January 9--Bl. Alix Le Clerc, Religious

 

Hermann Weyen Scan Furmeyer 27 jun 2008, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Who deserves to be educated? In our society we would say everyone deserves an education, but in the time of Bl. Alix Le Clerc, only young men with money could afford an education. So she set out to serve and educate young women by founding the Congregation of Notre Dame with St. Peter Fourier, her pastor. On Christmas Day, 1597, she and four other women took private vows for their association because women's religious orders were normally cloistered, or enclosed, in convents. She was foundress of what we would call the first religious order of sisters, rather than nuns, because they worked in the world. The next July they started their first free school for young women in Nancy, France. Their goal was to provide free education to any girl, poor or wealthy, Protestant or Catholic. "Both believed that education would empower people, especially the girls who would grow up to become mothers in families. An education containing religious instruction would then benefit the entire family and strengthen faith in the family and society."

The Sisters of Notre Dame founded schools for girls in 43 countries, including the United States in Omaha, Nebraska, where they founded Notre Dame Academy in 1926. In 1974 it merged with Rummel High School to form Roncalli Catholic High School where its legacy of "Help all and harm none," the motto of St. Peter Fourier, and "Do the most good," the model of Bl. Alix, continue to this day.

Catholic education, whether it has been through all-boys schools, all-girls schools, co-ed schools, private schools, parochial schools, or diocesan schools, has greatly benefited society. Over 1.6 million students are educated in U.S. Catholic schools in over 5,900 schools. We need to remember and be grateful for the men and women who had the vision to found Catholic schools, like Bl. Alix Le Clerc.

January 3--Most Holy Name of Jesus

 

The Holy Name of Jesus by Lawrence OP licensed under CC BY-NC-ND-2.0.

"Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).

What does the name "Jesus" actually mean? In Greek, it is "Ἰησοῦς". In Latin, it is "Iesus". In Hebrew and Aramaic it is "ישוע" or "Yeshua/Y'shua". It has the same root as the name "Joshua". It's meaning is given to us in the Scriptures when the angel Gabriel appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" (Mt. 1:20-21). It literally means "Yahweh saves". The name is also connected to the prophecy from Isaiah: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us'" (Mt. 1:23/Is. 7:13).

Okay, that's the background!  What does that mean for us?  Lots!  One, Jesus' name gives us a real connection to a real human being who is also really God!  Second, since Jesus is God, his name is as holy as God's and his name must be respected.  It is not a curse word or an exclamation!  Third, and most important, it means we have a relationship with God on a first-name basis; he is our brother who loves us and calls us to love him.  Names have power.  Jesus' name saves!  Come, Lord Jesus!

December 31--St. Sylvester I, Pope

 

San Silvestro by User:RicciSpeziari licensed under CC by-SA 3.0.

"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord" (Job 1:21).  This famous saying seems to indicate that whoever gives has the ability to remove what was given.  If that is so, then how does the Catholic Church exist, except by the allowance of the state?  It's a fair question that had to be dealt with by today's saint, Pope St. Sylvester I (AD 314-335).  Emperor Constantine I granted the Church the right to freedom of religion in the 313 Edict of Milan.  This was a great gift to the Church because now it could exist without fear of off-and-on persecution; it could preach and influence the populace so as to win disciples to Christ; and it had the backing of the emperor, who remained in power for over 30 years.

So how did St. Sylvester I deal with this strong and benevolent ruler?  We don't know!  There is not a lot of knowledge of St. Sylvester's rule, except by inference.  We know he was pope at the same time as Constantine was emperor.  We know that he approved of the decisions of the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, called by that same emperor.  We know that the emperor donated buildings, land, and privileges to the Church.  Yet, we know that the Church did not become the tool and "yes-man" of the emperor.  That means that St. Sylvester must have been wise and skilled in diplomacy.  That doesn't mean that Constantine didn't try to use the Church to further his imperial ambitions.  He did.  But the Church remained the Church and not a department of state.  St. Sylvester I can guide us in the virtue of prudence so we can bring about God's will in the face of strong, and sometimes, oppositional, forces.

December 23--St. John of Kanty, Priest and Professor

 

COLLEGIUM MAIUS W KRAKOWIE, fot. S. Woźniak (MIK, 2015) by mik Krakow under license CC BY-SA2.0

Superman's secret identity and alter-ego was Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet.  Superman got all the praise, while Clark just wrote news stories.  Well, today's saint is like both Superman and Clark Kent, but without having a secret identity or alter-ego.  

St. John of Kanty was a priest and professor of theology in Kraków, Poland in the 15th century.  He taught Sacred Scripture and was director of the theology department of the university he graduated from, which eventually became the Jagiellonian University, where St. John Paul II studied.  He would spend hours copying manuscripts on Scriptures, theology, and even physics!  He was mild-mannered in every way, thus a Clark Kent.

But he was also holy!  He was well known for his kindness, compassion, and humility, especially towards the poor and his students.  Thus, he was a model for others, a Superman, or as we call him, a SAINT!  He died on December 24, 1473, at the age of 83.  He is patron of Poland and Lithuania.

St. John of Kanty was precisely what Clark Kent/Superman was, a hero who lived an everyday, normal kind of life.  There are heroes/saints among us today; men and women who live lives of faith, hope, and charity in the events of everyday, normal life.  Who could they be?  

They could be members of your family who love, serve, and are good and kind.  They could be people we meet in the grocery store who are trying to find food to feed their families or supplies to keep their homes clean.  They could be people in the mall who are trying to find a gift as an expression of joy in knowing another child of God.  What better saint could we have this Christmas season?  St. John of Kanty, pray for us.

December 11-St. Damasus I, Pope

Alekjds, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

He was pope, but he was opposed by a faction who elected another man pope, an anti-pope, which resulted in factional violence.  He was accused of murder and adultery, but eventually cleared himself in both civil court and a Church synod.  These are not particularly auspicious events in the life of a pope!

St. Damasus I, pope from A.D. 366-384, lived in the time of the Church when it was no longer officially persecuted.  Emperor Constantine I signed the Edict of Milan in A.D. 315, which allowed freedom of religion, thus finally legalizing Christianity.  The Catholic Church then enjoyed the privileges of peace!  During his papacy, the Catholic Church was named the state religion of the Roman Empire by Emperor Theodosius I in 380.  So, it fell to St. Damasus to make sure that the Catholic Church did not fall into error, condemning numerous heresies, especially Arianism, which taught that Jesus was not God!  He also commissioned St. Jerome, his personal secretary, to write an updated translation of the Bible into Latin, called the Vulgate.  He also called the Council of Rome in 382 to codify the official canon of Sacred Scripture, which was identical to that declared as dogma at the Council of Trent in the 16th century.

St. Damasus was quite a busy man, with controversies, successes, and setbacks.  How does his life reflect on today's situation?  One, popes are not universally liked.  Two, popes are not always appreciated for what they do and sometimes opposed.  Three, popes are given to us by God to do the hard work of shepherding Jesus' flock, which can be quite difficult.  Four, popes deserve our respect and prayers regardless of their popularity or ability to persuade us of God's ways for us.  May God give us holy men to shepherd us.

December 7--St. Ambrose, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

 

St. Ambrose of Milan by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

He initially refused the position of bishop, faced down an emperor, comforted a mother in her sorrows, and baptized the greatest philosopher of the first millennium.  Who is he?  None other than St. Ambrose of Milan, who became one of the first Doctors of the Church.  When the position of bishop opened in Milan in A.D. 374 he was serving as governor of the province.  He was not a baptized Christian, but the people acclaimed him bishop anyway, whereupon he ran away to hide.  Once, the emperor heard about the election, he affirmed it and Ambrose accepted, being baptize and ordained within the week.

However, once he became bishop, he invested his whole life into serving the people, correcting the heresy of Arianism, teaching orthodox theology in great homilies, and guiding the liturgy of Milan, which is called the Ambrosian Rite and still used today.  He confronted Emperor Theodosius in 390 after the emperor allowed/ordered the massacre of citizens of Thessalonica.  St. Ambrose required the emperor to do penance before he could receive the Eucharist.  Theodosius did so.  According to legend, he also comforted St. Monica when she came to him in tears:  "The child of those tears shall never perish."  That child was St. Augustine, who came to Milan to listen to St. Ambrose's sermons.  They gave him the intellectual grounding he needed to convert to Christianity, with St. Ambrose baptizing him.

St. Ambrose responded to God's call by giving his life over to God.  We, too, are called to give our lives to God.  We are called live our lives as disciples of Jesus:  loving, witnessing, serving, praying, worshiping, and working to bring about the Kingdom of God here on earth in our families, jobs, and associations.  We are called to the greatness of holiness!

November 1--All Saints' Day

"All Saints II" by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

"For all the saints who from their labors rest,

who thee by faith before the world confessed,

thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.

Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Today we celebrate all the saints who do not have a feast day in the Church's calendar of over 10,000 saints.  That includes Grandma Mary, Uncle Joe, Cousin Susie, Neighbor Rosicky, Fr. Richard, Sr. Sarah and all the rest, who, by their lives of holiness have contributed to bringing about the Kingdom of God on earth in their own specific way.  

Because that is what it means to be a saint: one who lives by faith, hope, and love; one who strives to be holy and cares for others; one who prays for all and especially "enemies"; one who gives one's life in dedication to God and others; one who sacrifices and offers up the prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of each day in union with the holy sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world; one who shares the Good News of God's love and salvation with others; one who raises children, cares for the elderly, heals the sick, comforts the sorrowful, warns the sinner, instructs the ignorant, buries the dead, clothes the naked, shelters the homeless, feeds the hungry, bears wrongs patiently, visits the imprisoned, counsels the doubtful, forgives sins, prays, prays, and prays even more.

We are all called to be saints, to be holy.  We have so many who have gone before us who guide us, who pray for us, and who love us from heaven.  May all the saints praise God for his glory and pray that we may be forever with him and them.  Amen.

But, lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;

the saints triumphant rise in bright array;

the King of glory passes on his way.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

January 23--St. Marianne Cope (St. Marianne of Moloka’i), Virgin and Religious

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Today’s saint went to minister to people who were infected with a highly contagious disease, knowing she could contract it and die. It wasn’t Covid, but rather, Hansen’s disease, leprosy. When she received the plea from King Kalākaua of Hawai’i, she responded: “I am hungry for the work and I wish with all my heart to be one of the chosen Ones, whose privilege it will be, to sacrifice themselves for the salvation of the souls of the poor Islanders... I am not afraid of any disease, hence it would be my greatest delight even to minister to the abandoned ‘lepers.’” 

Born in Germany in 1838, her family emigrated to Utica, New York where her father worked in a factory. When her father died in 1862, she joined the Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis. She became a teacher, principal, and hospital administrator. By 1883 she was Superior General of the congregation and answered the call to go to Hawai’i with six sisters. Her first responsibility was to manage a hospital on Oahu to process leprosy patients. Then she opened a general hospital, reformed government abuse of lepers, opened a home for homeless female children of leprosy patients, opened a home for leprous women and girls on Moloka’i, cared for St. Damien of Moloka’i, and took over his ministry when he died. She stayed in Hawai’i until her death in 1918, due to natural causes. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

St. Marianne Cope rejoiced when she found she would not return to New York: “We will cheerfully accept the work….” We are also thrown into difficult circumstances at times; the current pandemic is one of them. Let us maintain our cheerfulness in ministering to our brothers and sisters. St. Marianne Cope, pray for us.

* https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Mother_Marianne_Cope_statue.jpg billsoPHOTO, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

January 19—Sts. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum, Parents and Sons—Martyrs

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Today we celebrate a family of martyrs! They were martyred in A.D. 270 in Rome. They buried other martyrs and then became the object of persecution and torture. Maris and his sons were beheaded, and their bodies burnt. Martha was drowned outside of Rome at a place now called Santa Ninfa. According to tradition, a Roman woman gathered the remains of the family and had them buried on her estate, which became a place of pilgrimage. They are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, which is the official list of saints recognized by the Church. They are not on the General Roman Calendar because we only know with certainty their names and their place of burial.

How is it that a whole family could be martyred? They were willing to die for what they believed in. They were witnesses to their faith in Jesus Christ and the hope of the Resurrection. Are our families prepared to do the same? Do we believe to the point of witnessing to our faith in Jesus Christ? Are we willing to live lives of heroic virtue? Do people see in us what others saw in our saints—a love of God which can’t be denied or suppressed?

Do we live the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy so that others cannot but see our faith? We need to clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and the imprisoned, give food and drink to the hungry and thirsty, bury the dead, instruct the ignorant, comfort the afflicted, warn the sinner, counsel the doubtful, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offenses patiently, and pray for the living and the dead. This is Jesus’ command! Then everyone will know we are Christians, by our love! May Sts. Marius, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum guide us and pray for us!

*https://www.akg-images.co.uk/archive/Fresco---Saints-Marius-Martha-Audifax-Abachum.-(Christian-Martyrs-)---Basilica-Santo-Stefano-Rotondo---Rome-2UMEBM5IHTJLT.html

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

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Is Jesus God or not? That was key question of the fourth century and beyond that faced the Church. Some, with Arius, said that since Jesus was “begotten of the Father,” that meant he was a creature, albeit the first creature of God. Others, with St. Athanasius, said that Jesus is “begotten, not made” and thus consubstantial with the God the Father. Today’s saint helped hammer home the truth of who Jesus is by his opposition to the Arians and support of St. Athanasius, so much so he was called “Hammer of the Arians” and “Athanasius of the West.”

Born about A.D. 310 in Poitiers, France to pagan parents, St. Hilary received a good pagan education, later studying Scripture, thus resulting in his conversion to Christianity, along with his wife and daughter. He was elected bishop of Poitiers around A.D 350. Even though Arianism was condemned at the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 it was still in force throughout the empire, much due to the efforts of different emperors. So St. Hilary attempted to get Arian bishops turned back to the true faith. He also wrote Emperor Constantius II to stop Arians persecuting orthodox Christians, which resulted in his exile in 356. After his exile in 361, he returned in Poitiers and continued to fight for the true understanding of the Trinity against the Arians. He died in 367.

Falsehoods and lies take a long time to die. They are like a many-headed hydra, which keeps sprouting new variations on lies that are condemned and refuted. We need to endure and persevere in living the Truth. St. Paul wrote: “No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). We must remain faithful to the Truth of Jesus Christ. St. Hilary, pray for us.

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

Richard de Montbaston et collaborateurs., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons