December 30--Bl. Eugenia Ravasco, Religious and Foundress

Bl. Eugenia Ravasco by Unknown Artist licensed under public domain.

Bl. Eugenia Ravasco was one of the 1,344 people beatified by St. John Paul II. He wanted to show that holiness is possible for all of us. This was true for Bl. Eugenia. She had a difficult childhood due to the death of her mother at age 3 and her father at age 10. She was then raised by an aunt, and later an uncle, who died when she was 16, leading her to run the household of 12 children! She discerned a vocation to religious life, which upset the plans to have her married to nobility.

“As time went on, Eugenia felt that God was calling her to found a religious order that would form ‘honest citizens in society and saints in Heaven’. Other young women had also joined her in this effort. On 6 December 1868, when she was 23 years old, she founded the religious congregation of the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Canon (later Archbishop) Magnasco had prepared her carefully and she continued, together with the sisters, to teach catechism and to open schools.”

“Thus schools, catechism teaching, associations and oratories arose. Mother Ravasco's educational project was to educate young people and train them in a solid, industrious, open Christian life, so that they could be ‘honest citizens in the midst of society and saints in heaven’; she wanted to educate them in the faith and in reading the facts from a historical-salvific perspective, proposing holiness to them as a life goal.”

Holiness needs to be our life goal! We need to grow in holiness so we can live God’s plan for us. That plan involves loving, serving, and worshiping God and loving and serving each other, and especially those who need our love the most! Bl. Eugenia, pray for us!

June 26-St. Josemaría Escrivá: Priest

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Is Opus Dei a secret cult?  Does it exert control over its members?  Does it promote physical penances?  Who is the man who founded it and why?  If we just recently read or watched The DaVinci Code these could be worthwhile questions.  That is, if we accept that it is a historical documentary, which it isn’t; it is pulp fiction and much of what is portrayed about Opus Dei is fiction.  

Opus Dei is a personal prelature of the Catholic Church, meaning it is an institution under the direct governance of the Vatican, rather than under a local bishop or head of a religious order.  Its members include about 93,000 laypersons and about 2,000 priests with about 70% of members living in private homes, leading family lives with secular careers and 30% living celibate lives in Opus Dei centers.  Self-mortification is an ancient Catholic practice—think fasting and abstinence for Lent—but it is promoted as a part of a person’s total life.  

St. Josemaría Escrivá, who founded the society in 1928 in Madrid, Spain, wrote, “Choose mortifications that don’t mortify others.”  In other words, do penance that will lead oneself and others to love of God.  St. Josemaría founded Opus Dei to help people become holy through sanctifying ordinary life.  “Saint Josemaría explained that Christians working in the world should not live ‘a kind of double life.  On the one hand, an interior life, a life of union with God; and on the other, a separate and distinct professional, social and family life.’  On the contrary:  ‘There is just one life, made of flesh and spirit.  And it is this life which has to become, in both soul and body, holy and filled with God.”  This is the essence of the Catholic life; what we are called to be and do! 

* https://www.flickr.com/photos/opus-dei/13599152113

September 18--St. Joseph of Cupertino, Priest and Religious

                               

"If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us wings."  Actually, God allows some saints to levitate!  St. Joseph of Cupertino levitated, or rose up from the ground, 70 times according to the canonization investigation.  He would levitate in ecstasy when he prayed, sometimes to the top of the altar or over the dinner table or into a tree.  St. Joseph's levitations were a source of confusion and consternation for his Franciscan brothers.  He was even brought before the Inquisition.  He was then confined to different monasteries and away from the brothers for the rest of his life.

St. Joseph's holiness did not reside in his amazing ability to fly, but rather in his humility; to accept with love the trials he was subjected to by the Church he loved.  He could see the presence of God in everything.  He would laugh at his difficulties.  He remained in his cell as required and continued his prayers.

What is the key to holiness?  It certainly is not mystic ecstasy resulting in levitation.  That would mean only the few like St. Joseph of Cupertino are holy.  No, we are ALL called to holiness.  Lumen gentium, a document from Vatican II, states:  "Thus it is evident to everyone, that all the faithful of Christ of Christ of whatever rank or status, are called to the fullness of charity; by this holiness as such a more human manner of living is promoted in this earthly society.  In order that the faithful may reach this perfection, they must use their strength accordingly, as they have received it, as a gift from Christ."  St. Joseph used his gifts accordingly.  So must we.