January 27--St. Angela Merici, Virgin

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There are many ways to follow God’s baptismal call to holiness: single life, married life, consecrated life, and the ordained life. Of these, consecrated life has the most variations, including religious orders as well as hermits, consecrated virgins and widows, secular institutes, and societies of apostolic life. Today’s saint was one of the women who pioneered a new form of consecrated life, akin to modern-day secular institutes.

St. Angela Merici founded the Company of St. Ursula in 1535 in Brescia, Italy. They were meant to be in the world, but not of it. Their members consecrated themselves to God and promised celibacy, but they lived at home with their own families and served in their communities, primarily as teachers of girls in order to re-Christianize family life through being holy wives and mothers. Later they gathered in communities with one another and served throughout the world.

St. Angela started early in life as a Third Order Franciscan, maintaining a life in the secular world with a holy intent. She converted her home into a school where she taught the girls of the town in the basics of Christianity. Later, she started a school in Brescia, where, with her companions, they established the first women’s teaching order. She died in 1540 and was canonized in 1807.

Most of us are called to be in the world, not of it. That means we are called to transform the world, to help bring about the Kingdom of Heaven. We are all called to holiness through single life or married life or consecrated life or ordained life. We are called to listen to how God wants us to respond. Are we called to teach, serve, love, pray, and live as disciples? Absolutely! We are freed by our calling! St. Angela Merici, pray for us.

*Image: Benedetto Pietrogrande, “Angèle Merici”; Peter Kostner, sculptor, 1990. Church of St. Angela, Desenzano https://www.osucentral.org/who-we-are/

January 21--St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr

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Why is virginity celebrated? In our day and age virginity is celebrated in absentia; namely, chastity and purity are held in low regard and the right to engage in sexual activity is not only expected, but promoted, even among minors. But the Catholic Church holds that virginity and chastity and self-restraint in the face of overwhelming societal promotion of self-indulgence are not only commendable, but holy and graced by God. Marriage between a man and a woman is the proper relationship of sexual love with its complementary unity and openness to procreation.

Today’s saint respected virginity AND marriage to the point of offering herself up for martyrdom in witness to her love for Jesus. St. Agnes was about twelve years old when she was arrested. Although there are many legends that surround her passion and death, the core of the stories conveys the truth of her holiness. She was soon to be able to be married when she refused propositions because she had consecrated her virginity to Jesus. She was reported to the authorities during the reign of Diocletian, the most comprehensive persecution in the ancient world, in AD 304. The judge of her trial tried to get her to give up her faith and threatened her with fire and torture. She was stripped at a brothel and threatened with rape. She was executed in a stadium by being hacked to death with a sword.

We have a modern martyr just like St. Agnes in St. Maria Goretti, who was eleven years old when she was killed for not giving in to lustful advances. Martyrdom is a gift for those who love God enough to suffer the ultimate sacrifice, life. St. Agnes, St. Maria Goretti, and others have offered their lives for the sake of love of God, the true offering of virginity.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Joseph%27s_Catholic_Church_(Central_City,_Kentucky)_-_stained_glass,_St._Agnes,_detail.jpg

January 13--St. Hilary of Poitiers, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

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Arianism is the heresy that teaches that Jesus cannot be God because there is only one God and if Jesus is God, then there are two gods. Arius got it partially right and completely wrong. There is only one God AND Jesus is God: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, born of the Father before all ages. God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father” as it says in the Nicene Creed adopted at the Council of Nicaea in 325.

So, what does this have to do with our saint? St. Hilary of Poitiers was born in 315, was baptized in 350, and was acclaimed bishop in 353. As bishop he held the truth of the Catholic Church against Arianism and was banished by the emperors, who supported Arianism. St. Hilary wrote a major treatise against Arianism in order to teach why Jesus is God as well as the Son of God. St. Hilary died in 368. Arianism was condemned again in 381 and finally defeated in the sixth century in France.

Heresies start out as logical conclusions based on specific choices, but without taking into context the whole of the faith. For example, Arianism was based on the oneness of God, which is true. However, it did not take into account the faith that Jesus is God. And for that, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, were lured away from the true faith. People today are also lured away from the faith by denials of the truths of God. They rely on their own choices and make up their own faith and call it Catholic. We must stand true to the faith of Jesus in the Church, even if it means banishment from our society.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint-Hilaire-de-Poitiers_Reliquienschrein.jpg