January 27, 2007
Feast Day: St. Angela Merici
Here's an RoL article from Brian.
St Angela Merici: Apostle of Education
When a twenty-something year old woman moved to Brescia Italy, she slowly began to recognize how the children of the town were uneducated in the simple truths of the Catholic religion. She knew something had to done to correct this! Through spiritual inspirations from God, she formed an association of women who started apostolates to care for and educate children, within their homes, in the faith. This association eventually grew into a religious congregation, the Ursulines.
The young woman I am referring to is St. Angela Merici, whose feast day is celebrated on January 27. Like St. Alphonsus Ligouri, who brought the Gospel to the poor of Naples, and Bl. Jeanne Jugan, who assisted the elderly, and St. Albert Chmielowski who cared for the homeless, St. Angela helped God's little children by instructing them in the Catholic faith.
Born in 1474, Angela lived with her family in Venice, Italy until the age of ten when God called her parents to their eternal reward. She was sent off to live with a wealthy uncle who loved her very much and provided her with a solid education. At the age of fifteen, she was admitted into the religious family of St. Francis by becoming a Franciscan Tertiary.
Her spiritual life was filled with intense prayer, austere practices and devotions. With a heart zeroed in on God, St. Angela was blessed with the gift of contemplative prayer. She even received a heavenly vision in which she saw herself founding a religious order dedicated to charitable works.
Through a series of events that included pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Rome, Angela discovered her true vocation while living in Brescia, Italy. It did not take Angela long to recognize how grossly ignorant the town children were in the basic tenants of the Catholic faith. To combat the ignorance she gathered around her like-minded women who supported one another in Christian living - they were dedicated to performing the spiritual works of mercy, most especially, "instructing the ignorant." Although not an official religious order at the time, the Ursulines would become the first teaching order of women as well as the first group of women religious to minister outside the cloister.
Angela was not only blessed with the gift of mystical prayer, but also the gift of wisdom. Through the movements of the Holy Spirit, Angela could see how the family was the basic cell/unit of society. She knew that if children were ignorant of their faith and did not know how to live the Christian life, both the family and society would suffer. By recognizing this fundamental truth, Angela was not only strengthening the family, but also helping society.
What can St. Angela Merici teach us? I believe her life can help us see the importance of putting our faith and talents into practice. In other words, by virtue of our Baptism, God invites us to serve Him, by serving others, especially those who are most in need.
God bless.
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January 22, 2007
JPII Closer to Sainthood
John Paul Miracles Hasten Sainthood
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May 25, 2006
The Grunt Priest
Canonization cause opened for Marine chaplain who died in Vietnam.
With the permission of the Vatican, the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services has begun an inquiry that could lead to the canonization of Maryknoll Father Vincent R. Capodanno, a U.S. Navy chaplain who died in 1967 while serving with the Marines in Vietnam. (Continue...)
You can read about Fr. Vincent in the book The Grunt Padre.
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March 20, 2006
St. Joseph, Pray for Us!
A blessed feast day of St. Joseph!
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November 21, 2005
Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio
On Sunday, the Feast of Christ the King, eight Spanish martyrs moved one step closer to Sainthood. One of the new blesseds was Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio, a 14 year-old Mexican who died during the persecution of the Cristeros.
Sanchez del Rio was born on March 28, 1913, and died on February 10, 1928.His martyrdom was witnessed by two boyhood friends. One of them, Father Marcial Maciel, who went on to found the Legionnaires of Christ, revealed in his book, My Life is Christ, that Sanchez del Rio was “captured by government forces,� who demanded he “renounce his faith in Christ, under threat of death. Jose refused to accept apostasy.�
“Consequently they cut the bottom of his feet and obliged him to walk around the town toward the cemetery,� Father Macial wrote. “He cried and moaned with pain, but he did not give in. At times they stopped him and said, ‘if you shout ‘Death to Christ the King’ we will spare your life.’ Jose Luis finally died shouting ‘Long live Christ the King’ while his assassins fired upon him.�
Likewise, the founder of the Priestly Confraternity of the Workers of the Kingdom of Christ, Father Enrique Amescua Medina, recalled that as they were accompanying him in his martyrdom, Sanchez del Rio told him to flee saying, “You will do things I will not be able to do.�
The remains of Jose Luis lie at the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Sahuayo, Mexico. (From CNA)
To purchase the GLORY STORIES coloring book with the story of Luis (in English and Spanish) go to the Catholic World Mission Online Store.
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June 24, 2005
John Paul, Pray for Us!
Prayer for John Paul II's Intercession
Published by Rome Diocese
VATICAN CITY, JUNE 23, 2005 (Zenit.org) - The Diocese of Rome published the written prayer to implore favors through the intercession of the late Pope John Paul II.
The prayer is being disseminated by the postulator of the cause of his beatification, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, of the Diocese of Torun, Poland. The monsignor is currently judicial vicar of the Court of Appeals of the Diocese of Rome.
In the last phase of the process of beatification, proof will be required of a miracle attributed to Karol Wojtyla's intercession. The process of beatification will officially begin June 28. Here is the text of the prayer:
O Blessed Trinity,
We thank you for having graced the Church with Pope John Paul II and for allowing the tenderness of your Fatherly care, the glory of the cross of Christ, and the splendor of the Holy Spirit, to shine through him.
Trusting fully in Your infinite mercy and in the maternal intercession of Mary, he has given us a living image of Jesus the Good Shepherd, and has shown us that holiness is the necessary measure of ordinary Christian life and is the way of achieving eternal communion with you.
Grant us, by his intercession, and according to Your will, the graces we implore, hoping that he will soon be numbered among your saints. Amen.
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December 31, 2004
7/29/04 - An American Padre Pio?
Here are two interesting articles about the mystic Fr. Magin Catala who arrived here in Monterey 210 years ago. He is now up for beatification and his story may interest those in CA (particularly San Jose) and pregnant women, as he was known to interceed for them. You can read more here - California "Holy Man" up for Sainthood and here - Did Father Magin see the future of California?
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7/8/04 - The Ordinariness of the Saints
Steven at Flos Carmeli always has some great posts, I just never have time to get over there. Although today I visited and I love this piece! It reminds me of when my spiritual director told me that God is able to use our faults and weaknesses as means to reaching greater virtue and sanctity. For example, St. Francis de Sales had a fiery temper yet he became known as the "gentle saint".
Steven also makes an excellent point in reminding us that we need to stop trying to be someone else and be the saint that God has called us to be. It is one thing to admire and receive encouragement through the example of historical saints but it is important to draw from it a lesson that we can use in our own life. Not to duplicate their life but to draw inspiration on how to strive for holiness in our own unique life and circumstances. But Steven says it better than I could so read on.
...Too often, it seems, we may do the same with Saint's lives. We look upon their extraordinary accomplishments and then embellish them so that they become not so much role models as distant figures of impossible faith and piety. We neglect their ordinariness. We admire them, but we can come up with an extraordinary plexus of reasons why we couldn't possible emulate them in any way. How often have I heard, "Oh, I couldn't be like St. Th�r�se, she was so holy from such a young age." So who is asking you to be like St. Th�r�se? We already have one of those, and there are those in the world who would maintain that one is more than enough. (I used to be among them--no longer). Continued...
God gives us Saints not so much for slavish imitation as for encouragement. No one is called to be another St. Francis, St. Benedict, St. Anything. Each person is called to be a unique Saint, just as they are a unique person. The canonized Saints give us a glimpse of how others have achieved this. How they have achieved heroic sanctity despite a less than heroic start; how they have come to love God when they started by despising Him; how their own persons and personalities are used by God to erect new Saints and new heroes, new examples that tell us--"You can do it."After all, what is remarkable about St. Th�r�se? She grew up a bourgeoise French lady, a potential snob, in a jansenist French society, overwhelmed with the exceeding wrath of God. She was treacly sweet and had a hellish temper at the same time and was stubborn as an ox. Nothing here particularly remarkable. And in that very fact lies our best hope. Just as there is nothing particularly remarkable about any of us, so too God can use that milquetoast or wanness and convert it into heroic virtue.
When I reflect on St. Th�r�se this is what I most often think about--her humble beginnings did not stand in the way of her storming heaven, asking for, and receiving the gift of holiness, the gift of love. So what stops me? And when I think like this I realize that there is very, very little in the way--only myself. And if Jesus is willing, I can be healed.