Teach me to do your will, for you are my God………Psalm 143:10
REFLECTION – “Let us serve God but let us do so according to His will. He will then take the place of everything in our lives. He will be our strength and the reward of our labours.”………St Vincent de Paul
PRAYER – Infinite Lord, help me to serve You always in accord with Your holy will. Show me how to make You my Lord and my All. St Frances of Rome, you showed us all the way of holiness within the confines of our lives, always seeking to do the will of God and serve all His children, most especially those in need but remaining always true to the vows of your marriage. Please pray for us all, amen.
Lord,
I’m not always eager to do Your will.
I’d often much rather do my own will.
Please be with me on this Lenten journey
and help me to remember
that Your own spirit can guide me
in the right direction.
I want to “fix” my weaknesses
but the task seems overwhelming.
But I know that with Your help,
anything can be done.
With a grateful heart,
I acknowledge Your love
and know that without You,
I can do nothing. Amen
Saint of the Day – 9 March – St Frances of Rome Obl.S.B. (1384-1440) Wife, Mother, Mystic, Organiser of charitable services and a Benedictine Oblate who founded a religious community of Oblates, who share a common life without religious vows – Patronages – against plague/epidemics, of automobile drivers (given in 1951), aviators, taxi drivers, death of children, the laity, motorcyclists, motorists, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, widows, women, Rome, Italy.
Frances was born in 1384 in Rome to a wealthy and aristocratic couple, Paolo Bussa and Iacobella dei Roffredeschi, in the up-and-coming district of Parione and christened in the nearby Church of St Agnes on the famed Piazza Navona. When she was eleven years old, she wanted to be a nun but, at about the age of twelve, her parents forced her to marry Lorenzo Ponziani, commander of the papal troops of Rome and member of an extremely wealthy family. Although the marriage had been arranged, it was a happy one, lasting for forty years, partly because Lorenzo admired his wife and partly because he was frequently away at war.
With her sister-in-law Vannozza, Frances visited the poor and took care of the sick, inspiring other wealthy women of the city to do the same. Soon after her marriage, Frances fell seriously ill. Her husband called a man in who dabbled in magic but Frances drove him away and later recounted to Vannozza that St Alexis had appeared to her and cured her.
When her mother-in-law died, Frances became mistress of the household. During a time of flood and famine, she turned part of the family’s country estate into a hospital and distributed food and clothing to the poor. According to one account, her father-in-law was so angry that he took away from her the keys to the supply rooms but gave them back when he saw that the corn bin and wine barrel were replenished after Frances finished praying.
St Frances of Rome Giving Alms by Baciccio
During the wars between the pope in Rome and various anti-popes in the Western Schism of the Church, Lorenzo served the former. According to one story, their son, Battista, was to be delivered as a hostage to the commander of the Neapolitan troops. Obeying this order on the command of her spiritual director, Frances brought the boy to the Campidoglio. On the way, she stopped in the Church of the Aracoeli located there and entrusted the life of her son to the Blessed Mother. When they arrived at the appointed site, the soldiers went to put her son on a horse to transport him off to captivity. The horse, however, refused to move, despite heavy whipping. The superstitious soldiers saw the hand of God in this and returned the boy to his mother.
During a period of forced exile, much of Lorenzo’s property and possessions were destroyed. In the course of one occupation of Rome by Neapolitan forces in the early part of the century, he was wounded so severely that he never fully recovered. Frances nursed him throughout the rest of his life.
Frances experienced other sorrows in the course of her marriage with Lorenzo Ponziani. They lost two children to the plague. Chaos ruled the city in that period of neglect by the pope and the ongoing warfare between him and the various forces competing for power on the Italian peninsula devastated the city. The city of Rome was largely in ruins—wolves were known to enter the streets. Frances again opened her home as a hospital and drove her wagon through the countryside to collect wood for fire and herbs for medicine. It is said she had the gift of healing, and more than sixty cases were attested to during the Canonisation proceedings.
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “With her husband’s consent St Frances practised continence and advanced in a life of contemplation.
Her visions often assumed the form of drama enacted for her by heavenly personages. She had the gift of miracles and ecstasy, as well as the bodily vision of her guardian angel, had revelations concerning Purgatory and Hell and foretold the ending of the Western Schism. She could read the secrets of consciences and detect plots of diabolical origin. She was remarkable for her humility and detachment, her obedience and patience”.
On August 15, 1425, the feast of the Assumption of Mary, she founded the Olivetan Oblates of Mary, a confraternity of pious women, under the authority of the Olivetan monks of the Abbey of Santa Maria Nova in Rome but neither cloistered nor bound by formal vows, so they could follow her pattern of combining a life of prayer with answering the needs of their society.
In March 1433, she founded a monastery at Tor de’ Specchi, near the Campidoglio, in order to allow for a common life by those members of the confraternity who felt so called. This monastery remains the only house of the Institute. On 4 July of that same year, they received the approval of Pope Eugene IV as a religious congregation of oblates with private religious vows. The community later became known simply as the Oblates of St. Frances of Rome.
Frances herself remained in her own home, nursing her husband for the last seven years of his life from wounds he had received in battle. When he died in 1436, she moved into the monastery and became the superior. She died in 1440 and was buried in Santa Maria Nova.
On 9 May 1608, she was Canonised by Pope Paul V and in the following decades a diligent search was made for her remains, which had been hidden due to the troubled times in which she lived. Her body was found incorrupt some months after her death. Her grave was identified on 2 April 1638, (but this time only the bones remained) and her remains were reburied in the Church of Santa Maria Nova on 9 March 1649, which since then has been her feast day. Again, in 1869, her body was exhumed and has since then been displayed in a glass coffin for the veneration of the faithful. The Church of Santa Maria Nova is now usually referred to as the Church of St Frances.
In 1925, Pope Pius XI declared her the patron saint of automobile drivers because of a legend that an angel used to light the road before her with a lantern when she travelled, keeping her safe from hazards. Within the Benedictine Order, she is also honoured as a patron saint of all oblates.
St Frances of Rome (Optional Memorial
—
St Antony of Froidemont
St Bosa of York
St Bruno of Querfurt
St Candidus St Catherine of Bologna
St Constantine of Cornwall
St Cyrion St Dominic Savio St Gregory of Nyssa
St Mary of Seyne
St Pacian of Barcelona
St Vitalis of Calabria
—
Martyrs of Korea: – Ioannes Baptista Chon Chang-un, Petrus Ch’oe Hyong
LENTEN REFLECTION – Wednesday of the First Week of Lent – 8 MARCH
Subtle temptations and subtle sins
Blessed John Henry Newman
Now, I have used the word “subtle” already and it needs some explanation. By a subtle temptation or a subtle sin, I mean one which it is very difficult to find out. Everyone knows what it is to break the ten commandments, the first, the second, the third and so on. When a thing is directly commanded and the devil tempts us directly to break it, this is not a subtle temptation but a broad and gross temptation. But there are a great many things wrong which are not so obviously wrong. They are wrong as leading to what is wrong or the consequence of what is wrong, or they are wrong because they are the very same thing as what is forbidden but dressed up and looking differently.
The human mind is very deceitful; when a thing is forbidden, a man does not like directly to do it but he goes to work if he can to get at the forbidden end in some way. It is like a man who has to make for some place. First he attempts to go straight to it but finds the way blocked up; then he goes round about it. At first you would not think he is going in the right direction; he sets off perhaps at a right angle but he just makes one little bend, then another, till at length he gets to his point. Or still more it is like a sailing vessel at sea with the wind contrary but tacking first this way and then that, the mariners contrive at length to get to their destination. This then is a subtle sin, when it at first seems not to be a sin but comes round to the same point as an open direct sin.
To take some examples. If the devil tempted one to go out into the highway and rob, this would be an open, bold temptation. But if he tempted one to do something unfair in the course of business, which was to one’s neighbour’s hurt and to one’s own advantage, it would be a more subtle temptation. The man would still take what was his neighbour’s, but his conscience would not be so much shocked. So equivocation is a more subtle sin than direct lying. In like manner a person who does not intoxicate himself, may eat too much. Gluttony is a more subtle sin than drunkenness because it does not show so much. And again, sins of the soul are more subtle sins than sins of the body. Infidelity is a more subtle sin than licentiousness.
Even in our Blessed Lord’s case the Tempter began by addressing himself to His bodily wants. He had fasted forty days and afterwards was hungered. So the devil tempted Him to eat. But when He did not consent, then he went on to more subtle temptations. He tempted him to spiritual pride and he tempted Him by ambition for power. Many a man would shrink from intemperance, of being proud of his spiritual attainments; that is, he would confess such things were wrong but he would not see that he was guilty of them.
Blessed John Henry Newman (Excerpt from a sermon for the first Sunday in Lent )
The utter humility of John of God, which led to a totally selfless dedication to others, is most impressive. Here is a man who realised his nothingness in the face of God. The Lord blessed him with the gifts of prudence, patience, courage, enthusiasm and the ability to influence and inspire others. He saw that in his early life he had turned away from the Lord and, moved to receive his mercy, John began his new commitment to love others in openness to God’s love. It is amazing what good we can do for others if we only put our mind and hearts to it and don’t count the cost and don’t worry about who gets the credit! For all his work and pains, many thought St John of God was a lunatic but it didn’t stop him. He gave back good for persecution! An example to us all.
“Have charity, first for our own souls, then with the
neighbour. For, as water quenches fire, so charity
quenches sin.”
“When I am depressed, I can find no better remedy than in
gazing in contemplation on Jesus Christ crucified and
thinking of His most holy passion and of the distress He
suffered in this life.”
“The first (virtue) is faith, believing all that
holy mother church believes and holds,
keeping and putting into practice
what she commands”
If you are unfaithful, (Christ) will still remain faithful………2 Tm 2:13
REFLECTION – “Whether you like it or not, you will grow apart from human beings. However, Christ is faithful and always with you. Fot Christ provides all things.”……….St John of God
PRAYER – Lord Jesus, help me to remain faithful to You rather than to trust in others. However, should I ever be unfaithful please continue to be faithful to Your promises and grant me the grace to do penance. St John of God, pray for us, amen.
Dear Lord,
I know You receive what is in my heart.
Let me be inspired by Your words
and by the actions of Your son, Jesus.
Guide me to make sacrifices this Lent
in the spirit of self-denial
and with greater attention to You
and to those around me.
Help me to believe that You will grant me this,
that You will guide and teach me
in the way of the sacrifice
that Jesus made for me.
Amen
Saint of the Day – 8 March – St John of God OH (1495-1550) – aged 55 – Founder of the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, a worldwide Catholic religious institute dedicated to the care of the poor, sick, and those suffering from mental disorders. Patronages – against alcoholism and of alcoholics, against bodily ills of all sickness and of the sick, bookbinders, booksellers, publishers and printers, of the dying, firefighters, heart patients, hospitals (proclaimed on 22 June 1886 by Pope Leo XIII), hospital workers, nurses (proclaimed in 1930 by Pope Pius XI),Tultepec, Mexico
Born as João Duarte Cidade on 8 March 1495 of a noble but now impoverished family. As a 16th-century Spanish soldier, John gave up religion and led a wild life. When he left the military at age 40, he became a shepherd. John decided to make a radical conversion—to go to Muslim North Africa and free Christian slaves. He saw himself dying as a martyr. His confessor helped John settle on a more prudent plan: to open a religious bookstore in Granada, Spain. He successfully managed this project. It was during this period of his life that St John had a vision of the Infant Jesus, Who bestowed upon him the name by which he was later known, John of God, also directing him to go to Granada. He then settled in that city, where he worked disseminating books, using the recent movable type printing press of Johannes Gutenberg to provide people with works of chivalry and devotional literature.
Saint John of God by Murillo (1672)
St John of God saving the Sick from a Fire at the Royal Hospital in 1549 by Manuel Gómez-Moreno González (1880)
At first, John begged for money to support those in need but soon people volunteered to help. John led a life of total giving and constant prayer. He found work for unemployed people. When the archbishop called John to his office because people complained that John kept immoral women in his hospital, he was silenced by John’s humility. John fell on his knees, saying, “I know of no bad person in my hospital except myself, who am unworthy to eat the bread of the poor.” John soon had a flourishing hospital. His helpers formed a community called the Brothers Hospitallers.
John of God died from pneumonia contracted while saving a drowning man. When John realised he was dying, he went over all the accounts, revised the rules and timetable and appointed a new leader. He died kneeling before the altar in his hospital chapel. John is the patron of hospitals.
Founder Statue at the Vatican
The first biography of John of God was written by Francisco de Castro, the chaplain at John of God’s hospital in Granada, Spain. He drew from his personal knowledge of John as a young man and also used material gathered from eyewitnesses and contemporaries of his subject. It was published at the express wish of the Archbishop of Granada, who gave financial backing to its publication. Castro began writing in 1579, twenty-nine years after John of God’s death but he did not live to see it published, for he died soon after completing the work. His mother, Catalina de Castro, had the book published in 1585.
Statue of St John of God at the Church of Vilar de Frades, Barcelos, Portugal. The inscription reads: All things pass, only good works last.
St John of God (Optional Memorial)
—
St Apollonius of Antinoë
St Arianus of Alexandria
St Beoadh of Ardcarne
St Duthus of Ross
St Felix of Burgundy
St Humphrey of Prüm
St Jon Helgi Ogmundarson
St Litifredus of Pavia
St Philemon of Antinoë
St Pontius of Carthage
St Provinus of Como
St Quintilis of Nicomedia
St Rhian
St Senan of Scattery
St Stephen of Obazine
St Theophylact of Nicomedia
St Theoticus of Alexandria
St Veremundus of Irache
Bl Vincent Kadlubek of Krakow
—
Martyrs of North Africa – 9 saints – A bishop and some of his flock who were martyred together in North Africa. The only details that have survived are nine of the names – Beata, Cyril, Felicitas, Felix, Herenia, Mamillus, Rogatus, Silvanus, Urban
LENTEN REFLECTION – Tuesday of the First Week of Lent – 7 MARCH
The devil’s strategy
by St Ambrose of Milan (337-397 AD) Doctor of the Church
The devil demonstrates simultaneously his weakness and his wickedness.
He is unable to harm anyone who does not harm himself. In fact, anyone who denies heaven and chooses the earth is, as it were, rushing towards a precipice, even though running of his own accord.
The devil, however, starts working as soon as he sees someone living up to faith’s commitments, someone who has a reputation for virtue, who does good works.
He tries to worm vanity into him, to make it possible for him to be puffed up with pride, become presumptuous, lose trust in prayer and not attribute to God the good that he does but to take all the credit himself.
LET US PRAY as Jesus taught us in today’s Gospel and with St Francis, who in his love for God was graced with this meditation:
Our Father: Creator, Redeemer, Saviour and Comforter.
In Heaven: In the angels and the saints. You give them light so that they may have knowledge, because You are light. You inflame them so that they may love, because You are love. You live continually in them so that they may be happy, because You are the supreme good, the eternal good, and it is from You all good comes and without You there is no good.
Hallowed be your name: May our knowledge of You become ever clearer, so that we may realise the breadth of Your blessings, the extent of Your promises, the height of Your majesty and the depth of Your judgments.
Your kingdom come: So that You may reign in us by Your grace and bring us to Your kingdom, where we shall see You clearly, love You perfectly, be happy in Your company and enjoy You for ever.
Your will be done, on Earth as in Heaven: That we may love You with our whole heart by always thinking of You; with our whole mind by directing our whole intention towards You and seeking Your glory in everything; and with all our strength by spending all our energies and affections of soul and body in the service of Your love alone. And may we love our neighbour as ourselves, encouraging them all to love You as best we can, rejoicing at the good fortune of others, just as if it were our own and sympathising with their misfortunes, while giving offence to no one.
Give us today our daily bread: Your own beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to remind us of the love He showed for us and to help us to understand and appreciate it and everything that He did or said or suffered.
And forgive us our sins: In Your infinite mercy, and by the power of the passion of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, together with the merits and the intercession of the Blessèd Virgin Mary and all the saints.
As we forgive those who sin against us: And if we do not forgive perfectly, make us forgive perfectly, so that we may truly love our enemies for love of You and pray fervently to You for them, returning no one evil for evil, anxious only to serve everybody in you.
Lead us not into temptation: Hidden or obvious, sudden or unforeseen.
But deliver us from evil: Present, past or future. Amen.
Sts Perpetua and Felicity were ordinary wives and mothers, who were swept up in the madness of persecution, who loved their families and their children and certainly were not eager to die. But heroism is found everywhere and their example has inspired Christians who have had to suffer for their faith, throughout the ages. They could so easily have turned back – they were not even baptised yet! And what of their teacher Saturus, who voluntarily joined the catechumens so that he might die for Christ with them and who (we presume it was he) baptised them whilst in prison – his name, in my opinion should be included with theirs. THIS is bravery, this is our example, are we ready, willing and able to defend, to protect, to stand tall and if necessary to die?
“Father do you see this water jar,
or whatever it is, standing here?
Could one call it by any other name
than what it is? Well, in the same way
I cannot be called by any other name
than what I am—a Christian.”……..St Perpetua
“Now it is I who suffer what I am suffering;
then, there will be another in me who will
suffer for me, because I will be suffering for Him.”…St Felicity
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him…………Matthew 6:8
REFLECTION – “…….Remember that He permits every thing for your good and do not lose confidence:” ………. St Alphonso Maria de Liguori
PRAYER – Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Stay with us Lord God and give us courage as you did Sts Perpetua and Felicity, whose prayers and intercession we request, amen.
Father of my soul,
Mother of my heart,
I know Your love for me
is limitless beyond imagining.
You care for me as a loving parent.
Through my smallest Lenten sacrifices,
help me to become less selfish
and more aware of Your ways.
Fan the flame of my desire
to draw ever closer to You.
Guide me to seek Your love
and then to share it freely.
Amen
Saint/s of the Day – 7 March – Saints Perpetua and Felicity – Martyrs (died c203) in Carthage (Roman province of Africa – modern day Tunisia) – Patrons of Mothers, Expectant Mothers, ranchers, butchers, Carthage, Catalonia.
Vibia Perpetua was a married noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death and mother of an infant she was nursing. Felicity, a slave imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa. According to the passion, a slave named Revocatus, his fellow slave Felicitas, the two free men Saturninus and Secundulus, and Perpetua, who were catechumens, that is, Christians being instructed in the faith but not yet baptised, were arrested and executed at the military games in celebration of the Emperor Septimus Severus’s birthday. To this group was added a man named Saturus (the Catechist of St Perpetua) who voluntarily went before the magistrate and proclaimed himself a Christian.
St Perpetua kept a diary during her last days, while she awaited her execution. Her diary, along with an eyewitness’s account of her death, is one of the oldest, most reliable histories of a martyr’s sufferings. This account was passed down to encourage other Christians to witness to the world with their lives—to teach others that greater than life itself is knowing Jesus and being loyal to him.
Perpetua’s account records the events that took place in Carthage, Africa, in the year 202, when the Emperor Severus issued an anti-Christian law forbidding anyone to be baptised and become a Christian. At that time twenty-two-year-old Perpetua was a catechumen, studying to become a Christian. She was also the mother of an infant son. Perpetua was arrested along with four other catechumens, including Felicity, her slave woman, who was about to give birth to a child. All were tried and sentenced to be thrown to the wild beasts in the amphitheatre during a national holiday. Their deaths would be scheduled along with sports events and various games.
During the days before their execution, their teacher Saturus voluntarily joined the catechumens so that he might die for Christ with them. Perpetua’s father, a wealthy pagan, pleaded with her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods so she could be free, but she refused. She said, “Father do you see this water jar, or whatever it is, standing here? Could one call it by any other name than what it is? Well, in the same way I cannot be called by any other name than what I am—a Christian.”
While they were awaiting death, Perpetua and her companions were baptised. Shortly before the scheduled execution, Felicity gave birth to a baby girl. During childbirth, she had cried out in pain. Someone hearing her asked her how she would ever endure the suffering of martyrdom. She replied, “Now it is I who suffer what I am suffering, then, there will be another in me who will suffer for me, because I will be suffering for Him.”
On the day of their execution, the martyrs left their prison “joyfully as though they were on their way to heaven” and entered the arena, where they were killed before the cheering crowd. Perpetua and Felicity were beheaded; the others were killed by wild beasts. Today these women are mentioned in the first Eucharistic Prayer.
St Felicity of Carthage (Optional Memorial)
St Perpetua of Carthage (Optional Memorial)
—
St Ardo of Aniane
St Deifer of Bodfari
St Drausinus of Soissons
St Enodoch
St Esterwine of Wearmouth
St Eubulus of Caesarea
St Gaudiosus of Brescia
Bl Henry of Austria
Bl Leonid Feodorov
Bl Maria Antonia de Paz y Figueroa
St Paul of Prusa
St Paul the Simple
Bl St Reinhard of Reinhausen
St Teresa Margaret Redi
Bl William of Assisi
—
Martyrs of Carthage – 4 saints: A catechist and three students martyred together for teaching and learning the faith. We know little more than their names – Revocatus, Saturninus, Saturus and Secundulus. Mauled by wild beasts and beheaded 7 March 203 at Carthage, North Africa
Martyrs of Korea
Siméon-François Berneux
Bernard-Louis Beaulieu
Ioannes Baptista Nam Chong-Sam
Pierre-Henri Dorie
Simon-Marie-Just Ranfer de Bretenières
Martyrs of Laos
Bl Luc Sy
Bl Maisam Pho Inpèng
Martyrs of Tyburn
Bl German Gardiner
Bl John Ireland
Bl John Larke
LENTEN REFLECTION – Monday of the First Week of Lent – 6 MARCH
Let us glory in temptation
by St Ambrose (339-397 AD) – Doctor of the Church
The devil does not have only one weapon. He uses many different means to defeat human beings: now with bribery, now with boredom, now with greed he attacks, inflicting mental and physical wounds equally.
The kind of temptation varies with the different kinds of victim. Avarice is the test of the rich, loss of children that of parents and everyone is exposed to pain of mind or body. What a wealth of weapons is at the devil’s disposal!
It was for this reason that the Lord chose to have nothing to lose. He came to us in poverty so that the devil could find nothing to take away from Him. You see the truth of this when you hear the Lord himself saying:
“The prince of this world is come and has found nothing in me” [John 14:30]. The devil could only test him with bodily pain but this too was useless because Christ despised bodily suffering.
Job was tested by his own goods, whereas Christ was tempted, during the experience of the wilderness, by the goods of all. In fact, the devil robbed Job of his riches and offered Christ the kingdom of the whole world. Job was tested by vexations, Christ by prizes. Job the faithful servant replied: “The Lord has given and the Lord has taken away” [Job 1:21] Christ, being conscious of His own divine nature, scorned the devil’s offering of what already belonged to Him.
So let us not be afraid of temptations. Rather, let us glory in them saying: “When I am weak, then am I strong.” [2 Cor. 12:10].
Like St Joan of Arc, St Colette had a mission from the Lord and, when she was sure of that mission, gave her whole life to it. In her day, holiness had declined even among religious and she was determined to recover a life of holiness for the daughters of St Francis and St Clare. No obstacles turned her back, for God was on her side. With God, she believed she could and she did, accomplish all things ……. and THIS is the message to you and me – with God on our side WE CAN!
Do not grow slack in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer…….Romans 12:11-12
REFLECTION – “I dedicate myself in health, in illness, in my life, in my death, in all my desires, in all my deeds so that I may never work henceforth except for Your glory, for the salvation of souls and towards the reform for which you have chosen me. From this moment on, dearest Lord, there is nothing which I am not prepared to undertake for love of You.”………………..St Colette
PRAYER – “We must faithfully keep what we have promised. If through human weakness we fail, we must always without delay arise again by means of holy penance, and give our attention to leading a good life and to dying a holy death. May the Father of all mercy, the Son by his holy passion and the Holy Spirit, source of peace, sweetness and love, fill us with their consolation. Amen.” (Prayer of St Colette) St Colette Pray for us!
Saint of the Day – 6 March – St Colette PCC. (1381-1447) -aged 66, Abbess and Foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform branch of the Order of Saint Clare, better known as the Poor Clares. Patronages – against eye disorders, against fever, against headaches, against infertility, against the death of parents, of women seeking to conceive, expectant mothers and sick children, craftsmen, Poor Clares, servants, Corbie, France, Ghent, Belgium.
She was born Nicole Boellet (or Boylet) in the village of Corbie, in the Picardy region of France, on 13 January 1381, to Robert Boellet, a poor carpenter at the noted Benedictine Abbey of Corbie and to his wife, Marguerite Moyon. Her contemporary biographers say that her parents had grown old without having children, before praying to Saint Nicholas for help in having a child. Their prayers were answered when, at the age of 60, Marguerite gave birth to a daughter. Out of gratitude, they named the baby after the saint to whom they credited the miracle of her birth. She was affectionately called Nicolette by her parents, which soon came to be shorted to Colette, by which name she is known.
After her parents died in 1399, Colette joined the Beguines, she was seventeen but found their manner of life unchallenging. She received the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis in 1402 and became a hermit under the direction of the Abbot of Corbie, living near the abbey church.
Renewing religious institutions is not easy. We would expect a person chosen to reform convents and monasteries to be formidable. Maybe even physically tall, overbearing, and somewhat threatening. God, however, doesn’t seem to agree. For example, in the fifteenth century he selected St. Colette, a young woman the opposite of these characteristics, to call Franciscans to strict observance of the rules of St. Clare and St. Francis.
Not that Colette was unimpressive. She was a beautiful woman whose radiant inner strength attracted people. However, her spirituality, her commitment to God, and her heart for souls, not her physical qualities, suited her for her reforming mission.
St. Francis appeared to her in a vision and charged her to restore the Poor Clares to their original austerity. When Friar Henry de Beaume came in 1406 to conform her mission, Colette had the door of her hut torn down, a sign that her solitude was over and her work begun. And she then prayed her commitment:
“I dedicate myself in health, in illness, in my life, in my death, in all my desires, in all my deeds so that I may never work henceforth except for your glory, for the salvation of souls, and towards the reform for which you have chosen me. From this moment on, dearest Lord, there is nothing which I am not prepared to undertake for love of you.”
St Colette
Colette’s first reports to reform convents met vigorous opposition. Then she sought the approval of the Avignon pope, Benedict XIII, who professed her as a Poor Clare and put her in charge of all convents she would reform. He also appointed Henry de Beaume to assist her. Thus equipped, she launched her reform in 1410 with the Poor Clares at Besancon. Before her death in 1447, the saint had founded or renewed seventeen convents and several friaries throughout France, Savoy, Burgundy, and Spain.
Like Francis and Clare, Colette devoted herself to Christ crucified, spending every Friday meditating on the passion. She is said to have miraculously received a piece of the cross, which she gave to St.Vincent Ferrer when he came to visit her.
St. Joan of Arc once passed by Colette’s convent in Moulins but there is no evidence that the two met. Like Joan, Colette was a visionary. Once, for instance, she saw souls falling from grace in great numbers, like flakes in a snowstorm. Afterward she prayed daily for the conversion of sinners. She personally brought many strays back to Christ and helped them unravel their sinful patterns. At age sixty-six, Colette foretold her death, received the sacrament of the sick and died at her convent in Ghent, Flanders.
St Vincent FerrerSt Joan of ArcSt ColetteSt Colette
Miracles Helping a mother in childbirth While traveling to Nice to meet Pope Benedict, Colette stayed at the home of a friend. His wife was in labour at that time with their third child and was having major difficulties in he childbirth, leaving her in danger of death. Colette immediately went to the local church to pray for her. The mother gave birth successfully and survived the ordeal. She credited Colette’s prayers for this. The child born, a girl named Pierinne, later entered a monastery founded by Colette. She would become Colette’s secretary and biographer.
Saving a sick child After the pope had authorised Colette to establish a regimen of strict poverty in the Poor Clare monasteries of France, she started with that of Besançon. The local populace was suspicious of her reform, with its total reliance on them for the sustenance of the monastery. One incident helped turn this around. According to legend, a local peasant woman gave birth to a stillborn child. In desperation, out of fear for the child’s soul, the father took the baby to the local parish priest for baptism. Seeing that the child was already dead, the priest refused to baptise the body. When the man became insistent, out of frustration, the priest told him to go to the nuns, which he did immediately. When he arrived at the monastery, Mother Colette was made aware of his situation by the portress. Her response was to take off the veil given to her by the Pope, when he gave her the habit of the Second Order and told the portress to have the father wrap the child’s body in it and for him to return to the priest. By the time he arrived at the parish church with his small bundle, the child was conscious and crying. The priest immediately baptised the baby.
Colette was beatified 23 January 1740, by Pope Clement XII and was canonized 24 May 1807 by Pope Pius VII.
Stained glass window in a Franciscan chapel Paris, FranceStained glass window in Our Lady of the Rosary Church Saint-Ouen, France
Loving God,
You call us back to You
to come with all the strength of our hearts.
I feel Your call to me deep inside
and I know You want me to come to You
as much as I wish to return and give You my all.
Please, Lord,
give me the wisdom to know how to
make my journey to You this Lent.
And fill me with Your grace,
forgiveness and gentle love.
Amen
St Aetius
St Bairfhion
St Baldred of Strathclyde
St Baldred the Hermit
St Balther of Lindisfarne
St Basil of Bologna
St Cadroë
St Chrodegang of Metz
St Colette
St Cyriacus of Trier
St Cyril of Constantinople
St Evagrius of Constantinople
Fridolin Vandreren of Säckingen
Bl Guillermo Giraldi
St Heliodorus the Martyr
Bl Jordan of Pisa
St Julian of Toledo
St Kyneburga of Castor
St Kyneswide of Castor
St Marcian of Tortona
Bl Ollegarius of Tarragona
St Patrick of Malaga
St Rose of Viterbo
St Sananus
Bl Sylvester of Assisi
St Tibba of Castor
St Venustus of Milan
—
Martyrs of Amorium – 42 saints – Also known as Martyrs of Syria and Martyrs of Samarra
A group of 42 Christian senior officials in the Byzantine empire who were captured by forces of the Abbasid Caliphate when the Muslim forces overran the city of Amorium, Phrygia in 838 and massacred or enslaved its population. The men were imprisoned in Samarra, the seat of the Caliphate, for seven years. Initially thought to be held for ransom due to their high position in the empire, all attempts to buy their freedom were declined. The Caliph repeatedly ordered them to convert to Islam and sent Islamic scholars to the prison to convince them; they refused until the Muslims finally gave up and killed them. Martyrs. We know the names and a little about seven of them:
• Aetios
• Bassoes
• Constantine
• Constantine Baboutzikos
• Kallistos
• Theodore Krateros
• Theophilos
but details about the rest have disappeared over time. However, a lack of information did not stop several legendary and increasingly over-blown “Acts” to be written for years afterward. One of the first biographers, a monk name Euodios, presented the entire affair as a judgement by God on the empire for its official policy of Iconoclasm.
Deaths:
• beheaded on 6 March 845 in Samarra (in modern Iraq) on the banks of the Euphrates river by Ethiopian slaves
• the bodies were thrown into the river, but later recovered by local Christians and given proper burial
Martyrs of Nicomedia
Bassa
Claudian
Victor
Victorinus
The cross is the tomb which absorbs all human pride:”Come thus far; I said and no farther: here your proud waves shall break” (Job 38:11). The waves of human pride break against the rock of Calvary and they can go no further. The wall God erected against them is too high and the abyss he dug before them too deep. ‘We must realize that our former selves have been crucified with him to destroy this sinful body’ (Romans 6:6). The body of pride — for this is the sin par excellence, the sin that gives rise to all other sins. ‘He was bearing our faults in his own body on the cross’ (1 Peter 2:24). He bore our pride in his body.
But what concerns us in all this? Where is the ‘gospel’, the good and joyful news? It is that Jesus humbled himself also for me, in my place. ‘If one man has died for all, then all have died’ (2 Corinthians 5:14); one has humbled himself for all, therefore all have humbled themselves. Jesus on the cross is the new Adam obeying for all. He is the head, the beginning of a new mankind. He acts in the name of all and for the benefit of all. As ‘by one man’s obedience many will be made righteous’ (Romans 5:19), by one man’s humility, many will be made humble.
Pride, like disobedience, is no longer part of us. It is part of the Old Adam. It has become old-fashioned. The new thing now is humility, which is full of hope because it opens up a new existence based on giving, love and solidarity and no longer on competitiveness, social climbing and taking advantage of one another. ‘The old creation has gone and now the new one is here’ (2 Corinthians 5:17). Humility is one of these marvelous new things.
What, therefore, does it mean to celebrate the mystery of the cross ‘in spirit and in truth’? When applied to what we are celebrating, what is the significance of the ancient maxim: ‘Acknowledge what you are doing, imitate what you are celebrating’? It signifies that you should implement within yourself what you represent externally; put into practice what you are commemorating in the liturgy.
…I must give Christ ‘the sinful body of my pride’, so that he can destroy it de facto just as he destroyed it by right once and for all on the cross. When I was a boy, the people of my region used to light a bonfire in the country at nightfall on the eve of certain feasts which could be seen over the hills. ach family would bring some wood and vine branches to keep the fire going while, around it, the rosary would be recited. Something similar must take place here this evening in preparation for the great feast of Easter. Each one of us should throw, in spirit, his load of pride, vanity, self-sufficiency, presumption, haughtiness into the great furnace of Christ’s passion.
We must imitate the saints in heaven as they adore the Lamb, for this is the model for our adoration here on earth. Revelation tells us the saints approach the throne in procession and fall down before him who is seated and they ‘threw down their crowns in front of the throne’ (Revelation 4:10). They cast the real crowns of their martyrdom and we cast the false crown with which we have crowned ourselves. We must ‘nail all feelings of pride to the cross’ (St Augustine, On Christian Doctrine 2,7,9).
On the cross Jesus did not just reveal or practice humility; he created it too. True Christian humility consists in participating in Christ’s inner state on the cross. St Paul says, ‘In your minds you must be the same as Jesus Christ’ (Phil. 2:5); the same mind and not a similar one. Apart from this, many other things can be taken for humility which are really either natural inclination or timidness, or a liking for understatement, or simply common sense and intelligence, when they are not a refined form of pride.
Once we have put on Christ’s humility, it will be easier, among other things, to work for Christian unity, for unity and peace naturally follow humility. This is also true in families. Marriage starts with an act of humility. A young man who falls in love and who on his knees, as was once the custom, asks a girl to marry him, makes the most radical act of humility in his life. He begs and it is as if he were saying, ‘Give me yourself. Alone, I am not sufficient to myself, I need you!’ We could say that God created humankind male and female to help them to be humble, not to be haughty and self-sufficient and to discover the blessing of depending on someone who loves you. He inscribed humility in our very flesh. But, unfortunately, pride too often takes over again and the person we love has to pay for the initial need we had of him or her. Then a dreadful wall of pride rises between the two partners and their incommunicability extinguishes all joy. This evening, Christian spouses are also invited to place all resentment at the foot of the cross, to be reconciled to one another, embracing each other for the sake of Christ who, on this day on the cross, ‘killed the hostility’ (Ephesians 2:16).
(Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap. is an Italian Catholic priest in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and theologian and writer. He has served as the Preacher to the Papal Household since 1980, under Pope John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.)
HOW TO AVOID PURGATORY By Fr. Paul O’Sullivan O.P.
For those who have not read this little book and to refresh myself, I will be posting the entire book in daily doses. (To read later find in the Purgatory Category).
Appendix
THE BROWN SCAPULAR
(The following official information was obtained from the National Scapular
center, Darien, Illinois, May 9, 1986.)
Two wonderful promises of Our Lady of Mount Carmel are available to those
who have been enrolled in the Brown Scapular.
The great promise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, given to St. Simon Stock on
July 16, 1251, is as follows: “Whoever dies wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.”
Our Lady’s second Scapular Promise, known as the Sabbatine Privilege (the
word “Sabbatine” meaning “Saturday”), was given by the Blessed Virgin Mary
to Pope John XXII in the year 1322 and is as follows: “I, the Mother of Grace, shall descend on the Saturday after their death and whomsoever I shall find in Purgatory, I shall free.”
There are three conditions for obtaining this privilege: 1) the wearing of the Brown Scapular; 2) the practice of chastity according to one’s state of life; 3) the daily recitation of the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Those who cannot read can abstain from meat on Wednesdays and Saturdays
instead of reciting the Little Office. Also, any priest who has diocesan
faculties (this includes most priests) has the additional faculty to
commute (change) the third requirement into another pious work–for
example, the daily Rosary.
Because of the greatness of the Sabbatine privilege, the Carmelite Order
suggests that the third requirement not be commuted into anything less than
the daily recitation of seven Our Fathers, seven Hail Marys and seven
Glory Bes.
When St Eisebius of Cremona (memorial today) went to Rome to collect funds on behalf of St Jerome, he noticed that Rufinus, an old friend of Jerome’s – though not on good terms with him, was translating the works of Origen, against whose writing St Jerome was arguing. Eusebius secretly removed the works and sent them to Jerome, thus in fact stealing and causing a final rift between the two. So even saints sometimes do disgraceful things and St Eusebius’ theft of Rufinus’ manuscript was a thoughtless act of an overzealous friend embroiled in the controversies of the day. It is good to know that even saints have faults and that such faults detract nothing from their holiness. For – a saint is a sinner who keeps on trying! NEVER FORGET IT!
“A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt and must empty ourselves. Give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your weakness.”
On 9 May 1608, she was Canonised by Pope Paul V and in the following decades a diligent search was made for her remains, which had been hidden due to the troubled times in which she lived. Her body was found incorrupt some months after her death. Her grave was identified on 2 April 1638, (but this time only the bones remained) and her remains were reburied in the Church of Santa Maria Nova on 9 March 1649, which since then has been her feast day. Again, in 1869, her body was exhumed and has since then been displayed in a glass coffin for the veneration of the faithful. The Church of Santa Maria Nova is now usually referred to as the Church of St Frances.
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