died a martyr, and Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross, and who annointed Christ’s body after death. He was the brother of Saint James the Lesser. He was also nephew of Mary and Joseph; blood relative of Jesus Christ, and reported to look a lot like him. He may have been a fisherman. St. Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection. One of the canonical Epistle named for him. He preached in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia with Saint Simon. He was known as healer and exorcist. He could exorcise pagan idols, which caused the demons to flee and the statues to crumble. Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except of course where all the apostles are mentioned. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to “Jude” in English. He was beaten to death with a club, then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia.
St. Simon is the patron saint of curriers, sawmen, sawyers, tanners, woodcutters.
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called “the Zealot.” He was called the Cananean or Zealot because of his zeal for the Jewish law. Like all the Apostles, he was a convert, and was trained by Saint Peter the Apostle. He evangelized in Egypt and Mesopotamia, though there are traditions of him being in several other locations. He was a martyr for the faith, but several places claim to have been the site of that, too. Abyssinians claim he was crucified in Samaria. Lipsius says he was sawn in half at Suanir, Persia. Moses of Chorene writes that he was martyred at Weriosphora in Iberia.
Feast of Saints Simon and Jude, disciples of Jesus Christ.
St. Jude is the patron saint of desperate situations, forgotten, lost or impossible causes, hospital workers, hospitals.
Jude was the son of Cleophas, who died a martyr, and Mary who stood at the foot of the Cross, and who annointed Christ’s body after death. He was the brother of Saint James the Lesser. He was also nephew of Mary and Joseph; blood relative of Jesus Christ, and reported to look a lot like him. He may have been a fisherman. St. Jude was the one who asked Jesus at the Last Supper why He would not manifest Himself to the whole world after His resurrection. One of the canonical Epistle named for him. He preached in Syria, Mesopotamia, and Persia with Saint Simon. He was known as healer and exorcist. He could exorcise pagan idols, which caused the demons to flee and the statues to crumble. Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except of course where all the apostles are mentioned. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to “Jude” in English. He was beaten to death with a club, then beheaded post-mortem in 1st century Persia.
St. Simon is the patron saint of curriers, sawmen, sawyers, tanners, woodcutters.
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called “the Zealot.” He was called the Cananean or Zealot because of his zeal for the Jewish law. Like all the Apostles, he was a convert, and was trained by Saint Peter the Apostle. He evangelized in Egypt and Mesopotamia, though there are traditions of him being in several other locations. He was a martyr for the faith, but several places claim to have been the site of that, too. Abyssinians claim he was crucified in Samaria. Lipsius says he was sawn in half at Suanir, Persia. Moses of Chorene writes that he was martyred at Weriosphora in Iberia.
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October 28
Saints Simon and Jude
October 29
Daily Saints – 29 October.
Feast of St. Abraham Kidunaia and St. Mary of Edessa (she is the patron of fighting sexual temptation).
He was born on c.296 at Edessa, Osrhoene, Mesopotamia (in modern Syria). He was born to a wealthy family near Edessa, Syria. He was forced into an arranged marriage at an early age. During the wedding festivities, Abraham fled. He walled himself up in a nearby building, leaving a small hole through which his family could send in food and water, and by which he could explain his desire for a religious life. His family relented, the marriage was called off, and he spent the next ten years in his cell.
After a decade of this life, the bishop of Edessa ordered Abraham from his cell. Against Abraham’s wishes, the bishop ordained him, and sent him as a missionary priest to the intransigently pagan village of Beth-Kiduna. He built a church, smashed idols, suffered abuse and violence, set a good example, and succeeded in converting the entire village.
After a year, he prayed that God would send the village a better pastor than he, and he returned to his cell. It is from his success in Kiduna that he became known as Kidunaia.
He left the cell only twice more. Once a niece, Saint Mary of Edessa, was living a wild and misspent life. Abraham disguised himself as a soldier, which he knew would get her attention, and went to her home. Over supper he convinced her of the error of her ways; she converted and changed her life, and Abraham returned to his cell.
His final trip out was his funeral, attended by a large, loving throng of mourners. His biography was written by his friend Saint Ephrem of Syria. Died on c.366 at Edessa, Osrhoene, Mesopotamia (in modern Syria) of natural causes.
St. Mary of Edessa was born to a noble family in 4th-century Syria. Her parents died when she was only 7, but she was adopted by her uncle, St. Abraham Kidunaia, and began to live a remarkably holy life.
For 20 years, Mary lived as an anchoress, following the advice of her hermit-uncle as she sought a deep life of prayer and sacrifice. But one day a monk who was unworthy of the name caught sight of Mary when he was visiting Fr. Abraham. Determined to seduce her, he spent a year befriending her, becoming more and more intimate until the young innocent gave herself to him, heart and body.
Horrified at her sin, Mary tore her tunic and wished for death. Mary’s despair convinced her that having fallen once, she could never again be holy. Mary fled her sacred home in the desert for a brothel, there to live as the sinner she was convinced she was destined to be.
Meanwhile, Fr. Abraham was oblivious to all that had happened. But that night he had a vision of a dragon consuming a dove; two days later, he saw the same dragon with its belly torn open. He reached in to pull out the dove, miraculously unharmed. When he called out to his niece to tell her about it but received no answer, Abraham realized that she was the subject of the vision. The devil had carried off the daughter of his soul and all he could do in her absence was to pray for her.
Pray he did, for two years. Finally, a report reached him that his sweet, pure Mary was living the harlot’s life. Had she known that he would learn of her lifestyle, Mary likely would have expected him to be disgusted and dismissive. But Fr. Abraham was a Christian, a priest, and a spiritual father; like the Good Shepherd, he was off without a moment’s hesitation, eager to bring his lost lamb home.
Abraham hadn’t left his hermitage in decades, but he disguised himself as a soldier and began his journey. He made an appointment with Mary the prostitute, who didn’t recognize him until he began to weep, begging her to come home. Moved by his powerful love, Mary returned to her hermitage and began a life of penance. Within three years, God testified to her true conversion (and his abundant mercy) by giving her the gift of miracles. More than just being returned to her original state of holiness, Mary was brought through wickedness to greater prayer, greater virtue, and greater power in Christ.
While he spoke to Mary in her brothel, St. Abraham reminded her, “There is nothing new in falling down in the contest; the wicked thing is to keep on lying there.” St. Mary of Edessa is a powerful witness to what God is capable of when we offer him our sin—and what we’re capable of when we don’t.
Feast of St. Abraham Kidunaia and St. Mary of Edessa (she is the patron of fighting sexual temptation).
He was born on c.296 at Edessa, Osrhoene, Mesopotamia (in modern Syria). He was born to a wealthy family near Edessa, Syria. He was forced into an arranged marriage at an early age. During the wedding festivities, Abraham fled. He walled himself up in a nearby building, leaving a small hole through which his family could send in food and water, and by which he could explain his desire for a religious life. His family relented, the marriage was called off, and he spent the next ten years in his cell.
After a decade of this life, the bishop of Edessa ordered Abraham from his cell. Against Abraham’s wishes, the bishop ordained him, and sent him as a missionary priest to the intransigently pagan village of Beth-Kiduna. He built a church, smashed idols, suffered abuse and violence, set a good example, and succeeded in converting the entire village.
After a year, he prayed that God would send the village a better pastor than he, and he returned to his cell. It is from his success in Kiduna that he became known as Kidunaia.
He left the cell only twice more. Once a niece, Saint Mary of Edessa, was living a wild and misspent life. Abraham disguised himself as a soldier, which he knew would get her attention, and went to her home. Over supper he convinced her of the error of her ways; she converted and changed her life, and Abraham returned to his cell.
His final trip out was his funeral, attended by a large, loving throng of mourners. His biography was written by his friend Saint Ephrem of Syria. Died on c.366 at Edessa, Osrhoene, Mesopotamia (in modern Syria) of natural causes.
St. Mary of Edessa was born to a noble family in 4th-century Syria. Her parents died when she was only 7, but she was adopted by her uncle, St. Abraham Kidunaia, and began to live a remarkably holy life.
For 20 years, Mary lived as an anchoress, following the advice of her hermit-uncle as she sought a deep life of prayer and sacrifice. But one day a monk who was unworthy of the name caught sight of Mary when he was visiting Fr. Abraham. Determined to seduce her, he spent a year befriending her, becoming more and more intimate until the young innocent gave herself to him, heart and body.
Horrified at her sin, Mary tore her tunic and wished for death. Mary’s despair convinced her that having fallen once, she could never again be holy. Mary fled her sacred home in the desert for a brothel, there to live as the sinner she was convinced she was destined to be.
Meanwhile, Fr. Abraham was oblivious to all that had happened. But that night he had a vision of a dragon consuming a dove; two days later, he saw the same dragon with its belly torn open. He reached in to pull out the dove, miraculously unharmed. When he called out to his niece to tell her about it but received no answer, Abraham realized that she was the subject of the vision. The devil had carried off the daughter of his soul and all he could do in her absence was to pray for her.
Pray he did, for two years. Finally, a report reached him that his sweet, pure Mary was living the harlot’s life. Had she known that he would learn of her lifestyle, Mary likely would have expected him to be disgusted and dismissive. But Fr. Abraham was a Christian, a priest, and a spiritual father; like the Good Shepherd, he was off without a moment’s hesitation, eager to bring his lost lamb home.
Abraham hadn’t left his hermitage in decades, but he disguised himself as a soldier and began his journey. He made an appointment with Mary the prostitute, who didn’t recognize him until he began to weep, begging her to come home. Moved by his powerful love, Mary returned to her hermitage and began a life of penance. Within three years, God testified to her true conversion (and his abundant mercy) by giving her the gift of miracles. More than just being returned to her original state of holiness, Mary was brought through wickedness to greater prayer, greater virtue, and greater power in Christ.
While he spoke to Mary in her brothel, St. Abraham reminded her, “There is nothing new in falling down in the contest; the wicked thing is to keep on lying there.” St. Mary of Edessa is a powerful witness to what God is capable of when we offer him our sin—and what we’re capable of when we don’t.
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October 29
Saints Abraham Kidunaia and Mary of Edessa
October 30
Daily Saints – 30 October.
Feast of Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez.
Alonso Rodriguez was born on 25 July 1532 at Segovia, Spain. He was the third of eleven children in the family of the wealthy wool merchant Diego Rodriguez. He met Peter Faber when he was 10; the Father Faber prepared the boy for his First Communion.
At age 14, Alonso was sent to study with Jesuits, Alonso’s father died within a year. He left school to help his mother run the family business.
He married Mary Suarez at age 26. His business suffered, and his children died in infancy but one son survived. His wife died and he became a widower in his early 30’s. Alonso’s mother died soon after. He sold the business and moved in with his sisters; they helped Alonso raise his son, and taught their brother prayerful meditation.
When his son died, Alonso decided to follow his call to the religious life. He gave away what little he had left, and tried to join the Jesuits. But he was refused because he was not educated. Undaunted, Alphonsus returned to Latin school, humbly bearing the ridicule of his adolescent classmates. Finally, in 1571, the Jesuit provincial accepted him as a lay brother. He was sent to Montesione College on Majorca, where he served as doorkeeper for forty-five years.
There he served not only the community but also the great number of people who came to the porter’s lodge for advice and direction. As doorkeeper, his duties were to receive visitors who came to the college, to show them to the parlour where they were to meet their Jesuit spiritual directors, deliver messages and run errands. His duties also included comforting the sick – both physically and spiritually – and distributing alms to the needy.
Alphonsus says that each time the bell rang, he looked at the door and imagined that it was God who was standing outside seeking admittance. In his memoirs, he said he answered the door with the words: ‘I’m coming, Lord’.
In 1585, Alphonsus made his final vows as a brother, at the age of 54. Throughout his ministry in Majorca, he committed himself unreservedly to good works, showing absolute obedience and faithfulness to his vocation of service – even in the most menial of duties. Despite his personal troubles and trials, he adhered to a few simple spiritual guidelines that helped him navigate through life, principally, the imitation of Christ.
Brother Alphonsus had a deep devotion to Mary, especially as the Immaculate Conception: he would copy the entire little office of the Blessed Virgin for private recitation for those who asked. When his Jesuit superiors saw the good work he was doing among the townspeople, they were eager to have his influence spread far. His spiritual devotion was so deep that on feast days he was frequently asked to preach in the community’s dining room and it was reported that on more than one occasion the community sat quietly past dinner time to hear him finish his sermon.
He was 72 when Peter Claver came to the college, aflame with a desire to do something for God but uncertain how to do so. The two became friends and often discussed prayer and holiness as they walked around the school grounds. He encouraged Peter to go to the South American missions.
He had a special devotion to Saint Ursula, and was so obedient to his superiors that when one told him to eat his plate, he tried to cut it with a knife and fork.
On reaching his 80s, Brother Alphonsus became very feeble. He suffered severe memory loss and was unable even to recite his favourite prayers. He died on 31 October 1617.
“You must strive with all possible care to please God in such a manner as neither to do nor behold anything, without first consulting Him, and in everything to seek Him alone and His glory.”
“It is a common teaching of the Saints that one of the principal means of leading a good and exemplary life is certainly modesty and the mortification of the eyes. Just as there is nothing better than modesty to preserve devotion in a soul and to edify one’s neighbor, so too, there is nothing worse than immodesty and licentious glances to expose a person to the danger of becoming lax and loose in morals.”
“Some persons are so inclined to mortify themselves that at every opportunity they have, they do so. What a beautiful practice this is, and how profitable!”
Feast of Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez.
Alonso Rodriguez was born on 25 July 1532 at Segovia, Spain. He was the third of eleven children in the family of the wealthy wool merchant Diego Rodriguez. He met Peter Faber when he was 10; the Father Faber prepared the boy for his First Communion.
At age 14, Alonso was sent to study with Jesuits, Alonso’s father died within a year. He left school to help his mother run the family business.
He married Mary Suarez at age 26. His business suffered, and his children died in infancy but one son survived. His wife died and he became a widower in his early 30’s. Alonso’s mother died soon after. He sold the business and moved in with his sisters; they helped Alonso raise his son, and taught their brother prayerful meditation.
When his son died, Alonso decided to follow his call to the religious life. He gave away what little he had left, and tried to join the Jesuits. But he was refused because he was not educated. Undaunted, Alphonsus returned to Latin school, humbly bearing the ridicule of his adolescent classmates. Finally, in 1571, the Jesuit provincial accepted him as a lay brother. He was sent to Montesione College on Majorca, where he served as doorkeeper for forty-five years.
There he served not only the community but also the great number of people who came to the porter’s lodge for advice and direction. As doorkeeper, his duties were to receive visitors who came to the college, to show them to the parlour where they were to meet their Jesuit spiritual directors, deliver messages and run errands. His duties also included comforting the sick – both physically and spiritually – and distributing alms to the needy.
Alphonsus says that each time the bell rang, he looked at the door and imagined that it was God who was standing outside seeking admittance. In his memoirs, he said he answered the door with the words: ‘I’m coming, Lord’.
In 1585, Alphonsus made his final vows as a brother, at the age of 54. Throughout his ministry in Majorca, he committed himself unreservedly to good works, showing absolute obedience and faithfulness to his vocation of service – even in the most menial of duties. Despite his personal troubles and trials, he adhered to a few simple spiritual guidelines that helped him navigate through life, principally, the imitation of Christ.
Brother Alphonsus had a deep devotion to Mary, especially as the Immaculate Conception: he would copy the entire little office of the Blessed Virgin for private recitation for those who asked. When his Jesuit superiors saw the good work he was doing among the townspeople, they were eager to have his influence spread far. His spiritual devotion was so deep that on feast days he was frequently asked to preach in the community’s dining room and it was reported that on more than one occasion the community sat quietly past dinner time to hear him finish his sermon.
He was 72 when Peter Claver came to the college, aflame with a desire to do something for God but uncertain how to do so. The two became friends and often discussed prayer and holiness as they walked around the school grounds. He encouraged Peter to go to the South American missions.
He had a special devotion to Saint Ursula, and was so obedient to his superiors that when one told him to eat his plate, he tried to cut it with a knife and fork.
On reaching his 80s, Brother Alphonsus became very feeble. He suffered severe memory loss and was unable even to recite his favourite prayers. He died on 31 October 1617.
“You must strive with all possible care to please God in such a manner as neither to do nor behold anything, without first consulting Him, and in everything to seek Him alone and His glory.”
“It is a common teaching of the Saints that one of the principal means of leading a good and exemplary life is certainly modesty and the mortification of the eyes. Just as there is nothing better than modesty to preserve devotion in a soul and to edify one’s neighbor, so too, there is nothing worse than immodesty and licentious glances to expose a person to the danger of becoming lax and loose in morals.”
“Some persons are so inclined to mortify themselves that at every opportunity they have, they do so. What a beautiful practice this is, and how profitable!”
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October 30
Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez
October 31
Daily Saints – 31 October.
St. Quintin.
He is the patron saint of bombardiers, chaplains, locksmiths, porters, tailors, surgeons and against coughs, sneezes, and dropsy.
Saint Quentin was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various regions of France.
Saint Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord’s inheritance. By the force of his words and works he anticipated the glory of his martyrdom. He gave sight to the blind, vigor to paralytics, hearing to the deaf, and agility to the infirm, in the name of Our Lord, simply by the sign of the Cross. At all hours of the day, he invoked his God in fervent supplications.
But this apostolate could not escape the notice of Rictiovarus, the Roman prosecutor who at that time represented Maximian Herculeus in Gaul. Saint Quentin was seized at Amiens, thrown into prison, and loaded with chains.
When the holy preacher was found to be invulnerable to either promises or threats, the prosecutor condemned him to the most barbarous torture. He was stretched on the rack and flogged.
He prayed for strength, for the honor and glory of the name of God, forever blessed. He was returned to the prison when the executioners who were striking him fell over backwards, and told Rictiovarus they were unable to stand up, and could scarcely speak.
An Angel released the prisoner during the night, telling him to go and preach in the city, and that the persecutor would soon fall before the justice of God. His guardians discovered that he had disappeared, though all doors were barred, and found him in the city preaching. They were converted by the prodigy. But Rictiovarus was furious.
He was brought back before the tribunal as a sorcerer. He was again placed on the rack and beaten, and tortured with other demoniacal means; his flesh pierced with two iron wires from the shoulders to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust into his fingers, his skull and body. Finally, this glorious martyr was decapitated on October 31, 287.
St. Quintin.
He is the patron saint of bombardiers, chaplains, locksmiths, porters, tailors, surgeons and against coughs, sneezes, and dropsy.
Saint Quentin was a Roman, descended from a senatorial family. Full of zeal for the kingdom of Jesus Christ, he left his country and went into Gaul, accompanied by eleven other apostles sent from Rome. They separated to extend their campaign of evangelization to the various regions of France.
Saint Quentin remained at Amiens and endeavored by his prayers and labors to make that region part of Our Lord’s inheritance. By the force of his words and works he anticipated the glory of his martyrdom. He gave sight to the blind, vigor to paralytics, hearing to the deaf, and agility to the infirm, in the name of Our Lord, simply by the sign of the Cross. At all hours of the day, he invoked his God in fervent supplications.
But this apostolate could not escape the notice of Rictiovarus, the Roman prosecutor who at that time represented Maximian Herculeus in Gaul. Saint Quentin was seized at Amiens, thrown into prison, and loaded with chains.
When the holy preacher was found to be invulnerable to either promises or threats, the prosecutor condemned him to the most barbarous torture. He was stretched on the rack and flogged.
He prayed for strength, for the honor and glory of the name of God, forever blessed. He was returned to the prison when the executioners who were striking him fell over backwards, and told Rictiovarus they were unable to stand up, and could scarcely speak.
An Angel released the prisoner during the night, telling him to go and preach in the city, and that the persecutor would soon fall before the justice of God. His guardians discovered that he had disappeared, though all doors were barred, and found him in the city preaching. They were converted by the prodigy. But Rictiovarus was furious.
He was brought back before the tribunal as a sorcerer. He was again placed on the rack and beaten, and tortured with other demoniacal means; his flesh pierced with two iron wires from the shoulders to the thighs, and iron nails were thrust into his fingers, his skull and body. Finally, this glorious martyr was decapitated on October 31, 287.
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October 31
Saint Quintin