November 9--St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, Religious and Mystic

Face portrait of Elisabeth of the Trinity by Willuconquer licensed under CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0.

O my God, Trinity whom I adore,

help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you,

unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity.

May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you,

O my unchanging God,

but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery!

Grant my soul peace.

Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest.

May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire,

completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring,

and wholly given over to your creative action (CCC 260).

This prayer was composed by today’s saint, Elizabeth Catez, St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, a Carmelite nun who lived a short, but holy life (1880-1906) in France. Her life sounds much like St. Thérèse of Lisieux: Temper as a child; one parent died when young; wrote great spiritual and mystical works; and died young after intense suffering. Where they differed was that St. Thérèse wrote about living the “Little Way,” doing small things with love, and St. Elizabeth wrote about the “Indwelling of the Trinity” in the soul, the profound awareness that the Holy Trinity lives within the soul of every baptized person!

St. Elizabeth called herself Laudem Gloriae, which means “Praise of Glory.” She wanted that to be her heavenly name: "I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself." Thus, she was dedicated to the salvation of souls. St. Elizabeth of the Trinity, pray for us.

October 25--St. Tabitha, Holy Woman

"Peter raising Tabitha (aka Dorcas) from the dead" by Nick Thompson licensed under CC Attribution 2.0.

There are many saints mentioned in Scriptures who may get only a verse or two, or a mention by name. One of those is today’s saint, St. Tabitha. We only know the little bit about her from Acts of the Apostles:

“Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated means Dorcas). She was completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving. Now during those days she fell sick and died, so after washing her, they laid [her] out in a room upstairs. Since Lydda was near Joppa, the disciples, hearing that Peter was there, sent two men to him with the request, ‘Please come to us without delay.’ So Peter got up and went with them. When he arrived, they took him to the room upstairs where all the widows came to him weeping and showing him the tunics and cloaks that Dorcas had made while she was with them. Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, ‘Tabitha, rise up.’ She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he had called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord” (Acts 9:36-42).

What an impact she made! The community in Joppa loved her so much that they wanted Peter to raise her up! And Peter did! This is a source of joy and faith to everyone, so much that we read about her today! We also know of people like St. Tabitha, “completely occupied with good deeds and almsgiving.” We should be thankful and praise God for all the good people he sends into our lives. St. Tabitha, pray for us.

June 14--St. Elisha, Prophet

Prophet Elisha licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

We don’t normally think of Old Testament persons as saints, but they can be. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The patriarchs, prophets and certain other Old Testament figures have been and always will be honored as saints in all the Church’s liturgical traditions” (CCC 61). Today’s saint is included in that group, namely the prophet Elisha, the successor to Elijah.  He is included in the liturgical calendar of many Eastern Catholics, Orthodox Christians and the Carmelite religious order, who places its founding on Mount Carmel, where Sts. Elijah and Elisha spent much of their prophetic careers.

Elijah was considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets and yet, Elisha received a double portion of his spirit when Elijah was taken up into heaven. What does that mean? It means that Elisha received acknowledgement as the “first-born” of Elijah, that he was the primary spiritual heir. Elisha continued the ministry of Elijah, performing twice as many miracles, including raising a man from the dead AFTER he had died! You can read about that in 2 Kings 13:20-21.

We are also spiritual heirs: “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17). Just as Elisha continued the work of Elijah, we continue the work of Jesus! And what was Jesus’ mission? To bring about the Kingdom of God. First he proclaimed it, then he achieved it through his death and resurrection. What do we do? First we proclaim Jesus and his message of salvation, then “we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” St. Elisha, pray for us!

April 19--Leo IX, Pope

 

Leo IX

The Church has always reformed itself, meeting the needs of each age, but still remaining in continuity with Jesus and the Apostles. Today’s saint, Leo IX, was one of the great papal reformers of the Church. The son of a count and cousin of an emperor, he was a soldier and officer in his cousin’s army. Then he was chosen to be bishop of Toul, France in 1027, where he remained for twenty years. Although he was proposed as pope by Emperor Henry III in 1049, he waited until he received the approval of the clergy and the people of Rome. As bishop and soldier he was disciplined, bringing that discipline to the papacy to reform the Church. Thus, we have the start of the great reforming popes of the eleventh century.

He enforced clerical celibacy, condemned simony (the buying and selling of Church positions) and personally deposed those bishops who were guilty, encouraged liturgical reform, and prohibited clergy from being involved in violence. He also foreshadowed Pope St. John Paul’s efforts at showing the unity of the Church by traveling throughout Europe and personally encouraging and enforcing reforms through councils and synods in Italy, France, and Germany. He sent a delegate to Constantinople to support the Latin rite there, but that eventually resulted in the Great Schism in 1054 after his death. He reaffirmed the real presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, foreshadowing the Church’s dogmatic declaration of that truth at the Council of Trent in 1551. Furthermore, to prevent imperial interference in the selection of the pope, he proposed the use of cardinals as electors of the pope. He also brought the future Pope St. Gregory VII with him to Rome who continued his reforms. The Church is always reforming! Pope St. Leo IX, pray for us!

March 1--St. David of Wales, Abbot and Bishop

 

Saint Non's Chapel - Fenster 5 St.David by Wolfgang Sauber, Licensed under CC BY 3.0 Unported.

"Gwnewch y pethau bychain mewn bywyd." For those of you who don’t know Welsh, that means: “Do ye the little things in life,” the last words of today’s saint, St. David of Wales, who died around 589 A.D. Born in about 500 A.D., the grandson of a king in Wales, David became “renowned as a teacher and preacher, founding monastic settlements in Wales” and elsewhere. He attended a synod in Wales denouncing the Pelagian heresy, which stated that humans were not affected by Original Sin and we could earn our way to heaven, thus getting rid of our corporate sin and also the need of Jesus as Our Savior to die for us! Due to his speech he was elected primate of the monks in his region. He was later acclaimed archbishop. His last words were: “Lords, brothers and sisters, Be joyful, and keep your faith and your creed, and do the little things that you have seen me do and heard about. And as for me, I will walk the path that our fathers have trod before us." "Do ye the little things in life."


St. Thérèse of Lisieux also taught a “Little Way” whereby doing the ordinary things of everyday life with love bring us closer to God. Both St. David and St. Thérèse point out that holiness is everyone’s calling in life, no matter our state, our abilities, or our difficulties. Every moment is an opportunity for grace or, as Saint Padre Pio said, “The present moment is the only moment of grace.” We are chosen, called, and sent forth to bring God’s love to the world. We are the children of God who praise the love of Our Father, through his beloved Son, Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! St. David, pray for us!

January 11–St. Theodosius the Great, Abbot

St. Theodosius the Cenobiarch at Church of St. Thomas-Goudi, licensed under CC by-SA 4.0.

In many respects monks saved Western Christianity. St. Benedict of Nursia was the pivotal figure in the West, whereas St. Basil the Great was the pivotal figure in the East. But they were not alone in helping to spread the monastic lifestyle, Today’s saint, St. Theodosius the Great, lived from about A.D. 423-529, and developed the communal monastic way of life in the Judaean desert near Bethlehem.

There are many different kinds of monasticism, including hermits, who lived by themselves, anchorites, who lived by themselves, but physically connected to a church, and cenobites, what we think of today as being monks in community. This style was not as common in Theodosius’s day. He originally started out as a hermit, living in a cave on a mountain. But he eventually founded the Monastery of St. Theodosius near Bethlehem, which stressed the common life rather than the solitary life. It “grew rapidly, with monks of several cultures and languages, and became very well known for its work with the sick, elderly, and mentally impaired.”

What is notable about St. Theodosius was his desire to do God’s will wherever it led him. As a developer of the communal monastic movement he was able to help others find their way to God as well. We are all called by God to live according to our calling to holiness. For many it is the married life, living in the world, evangelizing and sharing faith with family, friends, and colleagues. For others it may be the priestly life, and for still others it may be the cloistered life in a monastery or the missionary life as a sister or brother of a religious order. We are all called to discern our place in God’s plan of salvation for the world. St. Theodosius, pray for us!

October 12--St. Wilfrid, Bishop

Aidan, Cuthbert and Wilfrid - St John Lee church, by Mike Quinn is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

Can bishops be political? We often want our bishops to be above politics, arguing that their work is directed toward God and not toward the world. And yet, bishops are called to be ministers to all, teaching the faith and upholding the dignity of the human person as a child of God. To that end, they are necessarily political, helping form public policy to support the God-given, natural human rights of both the unborn (CCC 2270-2275) and the immigrant (CCC 2241)!

Today’s saint was deeply political! St. Wilfrid was born in 633 and raised in northern England becoming a monk, abbot, and eventually the Bishop of York. He worked with kings to bring about Christianity in various parts of England only a generation after the reintroduction of Christianity by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. He established new Catholic communities and monasteries and, at the time, built the largest church north of the Alps. He helped the English Church follow the Roman method of setting the date for Easter. He was also exiled three different times by different kings of the various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England, each time appealing to Rome, and each time being upheld by the pope. He died in 709 at a monastery he founded in Mercia, England.

Our bishops need to be political! Jesus sent his Apostles out to the world with the instruction: “Behold, I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves” (Mt. 10:16).  When dealing with the leaders of the people our bishops can follow the example of St. Wilfrid. As our bishops are in union with Rome and the pope, they will strive to fulfill God’s will for God’s people. We are all called to do the same. St. Wilfrid, pray for us.