Wednesday, May 20th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 17:11b-19..
Wednesday of the Seventh week of Easter
20 May 2015
As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 17:11b-19.
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed, saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one.
They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”
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Wednesday of the Seventh week of Easter
20 May 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Cyprian (c.200-258)
Saint Cyprian (c.200-258),
Bishop of Carthage and martyr
The Unity of the Church, § 8 (trans. Fathers of the Church Inc., 1958, alt.)
“That they may be one”
Brethren, who then is so profane and lacking in faith, who so insane by the fury of discord as either to believe that the unity of God, the garment of the Lord, the Church of Christ, can be torn asunder or to dare to do so? (Jn 19,24). He himself warns us in his Gospel, and teaches saying: “And there I shall be one flock and one shepherd” (Jn 10,16). And does anyone think that there can be either many shepherds or many flocks in one place? Likewise the Apostle Paul insinuating this same unity upon us beseeches and urges us in these words: “I beseech you, brethren,” he says, “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all say the same thing; that there be no dissensions among you but that you be perfectly united in the same mind and in the same judgement” (1Cor 1,10). And again he says: “Bearing with one another in love, careful to preserve the unity of the Spirit, in the bond peace” (Eph 4,2-3).
Do you think that you can stand and live, withdrawing from the Church, and building for yourself other abodes and different dwellings?… When the sacrament of the Passover contains nothing else in the law of the Exodus than that the lamb, which is slain in the figure of Christ, be eaten in one house? God speaks, saying: “In one house it shall be eaten, you shall not carry the flesh outside the house” (Ex 12,46). The flesh of Christ and the holy of the Lord cannot be carried outside, and there is no other house for believers except the one Church. This house, this hospice of unanimity, the Holy Spirit designates and proclaims, when he says: “God who makes those of one mind to dwell in his house” (cf. Ps 86[87],7). In the house of God, in the Church of Christ, those of mind dwell; they persevere in peace and simplicity.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Wednesday of the Seventh week of Easter
20 May 2015
Saint of the day
St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444)
SAINT BERNARDINE OF SIENA
Franciscan Priest
(1380-1444)
In 1408 St. Vincent Ferrer once suddenly interrupted his sermon to declare that there was among his hearers a young Franciscan who would be one day a greater preacher than himself, and would be set before him in honor by the Church. This unknown friar was Bernardine. Of noble birth, he had spent his youth in works of mercy, and had then entered religion.
Owing to a defective utterance, his success as a preacher at first seemed doubtful, but, by the prayers of Our Lady, this obstacle was miraculously removed, and Bernardine began an apostolate which lasted thirty-eight years. By his burning words and by the power of the Holy Name of Jesus, which he displayed on a tablet at the end of his sermons, he obtained miraculous conversions, and reformed the greater part of Italy.
But this success had to be exalted by the cross. The Saint was denounced as a heretic and his devotion as idolatrous. After many trials he lived to see his innocence proved, and a lasting memorial of his work established in a church. The Feast of the Holy Name commemorates at once his sufferings and his triumph.
He died on Ascension Eve, 1444, while his brethren were chanting the antiphon, “Father, I have manifested Thy Name to men.”
St. Bernardine, when a youth, undertook the charge of a holy old woman, a relation of his, who had been left destitute. She was blind and bedridden, and during her long illness could only utter the Holy Name. The Saint watched over her till she died, and thus learned the devotion of his life.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Saturday, May 2nd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 14:7-14.
Saturday of the Fourth week of Easter
2 May 2015
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 14:7-14.
Jesus said to his disciples: “If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Master, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father.
And whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask anything of me in my name, I will do it.
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Saturday of the Fourth week of Easter
2 May 2015
Saint Bernard (1091-1153)
Saint Bernard (1091-1153), Cistercian monk and doctor of the Church
Homily on the Aqueduct, 10-11
“If you know me, then you will also know my Father”
The one who said: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” also said: “I came from God and now I am here.” (Jn 8:42)… The Word became flesh and henceforth dwells among us (Jn 1:14). He definitely dwells in our hearts through faith, he dwells in our memory, he dwells in our thoughts, and he goes all the way down even into our imagination. For what idea could the human person have of God before, except maybe that of an idol which his own heart had made? That is because God was incomprehensible and inaccessible, invisible and utterly elusive to all thought. But now God wanted us to be able to understand him, he wanted us to be able to see him, he wanted us to be able to grasp him in thought.
You ask how? Without doubt by lying in a manger, by resting on the Virgin’s bosom, by preaching on the mountain, by spending the night in prayer; no less by being nailed to the cross, by becoming pallid in death, free among the dead and ruling over hell; finally by rising on the third day, by showing the apostles the marks of the nails, the signs of his triumph, and to finish, by returning before their eyes to the secrets of heaven.
Among all those events, is there even one which would not give rise to a true, fervent, holy thought in us? Whichever one I think of from among them, I think of God, and in all of that, he is my God. To meditate on these events is wisdom itself… In the heights, Mary drew in abundance from this same sweetness in order to pour it out again on us.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Saturday of the Fourth week of Easter
2 May 2015
Saint of the day
St. Athanasius, Bishop & Doctor of the Church (+ 373)
SAINT ATHANASIUS
Bishop & Doctor of the Church
(+ 373)
Athanasius was born in Egypt towards the end of the third century, and was from his youth pious, learned, and deeply versed in the sacred writings, as befitted one whom God had chosen to be the champion and defender of his Church against the Arian heresy.
Though only a deacon he was chosen by his bishop to go with him to the Council of Nicæa, in 325, and attracted the attention of all by the learning and ability with which he defended the faith. A few months later, he became Patriarch of Alexandria, and for forty-six years he bore, often well-nigh alone, the whole brunt of the Arian assault.
On the refusal of the Saint to restore Arius to Catholic communion, the emperor ordered the Patriarch of Constantinople to do so. The wretched heresiarch took an oath that he had always believed as the Church believes; and the patriarch, after vainly using every effort to move the emperor, had recourse to fasting and prayer, that God would avert from the Church the frightful sacrilege. The day came for the solemn entrance of Arius into the great church of Sancta Sophia. The heresiarch and his party set out glad and in triumph. But before he reached the church, death smote him swiftly and awfully, and the dreaded sacrilege was averted.
St. Athanasius stood unmoved against four Roman emperors; was banished five times; was the butt of every insult, calumny, and wrong the Arians could devise, and lived in constant peril of death. Though firm as adamant in defence of the Faith, he was meek and humble, pleasant and winning in converse, beloved by his flock, unwearied in labors, in prayer, in mortifications, and in zeal for souls.
In the year 373 his stormy life closed in peace, rather that his people would have it so than that his enemies were weary of persecuting him. He left to the Church the whole and ancient Faith, defended and explained in writings rich in thought and learning, clear, keen, and stately in expression.
He is honored as one of the greatest of the Doctors of the Church.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Thursday, April 30th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St John 13:16-20.
Thursday of the Fourth week of Easter
30 April 2015
«Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master
nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 13:16-20.
When Jesus had washed the disciples’ feet, he said to them: «Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.
If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.
I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’
From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
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Thursday of the Fourth week of Easter
30 April 2015
Commentary of the day
Vatican Council II
Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), §8
“No slave is greater than his master”
Just as Christ carried out the work of redemption in poverty and persecution, so the Church is called to follow the same route that it might communicate the fruits of salvation to men. Christ Jesus, “though he was by nature God… emptied himself, taking the nature of a slave” (Phil 2:6), and “being rich, became poor” (2 Cor 8:9) for our sakes. Thus, the Church, although it needs human resources to carry out its mission, is not set up to seek earthly glory, but to proclaim, even by its own example, humility and self-sacrifice. Christ was sent by the Father “to bring good news to the poor, to heal the contrite of heart” (Lk 4:18), “to seek and to save what was lost” (Lk 19:10). Similarly, the Church encompasses with love all who are afflicted with human suffering and in the poor and afflicted sees the image of its poor and suffering Founder. It does all it can to relieve their need and in them it strives to serve Christ…
The Church, “… presses forward amid the persecutions of the world and the consolations of God” (St. Augustine), announcing the cross and death of the Lord until he comes” (cf. 1 Cor 11:26). By the power of the risen Lord it is given strength that it might, in patience and in love, overcome its sorrows and its challenges, both within itself and from without, and that it might reveal to the world, faithfully though darkly, the mystery of its Lord until, in the end, it will be manifested in full light.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Fourth week of Easter
30 April 2015
Saint of the day
St. Pius V, Pope (1504-1572)
ST PIUS V
Pope
(1504-1572)
A Dominican friar from his fifteenth year, Michael Ghislieri, as a simple religious, as inquisitor, as bishop, and as cardinal, was famous for his intrepid defence of the Church’s faith and discipline, and for the spotless purity of his own life.
His first care as Pope was to reform the Roman court and capital by the strict example of his household and the severe punishment of all offenders. He next endeavored to obtain from the Catholic powers the recognition of the Tridentine decrees, two of which he urgently enforced-the residence of bishops, and the establishment of diocesan seminaries.
He revised the Missal and Breviary, and reformed the ecclesiastical music. Nor was he less active in protecting the Church.
We see him at the same time supporting the Catholic King of France against the Huguenot rebels, encouraging Mary Queen of Scots, in the bitterness of her captivity, and excommunicating her rival the usurper Elizabeth, when the best blood of England had flowed upon the scaffold, and the measure of her crimes was full.
But it was at Lepanto that the Saint’s power was most manifest; there, in October, 1571, by the holy league which he had formed, but still more by his prayers to the great Mother of God, the aged Pontiff crushed the Ottoman forces, and saved Christendom from the Turk.
Six months later, St. Pius died, having reigned but six years.
St. Pius was accustomed to kiss the feet of his crucifix on leaving or entering his room. One day the feet moved away from his lips. Sorrow filled his heart, and he made acts of contrition, fearing that he must have committed some secret offence, but still he could not kiss the feet. It was afterwards found that they had been poisoned by an enemy.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Sunday, March 22nd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12:20-33.
Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
A voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 12:20-33.
Now there were some Greeks among those who had come up to worship at the feast.
They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life.
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be. The Father will honor whoever serves me.”
I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.
Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”
The crowd there heard it and said it was thunder; but others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”
Jesus answered and said, “This voice did not come for my sake but for yours.
Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
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Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [Benedict XVI, Pope from 2005 to 2013]
Vom Sinn des Christseins, 1965
“If it dies, it produces much fruit”
To be a Christian is first of all and always to tear oneself away from the selfishness that lives only for itself, so as to enter into a great fundamental orientation of life for one another. Basically, all the great scriptural images transmit this reality. The image of Easter…, the image of the Exodus…, which begins with Abraham and which remains a fundamental law throughout sacred history: all this is an expression of the same basic movement, which consists in becoming detached from an existence turned in on itself.
The Lord Jesus spoke most deeply of this reality in the law concerning the grain of wheat, which at the same time shows that this essential law not only dominates all of history, but marks all of God’s creation since the beginning: “I solemnly assure you, unless the grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit.”
In his death and resurrection, Christ fulfilled the law of the grain of wheat. In the Eucharist, in the bread of wheat, it has truly become the hundredfold fruit (Mt 13,8), of which we still and always live. But in the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, in which he remains forever the one who is truly and fully “for us”, he invites us to enter every day into that law which, ultimately, is nothing but the expression of the essence of true love…: to go out of oneself in order to serve others. In the final analysis, Christianity’s fundamental movement is nothing other than the simple movement of love, by which we participate in the creative love of God himself.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Fifth Sunday of Lent – Year B
22 March 2015
Saint of the day
Bl. Cardinal august von Galen, Bishop (1933-1946)
Blessed Clemens August von Galen
Bishop of Münster
(1933-1946)
Clemens August von Galen was born on 16 March 1878 in Dinklage Castle, Oldenburg, Germany, the 11th of 13 children born to Count Ferdinand Heribert and Elisabeth von Spee.
His father belonged to the noble family of Westphalia, who since 1660 governed the village of Dinklage. For over two centuries his ancestors carried out the inherited office of camerlengo of the Diocese of Münster.
Clemens August grew up in Dinklage Castle and in other family seats. Due to the struggle between Church and State, he and his brothers were sent to a school run by the Jesuits in Feldkirch, Austria.
He remained there until 1894, when he transferred to the Antonianum in Vechta. After graduation, he studied philosophy and theology in Frebur, Innsbruck and Münster, and was ordained a priest on 28 May 1904 for the Diocese of Münster by Bishop Hermann Dingelstadt.
Parish priest, concern for poor
His first two years as a priest were spent as vicar of the diocesan cathedral where he became chaplain to his uncle, Bishop Maximilian Gerion von Galen.
From 1906 to 1929, Fr von Galen carried out much of his pastoral activity outside Münster: in 1906 he was made chaplain of the parish of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg; from 1911 to 1919 he was curate of a new parish in Berlin before becoming parish priest of the Basilica of St Matthias in Berlin-Schönberg, where he served for 10 years; here, he was particularly remembered for his special concern for the poor and outcasts.
In 1929, Fr von Galen was called back to Münster when Bishop Johannes Poggenpohl asked him to serve as parish priest of the Church of St Lambert.
“Nec laudibus, nec timore’
In January 1933, Bishop Poggenpohl died, leaving the See vacant. After two candidates refused, on September 5, 1933 Fr Clemens was appointed Bishop of Münster by Pope Pius XI.
On October 28, 1933 he was consecrated by Cardinal Joseph Schulte, Archbishop of Cologne; Bishop von Galen was the first diocesan Bishop to be consecrated under Hitler’s regime.
As his motto, he chose the formula of the rite of episcopal consecration: “Nec laudibus, nec timore” (Neither praise nor threats will distance me from God).
Throughout the 20 years that Bishop von Galen was curate and parish priest in Berlin, he wrote on various political and social issues; in a pastoral letter dated 26 March 1934, he wrote very clearly and critically on the “neopaganism of the national socialist ideology”.
Due to his outspoken criticism, he was called to Rome by Pope Pius XI in 1937 together with the Bishop of Berlin, to confer with them on the situation in Germany and speak of the eventual publication of an Encyclical.
On 14 March 1937 the Encyclical “Mit brennender Sorge” (To the Bishops of Germany: The place of the Catholic Church in the German Reich) was published. It was widely circulated by Bishop von Galen, notwithstanding Nazi opposition.
“Lion of Munster’
In the summer of 1941, in answer to unwarranted attacks by the National Socialists, Bishop von Galen delivered three admonitory sermons between July and August. He spoke in his old parish Church of St Lambert and in Liebfrauen-Ueberlassen Church, since the diocesan cathedral had been bombed.
In his famous speeches, Bishop von Galen spoke out against the State confiscation of Church property and the programmatic euthanasia carried out by the regime.
The clarity and incisiveness of his words and the unshakable fidelity of Catholics in the Diocese of Münster embarrassed the Nazi regime, and on 10 October 1943 the Bishop’s residence was bombed. Bishop von Galen was forced to take refuge in nearby Borromeo College.
From 12 September 1944 on, he could no longer remain in the city of Münster, destroyed by the war; he left for the zone of Sendenhorst.
In 1945, Vatican Radio announced that Pope Pius XII was to hold a Consistory and that the Bishop of Münster was also to be present.
Creation of a Cardinal
After a long and difficult journey, due to the war and other impediments, Bishop von Galen finally arrived in the “Eternal City”. On 21 February 1946 the Public Consistory was held in St Peter’s Basilica and Bishop von Galen was created a Cardinal.
On 16 March 1946 the 68-year-old Cardinal returned to Münster. He was cordially welcomed back by the city Authorities and awarded honorary citizenship by the burgomaster.
On the site of what remained of the cathedral, Cardinal von Galen gave his first (and what would be his last) discourse to the more than 50,000 people who had gathered, thanking them for their fidelity to the then-Bishop of Münster during the National Socialist regime. He explained that as a Bishop, it was his duty to speak clearly and plainly about what was happening.
No one knew that the Cardinal was gravely ill, and when he returned to Münster on 19 March 1946 he had to undergo an operation.
Cardinal von Galen died just three days later, on 22 March. He was buried on 28 March in the Ludgerus Chapel, which has become a place of pilgrimage to this defender of the faith in the face of political oppression.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday, March 12th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 11:14-23.
Thursday of the Third week of Lent
12 March 2015
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out,
the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 11:14-23.
Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute, and when the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke and the crowds were amazed.
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he drives out demons.”
Others, to test him, asked him for a sign from heaven.
But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house.
And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons.
If I, then, drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
When a strong man fully armed guards his palace, his possessions are safe.
But when one stronger than he attacks and overcomes him, he takes away the armor on which he relied and distributes the spoils.
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
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Thursday of the Third week of Lent
12 March 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Cyprian
(c.200-258)
Saint Cyprian
(c.200-258),
Bishop of Carthage and martyr
On the unity of the Church
“Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste.”
No one can have God as his father if he does not have the Church as his mother… The Lord warned us of this when he said: “Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather together with me scatters.” The person who breaks the peace and concord of Christ acts against Christ; the person who gathers together outside of the Church scatters the Church of Christ.
The Lord said: “The Father and I are one.” (Jn 10:30) It is also written of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: “These three are one.” (1 Jn 5:7) From now on, who can believe that the unity, which has its origin in this divine harmony, which is linked with this heavenly mystery, can be divided up in the Church… through conflicts of will? Whoever does not observe this unity neither observes the law of God nor faith in the Father and the Son; he keeps neither life nor salvation.
In the gospel, this sacrament of unity, this bond of concord in indissoluble cohesion, is shown us through the Lord’s tunic. It could neither be divided nor torn, but they drew lots so as to know who would put on Christ (Jn 19:24)… It is the symbol of unity that comes from on high.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Third week of Lent
12 March 2015
Saint of the day
St. Luigi Orione,
Priest
(1872-1940)
Saint Luigi Orione
Priest
(1872-1940)
Luigi Orione was born in Pontecurone, diocese of Tortona, on 23 June 1872. At thirteen years of age he entered the Franciscan Friary of Voghera (Pavia), but he left after one year owing to poor health. From 1886 to 1889 he was a pupil of Saint John Bosco at the Valdocco Oratory (Youth Centre) in Turin.
On 16 October 1889, he joined the diocesan seminary of Tortona. As a young seminarian he devoted himself to the care of others by becoming a member of both the San Marziano Society for Mutual Help and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. On 3 July 1892 he opened the first Oratory in Tortona to provide for the Christian training of boys. The following year, on 15 October 1893, Luigi Orione, then a seminarian of twenty-one, started a boarding school for poor boys, in the Saint Bernardine estate.
On 13 April 1895, Luigi Orione was ordained priest and, on that occasion, the Bishop gave the clerical habit to six pupils of the boarding school. Within a brief span of time, Don Orione opened new houses at Mornico Losana (Pavia), Noto – in Sicily, Sanremo and Rome.
Around the young Founder there grew up seminarians and priests who made up the first core group of the Little Work of Divine Providence. In 1899, he founded the branch of the Hermits of Divine Providence. The Bishop of Tortona, Mgr Igino Bandi, by a Decree of 21 March 1903, issued the canonical approval of the Sons of Divine Providence (priests, lay brothers and hermits) – the male congregation of the Little Work of Divine Providence. It aims to “co-operate to bring the little ones, the poor and the people to the Church and to the Pope, by means of the works of charity“, and professes a fourth vow of special “faithfulness to the Pope”. In the first Constitutions of 1904, among the aims of the new Congregation, there appears that of working to “achieve the union of the separated Churches“.
Inspired by a profound love for the Church and for the salvation of Souls, he was actively interested in the new problems of his time, such as the freedom and unity of the Church, the Roman question, modernism, socialism and the Christian evangelisation of industrial workers.
He rushed to assist the victims of the earthquakes of Reggio and Messina (1908) and the Marsica region (1915). By appointment of Saint Pius X, he was made Vicar General of the diocese of Messina for three years.
On 29 June 1915, twenty years after the foundation of the Sons of Divine Providence, he added to the “single tree of many branches” the Congregation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity who are inspired by the same founding charism. Alongside them, he placed the Blind Sisters, Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Later, the Contemplative Sisters of Jesus Crucified were also founded.
For lay people he set up the associations of the “Ladies of Divine Providence”, the “Former Pupils”, and the “Friends”. More recently, the Don Orione Secular Institute and the Don Orione Lay People’s Movement have come into being.
Following the First World War (1914-1918), the number of schools, boarding houses, agricultural schools, charitable and welfare works increased. Among his most enterprising and original works, he set up the “Little Cottolengos”, for the care of the suffering and abandoned, which were usually built in the outskirts of large cities to act as “new pulpits” from which to speak of Christ and of the Church – “true beacons of faith and of civilisation“.
Don Orione’s missionary zeal, which had already manifested itself in 1913 when he sent his first religious to Brazil, expanded subsequently to Argentina and Uruguay (1921), Palestine (1921), Poland (1923), Rhodes (1925), the USA (1934), England (1935), Albania (1936). From 1921-1922 and from 1934-1937, he himself made two missionary journeys to Latin America: to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, going as far as Chile.
He enjoyed the personal respect of the Popes and the Holy See’s Authorities, who entrusted him with confidential tasks of sorting out problems and healing wounds both inside the Church as well as in the relations with society. He was a preacher, a confessor and a tireless organiser of pilgrimages, missions, processions, live cribs and other popular manifestations and celebrations of the faith. He loved Our Lady deeply and fostered devotion to her by every means possible and, through the manual labour of his seminarians, built the shrines of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona and Our Lady of Caravaggio at Fumo. In the winter of 1940, with the intention of easing the heart and lung complaints that were troubling him, he went to the Sanremo house, even though, as he said, “it is not among the palm trees that I would like to die, but among the poor who are Jesus Christ“. Only three days later, on 12 March 1940, surrounded by the love of his confreres, Don Orione died, while sighing “Jesus, Jesus! I am going“.
His body was found to be intact at its first exhumation in 1965. It has been exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the shrine of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona ever since 26 October 1980 – the day in which Pope John Paul II inscribed Don Luigi Orione in the Book of the Blessed. He was canonized on 16 May 2004.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Tuesday, February 17th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 8:14-21.
THANK YOU
CatholicTV
Father Robert Reed
as
he guides you in praying the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary.
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Tuesday of the Sixth week in Ordinary Time
17 February 2015
“Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread?
Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8:14-21.
The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.
He enjoined them, “Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”
They concluded among themselves that it was because they had no bread.
When he became aware of this he said to them, “Why do you conclude that it is because you have no bread? Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened?
Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember,
when I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many wicker baskets full of fragments you picked up?” They answered him, “Twelve.”
When I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many full baskets of fragments did you pick up? They answered (him), “Seven.”
He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
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Tuesday of the Sixth week in Ordinary Time
17 February 2015
Saint of the day
The Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites
The Seven Holy Founders
of the Order of Servites
Seven laymen of the city of Florence, in the mid-thirteenth century, renounced the world and lived as hermits on Monte Senario, about 12 miles from Florence.
They had a particular devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary; they spent themselves in the care of others and eventually in preaching throughout Tuscany.
The Order of Servites was founded from those who came to follow them, and was recognised by the Holy See in 1304.
The Weekday Missal
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Saturday, February 14th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 8:1-10.
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Saturday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
14 February 2015
“Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 8:1-10.
In those days when there again was a great crowd without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said, My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way, and some of them have come a great distance.” His disciples answered him, “Where can anyone get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?” Still he asked them, “How many loaves do you have?” “Seven,” they replied. He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground. Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks, broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute, and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish. He said the blessing over them and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied. They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people. He dismissed them and got into the boat with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.
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Saturday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
14 February 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke, VI, 73-88 (cf. SC 45, p. 254f. rev.)
“If I send them away hungry to their homes, they will collapse on the way”
Lord Jesus, how well I know you have no wish to allow these people here with me to remain hungry but to feed them with the food you distribute, and so, strengthened with your food, they will have no fear of collapsing from hunger. I know, too, that you have no wish to send us away hungry, either… As you have said: you do not want them to collapse on the way, meaning to collapse in the byways of this life, before reaching the end of the road, before coming to the Father and understanding that you come from the Father…
Our Lord takes pity, then, so that none may collapse along the way… Just as he makes it rain on the just as well as the unjust (Mt 5,45) so he feeds the just as well as the unjust. Was it not thanks to the strength of the food that the holy prophet Elijah, when he was collapsing on the way, was able to walk for forty days? (1Kgs 19,8). It was an angel who gave that food to him but, in your case, it is Christ himself who feeds you. If you preserve the food you have received in this way then you will walk, not forty days and forty nights… but for forty years, from your departure from the borders of Egypt to your arrival in the land of plenty, the land where milk and honey flow (Ex 3,8)…
And so Christ shares out the foodstuffs and, there is no question, he wants to give it to all. He withholds it from no one for he provides for everyone. Nevertheless, when he breaks the loaves and gives them to the disciples, unless you hold out your hands to receive your portion, you will collapse along the way… This bread that Jesus breaks is the mystery of the Word of God: it increases as it is distributed. With only a few words Jesus has provided abundant nourishment for all peoples. He has given us his words as bread and, while we are tasting them, they increase in our mouths… Even as the crowds are eating, the pieces increase and become more numerous to such an extent that, in the end, the leftovers are even more plentiful than the loaves that were shared.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Saturday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
14 February 2015
Saints of the day
Sts. Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop,
Memorial (Feast in Europe)
Saint. Cyril, Monk, and Methodius, Bishop
Co-Patrons of Europe
Memorial
(Feast in Europe)
St. Cyril and St. Methodius were brothers from Thessalonica (Greece).
Cyril was born about 826 and died at Rome in 869.
Methodius was born about 815. He was made a bishop and spent many years preaching the gospel in Hungary, despite resistance and hostility. He died in Velehrad (Czech Republic) in 885.
With papal approval they preached the gospel in Moravia using their own translations of the Scriptures and the liturgy in the local language. These translations into Slavonic were based on an alphabet they invented, now called Cyrillic.
Cyril and Methodius are honoured as apostles of the Slavic peoples.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Archbishop of Montevideo, Uruguay, Daniel Fernando Sturla Berhouet, SDB
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Archbishop of Bangkok, Thailand, Francis Xavier Kriengsak Kovitvanit
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Archbishop emeritus of Manizales, Colombia, José de Jesús Pimiento Rodríguez
Bishop of David, Panama, José Luis Lacunza Maestrojuán, OAR
Bishop emeritus of Xai-Xai, Mozambique, Júlio Duarte Langa
Apostolic Nuncio (retired), Germany, Karl-Josef Rauber
Pro-Major Penitentiary emeritus, Italy, Luigi de Magistris
Archbishop emeritus of Tucumán, Argentina, Luis Héctor Villalba
Patriarch of Lisbon, Portugal, Manuel José Macário do Nascimento Clemente
Archbishop of Hanoi, Vietnam, Pierre Nguyễn Văn Nhơn
Archbishop of Valladolid, Spain, Ricardo Blázquez Pérez
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Wednesday, February 11th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 7:14-23.
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DAILY MASS – 11 February 2015
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Fr. Michael Coutts celebrates Daily Mass from St. Basil’s Church in Toronto
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Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
11 February 2015
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:14-23.
Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand.
Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile.” When he got home away from the crowd his disciples questioned him about the parable.
He said to them, “Are even you likewise without understanding? Do you not realize that everything that goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters not the heart but the stomach and passes out into the latrine?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) But what comes out of a person, that is what defiles.
From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder,
adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly.
All these evils come from within and they defile.”
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Wednesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
11 February 2015
Saint of the day
St. Severinus of Agaunum, Abbot (+ 507)
SAINT SEVERINUS
Abbot of Agaunum
(+ 507)
St. Severinus, of a noble family in Burgundy, was educated in the Catholic faith, at a time when the Arian heresy reigned in that country. He forsook the world in his youth, and dedicated himself to God in the monastery of Agaunum, which then only consisted of scattered cells, till the Catholic King Sigismund built there the great abbey of St. Maurice.
St. Severinus was the holy abbot of that place, and had governed his community many years in the exercise of penance and charity, when, in 504, Clovis, the first Christian king of France, lying ill of a fever, which his physicians had for two years ineffectually endeavored to remove, sent his chamberlain to conduct the Saint to court; for it was said that the sick from all parts recovered their health by his prayers. St. Severinus took leave of his monks, telling them he should never see them more in this world. On his journey he healed Eulalius, Bishop of Nevers, who had been for some time deaf and dumb; also a leper, at the gates of Paris; and coming to the palace he immediately restored the king to perfect health, by putting on him his own cloak. The king, in gratitude, distributed large alms to the poor and released all his prisoners.
St. Severinus, returning toward Agaunum, stopped at Château-Landon in Gatinois, where two priests served God in a solitary chapel, among whom he was admitted, at his request, as a stranger, and was soon greatly admired by them for his sanctity. He foresaw his death, which happened shortly after, in 507.
The place is now an abbey of reformed canons regular of St. Austin. The Huguenots scattered the greater part of his relics when they plundered this church.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Tuesday, February 10th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 7:1-13.
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DAILY MASS – 10 February 2015
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Fr. Dan Donovan celebrates Mass from St. Basil’s Church in Toronto
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Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
10 February 2015
“Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7:1-13.
When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus,
they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands.
(For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders. And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, “Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?”
He responded, “Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.’
You disregard God’s commandment but cling to human tradition.”
He went on to say, “How well you have set aside the commandment of God in order to uphold your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother shall die.’ Yet you say, ‘If a person says to father or mother, “Any support you might have had from me is qorban”‘ (meaning, dedicated to God), you allow him to do nothing more for his father or mother.
You nullify the word of God in favor of your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many such things.”
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Tuesday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
10 February 2015
Saint of the day
St. Scholastica, Abbess (+ c. 543)
SAINT SCHOLASTICA
Abbess
(+ c. 543)
Of this Saint but little is known on earth, save that she was the sister of the great patriarch St. Benedict, and that, under his direction, she founded and governed a numerous community near Monte Casino.
St. Gregory sums up her life by saying that she devoted herself to God from her childhood, and that her pure soul went to God in the likeness of a dove, as if to show that her life had been enriched with the fullest gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Her brother was accustomed to visit her every year, for “she could not be sated or wearied with the words of grace which flowed from his lips.” On his last visit, after a day passed in spiritual converse, the Saint, knowing that her end was near, said, “My brother, leave me not, I pray you, this night, but discourse with me till dawn on the bliss of those who see God in heaven.” St. Benedict would not, break his rule at the bidding of natural affection; and then the Saint bowed her head on her hands and prayed; and there arose a storm so violent that St. Benedict could not return to his monastery, and they passed the night in heavenly conversation.
Three days later St. Benedict saw in a vision the soul of his sister going up in the likeness of a dove into heaven. Then he gave thanks to God for the graces He had given her, and for the glory which had crowned them. When she died, St. Benedict, her spiritual daughters, and the monks sent by St. Benedict mingled their tears and prayed, “Alas! alas! dearest mother, to whom dost thou leave us now? Pray for us to Jesus, to Whom thou art gone.” They then devoutly celebrated holy Mass, “commending her soul to God;” and her body was borne to Monte Casino, and laid by her brother in the tomb he had prepared for himself.” And they bewailed her many days;” and St. Benedict said, “Weep not, sisters and brothers; for assuredly Jesus has taken her before us to be our aid and defence against all our enemies, that we may stand in the evil day and be in all things perfect.”
She died about the year 543.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Monday, February 9th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 6:53-56.
DAILY MASS
Fr. Michael Busch celebrates Daily Mass from St. Basil’s Church in Toronto
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DAILY MASS – 9 February 2015
Produced by National Catholic Broadcasting Council.
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DAILY ROSARY
Father Robert Reed prays the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary from
The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
joined by
The Choir of St Paul’s, Boston’s Boy Choir.
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Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
9 February 2015
They laid the sick in the marketplaces
and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:53-56.
After making the crossing to the other side of the sea, Jesus and his disciples came to land at Gennesaret and tied up there.
As they were leaving the boat, people immediately recognized him.
They scurried about the surrounding country and began to bring in the sick on mats to wherever they heard he was.
Whatever villages or towns or countryside he entered, they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged him that they might touch only the tassel on his cloak; and as many as touched it were healed.
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Monday of the Fifth week in Ordinary Time
9 February 2015
Saint of the day
St. Apollonia, Virgin and Martyr (+ 249)
SAINT APOLLONIA
Virgin and martyr
and the Martyrs of Alexandria
(+ 249)
At Alexandria, in 249, the mob rose in savage fury against the Christians. Metras, an old man, perished first. His eyes were pierced with reeds, and he was stoned to death. A woman named Quinta was the next victim. She was led to a heathen temple and bidden worship. She replied by cursing the false god again and again, and she too was stoned to death. After this the houses of the Christians were sacked and plundered. They took the spoiling of their goods with all joy.
St. Apollonia, an aged virgin, was the most famous among the martyrs. Her teeth were beaten out; she was led outside the city, a huge fire was kindled, and she was told she must deny Christ, or else be burned alive. She was silent for a while, and then, moved by a special inspiration of the Holy Ghost, she leaped into the fire and died in its flames.
The same courage showed itself the next year, when Decius became emperor, and the persecution grew till it seemed as if the very elect must fall away. The story of Dioscorus illustrates the courage of the Alexandrian Christians, and the esteem they had for martyrdom. He was a boy of fifteen. To the arguments of the judge he returned wise answers: he was proof against torture. His older companions were executed, but Dioscorus was spared on account of his tender years; yet the Christians could not bear to think that he had been deprived of the martyr’s crown, except to receive it afterwards more gloriously. “Dioscorus,” writes Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria at this time, “remains with us, reserved for some longer and greater combat.”
There were indeed many Christians who came, pale and trembling, to offer the heathen sacrifices. But the judges themselves were struck with horror at the multitudes who rushed to martyrdom. Women triumphed over torture, till at last the judges were glad to execute them at once and put an end to the ignominy of their own defeat.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Sunday, February 8th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 1:29-39.
SUNDAY MASS
Catholic Mass celebrated for February 8, 2015
from the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C.
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SUNDAY MASS – February 8, 2015
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Sunday Mass celebrated at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame
for Sunday, February 8, 2015.
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SUNDAY MASS – February 8, 2015.
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DAILY ROSARY
Monsignor “Father Frank” Francis T. McFarland
Prays the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary from St Charles Borromeo Church in Waltham, MA.
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From CatholicTV
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
8 February 2015
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 1:29-39.
On leaving the synagogue Jesus entered the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John.
Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick with a fever. They immediately told him about her.
He approached, grasped her hand, and helped her up. Then the fever left her and she waited on them.
When it was evening, after sunset, they brought to him all who were ill or possessed by demons.
The whole town was gathered at the door.
He cured many who were sick with various diseases, and he drove out many demons, not permitting them to speak because they knew him.
Rising very early before dawn, he left and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed.
Simon and those who were with him pursued him and on finding him said, “Everyone is looking for you.” He told them, “Let us go on to the nearby villages that I may preach there also. For this purpose have I come.” So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee.
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
8 February 2015
Saints of the day
St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947)
JOSEPHINE BAKHITA
(1869-1947)
Mother Josephine Bakhita was born in Sudan in 1869 and died in Schio (Vicenza) in 1947.
This African flower, who knew the anguish of kidnapping and slavery, bloomed marvelously in Italy, in response to God’s grace, with the Daughters of Charity.
Mother “Moretta”
In Schio (Vicenza), where she spent many years of her life, everyone still calls her “our Black Mother”. The process for the cause of Canonization began 12 years after her death and on December 1st, 1978 the Church proclaimed the Decree of the heroic practice ofall virtues.
Divine Providence which “cares for the flowers of the fields and the birds of the air”, guided the Sudanese slave through innumerable and unspeakable sufferings to human freedom and to the freedom of faith and finally to the consecration of her whole life to God for the coming of his Kingdom.
In Slavery
Bakhita was not the name she received from her parents at birth. The fright and the terrible experiences she went through made her forget the name she was given by her parents. Bakhita, which means “fortunate”, was the name given to her by her kidnappers.
Sold and resold in the markets of El Obeid and of Khartoum, she experienced the humiliations and sufferings of slavery, both physical and moral.
Towards freedom
In the Capital of Sudan, Bakhita was bought by an Italian Consul, Callisto Legnani . For the first time since the day she was kidnapped, she realized with pleasant surprise, that no one used the lash when giving her orders; instead, she was treated in a loving and cordial way. In the Consul’s residence, Bakhita experienced peace, warmth and moments of joy, even though veiled by nostalgia for her own family, whom, perhaps, she had lost forever.
Political situations forced the Consul to leave for Italy. Bakhita asked and obtained permission to go with him and with a friend of his, a certain Mr. Augusto Michieli.
In Italy
On arrival in Genoa, Mr. Legnani, pressured by the request of Mr. Michieli’s wife, consented to leave Bakhita with them. She followed the new “family”, which settled in Zianigo (near Mirano Veneto). When their daughter Mimmina was born, Bakhita became her babysitter and friend.
The acquisition and management of a big hotel in Suakin, on the Red Sea, forced Mrs. Michieli to move to Suakin to help her husband. Meanwhile, on the advice of their administrator, Illuminato Checchini, Mimmina and Bakhita were entrusted to the Canossian Sisters of the Institute of the Catechumens in Venice. It was there that Bakhita came to know about God whom “she had experienced in her heart without knowing who He was” ever since she was a child. “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: Who could be the Master of these beautiful things? And I felt a great desire to see him, to know Him and to pay Him homage…”
Daughter of God
After several months in the catechumenate, Bakhita received the sacraments of Christian initiation and was given the new name, Josephine. It was January 9, 1890. She did not know how to express her joy that day. Her big and expressive eyes sparkled, revealing deep emotions. From then on, she was often seen kissing the baptismal font and saying: “Here, I became a daughter of God!”
With each new day, she became more aware of who this God was, whom she now knew and loved, who had led her to Him through mysterious ways, holding her by the hand.
When Mrs. Michieli returned from Africa to take back her daughter and Bakhita, the latter, with unusual firmness and courage, expressed her desire to remain with the Canossian Sisters and to serve that God who had shown her so many proofs of His love.
The young African, who by then had come of age, enjoyed the freedom of choice which the Italian law ensured.
Daughter of St. Magdalene
Bakhita remained in the catechumenate where she experienced the call to be a religious, and to give herself to the Lord in the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa.
On December 8, 1896 Josephine Bakhita was consecrated forever to God whom she called with the sweet expression “the Master!”
For another 50 years, this humble Daughter of Charity, a true witness of the love of God, lived in the community in Schio, engaged in various services: cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door.
When she was on duty at the door, she would gently lay her hands on the heads of the children who daily attended the Canossian schools and caress them. Her amiable voice, which had the inflection and rhythm of the music of her country, was pleasing to the little ones, comforting to the poor and suffering and encouraging for those who knocked at the door of the Institute.
Witness of love
Her humility, her simplicity and her constant smile won the hearts of all the citizens. Her sisters in the community esteemed her for her inalterable sweet nature, her exquisite goodness and her deep desire to make the Lord known.
“Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!”
As she grew older she experienced long, painful years of sickness. Mother Bakhita continued to witness to faith, goodness and Christian hope. To those who visited her and asked how she was, she would respond with a smile: “As the Master desires.”
Final test
During her agony, she re-lived the terrible days of her slavery and more then once she begged the nurse who assisted her: “Please, loosen the chains… they are heavy!”
It was Mary Most Holy who freed her from all pain. Her last words were: “Our Lady! Our Lady!”, and her final smile testifiedto her encounter with the Mother of the Lord.
Mother Bakhita breathed her last on February 8, 1947 at the Canossian Convent, Schio, surrounded by the Sisters. A crowd quickly gathered at the Convent to have a last look at their «Mother Moretta» and to ask for her protection from heaven. The fame of her sanctity has spread to all the continents and many are those who receive graces through her intercession.
She was canonized by Pope John-Paul II on October 1, 2000.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
8 February 2015
Saints of the day
St. Jerome Emiliani (1486-1537)
SAINT JEROME EMILIANI
(1486-1537)
St. Jerome Emiliani was a member of one of the patrician families of Venice, and, like many other Saints, in early life a soldier. He was appointed governor of a fortress among the mountains of Trev
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
8 February 2015
Saints of the day
St. John of Matha, Priest (1169-1213)
SAINT JOHN OF MATHA
Priest and Founder of the Order of the Holy Trinity
(1169-1213)
The life of St. John of Matha was one long course of self-sacrifice for the glory of God and the good of his neighbor. As a child, his chief delight was serving the poor; and he often told them he had come into the world for no other end but to wash their feet. He studied at Paris with such distinction that his professors advised him to become a priest, in order that his talents might render greater service to others; and, for this end, John gladly sacrificed his high rank and other worldly advantages.
At his first Mass an angel appeared, clad in white, with a red and blue cross on his breast, and his hands reposing on the heads of a Christian and a Moorish captive. To ascertain what this signified, John repaired to St. Felix of Valois, a holy hermit living near Meaux, under whose direction he led a life of extreme penance.
The angel again appeared, and they then set out for Rome, to learn the will of God from the lips of the Sovereign Pontiff, who told them to devote themselves to the redemption of captives. For this purpose they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity. The religious fasted every day, and gathering alms throughout Europe took them to Barbary, to redeem the Christian slaves. They devoted themselves also to the sick and prisoners in all countries.
The charity of St. John in devoting his life to the redemption of captives was visibly blessed by God. On his second return from Tunis he brought back one hundred and twenty liberated slaves. But the Moors attacked him at sea, over- i powered his vessel, and doomed it to destruction, with all on board, by taking away the rudder and sails, and leaving it to the mercy of the winds. St. John tied his cloak to the mast, and prayed, saying, “Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered. O Lord, Thou wilt save the humble, and wilt bring down the eyes of the proud.” Suddenly the wind filled the small sail, and, without guidance, carried the ship safely in a few days to Ostia, the port of Rome, three hundred leagues from Tunis.
Worn out by his heroic labors, John died in 1213, at the age of fifty-three.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Saturday, February 7th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 6:30-34.
DAILY MASS
Fr. Patrick Fitzpatrick celebrates Daily Mass from St. Basil’s Church in Toronto
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoXq_jfYwQA
Produced by National Catholic Broadcasting Council.
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DAILY ROSARY
Father Robert Reed prays the Joyful Mysteries of the Holy Rosary
On a fall day in New England at the Blue Hills Reservation.
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http://www.catholictv.com/shows/the-rosary/blue-hills-joyful
From CatholicTV
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Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
7 February 2015
Jesus heart was moved with pity for them
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:30-34.
The Apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught.
He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.
So they went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place.
People saw them leaving and many came to know about it. They hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them.
When he disembarked and saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
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Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
7 February 2015
Commentary of the day : Origen
Origen (c.185-253), priest and theologian
Commentary on St. Matthew, 10,23
“He was moved with pity for them”
Jesus, the Word of God, was in Judea. After the news of the prophet John the Baptist’s murder, he went off in a boat – symbol of his body – “to a deserted place”. In this deserted place, Jesus was “deserted” because his word was deserted there and his teaching went contrary to the received customs and ideas among the nations. Then the crowds from among the Gentiles, learning that he who is the Word of God had come to dwell in their deserted place,… came along to follow him. They left their cities, that is to say, each one left the superstitious customs of their country and adhered to the law of Christ… Jesus went out to meet them, for they were not able to come to him; mingling with “those who are outside”(Mk 4:11), he led them inside.
This crowd from outside which he went out to meet is truly numerous. Pouring out over them the light of his presence, he looked at them, and seeing what kind of people surrounded him, he found them to be even more worthy of his pity. He who as God is beyond suffering, suffers because of his love for men; he is seized with emotion. Not only is he deeply moved, but he heals them of all their illnesses, he delivers them from evil.
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Saturday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
7 February 2015
Saint of the day
Bl. Rosalie Rendu, Daughter of Charity (1786-1856)
Blessed Rosalie Rendu
Daughter of Charity
(1786-1856)
Jeanne Marie Rendu was born 9 September 1786 at Confort, a district of Gex in the Jura Mountains. She was the eldest of four girls. Her parents, simple living mountain people and small property owners, enjoyed a certain affluence and true respect throughout the area. Jeanne Marie was baptized the day she was born in the parish church of Lancrans. Her Godfather by proxy was Jacques Emery, a family friend and future Superior General of the Sulpicians in Paris.
Jeanne Marie Rendu was three years old when the Revolution broke out in France. From 1790 it was compulsory for the clergy to take an oath of support for the civil Constitution. Numerous priests, faithful to the Church, refused to take this oath. They were chased from their parishes, some were put to death and others had to hide to escape their pursuers.
The Rendu family home became a refuge for these priests. The Bishop of Annecy found asylum under the assumed name of Pierre. Jeanne Marie was fascinated by this hired hand who was treated better than the others. One night, she discovered that he was celebrating Mass. She was offended that she had not been told the truth.
Later, in a discussion with her mother, she blurted out: “Be careful or I will tell that Pierre is not really Pierre.” In order to avoid any indiscretion on the part of her daughter, Madame Rendu told her the truth of the situation.
It was in this atmosphere of solid faith, always exposed to the dangers of denunciation, that Jeanne Marie was educated. She would make her first communion one night by candlelight in the basement of her home. This exceptional environment forged her character.
The death of her father, 12 May 1796, and that of her youngest sister, at four months of age, on 19 July of the same year, shook the entire family. Jeanne Marie, aware of her responsibility as the eldest, helped her mother, especially in caring for her younger sisters.
In the days following the Terror, people calmed down little by little and life resumed its normality. Madame Rendu, concerned about the education of her eldest daughter, sent her to the Ursuline Sisters in Gex. Jeanne Marie stayed two years in this boarding school. During her walks in town, she discovered the hospital where the Daughters of Charity cared for the sick. She had only one desire, to go and join them. Her mother gave her consent that Jeanne Marie, in spite of her young age, might spend some time at this hospital. God’s call, which she had sensed for many years, made itself clear: she would become a Daughter of Charity.
In 1802, Armande Jacquinot, from the village of Lancrans, confided to her friend that she was preparing to leave for Paris to enter the Company of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. Jeanne Marie leaped at the opportunity and begged her mother to allow her to leave. Having consulted with Fr. de Varicourt, the senior priest at Gex, Madame Rendu, happy, but very emotional at her daughter’s vocation, consented to her request.
On 25 May 1802, Jeanne Marie arrived at the Motherhouse of the Daughters of Charity, rue du Vieux Colombier in Paris. She was nearly 17 years old! The reopening of the Seminary, (novitiate suppressed by the Revolutionaries) took place in December 1800. On their arrival, the travelers were welcomed by 50 young women in formation.
Jeanne Marie was very anxious to give her very best in this new life. Her health was weakened by the sustained mental effort this demanded and by a lack of physical exercise. On the advice of her physician and that of her Godfather, Fr. Emery, Jeanne Marie was sent to the house of the Daughters of Charity in the Mouffetard District for the service of the poor. She would remain there 54 years!
The thirst for action, devotion and service that burned within Jeanne Marie could not have found a better place to be quenched than this district of Paris. At the time, it was the most impoverished district of the quickly expanding capital: poverty in all its forms, psychological and spiritual. There disease, unhealthy slums, and destitution were the daily lot of the people who were trying to survive.
Jeanne Marie, who received the name Sr. Rosalie, made her “apprenticeship” accompanying Sisters visiting the sick and the poor. Between times, she taught catechism and reading to little girls accepted at the free school. In 1807, Sr. Rosalie, surrounded by the Sisters of her Community, made vows for the first time to serve God and the poor. She made these vows with great emotion and joy.
In 1815 Sr. Rosalie became Superior of the Community at rue des Francs Bourgeois. Two years later the Community would move to rue de l’Epée de Bois for reasons of space and convenience. All her qualities of devotedness, natural authority, humility, compassion and her organizational abilities would be revealed. “Her poor,” as she would call them, became more and more numerous during this troubled time. The ravages of a triumphant economic liberalism accentuated the destitution of those most rejected. She sent her Sisters into all the hidden recesses of St. Médard Parish in order to bring supplies, clothing, care and a comforting word.
To assist all the suffering, Sr. Rosalie opened a free clinic, a pharmacy, a school, an orphanage, a child‑care center, a youth club for young workers and a home for the elderly without resources. Soon a whole network of charitable services would be established to counter poverty.
Her example encouraged her Sisters. She often told them: “Be a milestone where all those who are tired have the right to lay down their load.” She was so simple, and lived so poorly, as to let the presence of God shine through her.
Her faith, solid as a rock and clear as a spring, revealed Jesus Christ in all circumstances. She daily experienced this conviction of St. Vincent: “You will go and visit the poor ten times a day, and ten times a day you will find God there … you go into their poor homes, but you find God there.” Her prayer life was intense, as a Sister affirmed, “… she continually lived in the presence of God. Even if she had a difficult mission to fulfill, we were always assured of seeing her go to the chapel or finding her on her knees in her office.”
She was attentive to assuring that her companions had time for prayer, but sometimes there was a need to “leave God for God” as Vincent de Paul taught his Daughters. Once, while accompanying a Sister on a charitable visit, she said to her: “Sister, let’s begin our meditation!” She suggested the plan, the outline, in a few simple, clear words and entered into prayer.
Like a monk in the cloister, Sr. Rosalie walked with her God. She would speak to God of this family in distress as the father no longer had any work, of this elderly person who risked dying alone in an attic: “Never have I prayed so well as in the streets,” she would say.
One of her companions remarked that, “the poor themselves noted her way of praying and acting.” “Humble in her authority, Sr. Rosalie would correct us with great sensitivity and had the gift of consoling. Her advice, spoken justly and given with all her affection, penetrated souls.”
She was very attentive to the manner of receiving the poor. Her spirit of faith saw in them our “lords and masters.” “The poor will insult you. The ruder they are; the more dignified you must be,” she said. “Remember, Our Lord hides behind those rags.”
Superiors sent her postulants and young Sisters to be formed. They put in her house, for a period of time, Sisters who were somewhat difficult or fragile. To one of her Sisters in crisis, she gave this advice one day, which is the secret of her life: “If you want someone to love you, you must be the first to love; and if you have nothing to give, give yourself.” As the number of Sisters increased, the charity office became a house of charity, with a clinic and a school. She saw in that the Providence of God.
Her reputation quickly grew in all the districts of the capital and also beyond to the towns in the region. Sr. Rosalie knew how to surround herself with many efficient and dedicated collaborators. The donations flowed in quickly as the rich were unable to resist this persuasive woman. Even the former royalty did not forget her in their generosity: The Ladies of Charity helped in the home visits. Bishops, priests, the Ambassador of Spain (Donoso Cortéz), Carlo X, General Cavaignac, and the most distinguished men of state and culture, even the Emperor Napoleon III with his wife, were often seen in her parlor. Students of law, medicine, science, technology, engineering, teacher‑training, and all the other important schools came seeking from Sr. Rosalie information and recommendations. Or, before performing a good work, they asked her at which door they should knock. Among these, Blessed Frederick Ozanam, co‑founder of the “Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul,” and the Venerable Jean Léon Le Prevost, future founder of the Religious of St. Vincent de Paul, knew well the road to her office. They came, with their other friends, to Sr. Rosalie seeking advice for undertaking their projects. She was the center of a charitable movement that characterized Paris and France in the first half of the 19th century. Sr. Rosalie’s experience was priceless for these young people. She directed their apostolate, guided their coming and going in the suburbs, and gave them addresses of families in need, choosing them with care.
She also formed a relationship with the Superioress of Bon Saveur in Caen and requested that she too welcome those in need. She was particularly attentive to priests and religious suffering from psychiatric difficulties. Her correspondence is short but touching, considerate, patient and respectful towards all.
Hardships were not lacking in the Mouffetard District. Epidemics of cholera followed one after another. Lack of hygiene and poverty fostered its virulence. Most particularly in 1832 and 1846, the dedication shown and risks taken by Sr. Rosalie and her Sisters were beyond imagination. She herself was seen picking up dead bodies in the streets. During the uprisings of July 1830 and February 1848, barricades and bloody battles were the marks of the opposition of the working class stirred up against the powerful. Archbishop Affre, Archbishop of Paris, was killed trying to intervene between the fighting factions. Sr. Rosalie was deeply grieved. She herself climbed the barricades to try and help the wounded fighters irrespective of the side they were fighting on.
Without any fear, she risked her life in these confrontations. Her courage and sense of freedom commanded the admiration of all.
When order was reestablished, she tried to save a number of these people she knew and who were victims of fierce repression. She was helped a great deal by the mayor of the district, Dr. Ulysse Trélat, a true republican, who was also very popular.
In 1852, Napoleon III decided to give her the Cross of the Legion of Honor. She was ready to refuse this individual honor but Fr. Etienne, Superior General of the Priests of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity, made her accept it.
Always in fragile health, Sr. Rosalie never took a moment of rest, always managing to overcome fatigue and fevers. However, age, increasing infirmity, and the amount of work needing to be done eventually broke her strong resistance and equally strong will. During the last two years of her life she became progressively blind. She died on 7 February 1856 after a brief acute illness.
Emotions ran high in the district and at all levels of society in both Paris and the countryside. After the funeral rite at St. Médard Church, her parish, a large and emotional crowd followed her remains to the Montparnasse Cemetery. They came to show their respect for the works she had accomplished and show their affection for this “out of the ordinary” Sister.
Numerous newspaper articles witnessed to the admiration and even veneration that Sr. Rosalie received. Newspapers from all sides echoed the sentiments of the people.
L’Univers,the principal Catholic newspaper of the time, edited by Louis Veuillot, wrote as early as 8 February: “Our readers understand the significance of the sadness that has come upon the poor of Paris. They join their sufferings with the tears and prayers of the unfortunate.”
Il Consitutionnel,the newspaper of the anticlerical left, did not hesitate to announce the death of this Daughter of Charity: “The unfortunate people of the 12th district have just experienced a regrettable loss. Sr. Rosalie, Superior of the Community at rue de l’Epée de Bois died yesterday after a long illness. For many years this respectable woman was the salvation of the numerous needy in this district.”
The official newspaper of the Empire, le Moniteur, praised the kindly actions of this Sister: “Funeral honors were given to Sr. Rosalie with unusual splendor. For more than fifty years this holy woman was a friend to others in a district where there are many unfortunate people to care for and all these grateful people accompanied her remains to the church and to the cemetery. A guard of honor was part of the cortege.”
Numerous visitors flocked to the Montparnasse Cemetery. They went to meditate at the tomb of the one who was their salvation. But it was difficult to find the gravesite reserved for the Daughters of Charity. The body was then moved to a more accessible site, close to the entrance of the cemetery. On the simple tomb surmounted by a large Cross are engraved these words: “To Sister Rosalie, from her grateful friends, the rich and the poor.” Anonymous hands brought flowers and continue to bring flowers to this gravesite: a lasting yet discreet homage to this humble Daughter of St. Vincent de Paul.
– Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Friday, February 6th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 6:14-29.
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Friday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
6 February 2015
“I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:14-29.
King Herod heard about Jesus, for his fame had become widespread, and people were saying, «John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; That is why mighty powers are at work in him.» Others were saying, “He is Elijah”; still others, “He is a prophet like any of the prophets.”
But when Herod learned of it, he said, “It is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised up.” Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so.
Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” He even swore (many things) to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.”
The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Image: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Friday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
6 February 2015
Saints of the day
St. Paul Miki & his companions, Martyrs (+ 1597) – Memorial
SAINTS PAUL MIKI & HIS COMPANIONS Martyrs (+ 1597)
The initial growth of Christianity after Francis Xavier’s 1549 arrival in Japan led to opposition from Japanese leaders who feared that the introduction of Christianity was the first step in Spain’s effort to conquer their country, just as the Spanish had already conquered the Philippines. The Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan, banished all foreign ministers in 1587, but about fifteen Franciscans come to Japan from the Philippines in 1593. So, in 1596 Hideyoshi ordered the arrest of all missionaries. Police arrested six Franciscans, three Jesuits, fifteen Japanese tertiaries and two Japanese converts. They were condemned to be executed by crucifixion. They were tortured and crucified on 5 February 1597 at Tateyama (Hill of Wheat), Nagasaki. Among the Jesuits was Paul Miki, still a Jesuit scholastic [Jesuit in training]. He was born about 1565 in Japan. He entered the Society of Jesus and was a successful preacher. From the cross he preached to the people inviting them to conversion. Miki was also the first Japanese religious to be martyred. Finally soldiers pierced each prisoner’s chest with a lance. The hill on which they died became known as “Martyrs’ Hill.” They were all canonized as the Martyrs of Japan in 1862 by Pope Pius IX.
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“The only reason for my being killed is that I have taught the doctrine of Christ. I thank God it is for this reason that I die. I believe that I am telling the truth before I die. I know you believe me and I want to say to you all once again: Ask Christ to help you become happy. I obey Christ. After Christ’s example, I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a fruitful rain.”
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Friday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
6 February 2015
Saints of the day
St. Dorothy,
Virgin and Martyr
(+ 304)
SAINTE DOROTHY
Virgin and Martyr
(+ 304)
St. Dorothy was a young virgin, celebrated at Cæsarea, where she lived, for her angelic virtue. Her parents seem to have been martyred before her in the Diocletian persecution, and when the Governor Sapricius came to Cæsarea he called her before him, and sent this child of martyrs to the home where they were waiting for her.
She was stretched upon the rack, and offered marriage if she would consent to sacrifice, or death if she refused. But she replied that “Christ was her only Spouse, and death her desire.” She was then placed in charge of two women who had fallen away from the faith, in the hope that they might pervert her; but the fire of her own heart rekindled the flame in theirs, and led them back to Christ. When she was set once more on the rack, Sapricius himself was amazed at the heavenly look she wore, and asked her the cause of her joy. “Because,” she said, “I have brought back two souls to Christ, and because I shall soon be in heaven rejoicing with the angels.” Her joy grew as she was buffeted in the face and her sides burned with plates of red-hot iron. “Blessed be Thou,” she cried, when she was sentenced to be beheaded,-“blessed be Thou, O Thou Lover of souls! Who dost call me to Paradise, and invitest me to Thy nuptial chamber.”
St. Dorothy suffered in the dead of winter, and it is said that on the road to her passion a lawyer called Theophilus, who had been used to calumniate and persecute the Christians, asked her, in mockery, to send him “apples or roses from the garden of her Spouse.” The Saint promised to grant his request, and, just before she died, a little child stood by her side bearing three apples and three roses. She bade him take them to Theophilus and tell him this was the present which he sought from the garden of her Spouse. St. Dorothy had gone to heaven, and Theophilus was still making merry over his challenge to the Saint when the child entered his room. He saw that the child was an angel in disguise, and the fruit and flowers of no earthly growth. He was converted to the faith, and then shared in the martyrdom of St. Dorothy.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
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Friday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
6 February 2015
Saints of the day
Bl. Alfonso Maria Fusco,
Priest
(1839-1910)
Blessed Alfonso Maria Fusco
Priest
(1839-1910)
Alfonso Maria Fusco, the oldest of five childre, was born on March 23, 1839, in Angri, in the province of Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno. His parents, Aniello Fusco and Josephine Schiavone, were both of peasant stock but were raised from their infancy with strong Christian principles and with a holy fear of God. They were married in the Collegiata of St. John the Baptist on January 31, 1834, and for four long years the cradle they had lovingly prepared remained painfully empty.
In Pagani, only a short distance from Angri, the relics of St. Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori were preserved. It was to his tomb that Aniello and Josephine went in 1838 to pray. While they were there, the Redemptorist Francesco Saverio Pecorelli told them: “You will have a son; you will name him Alfonso; he will become a priest and will live the life of Blessed Alfonso”.
The little boy quickly revealed a mild, gentle, lovable character, responsive to prayer and to the poor. His teachers in his father’s house were learned and holy priests who instructed him and prepared him for his first meeting with Jesus. When he was seven, he received his First Holy Communion and Confirmation. He told his parents when he was eleven that he wanted to become a priest, and on November 5, 1850, “freely and with the sole desire to serve God and the Church”, as he himself declared many years later, he entered the episcopal Seminary of Nocera dei Pagani. On May 29, 1863, he was ordained by the Archbishop of Salerno, Monsignor Anthony Salomone, amid the joy of his family and the enthusiasm of the people.
Quickly he distinguished himself among the clergy of the Collegiata of St. John the Baptist in Angri for his zeal, his regular attendance at liturgical services and for his diligence in the administration of the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Reconciliation where he revealed his paternal understanding of his penitents. He devoted himself to the evangelization of the people through his simple and incisive style of preaching. The daily life of Father Alfonso was that of a zealous priest, but he carried in his heart an old dream. In his last years at the seminary, one night he had dreamt that Jesus the Nazarene was calling him to found an institute of Sisters and an orphanage for boys and girls as soon as he was ordained.
It was a meeting with Maddalena Caputo of Angri, a strong-willed woman aspiring to enter religious life, which impelled Father Alfonso to move more quickly in the foundation of the Institute. On September 25, 1878, Miss Caputo and three other young women met at night in the dilapidated Scarcella house in the Ardinghi district of Angri. The young women wanted to dedicate themselves to their own sanctification through a life of poverty, of union with God, and of charity in the care and instruction of poor orphans.
The Congregation of the Baptistine Sisters of the Nazarene was thus begun; the seed had fallen into the good earth of the hearts of these four zealous and generous women. Privations, struggles, opposition, and trials were their lot, and the Lord made that seed grow abundantly. The Scarcella House was quickly named the Little House of Providence.
Other postulants and the first orphans began to arrive, and with them the first problems. The Lord, who allows those whom He loves much to suffer much, did not spare the Founder and his daughters. Father Alfonso accepted these trials, at times very difficult ones, demonstrating an absolute conformity to the will of God, an heroic obedience to his superiors, and an unbounded trust in Divine Providence.
The unjustified attempt by the Diocesan Bishop Saverio Vitagliano to remove Father Alfonso as director of the Institute based on false accusations; the refusal by his own daughters to open the door for him of the house on Via Germanico in Rome because of their desire for a division; the words of Cardinal Respighi, the Vicar of Rome: “You have founded this community of good sisters who are doing their best. Now withdraw!” were for him moments of great suffering. He was seen praying in anguish, like Jesus in the Garden, in the small chapel in the Mother House in Angri and in the church of St. Joachim in Rome.
Father Alfonso did not leave many writings. He loved to speak with the witness of his life. The short statements, rich in evangelical wisdom, which we find in his writings, and the testimony of those who knew him are flashes which illuminate his simple life, his great love for the Eucharist and for the Passion of Jesus and his filial devotion to the Sorrowful Mother. He would often repeat to his Sisters: “Let us become saints, following Jesus closely… Daughters, if you live in poverty, in chastity and in obedience, you will shine like the stars up in the heavens”.
He directed the Institute wisely and prudently. Like a loving father, he watched over the Sisters and the orphans. He showed an almost maternal tenderness for all, especially for the most needy of the orphans. For them there was always space in the Little House of Providence, even when there was a scarcity of food or absolutely nothing. Then Father Alfonso would reassure his worried daughters saying: “Don’t worry, my daughters. I am going to Jesus now and He will worry about us!” And Jesus answered quickly and with great generosity. To him who believes, everything is possible!
At a time when an education was the privilege of the few, denied to the poor and to women, Father Alfonso did not mind sacrificing to give the children a peaceful life, an education and a trade for the older ones so that once they were grown up, they could live as honest citizens and as committed Christians. He wanted the Sisters to begin their studies as soon as possible so that they could teach the poor and, through their instruction and evangelization, prepare the way for Jesus especially in the hearts of the children and of youth. His tenacious will, totally anchored in Divine Providence, the wise and prudent collaboration of Maddalena Caputo, known as Sr. Crocifissa, who was the first superior of the growing Institute, the ongoing spur of the love of God and neighbor, contributed to the extraordinary development of the work in a very short time. The growing requests for assistance for an ever greater number of orphans and children urged Fr. Alfonso to open new houses, first in Campania, and then in other regions of Italy.
During the night of February 5, 1910, he felt unwell. He requested and then received the sacraments on the morning of February 6; after having blessed with trembling hands his own daughters weeping around his bed, he exclaimed: “Lord, I thank you, I have been a useless servant”. Then, turning to the Sisters: “From heaven I will not forget you. I will pray for you always”. And he then slept peacefully in the Lord. News of his death spread quickly and for that entire Sunday, there was a procession of people crying and saying: “The father of the poor is dead; the saint is dead!”
His witness has been an inspiration of life and a means of grace, especially for his Sisters spread today throughout four continents. On February 12, 1976, Pope Paul VI recognized his heroic virtues; on October 7, 2001, Pope John Paul II, proclaiming him blessed, offers him as an example to priests, and a model for everyone of an educator and protector especially to the poor and the needy. –
Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Thursday, February 5th. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Mark 6:7-13.
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DAILY MASS – 5 February 2015
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Fr. Dan Donovan celebrates Daily Mass from St. Basil’s Church in Toronto
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prays the Joyful mysteries of the Rosary for the protection of all human life.
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Thursday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
5 February 2015
They drove out many demons,
and they anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
| Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 6:7-13.
Jesus summoned the Twelve and began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over unclean spirits. |
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Thursday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
5 February 2015
Commentary of the day :
Thomas of Celano (c.1190-c.1260),
biographer of Saint Francis and Saint Clare
The First Life of Saint Francis, § 29
“For the first time, he sends them out two by two”
At this same time also, when another good man had entered their religion, their number rose to eight. Then the blessed Francis called them all together, and telling them many things concerning the kingdom of God, the contempt of the world, the renunciation of their own will, and the subduing of their own body, he separated them into four groups of two each and said to them: “Go, my dearest brothers, two by two into the various parts of the world, announcing to men peace and repentance unto the forgiveness of sins; and be patient in tribulation, confident that the Lord will fulfill his purpose and his promise. To those who put questions to you, reply humbly; bless those who persecute you; give thanks to those who injure you and calumniate you; because for these things there is prepared for you an eternal kingdom (Mt 5,10-11).
But they, accepting the command of holy obedience with joy and great gladness, cast themselves upon the ground before St. Francis. But he embraced them and said to each one with sweetness and affection: “Cast thy thought upon the Lord, and he will nourish you”. This word he spoke whenever he transferred any brothers in obedience.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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Thursday of the Fourth week in Ordinary Time
5 February 2015
Saint of the day
St. Agatha,
Virgin & Martyr (+ 251) – Memorial
SAINT AGATHA
Virgin and Martyr
(+ 251)
St. Agatha was born in Sicily, of rich and noble parents-a child of benediction from the first, for she was promised to her parents before her birth, and consecrated from her earliest infancy to God. In the midst of dangers and temptations she served Christ in purity of body and soul, and she died for the love of chastity. Quintanus, who governed Sicily under the Emperor Decius, had heard the rumor of her beauty and wealth, and he made the laws against the Christians a pretext for summoning her from Palermo to Catania, where he was at the time. “O Jesus Christ!” she cried, as she set out on this dreaded journey, “all that I am is Thine; preserve me against the tyrant.”
And Our Lord did indeed preserve one who had given herself so utterly to Him. He kept her pure and undefiled while she was imprisoned for a whole month under charge of an evil woman. He gave her strength to reply to the offer of her life and safety, if she would but consent to sin, “Christ alone is my life and my salvation.” When Quintanus turned from passion to cruelty, and cut off her breasts, Our Lord sent the Prince of His apostles to heal her. And when, after she had been rolled naked upon potsherds, she asked that her torments might be ended, her Spouse heard her prayer and took her to Himself.
St. Agatha gave herself without reserve to Jesus Christ; she followed Him in virginal purity, and then looked to Him for protection. And down to this day Christ has shown His tender regard for the very body of St. Agatha. Again and again, during the eruptions of Mount Etna, the people of Catania have exposed her veil for public veneration, and found safety by this means; and in modern times, on opening the tomb in which her body lies waiting for the resurrection, they beheld the skin still entire, and felt the sweet fragrance which issued from this temple of the Holy Spirit.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
FRANCIS XAVIER SAMSEN 
Thursday, September 3rd. Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Luke 5:1-11.
Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Luke 5:1-11.
While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus and listening to the word of God, he was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret.
He saw two boats there alongside the lake; the fishermen had disembarked and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, he asked him to put out a short distance from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat.
After he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.”
Simon said in reply, “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.”
When they had done this, they caught a great number of fish and their nets were tearing.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come to help them. They came and filled both boats so that they were in danger of sinking.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at the knees of Jesus and said, “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
For astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized him and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners of Simon. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore, they left everything and followed him.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Image: From Bible Hub
DAILY MASS – Thursday 3 September 2015
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Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
Commentary of the day
Saint Ambrose
Saint Ambrose (c.340-397), Bishop of Milan and Doctor of the Church
Treatise on the Gospel of Luke, IV, 71-76
“Put out into deep water and lower your nets”
“Put out into deep water,” that is to say, into the high seas of debate. Is there any depth that is comparable to the abyss of “the riches and the wisdom and the knowledge” of the Son God, (Rom 11:33), to the proclamation of his divine filiation? … The Church is led by Peter to the high seas of the testimony, so as to contemplate the risen Son of God and the Holy Spirit who is poured forth.
What are those nets of the apostles, which Christ orders them to lower? Are they not the linking of words, the twists in discourse, the depth of arguments, which don’t allow those whom they have caught to escape? This fishing tackle of the apostles doesn’t make the fish they have caught perish; rather, it preserves them, drawing them out of the abyss towards the light, leading them from the lowest depths to the heights…
“Master,” Peter said, “we have been hard at it all night long and have caught nothing; but if you say so, I will lower the nets.” I too, Lord, know that it is night for me when you do not command me. I have not yet converted anyone through my words; it is still night. I spoke on the day of Epiphany: I lowered the net, but I haven’t caught anything yet. I lowered the net during the day. I am waiting for you to give me the order. Upon your word, I will lower it again. Self-confidence is empty, but humility is fertile. Those who had not caught anything until then, have now, at the Lord’s voice, caught an enormous catch of fish.
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
Image: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Thursday of the Twenty-second week in Ordinary Time
3 September 2015
Saint of the day
St. Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church (c.540-604) – Memorial
SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT
Pope and Doctor of the Church
(540-604)
Gregory was a Roman of noble birth, and while still young was governor of Rome. On his father’s death he gave his great wealth to the poor, turned his house on the Cœlian Hill into a monastery, which now bears his name, and for some years lived as a perfect monk.
The Pope drew him from his seclusion to make him one of the seven deacons of Rome; and he did great service to the Church for many years as what we now call Nuncio to the Imperial court at Constantinople. While still a monk the saint was struck with some boys who were exposed for sale in Rome, and heard with sorrow that they were pagans. “And of what race are they?” he asked. “They are Angles.” “Worthy indeed to be Angels of God,” said he. “And of what province?” “Of Deira,” was the reply. “Truly must we rescue them from the wrath of God. And what is the name of their king?” “He is called Ella.” “It is well,” said Gregory; “Alleluia must be sung in their land to God.” He at once got leave from the Pope, and had set out to convert the English when the murmurs of the people led the Pope to recall him. Still the Angles were not forgotten, and one of the Saint’s first cares as Pope was to send from his own monastery St. Augustine and other monks to England.
On the death of Pope Pelagius II., Gregory was compelled to take the government of the Church, and for fourteen years his pontificate was a perfect model of ecclesiastical rule. He healed schisms; revived discipline; saved Italy by converting the wild Arian Lombards who were laying it waste; aided in the conversion of the Spanish and French Goths, who were also Arians; and kindled anew in Britain the light of the Faith, which the English had put out in blood.
He set in order the Church’s prayers and chant, guided and consoled her pastors with innumerable letters, and preached incessantly, most effectually by his own example.
He died A. D. 604, worn out by austerities and toils; and the Church reckons him one of her four great doctors, and reveres him as St. Gregory the Great.
Lives of the Saints, by Alban Butler, Benziger Bros. ed. [1894]
©Evangelizo.org 2001-2015
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