Caritas Christi Urget Nos

Category: Saints

  • St. Aloysius Gonzaga

    St. Aloysius Gonzaga

    Today’s readings

    St. Aloysius Gonzaga was a well-connected young man who lived during the Renaissance. His father longed for him to become a military hero, and brought him up in the court society. But Aloysius was affected from an early age by a desire to become one with God, and often practiced great penance and asceticism. By age eleven, he was teaching catechism to poor children, and fasting three times a week. I don’t really remember what I was doing at age eleven, but I know my piety was not nearly as advanced as Aloysius! He eventually decided he would like to join the Jesuits, but had to wage a four-year battle with his father, who eventually relented and let him forsake his right to succession and join the novitiate.

    Sometimes our plans, for ourselves or for others, are far different than the plans God has for us.  Today’s Gospel urges us to enter through the narrow gate.  It might be far easier to do what we want with our lives, but only when we find that narrow gate of God’s will for us, will we be truly happy.  Just like St. Aloysius, we have to ask what God wants of us, and follow it with all our hearts.

     

  • Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church

    Saint Anthony of Padua, priest and doctor of the Church

    Today’s readings

    St. Anthony is probably one of the best-known Catholic saints. As the patron for finding lost objects, I’m sure so many of us have prayed, “Tony, Tony, look around, something’s lost and can’t be found.” We all lose track of things from time to time, and it’s nice to have someone to help us find them.

    But the real story of St. Anthony centers around finding the way to Christ.

    The gospel call to leave everything and follow Christ was the rule of Anthony’s life. Over and over again God called him to something new in his plan. Every time Anthony responded with renewed zeal and self-sacrifice to serve his Lord Jesus more completely. His journey as the servant of God began as a very young man when he decided to join the Augustinians, giving up a future of wealth and power to follow God’s plan for his life. But later, when the bodies of the first Franciscan martyrs went through the Portuguese city where he was stationed, he was again filled with an intense longing to be one of those closest to Jesus himself: those who die for the Good News.

    So Anthony entered the Franciscan Order and set out to preach to the Moors – a pretty dangerous thing to do. But an illness prevented him from achieving that goal. He went to Italy and was stationed in a small hermitage where he spent most of his time praying, reading the Scriptures and doing menial tasks.

    But that was not the end for Anthony’s dream of following God’s call. Recognized as a great man of prayer and a great Scripture scholar and theologian, Anthony became the first friar to teach theology to the other friars. Soon he was called from that post to preach to heretics, to use his profound knowledge of Scripture and theology to convert and reassure those who had been misled.

    So yes, St. Anthony is the patron of finding lost objects, but what I really think he wants to help us find, is our way to Christ. As a teacher, a scholar and a man of faith, he was devoted to his relationship with God. And so his intercession for us might go a little deeper than where we left our keys. Maybe we find ourselves today having lost track of our relationship with God in some way. Maybe our prayer isn’t as fervent as it once was. Or maybe we have found ourselves wrapped up in our own problems and unable to see God at work in us. Maybe our life is in disarray and we’re not sure how God is leading us. If we find ourselves in those kinds of situations today, we might do well to call on the intercession of St. Anthony. Finder of lost objects, maybe. But finder of the way to Christ for sure.

     

  • Feast of Saint Patrick

    Feast of Saint Patrick

    What always amazes me about our Gospel story is the response of the fishermen to our Lord’s command.  I wonder if they knew him or knew of him before this incident, because it’s amazing that these exhausted fishermen, who were calling it a day, let Jesus get on board their boat, and then proceeded to take him fishing when they had already done that – to no avail – all night long.  Yet they do it, and they catch this amazing amount of fish, which, Jesus tells them, is just a foreshadowing of the number of men and women they will be catching for the kingdom of God.

     

    This is a great reading for us as we celebrate Saint Patrick today, because I think it’s kind of an icon of his life.  Here was a man who had been abducted from his home and dragged off to Ireland to work as a slave.  He labored for many years before he was able to escape and return to his home and family.  Yet as exhausted and traumatized as he must have been, he heard our Lord’s call to go back to Ireland and be a fisher of men and women.  It’s almost too much to ask, but one never says “no” to our Lord!

     

    Saint Patrick didn’t even harbor any bitterness against his first, indentured stay in Ireland.  He writes:  “Believe me, I didn’t go to Ireland willingly that first time – I almost died here.  But it turned out to be good for me in the end, because God used the time to shape and mold me into something better.  He made me into what I am now – someone very different from what I once way, someone who can care about others and work to help them.  Before I was a slave, I didn’t even care about myself.”

     

    I think what is compelling for me – maybe for most of us – in the story of St. Patrick is that it is a story of conversion.  He writes of an unmentioned sin of his youth, dating from before he was ordained, even before he was living a Christian life.  The sin is known to a friend of his – a friend who once lobbied for him to become a bishop, and later betrayed him to his superiors.  Patrick has long since moved on from where he was at the time this sin was committed, he is an older man now, looking back on youthful indiscretions, and not bearing any ill-will toward those who would rub his nose in it, he thanks God for the strength he has since gained: “So I give thanks to the one who cared for me in all my difficulties, because he allowed me to continue in my chosen mission and the work that Christ my master taught me.  More and more I have felt inside myself a great strength because my faith was proven right before God and the whole world.”

     

    So many of us can look back on the sins and indiscretions of our youth too.  That Patrick could do it with gratitude in his heart for the strength God had given him is an example for all of us, a grace that we could all long for especially in these Lenten days of repentance.

     

    Saint Patrick’s “Lorica” prayer, known often as Saint Patrick’s Breastplate, is a wonderful prayer for these Lenten days.  As we pray his words, we can reflect on the wonderful things God has done for us, and on examine our consciences to become the people God has created us to be.  What follows now, is my reflection on this beautiful prayer.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    I arise today
    Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
    Through the belief in the threeness,
    Through the confession of the oneness
    Of the Creator of Creation.

    These words remind us that we are part of a community.  Our sense of community comes directly from the Triune community that is God himself.  In all of our dawning days, we are called to be caught up in the life of God so that we can give life to the world.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    I arise today
    Through the strength of Christ’s birth with his baptism,
    Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
    Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
    Through the strength of his descent for the Judgment Day.

    These words remind us that Christ is our life.  We who have died and rose with Christ in baptism are now caught up in the life of Jesus our Savior.  His death and resurrection have paid the price for our sins, and there is nowhere that we can go that we are beyond his reach, beyond his grace.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    I arise today
    Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
    In obedience of angels,
    In the service of archangels,
    In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
    In prayers of patriarchs,
    In predictions of prophets,
    In preaching of apostles,
    In faith of confessors,
    In innocence of holy virgins,
    In deeds of righteous men.

    These words remind us that we are never alone.  God surrounds us with angels, saints and people of faith that lead us through the storms of life and keep us connected to God himself.  There is no way we would have the strength to navigate life as righteous people without the example of holy men and women and the intercession of the heavenly hosts.  And the good news is, we never have to.  We are not alone on the journey.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    I arise today
    Through the strength of heaven:
    Light of sun,
    Radiance of moon,
    Splendor of fire,
    Speed of lightning,
    Swiftness of wind,
    Depth of sea,
    Stability of earth,
    Firmness of rock.

    These words remind us that the very earth we inhabit is a gift from God.  The sun gives its light, the moon radiates its force on our world, the winds and the sea tend to our needs, the earth provides its rock solid foundation for our lives and our homes.  All of these hold us in God’s firm and gentle hands.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    I arise today
    Through God’s strength to pilot me:
    God’s might to uphold me,
    God’s wisdom to guide me,
    God’s eye to look before me,
    God’s ear to hear me,
    God’s word to speak for me,
    God’s hand to guard me,
    God’s way to lie before me,
    God’s shield to protect me,
    God’s host to save me
    From snares of demons,
    From temptations of vices,
    From everyone who shall wish me ill,
    Afar and anear,
    Alone and in multitude.

    I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
    Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
    Against incantations of false prophets,
    Against black laws of pagandom
    Against false laws of heretics,
    Against craft of idolatry,
    Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
    Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul.

    These words remind us that there is a battle going on out there.  Just as in Saint Patrick’s day, so too today we have false prophets, heresies, idolatries and corrupt knowledge.  Though we are powerless to fight that battle, God gives us the words to speak, the ears to hear, and the power of his might to deliver us from all who wish us ill.

     

    Saint Patrick prays:

    Christ to shield me today
    Against poison, against burning,
    Against drowning, against wounding,
    So that there may come to me abundance of reward.
    Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
    Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
    Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
    Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
    Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
    Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
    Christ in every eye that sees me,
    Christ in every ear that hears me.

    These words are the essential Lenten discipline.  God is God and we are not.  We need God in very real ways, not just when we are at the end of our ropes, but primarily in the every-dayness of our lives.  We need Christ because every day there is a battle for our souls, and we can’t save them of our own power.  And so Lent calls us to see Christ as Saint Patrick did: before and behind us; above and beneath us; on our right and on our left; in our resting as in our activity; in every person we encounter and most especially in the depths of our own hearts.  Christ is everywhere, filling our lives, beckoning us to repentance, urging us to follow him.  Christ wants us to be fishers of men and women.

     

    Saint Patrick’s prayer ends as it began, with words that catch us up into the Trinitarian community that is our God, so that we can reach out and be community to others:

    I arise today
    Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
    Through belief in the threeness,
    Through confession of the oneness,
    Of the Creator of Creation.

    Amen.

     

  • Saints Perpetua and Felicity, virgin martyrs

    Saints Perpetua and Felicity, virgin martyrs

    Today’s readings

    Saints Perpetua and Felicity and their companions lived in the late second and early third century, during a time of intense persecution of Christians by Emperor Septimius Severus.  Perpetua was a young, beautiful, well-educated, noblewoman of Carthage and mother of an infant son.  Her father was a pagan and her mother a Christian.  Her father pleaded with her to deny the faith and save her life, but she refused and was imprisoned with her baby at age 22.  She wrote “When my father in his affection for me was trying to turn me from my purpose by arguments and thus weaken my faith, I said to him, ‘Do you see this vessel—waterpot or whatever it may be? Can it be called by any other name than what it is?’ ‘No,’ he replied. ‘So also I cannot call myself by any other name than what I am—a Christian.’”  Perpetua wrote the beginning of a chronicle of their executions, which was finished by eyewitnesses.

     

    Despite threats of persecution and death, Perpetua, Felicity (a slavewoman and expectant mother) and three companions refused to renounce their Christian faith. For their unwillingness, all were sent to the public games in the amphitheater. Felicity gave birth to her baby just three days before the games.  Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded, and the others killed by beasts.

     

    During the so-called games, the saints went peacefully to their fate.  As with so many martyr’s accounts, it is written that they hardly felt the pain of their torments.  The eyewitness writes: “Without being asked they went where the people wanted them to go; but first they kissed one another, to complete their witness with the customary kiss of peace.  The others stood motionless and received the deathblow in silence, especially Saturus, who had gone up first and was first to die; he was helping Perpetua. But Perpetua, that she might experience the pain more deeply, rejoiced over her broken body and guided the shaking hand of the inexperienced gladiator to her throat. Such a woman – one before whom the unclean spirit trembled – could not perhaps have been killed, had she herself not willed it.”

     

    Today’s Gospel parable, of course, foretells the death of Jesus symbolized by the son of the landowner.  Just as the tenants did not respect the landowner’s son, many did not respect Jesus and he went to his death.  Those martyrs, like Perpetua and Felicity and their companions, join in the sufferings of Jesus in a very real way.  They call us to give of ourselves as deeply as we are able so that we might join in Christ’s suffering and death – and thus his glory – also.  As the eyewitness said of the martyrs, “Bravest and happiest martyrs! You were called and chosen for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  May we find ourselves caught up in that glory too.

     

  • Saints Cyril and Methodius

    Saints Cyril and Methodius

    Today’s readings

    You might have been expecting to celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day today, but we don’t have Saint Valentine’s day on the calendar, unless, of course, it’s a Hallmark calendar!  Instead today we have the feast of two brothers: Saints Cyril and Methodius.  They lived in the ninth century in an area of Greece inhabited by many Slavs, and eventually they became missionaries to the Slavic people.

    Cyril was known as Constantine until he became a monk very late in life, and at that time took the name Cyril.  Cyril and his followers invented an alphabet, known as the Cyrillic alphabet, which is used in some form in modern Russian language.  Together with his followers, he translated the Gospels, the psalter, Paul’s letters and the liturgical books into Slavonic, and composed a Slavonic liturgy.

    Cyril’s work was not universally accepted.  He faced opposition from German clergy in the area who denounced the Slavonic liturgy and their use of the vernacular language in preaching.  More than once, they went to Rome to answer charges of heresy and were exonerated every time.  While in Rome, Cyril became a monk, and fifty days later, he passed away.

    His brother Methodius, however, kept the mission work going for another sixteen years.  He became the papal legate for all the Slavic peoples, was consecrated as a bishop and given an see in what is now the Czech Republic.  When much of their former territory was removed from their jurisdiction, the Bavarian bishops retaliated with a violent storm of accusation against Methodius.  As a result, Emperor Louis the German exiled Methodius for three years, at which time he was freed by Pope John VIII.

    Legend has it that Methodius translated the whole Bible into Slavonic in eight months.  He died on Tuesday of Holy Week, surrounded by his disciples, in his cathedral church.

    Cyril and Methodius worked long and hard, and in the face of much opposition, to make the faith known.  They made the faith accessible by inventing an alphabet and preaching in the language of the people.  We too are called to make the faith known, meeting people where they are, and explaining it in a way that makes it accessible.  The most honest way to do this is by living the Gospel so that we can be a witness for all to see – being people of integrity in our work, in our families, and in our communities.

  • Saint John Bosco, priest

    Saint John Bosco, priest

    Today’s readings

    Saint John Bosco was a master catechist who knew the importance of living and teaching and handing on the faith; he was a man who lived his faith with conviction.  He was a priest who was concerned with the whole person of the young people he taught: he wanted them to fill both their minds and their souls.

    John Bosco was encouraged to enter the priesthood for the specific purpose of teaching young boys and forming them in the faith. He was ordained in 1841. His ministry began with a poor orphan, who John prepared for First Holy Communion. Then he was able to gather a small community and teach them the Catechism. He worked for a time as a chaplain of a hospice for working girls, and later opened an oratory – a kind of school – for boys, which had over 150 students. The needs of teaching them also encouraged John to open a publishing house to print the catechetical and educational materials used in the classrooms.

    He was known for his preaching, and that helped him to extend his ministry by forming a religious community – the Salesians – to concentrate on education and mission work in 1859. He later formed a group of Salesian Sisters to teach girls. By teaching children self worth through education and job training, John was able to also teach the children of their own worth in the eyes of God.

    Jesus tells the healed demoniac in today’s Gospel, “Go home to your family and announce to them all that the Lord in his pity has done for you.”  We need to hear this command as well; it is up to all of us to help people come to faith in Jesus by our witness of words and actions.  Saint John Bosco was tireless in his devotion to teaching and forming young people. In today’s Eucharist, may we give thanks for the teachers in our lives, and may we also commend the teachers and catechists of today’s young people to the patronage of Saint John Bosco.

  • Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

    Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

    Today’s readings

    Mass with the school children:

    I have a feeling that today’s Gospel reading is one that Saint Thomas Aquinas probably loved.  Saint Thomas was known for the way that he explained the faith: he did it systematically, breaking down complex ideas into smaller parts so that we can understand them.  So then this Gospel reading, in which Jesus is explaining the Kingdom of God – a very complex idea indeed! – probably inspired Saint Thomas in his work.

    Saint Thomas was a very smart young man from a very rich and influential family.  When he was only five years old, he was promised to the famous Benedictine monastery at Monte Cassino, where he was to study with the monks. His parents were hoping that one day he would become the abbot of that community, which was a very prestigious and politically powerful position. He later went to Naples to study, and a few years later abandoned his family’s plans for him and instead joined the Dominicans, which is a different religious order known for living in poverty and preaching to the poor.  His family didn’t like that, so by order of his mother, Thomas was captured by his brother and brought back home, where he was imprisoned in his own house for a year.

    He escaped, and once free, he went back to the Dominicans and moved to Paris and Cologne to study. He held was a professor in Paris, lived at the court of Pope Urban IV, and directed the Dominican schools at Rome and Viterbo. He is very much known for his scholarly writings, which have contributed so much to theology, that is, what the Church knows and believes about God.  Saint Thomas spoke much of wisdom that can be found in Scripture and tradition, and he also strongly taught the wisdom that could be found in the natural order of things, in the world God created, as well as what could be found in reason, just putting on our thinking caps and using the brains God gave us.

    His last work was the Summa Theologiae, which he actually never completed. He abruptly stopped writing after celebrating Mass on December 6, 1273. When asked why he stopped writing, he replied, “I cannot go on…. All that I have written seems to me like so much straw compared to what I have seen and what has been revealed to me.”  He just felt like all that he wrote – which was a lot! – couldn’t even begin to describe God in all his wonder and glory.  He died March 7, 1274.

    Saint Thomas felt that it was vitally important for all of us to learn everything that we could about God and the world he created.  He felt that the biggest enemy to the Church and to the world was ignorance, and he did everything he could to combat that enemy.  So today, on his feast day, this is a good day to think about the great gift that we have here at Notre Dame school.  Here we can come together and learn not just about math and science and reading and culture, but also about God and the Church.  Saint Thomas is the patron of all students, and with his intercession, all of you should make the most of that great gift.  There is no limit to what you can learn by studying and using God’s gift of your intellect and reason, and so maybe today, in honor of Saint Thomas Aquinas, you might say a prayer of thanks to God for your school and your intellect, and maybe even resolve to try a little harder to make better use of those great gifts.

    Saint Thomas once said, “Lord, in my zeal for the love of truth, let me not forget the truth about love.”  As we give God thanks today for the gift of our school and our ability to learn, let us also give God thanks for the love that he pours out on us each day.

  • Saint Francis de Sales

    Saint Francis de Sales

    Today’s readings

    Saint Francis de Sales was born in the Savoy region of France-Italy in 1567.  His priesthood had him work diligently for the restoration of Catholicism in his homeland, reclaiming it from the clutches of the protestant reformation.  He became bishop of Geneva, and was known for his writings, work and example.  He says that it took him 20 years to conquer his quick temper, but no one ever suspected he had such a problem, because he was known for his good nature and kindness.  His perennial meekness and sunny disposition won for him the title of “Gentleman Saint.”

    This is a quality that we all wish more people had, and perhaps we wish we had it as well.  For all of us who seek to overcome a quick temper, or overcome the disposition to say something we wish we hadn’t, or the tendency to press “send” on a tersely-written email, St. Francis de Sales is our patron.  Saint Francis is also known to be the patron of the deaf, since he devised a kind of sign language in order to teach the deaf about God.  His beautiful writings have inspired many in their faith and earned him the title of Doctor of the Church.

    Saint Francis was known to work on behalf of the poor, and even to be something of an ascetic himself.  He encouraged devotion in every person, regardless of their walk in life.  He writes: “I say that devotion must be practiced in different ways by the nobleman and by the working man, by the servant and by the prince, by the widow, by the unmarried girl and by the married woman.  But even this distinction is not sufficient; for the practice of devotion must be adapted to the strength, to the occupation and to the duties of each one in particular.”

    In a moment we will offer our gifts, and pray for gifts and grace to lead a holy life.  Following the example of Saint Francis de Sales, maybe we can call on God for meekness, and humility, and patience. As St. Francis de Sales tells us: “The person who possesses Christian meekness is affectionate and tender towards everyone: he is disposed to forgive and excuse the frailties of others; the goodness of his heart appears in a sweet affability that influences his words and actions, presents every object to his view in the most charitable and pleasing light.” Who wouldn’t want to look at the world that way?

  • Saint Anthony, abbot

    Saint Anthony, abbot

    Today’s readings

    When Saint Anthony – and this is not the Saint Anthony who helps us find lost things – was about eighteen years old, his parents died, and left him to care for his young sister and the family home.  They did not leave him destitute, however, and they were rather well-to-do.  Saint Athanasius writes that one day, as Anthony was praying in church, he was reflecting on how the Apostles had left everything to follow Jesus when he heard this verse from Scripture: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor – you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me.”

    So that’s what he did: he went out and gave most of the family property to the local villagers, and sold off all of his other possessions, giving the money to the poor.  He wanted no distractions for his sister and himself in living the Christian life.  The next time he visited church, he heard “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.” At this point, he gave away everything he had left, and put his sister up in the local convent, and went off to dedicate himself to living his call.

    Anthony devoted himself to asceticism, living in poverty, reflecting on Scripture, and growing in friendship with Christ.  He was a fearless leader of the Church through the Arian controversy, and spoke out boldly, hoping for martyrdom.  He founded a sort of monastery with scattered cells (as opposed to a great building), forming a fusion of the solitary life with community life.  He is known to be the father of monasticism.  Saint Anthony is said to have died at the ripe old age of 105 in solitude.

    In a day when we spend a lot of time and energy on the stuff that we have, and the care of our possessions, Saint Anthony’s life comes as a challenge.  He gave up everything to follow Christ, trusting that God would take care of him.  His left a great mark on human history, and his rule of monasteries has been the basis of many monastic rules ever since.  His challenge to us today is this: what do we need to give up to follow Christ more closely?

  • Saint Nicholas

    Saint Nicholas

    Today’s readings

    The general rule of thumb is that the saints are always supposed to point us to God.  The stories of the saints aren’t always real factual, and we cannot rely on them for actual historical records.  That’s not their purpose.  The stories of the saints are designed to illuminate the saints’ lives in a colorful way and to get us thinking about strengthening our relationship with God.

    I was thinking about that as I was reading the stories of St. Nicholas.  He died probably around the year 350 or so, so we don’t really know a lot about him.  But that doesn’t mean there aren’t stories!  One of the best known is that St. Nicholas came from a very well-to-do family.  He became aware of a family in his village that had three daughters who were close to marrying age.  The father was very poor and could not provide a dowry for his daughters, so that meant in that time, they would generally have to resort to prostitution.  St. Nicholas had no intention of seeing that happen.

    So one night, he walked by the man’s house and tossed a bunch of gold coins wrapped up in a cloth through the window.  The man rejoiced the next morning on finding it, and so he gave thanks to God.  He was able to provide a dowry for his oldest daughter.  A while later, the second daughter was to be married, and St. Nicholas repeated the same action.  The man again woke up to find the gold, and what did he do?  He gave thanks to God!  And then he was able to provide for his second daughter’s dowry.  A short time after that, St. Nicholas did the same so that the youngest daughter could have a dowry, and this time the man woke up when he heard the gold hit the floor in his house.  So he ran out the door and began to follow Nicholas, and eventually realized who it was he was following.  He knelt down and wanted to kiss the saint’s feet, but Nicholas would not let him, and made him promise not to tell of it as long as he lived.

    And so this was the story that led to the giving of gifts on St. Nicholas’s feast day.  And it’s just a little twist of the tongue in English that turned St. Nicholas into Santa Claus.  I think the celebration of St. Nicholas shines an interesting light on our gift giving.  St. Nicholas did not want to be known for his generosity.  He wanted to keep it quiet and was content to have the man give the glory and praise to God for the generous gift.  How willing are we to do the same?  Or does our gift giving have a sort of one-upsmanship to it?  The giving of gifts is not bad or good; it is the intent of the giver and the heart of the receiver that really matters.  When we wrap up our gifts in these Advent days, and when we unwrap them on Christmas, I wonder if we can tuck some prayer in it somewhere.  Maybe we can find a way to give glory to God among all the hectic-ness of our Christmas season.