Baptism of Christ, 1493-94, Cima da Conegliano (b. ca. 1459, Conegliano, d. 1517/18, Conegliano), Oil on panel, San Giovanni in Bragora, Venice

Today the 1962 liturgy of the Church commemorates the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan, one of the three epiphanies referred to in the Roman Breviary on the feast of the Epiphany, today’s feast, and the wedding feast at Cana.  It’s also the feast of an interesting saint we don’t hear much about in America.

Like many saints of bygone days, Blessed Veronica (1445-1497) grew up in a rural area, the small town of Binasco not far from Milan.  She was dutiful in both housework and field work, but as she grew older, the fact that she couldn’t read bothered her.  She began to stay up at night to teach herself to read.  However, the Blessed Mother appeared to her and told her that other things were more important than learning to read, and gave her three mystical letters.

Meaning of the mystical letters

In  Butler’s Lives of the Saints: With Reflections for Every Day in the Year (Dover Books on Western Philosophy), a book I read for the saint of the day every day, we learn what those letters meant.

The first signified purity of intention; the second, abhorrence of murmuring or criticism; the third, daily meditation on the Passion. By the first she learned to begin her daily duties for no human motive, but for God alone; by the second, to carry out what she had thus begun by attending to her own affairs, never judging her neighbor, but praying for those who manifestly erred; by the third she was enabled to forget her own pains and sorrows in those of her Lord, and to weep hourly, but silently, over the memory of His wrongs.

In speaking of the hermeneutic of continuity as Pope Benedict XVI does, I am struck by the continuity with traditional Catholic spiritual practices saints have advocated over the ages.  In Blessed Veronica’s purity of intention we have the Morning Offering, composed by Father Francois Xavier Gaulrelet in 1844 for his Apostleship of Prayer which he founded that year.

The second, minding her own business and not being judgmental while praying for those in error we find in the practice of silence, refraining from gossip, and making holy hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament.  St. Francis de Sales in his TAN Classic: An Introduction to the Devout Life (Tan Classics) offers spiritual direction along these lines.

The third is in keeping with the Catholic practice saints throughout the centuries have recommended: meditation on the Passion.  We have the Stations of the Cross erected in every church to remind us of the price Jesus paid for us, and the Church offers special indulgences for making the way of the Cross any time.  Regular meditation on the Passion has always been a powerful way to avoid sin and grow in the love of God for Catholics.

These three mystical letters are biblically based and sound spiritual direction for any soul.  They are simple to keep in mind, too.

Life as an Augustinian

Blessed Veronica entered the Augustinian convent of St. Martha of Milan at age 22.  The community was very poor and her daily duty was to go out into the streets and beg for their daily food.  She always sought the hardest and most humbling occupations.  In 1497 at age 52, she died as she foretold after a six month illness.  If I had a couple of bywords for St. Veronica, they would be simplicity and humility.

I was struck by the urgency of a quote from her biography: “I must work while I can, while I have time,” a response she made to her sisters who knew she was in pain and urged her to seek exemption from some of her labors.  What courage and determination, and inspiration to keep simple and focused.  God has given us a finite amount of heartbeats and we must make every one of them count for the salvation of souls – especially, first of all, of our own.

Personal reflections

When I think of her begging in the streets every day, I shrink from the idea.  Fear of rejection, I guess plus an aversion to exposure to severe heat and cold and the filth of the streets of those days. I wonder how many of us could do what she did.  Not me without God’s grace.

As far as not judging others goes, the blogosphere is full of people exercising rash judgment on all sorts of topics. Some of us, even if we don’t say it or write it still fight making judgments against others in our hearts. Blessed Veronica would be a good person to invoke before writing anything and also someone to help curb a loose tongue.

Finally, I’m adverse to pain.  God in His infinite humor and wisdom has given me a lot of it.  Meditating on the Passion is probably good medicine for all of us, aiding us in forgetting our aches and pains as it helped Blessed Veronica do.

The Augustinians of the Midwest has a short bio with more information.  If you’ve ever wondered about Augustinian spirituality, this is a good resource.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

Continuing my theme related to purgatory I introduce a special friend of God today.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity is not a saint I grew up hearing about, although she was a contemporary of the great doctor of the Church, St. Therese of Lisieux.  She was born Elizabeth Catez on July 18, 1880.  Of a lively disposition and popular among her friends, Elizabeth was also possessed of extreme stubbornness and given to fits of temper.  Along with these traits, she was also attracted to prayer and reflection which, after receiving First Holy Communion at age 11, helped mitigate the less attractive aspects of her personality.  (See?  There is hope for us who are stubborn, selfish, and bad-tempered.)

During her teen years she taught catechism to children who worked in factories and pursued the study of music, especially piano.  Those who knew her described her as a gifted musician.  But God called her out of the world and at age 20, she entered the Carmelite monastery of Dijon, much against her mother’s wishes.  There she experienced periods of great spiritual growth punctuated with times of deep darkness.  On the 9^th of November, 1906, she surrendered her soul to God.

We are especially fortunate to have her writings available – writings that allow us a glimpse into a soul that overcame much in her short life.  Because of her devotion to the Holy Trinity, hence her name in religion, we can gain insights into how God draws a soul to Himself in His three Persons.

Elizabeth was beatified on November 25, 1984.  I think that her death and feast on November 9^th during the month the Church dedicates to the Holy Souls in purgatory teaches us much about God’s desire to purify us before we draw our last breath; how He loves us with that burning love that draws us to Himself, melting away our imperfections and making us worthy to unite ourselves perfectly with Him forever. If we can cooperate with His grace sufficiently in this life we need not experience the delay of the beatific vision the souls in purgatory experience.

Some food for meditation Blessed Elizabeth has left us:

I think that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them to go out of themselves in order to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within which will allow God to communicate Himself to them and to transform them into Himself. [This is our ultimate end in eternity.]

Make a little cell in your heart for Jesus of the Agony; take refuge there, when you hear Him outraged by men, try to make reparation; you, at least, love Him and keep your heart quite pure for Him. Oh! If you only knew how the good God love pure hearts! It is there that He loves to reign.

He will communicate His power to you so you can love Him with a love as strong as death; the Word will Imprint in your soul, as in a crystal, the image of His own beauty, so you may be pure with His purity, luminous with His light. [This is the Jesus we bring to others.]

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

It is good to study the souls of the saints and follow them in faith until they reach heaven. There they shine with the light of God whom they behold face to face for all eternity. This heaven of the saints is our fatherland, the Father’s House, where we are awaited and loved … the saints grasped so well the true know­ledge that makes us go forth from all earthly things and, above all, from ourselves in order to cast ourselves upon God and to live only by Him … [We can be this way at the sink washing dishes, changing diapers, digging weeds, working at our jobs, or in our sick bed.]

We who belong to Him …should be completely identified with Him, ought to be able to repeat those words at the close of each day. You will ask me perhaps how we are to glorify Him. It is very simple, and He told us the secret when He said, ‘My meat is to do the will of Him who sent Me’.  So cling closely to the will of this adorable Master. Look upon everything, every suffering and every joy, as coming straight from Him and your life will be a continual communion since everything will be, as it were, a sacra­ment which gives you God — and that is really true, for God is not divided. His will is Himself. He is wholly and entirely in everything and these things are, in a way, but an emanation of His love.

Tomorrow I will publish her well-known and beautiful prayer to the Holy Trinity which seeks that unity with God we were created for.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever!

(Click on the link above to read why I end my posts this way.

St. Catherine of Genoa (1447-1510) was one of the more remarkable saints when it comes to experiencing a major conversion from the world to God.  For her times she was also a leading woman in the city, running a hospital she and her husband founded.

We remember St. Catherine especially for her treatise on purgatory: Fire of Love!: Understanding Purgatory.  I’m reading it again after some years as a way to connect more closely with those who have died in Christ and who are undergoing the purification she wrote about.  Here are some paragraphs from the book describing the burning desire for full union in charity with God:

I perceive there to be so much conformity between God and the soul that when He sees it in the purity in which His Divine Majesty created it, He gives it a burning love, which draws it to Himself, which is strong enough to destroy it, immortal though it be, and which causes it to be so transformed in God that it sees itself as though it were none other than God.  Unceasingly God draws the soul to Himself and breathes fire into it, never letting it go until He has led it to the state from which it came forth — that is, to the pure cleanliness in which it was created.

When with its inner sight the soul sees itself drawn by God with such loving fire, then it is melted by the heat of the glowing love for God its most dear Lord, which it feels overflowing it.  And it sees by the divine light that God does not cease drawing it, nor from leading it, lovingly and with much care and unfailing foresight, to its full perfection, doing this out of His pure love. [This is what St. Paul meant when he said, "for this is the will of God, your sanctification" 1 Thess. 4:3.]

But the soul, because it is hindered by sin, cannot go where God draws it; it cannot follow the uniting look by which God would draw it to Himself.  Again the soul perceives the grievousness of being held back from seeing the divine light; the soul’s instinct, too, since it is drawn by that uniting look, craves to be unhindered.

I say it is the sight of these things that begets in the souls the pain they feel in purgatory. Not that they make account of their pain; although it is most great, they deem it far less evil than to find themselves going against the will of God, whom they clearly see to be on fire with extreme and pure love for them.

Strongly and unceasingly this love draws the soul with that uniting look, as though it had nothing else than this to do.  Could the soul who understood this find a worse purgatory in which to rid itself sooner of all the hindrance in its way, it would swiftly fling itself therein, driven by the conforming love between itself and God.

When gold has been purified up to twenty-four carats, it can no longer be consumed by any fire; not the gold itself but only the dross can be burnt away.  Thus the divine fire works in the soul: God holds the soul in the fire until its every imperfection is burnt away and it is brought to perfection [Mt. 5: 48], as it were, to the purity of twenty-four carats — each soul, however, according to its own degree.

When the soul has been purified it remains wholly in God, having nothing of the self in it, its being is in God, who has led this cleansed soul to Himself.  The soul can suffer no more, for nothing is left in it to be burnt away. Were it held in the fire when it has thus been cleansed, it would feel no pain.  Rather the fire of divine love would be to it like eternal life and in no way contrary to it.

There is much more in this great little book, but for me what hits home is the need, at the time of death, to have no attachment of any kind to sin or this world.  We can only get there by practicing detachment every day – by holding it in our minds and considering our relationship with the people and things around us frequently.

The last two paragraphs above are very much like what we find in the biblical references to being tried by fire.  Contemplating purgatory is a big incentive to submit to all the trials God sends us in this life so that we will be in perfect charity with Him at the moment of death.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Welcome to Sunday Snippets, a meme originating at This That and the Other Thing.  Please join us over there for links to other Catholic bloggers’ posts for the week.

This week I had a bit of an Asian flavor at my blog with:

All That Remains - info on an upcoming film being made about Dr. Paul Takashi Nagai whose cause for sainthood is moving forward in the diocese of Nagasaki.  Nagai’s story is great so if you like stories about saints you’re going to want to see the trailer.

Moon Over a Ruined Castle is a bit about Japanese composer Rentaro Taki and his famous composition.  I embedded a YouTube video of this played on kotos.

Hot and Sour Cabbage Soup is my simple recipe for a Chinese flavored favorite fall meal.

We leave east Asia and visit St. Teresa of Avila in Spain and St. Francis de Sales in France at Sabbath Moments – Spiritual Progress.

Finally, I wrote about Repeat Offenders – we sinners, of course, and why God allows us to fall.

God bless all my readers.  Thanks for stopping by.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to Sabbath Moments, a weekly meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace. Visit her to read other blogger’s times when they paused for a moment with God or experienced Him in ordinary every day life.

Asparagus Beans

In the past two weeks we’ve had cooler evenings and the asparagus beans have taken off once more after dwindling in production during the heat of July.  I pickled another five jars this week and gave one away to a friend.  It’s hard work to harvest, cut the beans, steam them and make the vinegar mixture to pour over them.  I’m thankful to God that I now have the strength to do what is a 2 hour job without getting exhausted.  However, when I’m done, I have to lie down because the fibro pain is too fiery.  This is OK with me because I think about how delicious those beans will taste this winter and know it’s a good trade-off.

Rule of St. Benedict

Because I’m a Benedictine Oblate I read short meditations on the Rule most days.  Part of chapter 58 for today reads:

Let him [the novice who has chosen to make vows] know that from henceforth, being bound by the law of the Rule, he may not leave the monastery, nor shake off from his neck the yoke of the Rule which after such prolonged deliberation he was free either to refuse or accept.

"Listen carefully, my son, to the master's instructions, and attend to them with the ear of your heart."--Prologue to the Rule of Saint Benedict

This passage calls to mind the words of Christ, “My yoke is sweet and My burden is light” (Mt. 11:30).  The yoke of the Rule becomes the yoke of Christ for those called to the monastic or oblate life.  Today’s commentary includes words from the Covenant of Peace, Section II, n.3 that monks of the Swiss-American Federation read:

By his public profession, the Benedictine monk intensifies his baptismal commitment to God in Christ and enters into a covenant with his community.  He surrenders all he is and has to his brothers in expression of his total gift of self to God with them. From now on his life, his talents, his own will are not his to direct or govern, but are submitted to the good of the community under the abbot.

With regard to oblates, the commentary goes on to say:

[These words] can also mean much to our oblates, who, after mature deliberation, choose to direct their lives according to the spirit of St. Benedict and promise (but not make a vow) to dedicate themselves to the service of God and mankind according to the Rule of St. Benedict in so far as their state in life permits.

In an insane world full of incessant racket and commotion, the sanity of the Rule of St. Benedict brings peace and focus – a respite from distractions and unwitting pursuit of the trivial.  It is a practical reminder to surrender everything to God for the good of our neighbor. With continuing gratitude I ponder this rule so old and so fresh.  Moreover, keeping it in the back of my mind helps me make good choices concerning any undertakings.  From the Rite of Oblation:

May God strengthen you in your faith.  May you persevere in your holy resolution to serve God and mankind in accord with the spirit of the Rule of St. Benedict.  So be it.  Amen.

And now I must go outside and pick beans.  Thank you, Lord, for St. Benedict.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Today’s meditation in Divine Intimacy illuminates an area most of us cannot escape – that of being judgmental towards others.  Outside of having the authority and the grace to judge another person’s behavior because of our position, we sin against charity when we criticize others – even when we don’t voice it but do it in our hearts.

It is one thing to have discernment that an act of another is objectively wrong and quite another to judge the person. The number of opportunities to sin against charity by judging others staggers me.  The blabbering on the radio, internet and television, let alone the iPhones and other technologies means the airwaves are carrying all sorts of gossip, rash judgment, and criticism to anyone who presses the “start” button on an electronic gizmo.  And the above list doesn’t include what happens at church and in our groups of friends or co-workers.

Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, O.C.D. writes:

“Judge not, that you may not be judged” (Mt. 7:1).  Charity to our neighbor begins with our thoughts, as many of our failings in charity are basically caused by our judgments.  We do not think highly enough of others, we do not sufficiently consider their manifest good qualities, we are not benevolent in interpreting their way of acting.  Why?  Because in judging others, we almost always base our opinion on their faults, especially on those which wound our feelings or which conflict with our own way of thinking and acting, while we give little or no consideration to their good points.

It is a serious mistake to judge persons or things from a negative point of view and it is not even reasonable, because the existence of a negative side proves the presence of a positive quality of something good, just as a tear in a garment has no existence apart from the garment.  When we stop to criticize the negative aspect of a person or of a group, we are doing destructive work in regard to our own personal virtue and the good of our neighbor.  To be constructive we must overlook the faults and recognize the value of the good qualities that are never wanting in anyone…

St. Teresa of Jesus [Avila] said to her nuns, “Often commend to God any sister who is at fault and strive for your own part to practice the virtue which is the opposite of her fault with great perfection” (Way of Perfection, 7).

Judgment belongs to God; it is reserved to Him alone, for He alone can see into our hearts, can know what motives and intentions make us act as we do….Therefore, anyone who judges another — unless he is obliged to do so by his office, as superiors [parents, supervisors, etc.] — usurps, in a sense, God’s rights and puts himself in the place of God. To presume to judge one’s brethren always implies a proud attitude toward God and toward the neighbor. [These are really scary thoughts.] Besides, one who is quick to judge others lays himself open to committing great errors, because he does not know the intentions of others and has not the sufficient prerequisites for formulating a correct judgment.

In the face of an act which is blameworthy in itself, we are evidently not obliged to consider it good; nevertheless, we must excuse the intention of the one who committed it and not simply attribute it to a perverse will. “If our neighbor’s acts had one hundred facets, we should see only the best one; and then, if the act is blameworthy, we should at least excuse the intention” (St. Teresa Margaret of the Heart of Jesus).

Every day I, too, commit many faults; I too fall into many defects, but this does not signify that all these stem from bad will.  My faults are often committed inadvertently, through frailty; and because I detest these failings of mine the Lord continues to love me and wants me to retain complete confidence in His love.  he regards others the same as He does me; therefore, I have no right to doubt my neighbor’s good will simply because I see him commit some faults, nor have I the right to diminish, for this reason, my love and esteem for him…

St. Teresa of Avila, Carmelite Monastery, Varroville, NSW, Australia, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The last sentence is a perfect example of why the virtue of charity is so difficult to practice.  My stomach grinds at following the precepts above when someone has offended me greatly.  It’s much easier to judge the person and carry a grudge than to forgive. The deadly sin of pride is at the bottom of it all, of course.  We must recognize in this all too human tendency to judge others harshly the work of the devil to separate us from our focus on Christ.  After all, grumbling in our hearts or with our tongues takes time away from focusing on Jesus and our relationship with Him.

St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi wrote:

Teach me, O Lord, not to judge my neighbor for any fault I may see him commit, and if I should see him commit a sin, give me the grace to excuse his intention which is hidden and cannot be seen.  But even if I should see that his intention was really bad, give me the grace to excuse my neighbor because of temptation, from which no mortal is free.

St. Teresa of Avila on the same subject:

O Lord, help me not to look at anything but at the virtues and good qualities which I find in others and to keep my own grievous sins before my eyes so that I may be blind to their defects.  This course of action, though I may not become perfect in it all at once, will help me to acquire one great virtue — to consider all others better than myself.  To accomplish this, I must have Your help; when it fails, my own efforts are useless.  I beg You to give me this virtue.

Lord, help me develop the habit of commending others to You whenever I am tempted to judge them and gripe about their faults or sins.  I want to be in heaven with You some day, and regardless of my feelings about others, I want them to be there with You, too.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Welcome to RAnn’s Sunday meme where Catholic bloggers share their posts for the week.  Visit her blog, This That and the Other Thing, to catch up with interesting posts others have written.

This week I wrote about The Royal Scent of Spikenard.

As I promised last Sunday, I blogged on The Virtue of Religion.

There’s a great religious community serving the indigenous peoples of the Andes called the Missionary Servants of the Poor of the Third World.

From their newsletter I took the story of A Modern Day St. Maria Goretti which I published at the Community of Catholic Bloggers.

My Sabbath Moments consisted of dilled asparagus beans and Japanese beetles.

Prayer from the Seventh Sunday After Pentecost:

O God, Whose providence faileth not in its designs, we humbly entreat Thee: put from us all that might be harmful and give us all that will be profitable.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with Thee in the Unity of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Spikenard; Wikipedia image

July 22 was the feast of St. Mary Magdalene in the 1962 liturgical calendar and I’m a bit late in writing about something I’ve been contemplating since her feast.  However, there’s no bad time to consider a particular Bible passage in depth. In John 12:3 we hear of the famous scene:

Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of right spikenard, of great price, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.

These blessed feet of Christ which had walked throughout Israel carrying the Word of God to all who would hear, were soon to walk the road to Calvary.  Beyond the custom of washing a guest’s feet upon admitting him to the house, Mary’s use of expensive spikenard showed how precious Jesus was to her.

What is Spikenard?

Spikenard is a royal perfume from a plant that grows in the Himalayas, India, and Nepal.  Its rhizomes are crushed to produce an amber liquid which is mixed with animal or bird fat to produce an unguent that smells similar to coconut.  No doubt its high cost was due to its rarity and to the fact that it came across the Silk Road, a collection of trade routes covering the Far East to the Mediterranean, named for the lucrative silk trade that originated in the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD).  These routes were in use in ancient times, and Petra, the “Red Rose City” of Jordan flourished at one time due to the Silk Road.

Spikenard was rare enough to be reserved for the use of Egyptian royalty who were buried with it for use in the afterlife.  Archeologists found perfume jars of spikenard in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings, including Tutankhamen’s.

The Symbolism of Spikenard and Mary’s Actions

Spikenard Jar from Tutankhamen's Tomb

Mary’s use of a royal perfume symbolized the kingship of Christ. She had to kneel at His feet to anoint them as a subject kneels to a monarch.  But more than that, we can look at repentance as the precious spikenard we offer God. It is costly to us in terms of our pride and rebellious wills, but worth the price to fill our souls with the scent of mercy and forgiveness.

I am reminded by this event in the Bible of the great King David’s Penitential Psalm 50: 16-17

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit.  A heart contrite and humbled, O God, You will not spurn.

Whenever we repent and confess our sins, we are like Mary anointing the feet of Jesus and wiping them with her hair.  The odor of spikenard transfers to our souls as it did to Mary’s hair and we carry the royal scent of children of God.  Repentance is an act of love towards God as was Mary’s anointing of His feet. We please Jesus as Mary did.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Welcome to Sunday Snippets hosted by RAnn at This That and the other Thing.  Visit her to read other Catholic bloggers’ posts for the week. Join us by including your blog if you wish and have a good time.

Being an art lover, I wrote about the discovery of another authentic da Vinci painting in Leonardo da Vinci’s “Slavator Mundi”.

How the Spirit Works in Us is part of my ongoing exploration into the effects of the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation.

In Sabbath Moments I recount our misadventures with zucchini this year and some thoughts on St. Vincent de Paul whose feast we celebrated this week.

Over at the Community of Catholic Bloggers I wrote The Action of the Holy Spirit.

Collect (Prayer) for the Sixth Sunday After Pentecost:

O God of hosts, to Whom all that is best doth belong, graft in our hearts the love of Thy name, and grant us an increase of religion: that Thou mayest foster what is good, and with tender zeal guard what Thou hast fostered.

Perhaps I should write a post this week on the virtue of religion as this prayer prompts me.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Awareness of God

Welcome to the Sabbath Moments meme hosted by Colleen at Thoughts on Grace.  Visit her to read other Catholic bloggers’ moments this week when they rested in the Lord or when they recognized God in the ordinary.

This week we pulled up the zucchini because it wasn’t producing and, in spite of my spraying, was infested with squash bugs.  The southwest Missouri heat this year has been carrying on much higher and much longer than any year since we moved here in 1993, so the plants had a lot against them.  It reminds me that Jesus said the bad fig tree would have to be cut down and thrown into the fire.  If we associate with people who are giving themselves over to sin (the squash beetles), go to places that lead us to sin (the excessive and enduring heat), we are going to be torn up and thrown into the fire (hell).  Even my veggie garden has the lessons about how to live.

Yesterday, just as Roger and I started to gather veggies, rain started pouring down.  We stayed outside and got soaking wet, enjoying ourselves to the utmost while we picked the fruit of our labors.  I was thanking God for the rain and enjoying myself immensely, knowing that all those negative ions in the rain were doing something good for us and the plants.  Plus, getting wet in the rain is just plain fun.  I guess I’ve never grown up.  The kids across the street were playing outside in the rain, too.  We do have to release our inner child sometimes, don’t we?

Every day I read a life of the saint of the day from the Lives of the Saints by Father Alban Butler, from TAN books.  This week we celebrated the feast of St. Vincent de Paul.  He is a great example of a manly man. He grew up in a family of pig farmers, guarding his father’s pigs.  Shortly after his ordination to the priesthood, he was captured by pirates and carried off to the Barbary coast as a slave where he converted his master and fled with him to France.  Not long after that, he was appointed the chaplain-general of the galleys where he spread hope and joy among the prisoners.  On one occasion he took on a prisoner’s chains so that he could be released to his mother, serving out the sentence for him.

Like our modern day Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, he saw the face of Christ in the poor and suffering.  St. Vincent went into the streets of Paris to gather the children left there to die like Mother Teresa went into the streets of Calcutta to gather the dying. He taught the rich to do works of mercy and founded the daughters of Charity.

I’ve thought a lot about St. Vincent this week.  He is one of the incorruptibles.  God’s favor on his life is a body that didn’t decay in death and is a lesson that purity in a man is saintly, not wimpy. He died in 1660, which is a long time not to have been turned into dust. 

To me, St. Vincent is a great example of someone who made the most of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.  He inspires me to do my best in my circumstances. I won’t do the great things he did, but I can do quiet, small things greatly by following his example.

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Tomb of St. Henry, Emperor

Today’s feast in the 1962 liturgical calendar is St. Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who became one of the early Holy Roman Emperors, Otto being the first in 962.

Early in life he was a man of prayer and experienced supernatural visions.  As emperor he sought to reign for the honor and glory of God, spreading Christianity throughout Europe. In a battle with the Slavs he was victorious with a much smaller army because they saw large numbers of angels and saints leading his troops and fled.  Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, Burgundy, Hungary and Pannonia became united under his rule and Christian as well.

After settling an Antipope situation and bringing Benedict VIII back to Rome, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor by that pontiff in 1014.  The night before his coronation St. Henry spent in prayer at St. Mary Major and saw Jesus Christ enter to offer Mass with St. Lawrence as deacon. He saw the entire church crowded with angels and saints, the angels singing gloriously.

During the remaining years of his rule he built many cathedrals, churches and monasteries, providing instruction in the faith to all the peoples under him.  He died in 1022.

In retrospect, it’s easy to see that God used St. Henry to spread Christianity throughout middle and eastern Europe and the Balkans.  In every age God raises up those who will spread His truth even though we may not recognize it at the time. Today with Europe effectively dropping its Christian heritage down a deep well, God is still in charge and will provide the right leaders to “restore all things in Christ” – Pope St. Pius X’s motto.

Another very interesting fact about St. Henry is that he entered into an arranged marriage with St. Cunegunda as was common in noble families, but both remained virgins, something today’s world would scoff at.  From reading their life stories I’m sure it was because they both agreed to sublimate the flesh for the spiritual good of others.  Because of that both were able to accomplish great things for the spread of Christianity.  It’s a sacrifice few would be willing to make in today’s sex-soaked society.

I think that the more unusual the sacrifice God asks of us, the greater the work is that He is asking of us. Certainly virginity within marriage falls into the category of unusual sacrifice.  We can always be confident, though, that He gives all the necessary graces to fulfill His will.  God never sets His children up for failure.

I also wonder if all politicians and businessmen were to spend entire nights on their knees in prayer before engaging in significant work as St. Henry did, how much holier, just, and truly charitable would our world be?

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V. Praised be Jesus Christ!

R. Now and forever. Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Catholics who grew up in the mid 20^th century and who attended Catholic schools staffed by devout nuns learned many good prayer habits, love for the Blessed Mother, and devotion to the saints in addition to the catechism and the Mass.  To this day I marvel at knowing of the three shepherd children of Fatima, St. Pio da Pietrelcina, St. Damien, St. Therese of Lisieux, and St. Maria Goretti as part of our religion classes in the 1950s.  These saints of the latter part of the 19^th century and early part of the 20^th century were real and alive to us as we studied their virtues and were exhorted to imitate them.

A person we did not hear of at that time was Blessed Clemente Vismara (1897-1988 – to be beatified in Milan June 26^th), a missionary to Burma, now called Myanmar.  Of course, that’s natural.  World War II veterans who served in Burma know of the remote jungle terrain and primitive living conditions. Modern communication had not yet arrived where he went, and let’s face it – coverage of the Church in Asia has been slim in North America until recent years.

You can read Blessed Clemente’s story in more depth at In the Jungle of Myanmar. The Story of a Missionary Proclaimed Blessed, but to set the stage to understand what God accomplished through this priest we should be aware that Burma is primarily a Buddhist land.  Only one out of 100 inhabitants are Christian and the fact that they are is due to his work.

On the border of Thailand, Laos, and China, Blessed Clemente, a member of the Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions (PIME), started his path of evangelizing the various tribes, setting up schools, hospitals, clinics, orphanages, and parishes in 1923.  He had fought in WW I and wrote to a friend that the trenches could not compare to what he faced in Burma.  Moreover he said, “Here I am 120 kilometres from Kengtung, if I want to see another Christian I have to look in the mirror”.

What is so exciting to me about this new soon to be Blessed is not only what he accomplished, but what Father Piero Gheddo wrote about him in a recent profile of Asia News, the online agency of PIME.

Why is Father Clemente Vismara being declared Blessed? In life he did not perform miracles, have visions or revelations, he was not a mystic nor a theologian, he made no great works nor had any extraordinary gifts. He was a missionary like the rest, so much so that when we discussed the opening of his beatification cause here at PIME, some of his confreres in Burma said: “If you declare him Blessed you need to declare all of us here blessed who have led the same life he did”. In 1993 I went to Kengtung with two missionaries who had been with Clement in Burma and we asked the Bishop Abraham Than, “Why do you want father Clement declared blessed?” He said: “We had many PIME missionaries saints who founded dioceses, including the first Bishop Erminio Bonetta, still remembered as a model of evangelical charity, and others whose memory is still alive. But none of them have sparked this devotion and this movement of people who declare them saints, like Father Vismara. In this I see a sign from God to start the diocesan process.”

Lest we are ever tempted to question whether we can become saints by living ordinary lives, Pope Benedict XVI wishes to dispel the doubt by declaring Vismara “blessed”.  Is it not wonderful to know that we need not be great mystics, theologians, nor miracle workers in order to grow in holiness and be saints? We simply must live every day for Christ and witness to Him by how we conduct ourselves wherever we go.  God will bring out of our ordinary lives the fruits of our relationship with Him.  Whatever we accomplish for Him is done through Him.  The cornerstone of it all is obedience, a virtue that shines brightly in Blessed Clemente’s life.

The life of Blessed Clemente also reminds me of the last petition Cardinal Merry del Val wrote in his litany of humility which he prayed daily after he celebrated Mass: “That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.”

We should want everyone around us to be saints and live in a way that helps them to be so.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Hello, Sunday Snippets readers!  Welcome to this carnival hosted by RAnn at This That and the Other Thing where Catholic bloggers share their posts for the week. Join us at RAnn’s and link over there to your favorite posts of the week or read and leave comments.

This week I finished an autobiography by Susan Boyle and reviewed it at Susan Boyle – Her Inspiring Story.

Pillar hermits have always fascinated me so on his feast day I wrote a bit about St. Simeon Stylites – A Hermit on a Pillar.

Epiphany – Celebration of Three Manifestations of Christ’s Divinity covers one of my favorite feasts of the year and why I love it.

Please pray for my sister who is out of work and needs a job.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

St. Simeon Stylites icon, 1465 A.D., Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

For about 600 years in the early Church, God called certain followers of Christ to be hermits in the north African and Middle East deserts.  St. Simeon Stylites was one of them.  Stylos means pillar in Greek, and stylites is a person supported or standing on a pillar.  Hence his name, Simeon Sytlites.

Today we can hardly imagine what it would be like to fast from food and water in the desert for the forty days of Lent, but St. Simeon did that and more.  The average person would be dead in a week or so.  Most of us can’t imagine being hermits at all, although God is still calling people to this vocation and you can find them in many dioceses in the United States and other countries. The 1983 Code of Canon Law in the Catholic Church provides vows and rules for the eremitic life.

St. Simeon Stylites received extraordinary graces to live the way he did because only God can keep somebody alive under the blazing desert sun, in sweeping dust storms, through cold nights and rain, fasting and praying always.

He was born in northern Syria in 388 where he tended sheep.  Before St. Simeon was sixteen, he joined a monastery but horrified his fellow monks with his extreme asceticism. He quit the monastery and went to live in the wilderness where eventually he took up life at the top of a pillar adoring and praising God day and night.

Column Remains of St Simeon The Stylite topped with boulder, Syria, Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

As happened with many of the desert hermits, people flocked from miles around to ask for guidance to live in a holy way. St. Simeon prayed, preached to the crowds that came, wrote letters we still have today, and advised his disciples from the top of his pillar which was always exposed to the weather.

Although his manner of living seems extreme, God is teaching us a lesson: no matter how unusual a person’s calling is, we cannot judge God’s work in their heart. We should never interfere with someone’s vocation or criticize his path, especially when the person is under spiritual direction.  God has a special job for each of us individually, a job He prepares us for often over many years without us realizing it. We can imitate St. Simeon Stylites by seeking God alone in all that we do.

If you’ve ever felt that you were banging your head against the wall with regard to your spiritual life, it means you are trying to do it all yourself rather than letting God lead you as St. Simeon let God lead him. Stop.  Climb the spiritual pillar in front of you and get away from the incessant demands pressuring you.  Be silent and contemplate the Lord.  He is with you and will never leave you.

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V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Last week I wrote a little about St. Clement of Rome and my various patrons.  Today the Church celebrates the feast of St. Andrew, the Apostle, who is also special to me because my brother closest in age to me is named after him. (Happy feastday, brother!)

I call St. Andrew the “Relationship Broker” because he is the one who brought Peter, his brother, to Jesus.  He also brought the little boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus when the crowd needed to be fed.

In neither case did St. Andrew get a commission for his “brokering”.  He thought only of the needs of others and did all that he could out of the generosity of his heart to bring the right people together for the benefit of all. Of course Jesus was the key to these relationships.

By the time he started preaching the Gospel in Greece and other places, nobody could keep him quiet.  Even when he was crucified upside down he preached until his last breath.

Because many churches and especially the Orthodox celebrate the feast of St. Andrew with great solemnity, every year the Pope sends a delegation to mark this day with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew 1^st at the headquarters of the Orthodox Church in Fanar, Istanbul.  Vatican Radio reports:

In a message sent to Patriarch Bartholomew, the Pope says “in a world characterized by increasing interdependence and solidarity, we are called to proclaim the truth of the Gospel with renewed conviction, and to present the risen Lord as the response to the most profound spiritual questions and aspirations of men and women today.”

In order to do this, the Pope adds, “we must continue along the path towards full communion, showing that we have already united our strengths for a shared witness of the Gospel. For this reason I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Your Holiness and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for the generous hospitality you offered to delegates of the European Episcopal Conferences who – on the island of Rhodes in October – met with representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Europe for the Catholic-Orthodox Forum on the theme: ‘Relations between Church and State: theological and historical perspectives’”. Pope Benedict concludes his message by assuring the patriarch of “the interest with which he follows “your wise efforts for the good of Orthodoxy and for the promotion of Christian values in many international contexts”.

Bishop Brian Farrell, a member of the delegation sent to Turkey this year said:

“Andrew is the ‘first called’ of the disciples, it was he who then called Peter…Andrew, the brother of Peter, is as forceful symbol of the kind of embrace we would like to see between East and West.”

As an indefatigable evangelist, St. Andrew shows us that all we have to do is bring people to Jesus. We find those who are sad and searching and tell them there is hope – real hope – not in earthly pursuits but in the Son of God.  We find people with special gifts needed in the world today and point them to Him.  Jesus then does the rest.

Fair questions to ask myself are: Am I as generous sharing Jesus with others as St. Andrew was?  Am I willing to bring the good news of Christ to others even to my last breath like St. Andrew?

St. Andrew is the patron saint of sore throats , Russia, Greece, and Scotland.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)