August 5--St. Mary Major, Basilica

 

Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore licensed under (CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Catholic Church honors four church buildings in the liturgical calendar due to their roles as ancient churches in Rome: St. John Lateran, the mother church of the Catholic Church; St. Peter’s, which is above the burial site of St. Peter; St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, which is above the burial site of St. Paul; and St. Mary Major, to honor Mary as the Mother of God. These four churches were the original major basilicas of the Catholic Church. “Basilica” is a title given to a church by the pope to have special privileges due to its history or importance. The reason St. Mary Major has a feast is because it was built immediately after the Council of Ephesus in 431, which declared that Mary was not just the mother of Jesus, or the mother of the Messiah, but the Mother of God. It is the oldest church in the West dedicated to the honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We can see that the understanding of Mary’s role in the Church goes back centuries, even to before the dedication of St. Mary Major. Mary’s role as Mother of God is foundational for God’s divine plan of salvation. We celebrate Mary, the Mother of God; the Annunciation, Mary’s fiat to being the Mother of God; the Immaculate Conception, God’s gift of freedom from Original Sin from the time of her existence; the Assumption of Mary body and soul into Heaven; the Most Holy Name of Mary; the Birth of Mary; the Queenship of Mary; Our Lady of Sorrows; Our Lady of the Rosary; Our Lady of Guadalupe; Our Lady of Lourdes; Our Lady of Fatima; and more! Why? Because she is the Mother of God! She is our Mother! She intercedes for us! She loves us! Thank God for Mary!

July 27–St. Titus Brandsma, Priest, Religious, and Martyr

Sculpture Titus Brandsma by Gerard Mathot, Pieter Bondamplein, Nijmegen, the Netherlands licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

We need martyrs! “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians” according to Tertullian and also to St. John Paul II. The twentieth century was filled with martyrs in Mexico, Spain, Nazi-occupied Europe, Communist-controlled countries, and anti-Catholic dictatorships and governments. This has spilled into the twenty-first century as well. “Martyrs are revered with particular devotion by the People of God who see in them a living portrayal of Christ's Passion.”

Today’s saint was a “witness” (the meaning of the word martyr) to Jesus’ Passion in Nazi-occupied Netherlands. Born in 1881, St. Titus Brandsma grew up on a dairy farm and entered the Carmelite order in 1898. He was ordained a priest in 1905, received his doctorate, helped found the Catholic University of Nijmegen, and taught philosophy and history of mysticism there. He also became a journalist, which led to his arrest by the Nazis in 1942. He was hand-delivering a letter from the Dutch bishops to editors of Catholic newspaper editors to prohibit publishing official Nazi documents and was arrested and sent to Dachau where he was killed by an injection of carbolic acid. “In 1985, Pope St. John Paul II declared Titus Blessed, saying that he “‘answered hate with love.’"

We need martyrs to show that Jesus’ sacrifice of love is lived out in the lives and deaths of his faithful ones! We need martyrs to bolster the faith of our brothers and sisters in Christ! We need martyrs to convert the hearts of those who oppose, harass, torture, persecute, arrest, unjustly convict, and unjustly imprison and kill! We need martyrs to proclaim the truths of faith, hope, and love in Christ Jesus! We need martyrs to be “a life-giving sap of unity for the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.” St. Titus Brandsma, pray for us.

July 16--Bl. Guadalupe Ortiz, Holy Woman and Member of Opus Dei

 

https://catholicreadings.org/catholic-quotes/blessed-guadalupe-ortiz-de-landazuri-fernandez-de-heredia-saint-of-the-day-july-16/

Is there a conflict between science and religion? Many who believe science can answer every question (scientism) say yes and “that science alone can give us complete and reliable knowledge of reality.” Those who believe religion can give us truths say no because, as Pope St. John Paul II says: “Truth cannot contradict truth.” Truth can be found in both science and religion! Today’s saint is a witness to that truth!

Bl. Guadalupe Ortiz was both a scientist and a member of Opus Dei, a personal prelature composed of priests and laity who “spread the Christian message that every person is called to holiness and that every honest work can be sanctified.” She was born in Spain in 1916 and became a teacher in 1939. She met St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei, who admitted her to the movement. She then moved to Mexico to share the message of Opus Dei and began her doctorate. She also helped found a school for girls and a mobile medical clinic for the poor. She then moved to Rome to help St. Josemaría and at the same time worked on a research project, for which she received an award, and completed her doctorate. She died in 1975 after years of heart problems and was declared Blessed in 2019.

Pope Francis wrote for her beatification: “With the joy that came from knowing she was a daughter of God, as she had learned from Saint Josemaría himself, Guadalupe Ortiz placed her many human and spiritual qualities at the service of others, helping in a particular way other women and families in need of education and development. She did all this not with a proselytizing attitude but simply through her prayer and witness.” Science and religion are both true as Bl. Guadalupe Ortiz demonstrated!

July 10--Bl. Faustino Villanueva y Villanueva, Priest and Martyr

http://newsaints.faithweb.com/martyrs/Guatemala.htm

What does it mean to be a martyr? Pope Francis has beatified many martyrs, including those killed during the civil war in Guatemala from 1954-1996. Why were they martyred? The Vatican biography for their beatification states: “From 1980, a systematic persecution against the Church began, overwhelming priests, religious and lay people under the pretext that they were ‘enemies of the state’. … The ten martyrs [of Quiché] … were killed in Guatemala between 1980 and 1991 … for being committed to and protecting the dignity of the poor.”

The following is from a Spanish newspaper article: “Faustino Villanueva was born on February 15, 1931 in Yesa, where his parents were also from. He entered the apostolic school of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, in Valladolid, as a child. He professed in 1949 and was ordained a priest in 1956. He went as a volunteer to the mission of Quiché (Guatemala) in 1959, where he remained until his martyrdom, which occurred in the parish office on July 10, 1980, after twenty-one years of fruitful missionary service to the poorest. A month before he died, he wrote to his mother, reiterating his desire to remain in the mission despite the prevailing violence: ‘We cannot leave the people abandoned.’ He died machine-gunned by two young hitmen in the parish office of Joyabaj (El Quiché) on July 10, 1980.

“Those who knew him affirm that ‘he was simply good, evangelical in his non-existent flirtations with power and prestige; so charmingly familiar and unfussy; so clearly biased in favor of the marginalized indigenous, of the favorite downtrodden peasants of the Gospel; of the voiceless.... However, this evangelical Faustino Villanueva was shot mercilessly. And not by mistake. He had long been on a sinister death row list. Guilty of siding with the poor and marginalized.’”

July 4--Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati, Holy Man and Third Order Dominican

https://www.usccb.org/topics/youth-and-young-adult-ministries/blessed-pier-giorgio-frassati

Jesus taught the Beatitudes at the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5:3-12). Pope St. John Paul II (the Great) called Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati “Man of the Eight Beatitudes.” Frassati lived from 1901-1925 in Turin, Italy. He dedicated himself to helping those in need and would say: "Charity is not enough; we need social reform.”

In his Beatification homily, Pope John Paul stated: “Today’s celebration invites all of us to receive the message which Pier Giorgio Frassati is sending to the men and women of our day, but especially to you young people, who want to make a concrete contribution to the spiritual renewal of our world, which sometimes seems to be falling apart and wasting away because of a lack of ideals. By his example he proclaims that a life lived in Christ’s Spirit, the Spirit of the Beatitudes, is ‘blessed’, and that only the person who becomes a ‘man or woman of the Beatitudes’ can succeed in communicating love and peace to others. He repeats that it is really worth giving up everything to serve the Lord. He testifies that holiness is possible for everyone, and that only the revolution of charity can enkindle the hope of a better future in the hearts of people.”

He inspires us to pray the Prayer for the Courage to be Great:

"Heavenly Father,
Give me the courage to strive for the highest goals,
to flee every temptation to be mediocre.
Enable me to aspire to greatness, as Pier Giorgio did,
and to open my heart with joy to Your call to holiness.
Free me from the fear of failure.
I want to be, Lord, firmly and forever united to You.
Grant me the graces I ask You through Pier Giorgio's intercession,
by the merits of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amen."

June 25--St. Prosper of Aquitaine, Holy Man and Theologian

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aquit%C3%A1niai_Szent_Prosper.jpg

Can we do good without the grace of God? Or is God’s grace required for us to do any good? This was the heart of the question behind semi-Pelagianism in the fifth century. St. Augustine taught that we can only do good if God gives us grace. St. John Cassian and St. Vincent of Lerins taught that we have free will which allows us to choose good without God’s grace. Augustine’s position led to the problem of double predestination, which taught that God’s grace is irresistible! Cassian’s and Vincent’s position led to the problem of doing good without God! Both issues have significant problems and neither was completely accepted by the Church.

Here is where our saint comes in. Prosper of Aquitaine was a layman from Aquitaine in southwestern France. He was familiar with the arguments of Cassian and Vincent and was able to summarize them to Augustine. This allowed Augustine to respond. After Augustine’s death Prosper interpreted Augustine’s work so that the extremes in his teaching could be avoided, keeping BOTH the necessity of God’s grace in doing good works AND the necessity of humans in freely using the gift of God’s grace to do the good God gives us the grace to do.

The Catholic Church often responds to controversial issues not with an “either/or” response, but with a “BOTH/AND” response. The “BOTH/AND” is nuanced and complete. We are for BOTH the mother AND the unborn child. We are BOTH pro-life AND pro-justice and peace. We are for BOTH the freedom of choice AND the truth of the good. We are BOTH body AND soul. Jesus is BOTH God AND man. We are BOTH saved AND praying for final perseverance. We are BOTH citizens of Heaven AND residents of Earth. St. Prosper, pray for us!

June 23--St. Joseph Cafasso, Priest

Enrico Reffo, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

One of the corporal works of mercy is “visit the imprisoned.” Many of us don’t get that chance very often, if at all. Today’s saint not only had that chance, he made it one of his primary ministries. St. Joseph Cafasso lived from 1811-1860 in Turin, Italy. Ordained in 1833 he became a popular lecturer in moral theology, helping people to avoid scrupulosity and the error of believing venial sins are as bad as mortal sins. He was popular as a confessor. He also became a friend and advisor to St. John Bosco.

But it was through his work with prisoners condemned to death that showed his effectiveness in converting sinners. He accompanied sixty condemned men to their executions, considering these men as “hanged saints”. He was called “Priest of the Gallows” for his ministry. One story tells of how he led forty-five hardened criminals to confession by confronting the biggest and strongest by grabbing his beard. If the prisoner had wished he could have easily overcome the small and frail priest disabled by curvature of the spine. Instead, he allowed himself to be led by the saint, by the beard, to a corner where Fr. Cafasso prepared him for and heard his confession. The huge man was so overcome that, “He told [his fellow prisoners] he had never been so happy in his life. And his experience persuaded them all to go to confession.”

We may not be priests and we may not be in prison ministry, but we can pray for those who are. The United States has the sixth highest incarceration rate in the world with 531 per 100,000 people in jail or prison. More than likely we may know of someone who has been or is currently incarcerated. We can pray for them as well!