October 31--All Hallow's Eve

From Shower of Roses.

Should we celebrate Halloween or condemn it as a manifestation of all that is evil since it was (supposedly) based on the Gaelic holiday Samhain? First, let’s get our origins straight. The word Halloween comes from “All Hallows’ Eve” which is another way of saying, “The Evening Before All Hallows’ Day.” What does “hallow” mean? It is from the Germanic word meaning a holy person or Saint! Thus Halloween is a shortening of “All Hallows’ E’en (Evening)”, the night before All Saints’ Day. Thus, it is NOT based on the Gaelic holiday of Samhain. November 1 was first celebrated as All Saints’ Day by Pope Gregory III (731-741) when he dedicated a chapel in St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints and set it as a feast day. So Halloween is like Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas.

So should we celebrate it? Why shouldn’t we celebrate all the saints? We probably have many family members in heaven that the Church has not canonized as saints, but they are saints nonetheless! What about all the spooky and scary and yes, evil things associated with Halloween. Here is where prudence comes into play. We don’t celebrate and glorify evil! Evil can be associated with many things that are good and holy, such as Good Friday, when Christ was crucified. However, God’s grace can bring great good out of terrible evil. Christ’s death on the cross was the sacrifice that brought about our salvation. How we commemorate Halloween can be an expression of joy for the memory of all the saints. It is also a secular holiday that can be enjoyed for the pleasure of treating children. We can add our own Catholic twist to it by blessing the children who come to our doors. May all the Saints pray for us!

October 13--Bl. Maddalena Panattieri, Third Order Dominican

Portrait of Beata Maddalena Panattieri painted by Luigi Morgari, chiesa di San Domenico, Trino, Vercelli, Italy.

Child care, or babysitting as it is also known, is not seen as a glamorous job in our society. Taking care of little kids, who may be screaming and running and hitting and throwing temper tantrums, can be difficult. Nonetheless, today’s Blessed started her saintly career by teaching little ones the faith. As she was quite good at it, their mothers and then fathers and then the clergy, came to listen to her. Her teaching became preaching, which then drew crowds, and she became one of the most famous preachers in Italy at the time.

Bl. Maddalena Panattieri (1443-1503) lived in northern Italy and, at the age of twenty, became a Third Order Dominican, much like her hero, St. Catherine of Siena. That allowed her to be affiliated with the religious order while still living in the world. She received many spiritual gifts as well, including visions, transportation spiritually to the Holy Land, prophecy, and the stigmata, which she kept secret. She also served the poor and the sick and was known for her ascetic life. She was beatified by Pope Leo XII in 1827 after confirming her cultus, or the following of those who were devoted to her through the centuries.

The teaching of children in the faith, catechesis, is a noble endeavor and allows the Church to help the children grow in faith: “Train the young in the way they should go; even when old, they will not swerve from it” (Prv. 22:6). However, there is another grace-filled benefit to teaching children, teaching their parents. When we teach children the faith, they carry that home to connect with what their parents say and do. If parents do support the faith, they will grow in their own faith along with their children.

Bl. Maddalena Panattieri, pray for us!

October 12--Bl. Carlo Acutis, Holy Man

Photograph of Bl. Carlo Acutis, Copyrighted

He is a saint for the 21st century! Blessed Carlo Acutis (1991-2006) “was an Italian website designer who documented Eucharistic miracles and approved Marian apparitions, and catalogued both on a website he designed before his death from leukaemia. Acutis was noted for his cheerfulness, computer skills, and devotion to the Eucharist, which became a core theme of his life.” Even though he died at the age of 15, he was beatified in 2020 and has been approved for canonization, possibly in 2025.

Here are some of his inspiring quotations:

• “The Virgin Mary is the only woman in my life.”
• “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on earth we will have a foretaste of heaven.”
• “By standing before the Eucharistic Christ, we become holy.”
• “Continuously ask your guardian angel for help. Your guardian angel has to become your best friend.”
• All people are born as originals but many die as photocopies.”
• To always be close to Jesus, that’s my life plan”.
• “Sadness is looking at ourselves, happiness is looking towards God.”
• “Not me, but God.”
• “The more Eucharist we receive, the more we will become like Jesus, so that on this earth we will have a foretaste of heaven".
• “The only thing we have to ask God for, in prayer, is the desire to be holy.”
• “Our soul is like a hot air balloon. If by chance there is a mortal sin, the soul falls to the ground. Confession is like the fire underneath the balloon enabling the soul to rise again. . . It is important to go to confession often.”
• “Our goal must be infinite, not the finite. The infinite is our homeland. Heaven has been waiting for us forever.”
• “The Eucharist is the highway to heaven.”

Bl. Carlo Acutis, pray for us!

October 3–St. Mother Theodore Guerin, Religious

 

Official portrait of Saint Mother Theodore Guerin released by the Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods in their press kit as a promotional image.

The American frontier was served by many religious communities of women to educate and serve both Catholic immigrants and Indigenous Americans. These included saints such as St. Katherine Drexel, St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, and today’s saint, St. Mother Theodore Guérin. Born in France in 1798, she expressed a desire to become a religious sister at an early age. She entered religious life in 1825 and became a teacher and administrator at schools in France. In 1839 the bishop of Vincennes, Indiana requested help from women religious in France to send missionaries to help with the influx of Catholic immigrants. Sr. Theodore was recommended and accepted the call under the inspiration of the Rule of the congregation: "The Congregation being obliged to work with zeal for the sanctification of souls, the sisters will be disposed to go to whatsoever part of the world obedience calls them." She then founded a new order in Indiana establishing a women’s academy which became a college, parish schools and other schools, orphanages, and free pharmacies. She died in 1856 after an adulthood of poor health. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2006.

The Sisters of Providence of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods quote St. Mother Theodore: “What have we to do in order to be saints? Nothing extraordinary; nothing more than what we do every day. Only do it for [God’s] love…” They write about her dependence on God’s Providence: “She’s a saint now, but during her life she was a real person who dealt with real problems. She didn’t want to take on the difficult mission of leaving France to start a congregation in the frontier of Indiana. However, her trust in Providence — the protective care of God — led her to Saint Mary-of-the-Woods where she accomplished amazing things.” St. Mother Theodore Guerin, pray for us!

September 26--Sts. Cosmas and Damian, Martyrs

 

The Beheading of Sts. Cosmas and Damian by Fra Angelico.

Their names are in the Roman canon: “In communion with those whose memory we venerate,… your blessed apostles and martyrs, Peter and Paul, Andrew,… Cosmas and Damian and all your saints.” Today’s saints are twin brothers who practiced medicine and surgery for free, and thus called “unmercenaries” or “silverless” in Greek, in order to bring people to the Christian faith. Sts. Cosmas and Damian were Arabs living in the Roman province of Cilicia, which today is the southern coast of Turkey. They were martyred during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian in the late third or early fourth century. Diocletian tried to exterminate Christianity from the Roman Empire and was quite successful in raising martyrs to God, including Cosmas and Damian by beheading. Although this is the extent of what is known about them, their story became popular and they were venerated widely throughout Europe.

We honor Sts. Cosmas and Damian because of their willingness to suffer and die as Jesus did. However, they were missionary disciples using their skill in medicine to heal for free as Jesus did. “The Catholic Church is the world's largest non-governmental provider of health care….” “It can be said in general, however, that Catholic hospitals provide a great deal of free or poorly compensated inpatient care and primary care services through clinics and medical outreach programs for the uninsured. Often, Catholic hospitals become known as a ‘provider of last resort’ for uninsured and underinsured citizens.”

Visit the sick is one of the corporal works of mercy as prescribed in Mt. 25:31-46. We can follow the examples of Sts. Cosmas and Damian by healing others, whether physically, emotionally, or spiritually. We may dedicate ourselves to the healing ministries or those who are in our lives. Sts. Cosmas and Damian, pray for us!

September 9--Bl. Frédéric Ozanam, Holy Man

 

Blessed Frédéric Ozanam. Frontispiece from Complete Works of Frederic Ozanam, Lecoffre editions, Paris , 1862 ( second edition). PD-US-expired.

“What can I do? I am just one person.” We may ask ourselves that question and respond in the same manner, especially when we believe our efforts are few and far between. And yet, just one person bore the Son of God. As well, just one person IS the Savior of the world. Today’s blessed is just one person and he is the inspiration for about 800,000 persons worldwide in 140 countries. Bl. Frédéric Ozanam (1813-1853) co-founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in 1833 “for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor.” As a law student in Paris he saw the need to help others in their need. He promoted service to the poor by the laity following the model of St. Vincent de Paul and under the guidance of Bl. Rosalie Rendu, a sister of the Daughters of Charity. That model uses small “conferences” of laity to work to help the poor in their areas. There are about 4,400 conferences in the United States alone. Bl. Frédéric died in 1853 of tuberculosis and was beatified by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997.

Pope John Paul said of him: “Frédéric Ozanam loved everyone who was deprived. From his youth, he became aware that it was not enough to speak about charity and the mission of the Church in the world: rather what was needed was an effective commitment of Christians in the service of the poor. … He observed the real situation of the poor and sought to be more and more effective in helping them in their human development. He understood that charity must lead to efforts to remedy injustice. Charity and justice go together.” Join the Vincentians and serve others! Bl. Frédéric Ozanam, pray for us!

September 4--Bl. Martyrs of the Holy Family, Maria Stella Mardosewicz and Ten Companions

 Feast of Blessed Mary Stella & 10 Companions.

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:12-13). The Church has venerated the martyrs from her very beginnings, starting with St. Stephen and continuing even to today. Today’s blesseds were sisters who started a convent in Nowogródek, Poland, modern Belarus. They started a school, looked after the local church, and did works of charity.

At the start of World War II, Nowogródek was occupied by Soviet, then later, Nazi forces. The Gestapo then came and arrested 120 men. The sisters prayed that they may be accepted as an offering for the men. “Mother Stella led their prayers, in which the nuns asked God: ‘If sacrifice is needed, accept it from us and spare those who have families.’” They were arrested on July 31, 1943 with the intent to execute them that night. The sisters then offered themselves in place of the men, but were denied. On August 1 they “were taken to a large pine forest where an open pit had been prepared for them. They were shot to death and immediately dumped into the mass grave.” Their bodies were exhumed in 1945.

In his beatification homily, Pope St. John Paul II stated: “We thank you, O blessed martyrs of Nowogródek, for your witness of love, for your example of Christian heroism and for your trust in the power of the Holy Spirit. ‘Christ chose and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit in your lives and that your fruit should abide’ (cf. Jn 15: 16). You are the greatest inheritance of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth. You are the inheritance of the whole Church of Christ for ever!” Blessed martyrs, pray for us!