June 13--St. Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church

                       

“Tony, Tony, come on down. Something’s lost and can’t be found.” Grandmothers hand on this prayer for when we lose something. The “Tony” of this little prayer refers to St. Anthony of Padua, who is the patron saint of lost items. The reason for the prayer is because he prayed for the return of a Book of Psalms that was stolen from him. In the 13th century, books were very expensive due to the cost of reproducing them, which was by hand. The book was eventually returned to him.

St. Anthony is known for more than just this prayer. He was a Franciscan friar who became a powerful preacher and was even called the Evangelical Doctor. He was the first Franciscan to teach other Franciscans, with the permission of St. Francis of Assisi, and was renowned for his knowledge of Scripture and theology.

St. Anthony is also portrayed holding the child Jesus. There is a legend that Jesus appeared to St. Anthony in the form of a child. However, the image can also be a reminder that St. Anthony is a true follower of St. Francis, who loved Jesus so much to originate the first Christmas crèche. Another reason for the image is that St. Anthony presents the Incarnate Word of God, Jesus, to the whole world through his powerful preaching.

Losing objects is unfortunate and can even be devastating. But even more devastating is the loss of heaven. As the novena to St. Anthony says, “Let me rather lose all things than lose God, my supreme good. Let me never suffer the loss of my greatest treasure, eternal life with God. Amen.”

June 7--Bl. Franz Jaegerstaetter, Martyr

World War II gave the Church many martyrs, among them St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (also known as St. Edith Stein), and today's saint, Bl. Franz Jaegerstaetter, an Austrian farmer who refused to fight on behalf of Germany.  Bl. Jaegerstaetter opposed the Anchluss, or annexation, of Austria by Germany.  He was drafted, trained, and then received deferments three times.  However, when he was drafted in 1943 he refused to take a loyalty oath to Hitler, was imprisoned for six months and was then beheaded and cremated on August 9.  His ashes were reburied in 1946 and he was beatified in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.

There were Catholics in Germany and Austria who served in the German army.  Bl. Jaegerstaetter's own pastor and bishop also encouraged him to serve if drafted.  He refused, telling his attorney:  “I can only act on my own conscience. I do not judge anyone. I can only judge myself.  I have considered my family. I have prayed and put myself and my family in God’s hands. I know that, if I do what I think God wants me to do, he will take care of my family.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church guides us with regards to conscience:  "Deep within his conscience man discovers a law which he has not laid upon himself but which he must obey. Its voice, ever calling him to love and to do what is good and to avoid evil, sounds in his heart at the right moment. . . . For man has in his heart a law inscribed by God. . . . His conscience is man's most secret core and his sanctuary. There he is alone with God whose voice echoes in his depths" (1776).  "When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking" (1777).  We are all called to form and follow our consciences just as Bl. Franz Jaegerstaetter did and let God guide us and give us his grace to do his will.

May 15—St. Isidore the Farmer, Holy Man

What does it mean to be a farmer? It means constant chores, days out in the fields, weeding rows of beans, detasseling corn, caring for animals, watching the sky for rain, haying during the summer’s heat, harvesting past sundown, worrying about prices, and more. But it also means satisfaction for feeding the hungry.

Today’s saint is the patron of farmers.  St. Isidore was a day laborer who would go to Mass first thing in the morning and then head out to the fields, still completing his required chores.  He was married to St. Maria de la Cabeza and together they showed “commitment to family, love for the land, service to the poor and a deep spirituality.”  Their love and piety was simple, yet profound.  They were not theologians nor clergy nor members of a religious order.  St. Isidore was a worker.  St. Maria served in the home.  They lived their daily lives in much the same way as the Holy Family, although their one child died in infancy.

Farmers and workers need to live their faith in their farming and working and family life.  We need to live our faith in our jobs and family life.  We have a myriad of chores, but each can be done with the joy of service.  We have a plethora of problems, but with the grace of God, each can be resolved.  We have relationships that deserve our love and time.  This is what St. Isidore and St. Maria did.  They worked; they lived; they loved.  It is a simple formula, but it fulfills Jesus’ prayer:  “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.”

May 10—St. Damien de Veuster of Molokai, Priest

“Unclean, unclean.”  These words were shouted by those in the Bible who had the disease of leprosy, what is now called Hansen’s Disease.  It is mentioned in the Bible 68 times, 15 in the New Testament and was often thought of as curse from God for sin.  It is a highly infectious disease that affects the nervous system and causes disfigurement.  One of the amazing effects of Hansen’s Disease is that the infected cannot feel pain, leading to lack of awareness of harm caused to the body.

St. Damien of Molokai dedicated his life to serving the leper colony on Molokai in the 19^th century.  The lepers of Molokai were shunned by the rest of society.  St. Damien did what he could to return their sense of God-given dignity by his service.  He persuaded another saint, St. Marianne Cope to bring her sisters to help minister to them.  He buried many of his people, digging their graves himself.  Eventually, he contracted Hansen’s Disease and had to stay as a member of his beloved community.  He also died, and was buried on Molokai, where part of his body remains to this day.

When Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI canonized St. Damien he remarked:  “He invites us to open our eyes to the forms of leprosy that disfigure the humanity of our brethren and still today call for the charity of our presence as servants, beyond that of our generosity."  Who among us is disfigured and shunned?  Is it the homeless, those with mental diseases or syndromes, the unborn, the poor, the marginalized?  We need to hear the unheard cry of “Unclean, unclean” and minister to them.

April 23—St. George, Martyr

So, there’s this dragon outside a city, and there’s a pretty maiden who’s going to be eaten by it, and then there’s this soldier on a horse who kills it in the name of God, and he’s St. George, right?  Wrong!  The legend comes to us from the crusaders who told it in the manner of a medieval romance.  Nonetheless, there are elements of truth, even in legends.  What we know of St. George is that he was a martyr during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, who persecuted the Church severely in about the late 3^rd century.  It was a requirement by Diocletian that all Christian soldiers either renounce their faith or be executed.  St. George accepted execution.  But what about the dragon?  The dragon is a common symbol for Satan.  Therefore, we can see that St. George defeated Satan through his faith, suffering, and death.

St. George is the patron saint of soldiers.  Many people wonder how a Christian can be a soldier, one who takes the lives of others.  A soldier may take life, but only in defense of life.  It is a common principle of the Just War Theory, started by St. Augustine and expanded upon by St. Thomas Aquinas, that defense of life may involve the taking of another life, but only as a last resort and not intended in itself.  This means that soldiers may enter into war with other combatants, but not with non-combatants, such as civilians or prisoners of war.  War is never a desired activity, but it may be necessary in the manner of defense.  Soldiers defend.  We offer our prayers for the men and women who put themselves in harm’s way for our defense and for others.

April 17—St. Benedict Joseph Labre, Holy Man

We see them in the park or under the highway bridge or in the wooded area near the river.  They are the homeless, the poor who have no place to rest their heads.  We attempt to deprive them of the dignity deserving of all humans when we only see their poverty and their state of being outcast.  Our saint was one such outcast, a homeless drifter who visited shrines as a part of his religious life, St. Benedict Joseph Labre. 

After numerous attempts to join religious orders to live the solitary life of prayer he desperately craved, he decided to make the open air his monastery.  He eventually found his way to Rome where his confessor described his first meeting:  “I noticed a man close beside me whose appearance at first sight was decidedly unpleasant and forbidding. His legs were only partially covered, his clothes were tied round his waist with an old cord. His hair was uncombed, he was ill-clad, and wrapped about in an old and ragged coat. In his outward appearance he seemed to be the most miserable beggar I had ever seen. Such was the spectacle of Benedict the first time I beheld him."  Holiness was hidden beneath the cloak of poverty.

We have the opportunity to meet the homeless and minister to them, whether at the local shelter or Open Door Mission.  These men, women, and children are not necessarily the holy hermits that St. Benedict was, but they are God’s beloved.  We are called to shelter, feed, clothe, give drink, visit the sick and imprisoned, and bury our brothers and sisters as Jesus taught (Mt. 25:35-45).  St. Benedict Joseph Labre, patron of the homeless, pray for us.

April 7—St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest

If you have been to a school with others in a classroom, you can thank St. John Baptist de la Salle.  If you have been in a grade, or had a core curriculum, or learned in your mother tongue, or had vocational training, or had teachers who were trained to teach, you can thank St. John Baptist de la Salle.  It is due to his innovations in education that much of what we take for granted today has been the preferred method for centuries.

St. John Baptist de la Salle was the son of wealthy parents who decided to become a priest.  It was at a chance meeting with a fellow priest who was trying to start a school to educate young girls that he began to come up with the idea to teach poor boys in a free school.  His methods of education involved teaching them in French and not Latin, with others together of similar ages rather than individually as with a tutor, and by means of separate classes that comprised a core curriculum.  He wanted them to be educated in manners and in a trade as well as in religion.  He wanted the boys to be good citizens on earth and good saints for heaven.  He founded the Brothers of the Christian Schools in the 17^th century and was named patron of school teachers in 1950.

We send our children to school in order to become good citizens, which is one of the primary purposes of St. John Baptist de la Salle’s schools and order.  But we also need to provide for their moral and religious education so that they may be saints.  We may send them to a parish religious education program, home school them, or send them to a Catholic school.  Nonetheless, our children, and we too, are citizens of two societies, that of earthly society and of heaven.  Let us follow John Baptist de la Salle in preparing our children for both.