October 1--St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

*

She died at the age of 24 of tuberculosis.  Her main work is The Story of a Soul, written at the behest of her superiors in order to share her life with others.  She became the patron saint of missionaries even though she lived her entire adult life in a cloistered convent in France.  Her “little way” of simplicity and practicality illuminates how each person can become a saint:  “I see that it is enough to recognize one's nothingness and to abandon oneself, like a child, into God's arms.”

St. Thérèse of Liseiux was born in 1873 to Zélie and Louis Martin, who have been since the only married couple canonized together by Pope Francis in 2015.  She was the sister of four surviving daughters, all of whom became nuns.  She asked Pope Leo XIII permission to enter the convent at 15.  He directed that she follow her superiors’ directions.  However, she was allowed to enter the Carmelite convent at Lisieux the following spring, when she was 15.  She spent nine years in the convent before she died.

Although her life in the convent was a hidden life, she desired nothing more than to be holy, to be a saint.  She served in the convent through prayer and obedience, offering herself and her suffering for others, especially priests.  She is called the Little Flower.  She wrote:  “I will scatter flowers, perfuming the Divine Throne, and I’ll sweetly sing my hymn of love.  These flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least of actions for love.”  St. Thérèse knew she could not do great or heroic acts, so she dedicated herself to doing little acts of love, everything for love.  So should we all!  St. Thérèse, pray for us.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Teresa-de-Lisieux.jpg#file

February 28--Bl. Daniel Brottier, Priest

*

To look at today's saint, one might imagine him to be a mall Santa Claus, with his white hair and long bushy beard.  But the two medals pinned to his chest, the Croix de guerre and the Légion d'honneur, indicate something else, his service as a chaplain for the French during World War I.  Bl. Daniel started his ministry as a priest teaching in a school.  However, he wanted to serve beyond the classroom and joined the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, who sent him to a mission in Senegal in West Africa.  When World War I broke out he returned and served as a chaplain in the trenches on the front.  During 52 months of service he never suffered a single wound, which he attributed to the intervention of St. Thérèse of Lisieux.  After the war he took over an orphanage outside of Paris.  

Bl. Daniel was a brave man who faced the hardships of war with the love of service.  He saw in the faces of his charges the face of Jesus.  He was no mall Santa Claus, but he was a man of faith and bravery and determination.  These are qualities that we can bring to our service.  He once said:  "My secret is this: help yourself and heaven will help you. ... I have no other secret.  If the good God worked miracles [at the orphanage], through Thérèse's intercession, I think I can say in all justice that we did everything, humanly speaking, to be deserving, and that they were the divine reward of our work, prayers and trust in providence."  This is the "secret" of being a Christian.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daniel_Brottier_1920.jpg

September 22--St. Thomas of Villanova, Bishop

*

“If you want God to hear your prayers, hear the voice of the poor. If you wish God to anticipate your wants, provide those of the indigent without waiting for them to ask you. Especially anticipate the needs of those who are ashamed to beg. To make them ask for alms is to make them buy it.”

Catholic social justice teaching emphasizes, as one of its major themes, the preferential option for the poor. Although we may think of Catholic social teaching as a modern development, it goes back to the Scriptures and the saints, such as today’s saint, St. Thomas of Villanova, who is quoted above.

St. Thomas was an Augustinian friar nominated Archbishop of Valencia, Spain in 1544. When he finally accepted the position under obedience, he donated the four thousand gold pieces given to him by the religious of the cathedral to furnish his residence to a local hospital in need of renovation. He wore the habit he received as a novice 28 years earlier. He mended it himself. He not only advocated direct action to serve the poor, he also worked at solving the structural foundations for poverty: “Charity is not just giving, rather removing the need of those who receive charity and liberating them from it when possible.” St. Thomas of Villanova died on September 8, 1555.

Jesus told us in the Parable of the Last Judgment, Mt. 25:31-46, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and imprisoned, shelter the homeless, and bury the dead. The Corporal Works of Mercy are a distinguishing characteristic of a disciple of Jesus. But so is providing employment, education, advocacy, and justice. The Corporal Works of Mercy take care of immediate needs. We must also ameliorate the causes of poverty.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thomas_von_Villanova_17Jh.jpg

September 16--St. Cornelius, Pope and Martyr

*

What would happen today if someone threatened to kill or harm us if we were Christian? There are modern martyrs in the Church. But what if we denied our faith? In the third century, when St. Cornelius was pope, persecution was an off and on problem for the Church. It happened sporadically, but intensely. When the persecution subsided, those Christians who had denied their faith to avoid martyrdom wanted to be readmitted to the Church. The question facing St. Cornelius was whether, and how, to readmit lapsed Christians.

One option was to deny the lapsed Christians any forgiveness and readmission to the Church. This was supported at various times and by various Church leaders leading to schisms and heresies. The other option was to use the Sacrament of Penance as a means of readmitting the sinners back into the Church. Pope St. Cornelius advocated this approach. Pope St. Cornelius was opposed by Novatian, who became an anti-pope. Novatian was condemned, but his schism spread to other places in the empire. The Synod of Rome in 251 affirmed the pope’s decision and the lapsed Christians were welcomed back according to the “medicines of repentance.” Pope St. Cornelius died a martyr during exile by the emperor in A.D. 253.

The Church teaches us in the Catechism: “Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful….” Let us use the “medicines of repentance” to bring us closer to God!

*https://wellcomecollection.org/works/fa53bzw9

September 11--St. John Gabriel Perboyre, Priest and Martyr

St. John Gabriel Perboyre, born in France in 1802, joined the Congregation of the Missions with a great desire to be a missionary. He was ordained in 1826 but was prevented from going to foreign missions due to his excellence at teaching in the seminary. However, in 1835 he was finally sent to China. In China he rescued street children and taught catechumens. But China was an unstable country and the Opium Wars ignited persecutions of foreigners. In 1839 St. John Gabriel was betrayed by a catechumen and then subjected to a year of trials and tortures. He was accused of teaching a false religion, charged to reveal other Christians, made to kneel on rusty iron chains, hung by his thumbs and hair, beaten by bamboo canes, and accused of immoral relations with a Chinese girl. He was sentenced to death by strangulation while on a cross and died a martyr on September 11, 1840.

St. John Gabriel faced persecution in two ways. France was an anti-clerical country after the French Revolution. China was anti-Christian because it associated Christianity with Western culture. Both societies brought him closer to Jesus by their opposition to Jesus and his Church. We are living in a society that is moving in the direction of being anti-Catholic due to Church teaching in which we follow Jesus in matters of marriage, sexuality, and the dignity of the human person at all stages of life. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee ridiculed an effort by the current administration regarding human rights because he believed it would “give preference to discriminatory ideologies.” This is the new label facing the Catholic Church. We are at the start of an era of persecution. We may not be killed, but we will be vilified, yet another kind of martyrdom.