Category Archives: Saints

Men's communities, Saints

The Lord Gave Me Brothers

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The month of October is a Franciscan month as well as one dedicated to the Holy Rosary because during the month we celebrate the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4). The vocation blog of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal has a beautiful story about St. Francis that reflects his love for his fellow friars, his brothers.

Fr. Isaac Mary, CFR, tells us that Perfectae Caritatis, the Vatican II document on the renewal of religious life, says that it is much easier to live the vow of chastity in an environment of genuine fraternal charity. One could add that it is also easier to live out a marriage vocation in a house where genuine charity prevails.

Saint Francis had a profound love for God and also for his fellow man. In his short Testament, it is written: “Francis, makes the simple, yet profound statement that ‘the Lord gave me some brothers….'”  One day, one of the young brothers was literally starving from his intense fasting. Francis, rather than embarrass the young brother or chastise him, roused all of the brethren and had them eat grapes “with the young man so that he would not be ashamed of his weakness.”  Francis loved them all with the love of the Father.

Father Isaac Mary concludes: “Fraternal life and charity is meant to be a particular source of joy and strength for a religious in any community.  St. Francis understood this completely and he continues to teach it to us, the brothers whom God has given him!”

Men's communities, Saints

St. Bernard’s Sons

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Today is the memorial of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Cistercian Doctor of the Church and a giant in Church history. During his lifetime, he founded 68 monasteries and his legacy lives on today. In recognition of his eloquence, he is called Doctor Mellifluus (Honey-Sweet/Spoken). Pope Pius XII wrote an Encyclical on Bernard with the same title.

The famous Cistercian writer Thomas Merton said of Bernard that he “could be as tender as a mother to anyone who did not give evidence of being a hardened pharisee, and who had in his heart something of Christ’s unending patience with the weak sinner.”

The Cistercian Abbey of the Genesee is an IRL Affiliate Community founded in 1951 from the Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky, burial place of Thomas Merton. Just over a week ago, they celebrated the entrance of a postulant, Ed Pierson, followed by the priestly ordination of Fr. Isaac Slater who celebrated his first Mass on August 12th.

May the Blessed Virgin Mary, patroness of all Cistercian monasteries, intercede for her sons, that they may receive many holy vocations, and honor the legacy handed down by their great Father, Bernard.

Saints

The Nine Postures of Prayer

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On August 8th, the feast of of St. Dominic, Pope Benedict XVI gave a talk at Castel Gandolfo about Dominic’s life of prayer. He says, “He left behind no writings on prayer, but the Dominican tradition has collected and handed on his living experience in a work titled: The Nine Ways of Prayer of St. Dominic. This book was composed between the year 1260 and 1288 by a Dominican friar. It helps us to understand something of the saint’s interior life, and it also helps us, as different as we are, to learn something about how to pray.”

Here are his nine ways of prayer:

1. Inclinations: Assume a humble posture before God, one that emphasizes your own lowliness before the greatness of God.
2. Prostrations: Lie face down before the altar of God reciting the verse from Saint Luke’s gospel (18:13): ‘Lord be merciful to me a sinner.’
3. Penance: Perform penance by disciplining yourself. Self-discipline is needed and vital to mature spiritual growth.
4. Genuflections: Remain before the altar looking at the Cross with frequent genuflections.
5. Contemplation: Stand before the altar in contemplation with the palms of your hands turned inwards. Then clasp your hands and raise them to your shoulders all the while in fervent prayer.
6. Earnest Intercession: Pray with arms outstretched in the form of a cross. Quote scripture appropriate to this posture.
7. Supplication: Standing erect stretch your whole body upwards with hands joined and raised towards heaven. Often Dominic would open his hands as though in receipt of something. Pray aloud saying: ‘Hear O God, the voice of my prayer when I pray to you, when I lift up my hands to your holy temple.’ (Psalm 27)
8. Thoughtful Reading: Of scripture or scripture commentary. Lose yourself both intellectually and emotionally in this reading, sometimes whispering questions posed in the text.
9. Praying on a Journey: While traveling, lose yourself in prayer, meditation and contemplation.
            Pope Benedict adds that the saint “reminds us of the importance of exterior attitudes in our prayer: kneeling, standing before the Lord, fixing one’s gaze on the Crucified, pausing to recollect oneself in silence are not secondary; rather, they help us to place ourselves interiorly, with the whole of our person, in relation to God.”

Saints

Pray for Priests Today

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Today is the feast day of St. John Vianney, Patron Saint of Parish Priests. I always try to pray today for all the priests who have helped me along the way: the priest that baptized me, the priests who have heard my confessions, priests I have known who have died, etc.

St. John told the young boy who showed him the way to Ars, France, where he would remain his whole priestly life: “You have shown me the way to Ars, I will show you the way to Heaven.” He also said that a priest who is obedient to the demands and wishes of the Lord is the greatest blessing that God can bestow on a parish.

As Fr. John Hardon, SJ, once said, and I paraphrase, do not be afraid to ask a priest to perform his priestly duties for that is his road to holiness.

Prayer for Priests

(St Therese of Lisieux)

O Jesus, I pray for Your faithful and fervent priests;
for Your unfaithful and tepid priests;
for Your priests laboring at home or abroad in distant mission fields;
for Your tempted priests;
for Your lonely and desolate priests;
for Your young priests;
for Your dying priests;
for the souls of Your priests in purgatory.
But above all I recommend to You the priests dearest to me:
the priest who baptized me;
the priest who absolved me from my sins;
the priests at whose Masses I assisted and who gave me Your Body and Blood in Holy Communion;
the priests who taught and instructed me;
all the priests to whom I am indebted in any other way.
O Jesus, keep them all close to Your heart, and bless them abundantly in time and in eternity. Amen.

 

Saints

Happy Feast of Saint Benedict

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Listen, O my son, to the precepts of thy master, and incline the ear of thy heart,

and cheerfully receive and faithfully execute the admonitions of thy loving Father,

that by the toil of obedience thou mayest return to Him from whom by the sloth of disobedience thou hast gone away.

To thee, therefore, my speech is now directed, who, giving up thine own will,

takest up the strong and most excellent arms of obedience,

to do battle for Christ the Lord, the true King.

Saints, Women's Communities

Mother M. Angeline Teresa

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Lost in the shuffle of the welcome announcement that Archbishop Fulton Sheen is now Venerable will be the story of  Mother Mary Angeline Teresa (nee Bridget Teresa McCrory), founder of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm (1893-1984) who was also declared Venerable. Mother was a Little Sister of the Poor (founded in France by St. Jeanne Jugan) who, though she loved the Little Sisters, felt called to start a new order to care for the aged and infirm that had a distinctive American flavor to it.

“Our apostolate is not only to provide care in up to date homes for the aged, but as religious, it is to bring Christ to every old person under our care.” – Mother Angeline Teresa, Foundress

The Sisters have 18 homes in the US and one in Ireland. Their Motherhouse is in Germantown, NY. Her famous words left to her daughters were: “If you have to fail, let it be on the side of kindness. Be kinder than kindness itself to the old people.”

Men's communities, Saints, Women's Communities

Feast of St. Norbert

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June 6th is the Feast Day of St. Norbert. May the Norbertines around the world be blessed by their most saintly founder, St. Norbert.

The five ends of the Norbertines are:

1) Laus Dei in choro (the singing of the Divine Office)

2) Zelus animarum (zeal for the salvation of souls)

3) Spiritus jugis pœnitentiæ (the spirit of habitual penance)

4) Cultus Eucharisticus (a special devotion to the Holy Eucharist)

5) Cultus Marianus (a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin)

Check out the Norbertine website of St. Michael’s Abbey (a thriving IRL Affiliate Community) in Silverado, CA, and the Norbertine Canonesses website as well which is a new community of nuns.

News, Saints

Tomb of St. Philip the Apostle Found

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On May 2, Zenit conducted an interview with Professor Francesco D’Andria, director of the archaeological mission that located the tomb of St. Philip in Hierapolis, Phrygia (Turkey) in 2010/2011. The search was based upon a letter that Polycrates, the bishop of Ephesus, wrote to Pope Victor I (c. 190) stating that Philip “was one of the twelve Apostles and died in Hierapolis, as did two of his daughters who grew old in virginity.”

The discovery was the culmination of 50 years worth of archaeological work and strangely enough was confirmed by a bronze seal located in a museum in Richmond, Virginia which showed the complex of buildings then existing around St. Philip’s tomb. On the border of the seal is a phrase in Greek: Agios o Theos, agios ischyros, agios athanatos, eleison imas (Holy God, strong Holy One, immortal Holy One, have mercy on us).

It is very touching to see the evidence of the devotion of the pilgrims. The surface of a marble staircase leading to and from the tomb was “completely consumed by the steps of thousands upon thousands of people. Hence, the tomb received an extraordinary tribute of veneration.”

Read all the exciting details in the Zenit article.

Saints

St. Damian and Bl. Marianne Cope

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Two weeks ago, at the Pontifical North American College in Rome, a three-foot statue of St. Damian of Molokai was blessed by Bishop Clarence Silva of Honolulu, Hawaii, while he was in Rome for his ad limina visit. A second copy, blessed by Pope Benedict XVI, will become part of the Vatican collections. The artist, Dale Zarrella, said that the sculpture portrays Saint Damian “surveying all the pain and suffering.” At his side is a child whose face is covered by a blanket, hiding the disfigurement caused by leprosy.

This is an exciting time for Hawaii. On October 21, 2012,  Bl. Marianne Cope will be canonized. As superior of the  Sisters of St. Francis in Syracuse, New York, Bl. Marianne was the only one who responded to the King of Hawaii’s appeal for sisters to come and help the leprosy patients. Neither she nor any of the other sisters ever contracted the dreaded disease.

In 1885, King Kalakaua gave her a medal in gratitude for the work she had done for the islanders. Robert Louis Stevenson honored her with a poetic tribute in 1889. After her death, her leprosy patients themselves raised money to erect a fitting statue in her honor over her burial place

Men's communities, Saints

Agent 007 OFM Conv.

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In the James Bond movies, good always triumphed over evil. The Conventual Franciscans have their own version of agent 007, the English-born Friar Matthew Bond who seeks to conquer the forces of darkness by spreading the truth, beauty and goodness of our faith by the “writing” of icons. An iconographer and novice at St. Francis of Assisi Novitiate in Mishawaka, Indiana, Friar Matthew has done many icons and has given workshops on the “writing” and spirituality of icons.

Two of his most recent icons are of two soon-to-be canonized American Saints: Mother Marianne Cope and Kateri Tekawitha. Both Blesseds lived in New York State and have close connections with the Conventual Franciscans (that’s another interesting story).

Friar Matthew’s icon of Mother Marianne depicts her bandaging the wounds of a leper. Her medical supplies are at her feet. A hibiscus, the state flower of Hawaii, is depicted in the foreground. The Franciscan Church of the Assumption is to the left of the saint, and the Motherhouse that she left to go to Hawaii in 1883, is to the right in the picture.

To see more of Friar Matthew’s icons, visit the Conventual Franciscan website.