Scatterings of Divine Mercy - Une Semée de Miséricorde Divine

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John was born of poor parents in Portugal. Orphaned early in life, he spent some years begging from door to door. After finding work in Spain as a shepherd, he shared the little he earned with those even more needy than himself.

One day two Franciscans encountered him on a journey. Engaging him in conversation, they took a liking to the simple man and invited him to come and work at their friary in Salamanca. He readily accepted and was assigned to the task of assisting the brother with gardening duties. A short time later John himself entered the Franciscan Order and lived a life of prayer and meditation, fasting constantly, spending the nights in prayer, still helping the poor. Because of his work in the garden and the flowers he produced for the altar, he became known as "the gardener."

God favored John with the gift of prophecy and the ability to read hearts. Important persons, including princes, came to the humble, ever-obedient friar for advice. He was so loving towards all that he never wanted to take offense at anything. His advice was that to forgive offenses is an act of penance most pleasing to God.

He predicted the day of his own death: January 11, 1501.

COMMENT:
A monastery garden was tended well to feed the community, not to make the grounds pretty. John saw to it that the refectory table was well supplied. But he also added a bit of beauty, growing flowers to enhance the chapel. God is surely pleased when we add a bit of beauty to the world—especially when we warm it with an act of forgiveness. For, as John insisted, forgiveness is the loveliest thing in God’s eyes.

faustynka

Today is the Feast of St Thomas Becket, (1118-1170)

(from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/NORbeckett.htm)
Thomas Becket, the son of a wealthy Norman merchant living in London, was born in 1118. After being educated in England, France and Italy, he joined the staff of Theobald, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

When Henry II became king in 1154, he asked Archbishop Theobald for advice on choosing his government ministers. On the suggestion of Theobald, Henry appointed Thomas Becket as his chancellor. Becket's job was an important one as it involved the distribution of royal charters, writs and letters. The king and Becket soon became close friends. Becket carried out many tasks for Henry II including leading the English army into battle.

When Theobald died in 1162, Henry chose Becket as his next Archbishop of Canterbury. The decision angered many leading churchmen. They pointed out that Becket had never been a priest, had a reputation as a cruel military commander and was very materialistic (Becket loved expensive food, wine and clothes). They also feared that as Becket was a close friend of Henry II, he would not be an independent leader of the church.

After being appointed Thomas Becket began to show a concern for the poor. Every morning thirteen poor people were brought to his home. After washing their feet Becket served them a meal. He also gave each one of them four silver pennies.

Instead of wearing expensive clothes, Becket now wore a simple monastic habit. As a penance (punishment for previous sins) he slept on a cold stone floor, wore a tight-fitting hairshirt that was infested with fleas and was scourged (whipped) daily by his monks.

Thomas Becket soon came into conflict with Roger of Clare. Becket argued that some of the manors in Kent should come under the control of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Roger disagreed and refused to give up this land. Becket sent a messenger to see Roger with a letter asking for a meeting. Roger responded by forcing the messenger to eat the letter.

In 1163, after a long spell in France, Henry arrived back in England. Henry was told that, while he had been away, there had been a dramatic increase in serious crime. The king's officials claimed that over a hundred murderers had escaped their proper punishment because they had claimed their right to be tried in church courts.

Those that had sought the privilege of a trial in a Church court were not exclusively clergymen. Any man who had been trained by the church could choose to be tried by a church court. Even clerks who had been taught to read and write by the Church but had not gone on to become priests had a right to a Church court trial. This was to an offender's advantage, as church courts could not impose punishments that involved violence such as execution or mutilation. There were several examples of clergy found guilty of murder or robbery who only received "spiritual" punishments, such as suspension from office or banishment from the altar.

The king decided that clergymen found guilty of serious crimes should be handed over to his courts. At first, the Archbishop agreed with Henry on this issue but after talking to other church leaders Becket changed his mind. Henry was furious when Becket began to assert that the church should retain control of punishing its own clergy. The king believed that Becket had betrayed him and was determined to obtain revenge.

In 1164, the Archbishop of Canterbury was involved in a dispute over land. Henry ordered Becket to appear before his courts. When Becket refused, the king confiscated his property. Henry also claimed that Becket had stolen £300 from government funds when he had been Chancellor. Becket denied the charge but, so that the matter could be settled quickly, he offered to repay the money. Henry refused to accept Becket's offer and insisted that the Archbishop should stand trial. When Henry mentioned other charges, including treason, Becket decided to run away to France.

Under the protection of Henry's old enemy. King Louis VII, Becket organised a propaganda campaign against Henry. As Becket was supported by the pope, Henry feared that he would be excommunicated (expelled from the Christian Church).

Becket eventually agreed to return to England. However, as soon as he arrived on English soil, he excommunicated (expelled from the Christian Church) the Archbishop of York and other leading churchmen who had supported Henry while he was away. Henry, who was in Normandy at the time, was furious when he heard the news and supposedly shouted out: "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Four of Henry's knights, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, Reginald Fitz Urse, and Richard Ie Bret, who heard Henry's angry outburst decided to travel to England to see Becket. On the way to Canterbury the four knights stopped at Bletchingley Castle to see Roger of Clare.

When the knights arrived at Canterbury Cathedral on 29th December 1170, they demanded that Becket pardon the men he had excommunicated. When Becket refused, they hacked him to death with their swords.

The death of Thomas Becket (1471)

The Christian world was shocked by Becket's murder. The pope canonised Becket and he became a symbol of Christian resistance to the power of the monarchy. His shrine at Canterbury became the most important place in the country for pilgrims to visit.

Although Henry admitted that his comments had led to the death of Becket, he argued that he had neither commanded nor wished the man's death. In 1172 Pope Alexander III accepted these arguments and absolved Henry from Becket's murder. In return. Henry had to provide 200 men for a crusade to the Holy Land and had to agree to being whipped by eighty monks. Most importantly of all. Henry agreed to drop his plans to have criminal clerics tried in his courts.

QUOTE:
In T.S. Eliot's powerful drama, Murder in the Cathedral, Becket faces a final temptation to seek martyrdom for earthly glory and revenge. With real insight into his life situation, Thomas responds: "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason."

Observations of a Monk

Edward Grim, a monk, observed the attack from the safety of a hiding place near the altar. He wrote his account some time after the event. Acceptance of his description must be qualified by the influence that Becket's sainthood had on Grim's perspective. However, the fundamentals of his narrative are no doubt true. We pick up the story after the knights have stormed into the cathedral.

"The murderers followed him; 'Absolve', they cried, 'and restore to communion those whom you have excommunicated, and restore their powers to those whom you have suspended.'

"He answered, 'There has been no satisfaction, and I will not absolve them.'

'Then you shall die,' they cried, 'and receive what you deserve.'

'I am ready,' he replied, 'to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace. But in the name of Almighty God, I forbid you to hurt my people whether clerk or lay.'

"Then they lay sacrilegious hands on him, pulling and dragging him that they may kill him outside the church, or carry him away a prisoner, as they afterwards confessed. But when he could not be forced away from the pillar, one of them pressed on him and clung to him more closely. Him he pushed off calling him 'pander', and saying, 'Touch me not, Reginald; you owe me fealty and subjection; you and your accomplices act like madmen.'

"The knight, fired with a terrible rage at this severe repulse, waved his sword over the sacred head. 'No faith', he cried, 'nor subjection do I owe you against my fealty to my lord the King.'

The murder of
Thomas Beckett
from a contemporary
manuscript

"Then the unconquered martyr seeing the hour at hand which should put an end to this miserable life and give him straightway the crown of immortality promised by the Lord, inclined his neck as one who prays and joining his hands he lifted them up, and commended his cause and that of the Church to God, to St. Mary, and to the blessed martry Denys. Scarce had he said the words than the wicked knight, fearing lest he should be rescued by the people and escape alive, leapt upon him suddenly and wounded this lamb who was sacrificed to God on the head, cutting off the top of the crown which the sacred unction of the chrism had dedicated to God; and by the same blow he wounded the arm of him who tells this. For he, when the others, both monks and clerks, fled, stuck close to the sainted Archbishop and held him in his arms till the one he interposed was almost severed.

"Then he received a second blow on the head but still stood firm. At the third blow he fell on his knees and elbows, offering himself a living victim, and saying in a low voice, 'For the Name of Jesus and the protection of the Church I am ready to embrace death.'

"Then the third knight inflicted a terrible wound as he lay, by which the sword was broken against the pavement, and the crown which was large was separated from the head. The fourth knight prevented any from interfering so that the others might freely perpetrate the murder.

"Let us away
knights:
He will rise
no more."

"As to the fifth, no knight but that clerk who had entered with the knights, that a fifth blow might not be wanting to the martyr who was in other things like to Christ, he put his foot on the neck of the holy priest and precious martyr, and, horrible to say, scattered his brain and blood over the pavement, calling out to the others, 'Let us away, knights; he will rise no more.'

References:
Abbot, Edwin A., St. Thomas of Canterbury (1898); Compton, Piers, The Turbulent Priest (1964); Hollister, Warren C., Medieval Europe: a short history (1975)

How To Cite This Article:
"The Murder of Thomas Becket, 1170" EyeWitness to History, www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (1997).

From americancatholic.org
Thursday, December 29, 2011

St. Thomas Becket

(1118-1170)

A strong man who wavered for a moment, but then learned one cannot come to terms with evil and so became a strong churchman, a martyr and a saint—that was Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in his cathedral on December 29, 1170.

His career had been a stormy one. While archdeacon of Canterbury, he was made chancellor of England at the age of 36 by his friend King Henry II. When Henry felt it advantageous to make his chancellor the archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas gave him fair warning: he might not accept all of Henry’s intrusions into Church affairs. Nevertheless, he was made archbishop (1162), resigned his chancellorship and reformed his whole way of life!

Troubles began. Henry insisted upon usurping Church rights. At one time, supposing some conciliatory action possible, Thomas came close to compromise. He momentarily approved the Constitutions of Clarendon, which would have denied the clergy the right of trial by a Church court and prevented them from making direct appeal to Rome. But Thomas rejected the Constitutions, fled to France for safety and remained in exile for seven years. When he returned to England, he suspected it would mean certain death. Because Thomas refused to remit censures he had placed upon bishops favored by the king, Henry cried out in a rage, “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest!” Four knights, taking his words as his wish, slew Thomas in the Canterbury cathedral.

Thomas Becket remains a hero-saint down to our own times.

COMMENT:
No one becomes a saint without struggle, especially with himself. Thomas knew he must stand firm in defense of truth and right, even at the cost of his life. We also must take a stand in the face of pressures—against dishonesty, deceit, destruction of life—at the cost of popularity, convenience, promotion and even greater goods.

faustynka

Today is the Feast of Blessed Mary Francis Schervier (1819-1876)

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(from http://www.paxetbonum.net/saints/december.htm#15a

"One is as it were rich, when one has nothing; and another is as it were poor, when he has great riches" (Prov 13,7). This passage of scripture fits the servant of God, Frances, who with all her heart espoused holy poverty and thus came into the possession of the grace of God.

Born in 1819, Frances Schervier was a descendant of a distinguished family in the old imperial city of Aachen or Aix-la-Chapelle. While she was perhaps not prominent in the eyes of the world, she enjoyed the distinction of extraordinary supernatural privileges from the very days of her youth. Her desire to enter a religious order was thwarted by the early death of her mother in 1832, when Frances was only 13 years old. She was obliged to remain at home and attend to the household. But she did not let these circumstances prevent her from caring in a very special way for the poor and the sick. So lavish was her liberality that one of the old servants once remarked, "One of these days the child will have dragged everything out of the house." Later she was an active member of several benevolent societies of women and also of what was known as St. John's soup kitchen, a charitable enterprise organized to feed the needy.

Frances joined the Third Order of St. Francis in 1844. Henceforth she and four other young women resolved to lead a community life. They found a dwelling at the old city gate of St. James, and took possession of their first religious abode on the eve of the feast of St. Francis in 1845. Prayer and works of mercy were their principal occupation. Mother Frances and her first companions - the number soon increased to 23 -- received the religious habit on August 12, 1851, and a new religious family was formed. Very appropriately she called the new congregation the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis. The poverty of St. Francis and his love for the poor of Christ superseded everything else in the eyes of the foundress. On one occasion she wrote to her sisters: "The impress of poverty and penance should mark even our chapels and churches and be their distinctive feature."

The first foundation of the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis in the United States was made in 1858. Twice Mother Frances came to the US, the first time in 1863 and the second time in 1868. During her first sojourn in this country, she joined here sisters in ministering to wounded soldiers of the Civil War and to the sick, the homeless, and the orphaned. The second time, while visiting the various institutions conducted by her sisters, she also lent a helping hand in caring for the sick, the aged, and the poor.

Mother Frances sacrificed everything for the poor out of love for God, and she was amply repaid by Him who cannot be outdone in generosity. Her foundation increased visibly, and to this day it enjoys the special blessing of Divine Providence. At her holy death on December 14, 1876, Mother Frances was mourned by thousands of daughters in religion as well as by the poor, and was venerated as a saint. Unusual conversions and other remarkable events occurred even during her lifetime in answer to her trustful prayer, and since her departure from this world, such things have happened even more frequently.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
We beseech Thee, O Lord, that Thy grace may ever precede and accompany our deeds; let it tend to make us ever mindful of good works. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(from americancatholic.org)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Blessed Mary Frances Schervier

(1819-1876)

once wanted to become a Trappistine nun was instead led by God to establish a community of sisters who care for the sick and aged in the United States and throughout the world.

Born into a distinguished family in Aachen (then ruled by Prussia but formerly Aix-la-Chapelle, France), Frances ran the household after her mother’s death and established a reputation for generosity to the poor. In 1844 she became a Secular Franciscan. The next year she and four companions established a religious community devoted to caring for the poor. In 1851 the Sisters of the Poor of St. Francis (a variant of the original name) were approved by the local bishop; the community soon spread. The first U.S. foundation was made in 1858.

Mother Frances visited the United States in 1863 and helped her sisters nurse soldiers wounded in the Civil War. She visited the United States again in 1868. When Philip Hoever was establishing the Brothers of the Poor of St. Francis, she encouraged him.

When Mother Frances died, there were 2,500 members of her community worldwide. They are still engaged in operating hospitals and homes for the aged. Mother Mary Frances was beatified in 1974.

COMMENT:
The sick, the poor and the aged are constantly in danger of being considered "useless" members of society and therefore ignored—or worse. Women and men motivated by the ideals of Mother Frances are needed if the God-given dignity and destiny of all people are to be respected.

QUOTE:
In 1868, Mother Frances wrote to all her sisters, reminding them of Jesus’ words: “You are my friends if you do what I command you.... I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another” (John 15:14,17).

She continued: “If we do this faithfully and zealously, we will experience the truth of the words of our father St. Francis who says that love lightens all difficulties and sweetens all bitterness. We will likewise partake of the blessing which St. Francis promised to all his children, both present and future, after having admonished them to love one another even as he had loved them and continues to love them.”

faustynka

Today is the Feast of St Teresa of Avila (1515-82) & 5th Anniv. of St Marguerite Guérin canonization

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Our second woman Saint who became a doctor of the Church, Santa Teresa de Avila, is shown here writing with her quill her famed "Las Moradas" (The interior Castle). This most amazing book, shown here in original manuscript, describes how we can have a true interior life

in Teresa's lively and plain language but with simple, beautiful word-images, bringing the True Light, True Joy and Happiness that all human souls yearn for.

Teresa describes in her personal experience of it how we can truely receive the soothing Presence of Our Lord in our inner being and hear His Words directly counseling us in our path in life.

"All" we need to do is spend the time with Him, to get to know Him, as we would of a most precious friend, allowing Him in our thoughts and ready to make a place for Him in the little garden of our soul, letting Him water our parched earth, nurturing the smallest flower yielded by an act of compassion or mercy.

Then we can recognize His Voice, ever soft like a little breeze, in times of joy and trials, whispering ever clearly, ever sweetly, His Holy Will, His Divine Insights, His Simple, Lovely commands.

Then the storms of life can quieten, and fears subside as He Himself rises in our very soul to calm its agitated waters, and comfort us as he binds our wounds.

Teresa's meditations and transcriptions on her insights about the interior life of prayers can teach anyone how to make room for the One who never imposes Himself.

For he humbly knocks at the door of our heart to mend, console, teach, mentor, and guide while filling with Divine Love and Mercy our poor souls, who only have to let themselves be replenished by Him who knows our deepest thoughts, our innermost yearnings.

He can mend the frayed, porous jars of clays that our human hearts can be and overfill them to the brim with the waters of Grace, and the Holy Spirit. Saint Teresa was a Saint of the Counter-reformation, a great spiritual response to the fallen ways of the churches and monasteries of her times, and to the great challenges of the Reformation, Martin Luther's thesis, and Henry VIII 's Church of England.

Today is thus a day to look up to Heaven on the Feast Day of St Teresa de Jesus de Avila, Doctor of the Church, born in the Age of Exploration in XVIth century Spain. Her mystical treatise "Las Moradas" has its original Spanish title "Las Moradas" translated in both French & English with the wonderful metaphor she offfers for God's work in our soul "The Interior Castle" ("Le Château Intérieur" en francais), but "Las Moradas" may be more literally translated as "The Mansions" or "The Appartments".

" IN ALL THINGS that so great and wise a God has created there must be many beneficial secrets, and those who understand them do benefit, although I believe that in each little thing created by God there is more than what is understood, even if it is a little ant."

-The Interior Castle

" IF WE LEARN to love Earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains, and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive."

I personally tend to think about "Las Moradas" as the rooms Jesus promises to prepare for us ( "In my Father's House, they are many rooms" - but I do not know if that entered Teresa's mind as many might weigh in as to what she was actually referring to. (what do you think?).

The rooms - the "moradas" she talks about can also be the rooms into which our soul, mind and heart are divided (our "interior castle").

In as far as we invite God into our innermost being, His Divine Son works on our soul, prepares us to be presentable to His Father in Heaven, and so, our "interior castle" becomes the room(s), or the appartments, that Jesus said He would prepare for us by helping us to grow in faith closer to Him and to God.

At least that is my personal way of understanding what Teresa tried to teach us about the spiritual life.
Here is a picture of St. Teresa's monastic cell at the Convento de la Encarnación, Ávila, to further my point - this is a humble, simple, unadorned but infinitely beautiful little cell. She filled it with the fragrance of her devotions and prayers. The whiteness of the wall, and the warm, inner fiery glow of the red clay tiles and weathered wood shutters, the warm dark glow of the wooden cross bespeak of how we can cleanse ourselves from the clutter of unnecessary worries and fears, whitening our souls of the coat of humility, and reflect the fieryness of His Infinite Love. My favorite words from Saint Teresa stems from this very place
"Let nothing trouble you, let nothing make you afraid. All things pass away. God never changes. Patience obtains everything. God alone is enough."

Her goal was to put into words the intangible, invisible way in which we can grow close to God in a material world, where God's Creation still proclaims His Love and Mercy as the first Gospel of the Lord, and our materialistic inclinations brings its demise by masking to our eyes the reality of God's Love and the Heavenly Garden He still offers to us despite our falleness.

The point of the "Interior Castle" mystical treatise is precisely on how to turn one' soul into in fact a garden - rather than a room, or a mansion - more pleasing to the Lord for Him to dwell in, just as He dwelled in the Garden of Eden before the Fall.

As a matter of fact, the very word "Paradise" comes from an ancient Persian (farsi) word which means "Beautiful, walled garden". I discovered this thanks to the good words of a deacon from Holy Spirit Parish here in Tempe, AZ, as he was pronouncing the eulogy of Arnold Reyes, the son of one of my very good friends in prayer ("Viva Cristo Rey"!).

Arnold, I pray that your soul dwells now in a wonderful garden and that we learn from your life to all humbly work harder to prepare the garden of our soul for the Love of Our Lord and always welcome in it the dew of His Mercy. Amen.

"At some moment, I said yes, and from that hour, my life had meaning. (Dag Hammarskjold)" .

In her mysticism, Saint Teresa de Jesus nurtured the greatest Spanish mystic besides herself, Saint John of the Cross ( "San Juan de la Cruz" in Spanish, "Saint Jean de la Croix" in French), who gave us several other mystical masterpieces he wrote as he was imprisoned by the Inquisition: "Ascent to Mount Carmel", and the "Dark Night of Soul".
In so doing, St John of the Cross also became a doctor of the Church!

There was quite excessive wealth and mondanities in the Spanish Carmelite monasteries of the XVIth century, a time of great propserity for the Spanish Empire headed by Charles the Vth (Charles Quint), about whom it was said that "the sun never set on his empire".

Charles V, son of Joanna the Mad ("Juana La Loca" in Spanish, "Jeanne La Folle" in French), had been born in Belgium Ghent, and inherited by accident of fortune and birth the largest amount of territories ever headed by one man: Spain (more precisley the dominant provinces of Aragon & Castille), of course, but also the Low Countries known then as the "Bourgondian Netherlands" (which included most of modern day Flanders, and portion of what is now the Netherlands) and all their colonies of the time.

This included the New World recently discovered by Colombus in 1492, and the Dutch Colonies in Asia. As the heir of four of Europe's leading royal houses, Charles headed also the Holy Roman Empire - which basically included most of modern-day Germany and some parts of Northen Italy, Naples, and Sicily.

So, maybe it is no accident that at a time when such excessive power and wealth were concentrated in the hands of one man, the highest levels of spirituality were reached in a response to an increasingly vain secular world, the emerging materialism and unrestrained hedonism of the Renaissance, the Dutch and French Golden Age of the XVIIth century, and the secularism of the XVIIIth century's Age of Enlightment and their Revolutions.

Teresa de Jesus created in response the mendicant reformed order of the Dischalced Carmelites, which in turn nurtured for us "The Little Flower", the very French Sainte Thérèse de l'Enfant Jésus et de la Saint Face, in Lisieux, the "greatest Saint of the XXth century" in the words of pope Leo the XIII.

Amazingly, the little Thérèse of Lisieux, in following the foundress of her order in her "Little way" as she called it, was also made doctor of the Church, through her now famous spiritual autobiography and best-seller "Histoire d'une âme" ("Story of a soul"), written under the order of her mother abbess, before she died at age 24.

The fruits and spiritual children of Saint Teresa de Avila never cease to amaze me.

The dischalced order of St Teresa de Avila birthed yet another of Teresa de Avila's spiritual daughters, yet another doctor, a secular one, Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (a.k.a as Saint Edith Stein), the famous Jewish scholar and lecturer,

She was a martyred Saint who died at Auschwitz for being Jewish despite the fact that she could have hidden herself thanks to her baptism and religious habit. Given the opportunity to escape her fate, she refused to abandon her people to the horrors of the Holocaust and went to die with them, in the same camp where the Polish Saint Maximilian Kolbe gave his life to save another inmate.

St Teresa Benedicta has been proclaimed by Our Holy Father Benedict the XVIth a patron Saint of Europe with Saint Birgid of Sweden and Saint Catherine of Sienna.

It is the true mark of Holiness to lift not only one's own soul to God but to literally spawn other Saints, by nurturing spiritual children to Heaven.

Madre Teresa was just that amazing, and Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta also chose her as her own patron saint when she entered Holy Orders. Blessed Teresa of Calcultta herself went on to fond yet another order focused on the vows of Prayer, Poverty and Service to the Poorest of the Poor and underwent the martyrdom of the Dark Night of the Soul as an offering for the suffering of the souls of those who have either rejected God, or do not get hear His Voice. This spiritual martyrdom of feeling cut-off or ignored by God was recently unveiled in letters produced for the cause of her canonization.

(Photo Credit: Associated press, 1992).

Madre Teresa de Jesus de Avila is a spiritual mother to this triad of loving, witty, infinitely humble and beautiful Thérèses daughters.

My favorite image of her is the painting by François Gérard <img src="

'Sainte Teresa' by François Gérard , Painted in 1827, Oil on canvas, 172 x 93 cm,
which can be seen at the Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse, Paris

(The story of this painting of St Teresa de Avila, is a parable in itself:

In 1819, 30 years after the French Revolution and the destitution caused by the French "Terror" (" la Terreur") the wife of the most famous romantic French Christian poet, René de Chateaubriand, conceived the idea of a charitable asylum for distressed noblewomen and priests fallen on hard times.

It was christened the "Infirmerie Marie-Thérèse", after the wife of the future Charles X. It was Madame Récamier who commissioned David's pupil Gérard to paint the princess's patron saint, Theresa of Avila - most famous for her concept of 'mystic marriage' with God. With its beautiful saint kneeling in rapt devotion, the work soon became a defining work of Romanticism.

Finally, today, October 15, is not only the Feast of St Teresa entering Heaven and the beautiful garden of Paradise she so diligently cultivated not only in herself, but in others. Our bodies are a Temple of God, and so are our souls. There can therefore be no more beautiful and holy undertaking that to cultivate our mind, heart and soul to let them grow it into the masterpiece Our Master Garderner has intended under the Gentle Hand of the Suffering Servant He send us for help, guidance and sustenance.

And today is also the anniversary of the canonization of a new American Saint, who was a gardener of minds and hearts as a founder of Catholic Schools in the American Midwest

Saint Mother Théodore Guérin
(born 1798 in French Britany, † in Indiana in 1856, after founding among others the Hoosier college Saint-Mary-In-the Woods for educating women) was canonized on October 15, 2006 as I wrote the first draft of this entry.

QUOTES FROM SAINT TERESA:

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582)

IF WE LEARN to love Earth, we will find labyrinths, gardens, fountains, and precious jewels! A whole new world will open itself to us. We will discover what it means to be truly alive.

YOU MUST HAVE already heard of God's marvels manifested in the way silk originates, for only the Creator could have invented something like that. The silkworms come from seeds about the size of little grains of pepper.... When the warm weather comes and the leaves begin to appear on the mulberry tree, the seeds start to live, for they are dead until then. The worms nourish themselves on the mulberry leaves until, having grown to full size, they settle on some twigs. There with their little mouths they themselves go about spinning the silk and a little butterfly, which is very pretty, comes froth from the cocoon. Now if this were not seen but recounted to us as having happened in other times, who would believe it? Or what reasonings could make us conclude that a thing as non-rational as a worm or a bee could be so diligent in working for our benefit and with so much industriousness? And the poor little worm loses its life in the challenge. This is enough, Sisters, for a period of meditation even though I say no more to you; in it you can consider the wonders and the wisdom of our God.

ANY GOOD THING we do has its source, not in ourselves, but rather in this spring where this tree, which is the soul, is planted and in that sun which sheds its radiance on our works.

I KNOW OF a person who had not learned that God was in all things by presence and power and essence; God granted her a favor of this kind, which convinced her of this so firmly that although one of those half-learned men whom I have been talking about, and whom she asked in what way God was in us ... told her that He was in us only by grace, [yet] she had the truth so firmly implanted within her that she did not believe him, and asked others, who told her the truth, which was a great consolation to her.

(pp. 101-102, Fifth Mansions, Chapter 1, Paragraph 9)

WHEN THE LORD so wills, it may happen that the soul will be at prayer, and in possession of all its senses, and that then there will suddenly come to it a suspension in which the Lord communicates most secret things to it, which it seems to see within God Himself. These are not visions of the most sacred Humanity; although I say that the soul "sees" Him, it really sees nothing, for this is not an imaginary, but a notably intellectual vision, in which is revealed to the soul how all things are seen in God, and how within Himself He contains them all. Such a vision is highly profitable because, although it passes in a moment, it remains engraven upon the soul. It causes us the greatest confusion, by showing us clearly how wrongly we are acting when we offend God, since it is within God Himself -- because we dwell within Him, I mean -- that we are committing these great sins. (pp. 193-194, Sixth Mansions, Chapter 10, Paragraph 2)

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

(image of A Manuscript of St. John's Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Photo Credit: http://www.innerexplorations.com/chmystext/cm4.htm)

THE SOUL WILL behold in herself the mountain flowers mentioned above, which are the abundance, grandeur, and beauty of God; and, intertwined among them, the lilies of the wooded valleys, which stand for rest, refreshment, and protection.... Then too she will be struck by the scent of the lilies beside the resounding rivers, which we said represented the greatness of God filling every soul. And she will perceive from the jasmine interwoven there a fragrance diffused by the whistling of love-stirring breezes, which we also said the soul enjoys in this state. Likewise she is aware of all the other virtues and gifts we mentioned: the tranquil knowledge, silent music, sounding solitude, and the delightful and loving supper.

--The Spiritual Canticle, p. 567-568 of the Collected Works

"All the creatures - not the higher creatures alone, but also the lower, according to that which each of them has received in itself from God - each one raises its voice in testimony to that which God is...each one after its manner exalts God, since it has God in itself."

~God's Covenant with Animals, Lantern Books, 2000, xii

St. Francis of Assisi's "Sermon to the Birds" (Written circa 1220)

MY LITTLE SISTERS, the birds, much bounden are you unto God, your creator, and always in every place ought you to praise him, for that he has given you liberty to fly about everywhere, and has also given you double and triple rainment; moreover he preserved your seed in the ark of Noah, that your race might not perish out of the world; still more are you beholden to him for the element of the air which he has appointed for you; beyond all this, you sow not, neither do you reap; and God feeds you, and gives you the streams and fountains for your drink; the mountains and valleys for your refuge and the high trees whereon to make your nests; and because you know not how to spin or sow, God clothes you, you and your children; wherefore your creator loves you much, seeing that he has bestowed on you so many benefits; and therefore, my little sisters, beware of the sin of ingratitude, and study always to give praises unto God.

(Source: http://conservation.catholic.org/saints_2.htm)

A few more details and iconic images about the life of today's great Saint ...

When Teresa was a child she wanted to run away from home so she could get martyred:

"I used to discuss with my brother ways and means of becoming martyrs, and we agreed to go together to the land of the Moors, begging our way for the love of God, so that we might be beheaded there." (Wikiquote)

In 1534 she did run away from home and became a nun. She was very sickly but when she was sick she would experience periods of spiritual ecstacy. Around 1556, her friends came to believe that she was possessed by demons..

They managed to convince Teresa, and for a long time she tortured herself because of this.

Beginning in 1559, she experienced visions of Jesus that lasted for two years. Another of her visions involved an angel repeatedly stabbing her in the heart with a burning spear, which Bernini immortalized in the famous statue now displayed in the equally famous baroque mother church of the Company de Jesus (Jesuits) in Rome

Teresa of Avila, along with her protégé San Juan de la Cruz (our Saint John of the Cross) founded many convents and monasteries which aimed to restore the original monastic ideals of poverty.

The Spanish Inquisition didn't like this very much, and eventually forced her to 'retire' to one of her convents.

During the final years of her life she gained favor with Pope Gregory XIII. She managed to open another four convents in the last three years of her life. She died in 1582.
"

faustynka

Today's first Mass reading sounds like a call for our time. Benedict XVI is visiting Germany.

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*†ç Today's first Mass reading sounds like a call for our time. Our beloved Benedict XVI is visiting his homeland for the first time as Pope since his election in 2005.

Protests and demonstrations were expected.

Instead, so many registered for his first Mass in Berlin that it was moved to the famed Berlin Olympic Station to accommodate 70,000 attendees.

These 70,000 recollected faces are the very image of God - so many nations, so many ethnicities, so many different faiths where once dreadful aryan enforced uniformity prevailed.

But just as in 1936, when the true Germans stood to their feet to cheer the gold medal of African American Jesse Owens runner, after Hitler refused to salute for his victory over his SS-trained atheltes, true Germans at heart and spirit are celebrating brotherhood and diversity in a Mass uniting their nation.

Haggai 1: 1 - 8
1	In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerub'babel the son of She-al'ti-el, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehoz'adak, the high priest,
2	"Thus says the LORD of hosts: This people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD."
3	Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet,
4	"Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?
5	Now therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
6	You have sown much, and harvested little; you eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages earns wages to put them into a bag with holes.
7	"Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider how you have fared.
8	Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may appear in my glory, says the LORD.

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faustynka

Today is the Feast of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, born 1910 in Skopje, Albania, † 1997.

*†ç

"Turn back, O children of men!"
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night.
5 Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream, like grass which is renewed in the morning:
12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
13 Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on thy servants!

14
Satisfy us in the morning with thy steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.
16
Let thy work be manifest to thy servants, and thy glorious power to their children.

"Speaking in a strained, weary voice at the beatification Mass, Pope John Paul II declared her blessed, prompting waves of applause before the 300,000 pilgrims in St. Peter's Square. In his homily, read by an aide for the aging pope, the Holy Father called Mother Teresa “one of the most relevant personalities of our age” and “an icon of the Good Samaritan.” Her life, he said, was “a bold proclamation of the gospel.”

From Americancatholic.org "Saint of the Day" posting for September 5, 2011:

Born to Albanian parents in what is now Skopje, Macedonia (then part of the Ottoman Empire), Gonxha (Agnes) Bojaxhiu was the youngest of the three children who survived. For a time, the family lived comfortably, and her father's construction business thrived. But life changed overnight following his unexpected death.

During her years in public school Agnes participated in a Catholic sodality and showed a strong interest in the foreign missions. At age 18 she entered the Loreto Sisters of Dublin. It was 1928 when she said goodbye to her mother for the final time and made her way to a new land and a new life. The following year she was sent to the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling, India. There she chose the name Teresa and prepared for a life of service. She was assigned to a high school for girls in Calcutta, where she taught history and geography to the daughters of the wealthy. But she could not escape the realities around her—the poverty, the suffering, the overwhelming numbers of destitute people.

In 1946, while riding a train to Darjeeling to make a retreat, Sister Teresa heard what she later explained as “a call within a call. The message was clear. I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” She also heard a call to give up her life with the Sisters of Loreto and, instead, to “follow Christ into the slums to serve him among the poorest of the poor.”

After receiving permission to leave Loreto, establish a new religious community and undertake her new work, she took a nursing course for several months. She returned to Calcutta, where she lived in the slums and opened a school for poor children. Dressed in a white sari and sandals (the ordinary dress of an Indian woman) she soon began getting to know her neighbors—especially the poor and sick—and getting to know their needs through visits.

The work was exhausting, but she was not alone for long. Volunteers who came to join her in the work, some of them former students, became the core of the Missionaries of Charity. Other helped by donating food, clothing, supplies, the use of buildings. In 1952 the city of Calcutta gave Mother Teresa a former hostel, which became a home for the dying and the destitute. As the Order expanded, services were also offered to orphans, abandoned children, alcoholics, the aging and street people.

For the next four decades Mother Teresa worked tirelessly on behalf of the poor. Her love knew no bounds. Nor did her energy, as she crisscrossed the globe leading for support and inviting others to see the face of Jesus in the poorest of the poor. In 1979 she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On September 5, 1997, God called her home.

faustynka

Today is the Feast of St Jean Vianney, the curé d'Ars (1786-1858), patron Saint of all priests

How many intentions do I lift to this Apostle of the Desert, who during his ministry, drew as many as 100,000 people a day in the little parish of Ars, taking confessions up to 17 hours day in a church that prior to him did not even have a priest in residence. The gentle curé died of exhaustion on August 4, 1858 at 2 am in the morning, the same year Our Lady appeared to Bernadette in Lourdes.

Saint Joh Vianney had founded in his village two free schools, conducted an incredible number of missions, and brought about many healings of body and souls among his parishioners and hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

Healing and conversion for my loved ones, and for all those I am called to pray for, is what I ask and pray for, through Saint Jean Vianney's prayerful intercession. He was especially gifted at casting away evil, as his power as confessor of so many shows.

I think also about all the confessions, and the conversions he obtained by his remarkable, practical preaching on forgiveness, love, life, and being of God in the increasingly secularized French society which emerged from the ferociously anticlerical French revolution 3 years after his birth in 1789. It is no accident that his church was dedicated at "Notre-Dame de Miséricorde" (Our Lady of Mercy).

Now there is a basilica (see the village of Ars website http://www.arsnet.org/), where, most amazing of all, the Saint's incorrupt body, sanctified by so much labor and devotion to bring the Good News to his parishioners, is to be seen where he once prayed so ardently.

He is the patron Saint of priests, and to him we should ask passionately to intercede for all the priests we know, and for their vocations, now and to come. Saint Jean Vianney was very nearly rejected from the priesthood because he could not learn latin. In this difficulty, and perceived unworthiness lays a profound metaphor for the difficulty of becoming a priest. For all his giftedness, this Saint was still found to be lacking. Food for thought. How much we need to pray for our priests then, since without them, there would be no Blessed Sacrament, no parish, but a desert waiting longingly to be watered by the grace of the True Presence.

faustynka

Carrying the cross everyday for a Christian is not just an ornament around my little neck.

*†ç My Sweet Grand-baby is keeping me busy, so my postings are more limited

I have myself wondered at times why our health fails but just today the life of the Blessed Claudio testifies to why.

Such a gift of luminous piety is evident in his sculptures, testifying to his loving, humble faith in the face of a terrible cancer diagnostic.

We cannot bring fruit, compassion, mercy without encountering whom St Francis may have called Lady Suffering.

It reminds me that carrying the cross everyday for a Christian is not just an ornament around my little neck.

It is not whether we will have to carry our cross, but how.

Meditating on the Stations of the Cross and the Passion was first highlighted by St Francis in the very design and building of our Catholic churches - 800 years ago when he came back from warring in the Holy Land.

St Faustyna's Image of Divine Mercy comforted John Paul II wen he was just Karol Wojitla, an orphan at age 20 passing daily by the Hylla painting on the altar near the common grave where she was buried.

He would pray by the then unknown image on his way back from the stone quarry he had been enslaved to work at by the Nazi occupiers of Poland.

Jesus'words to Faustyna reminds us vividly to meditate daily on His Passion through the 14 Stations and call on His Divine Mercy flowing ever more at the very Hour of His Death.

I would not be able to cope without this knowledge, His Gift of constant forgiveness and nurturing Grace.

He can lighten everything at the third hour after noon if we offer our already wearied day to Him again, and gives us courage.

He helps us to grow into a cross-bearer more like Him in carrying our crosses with us, in the way Simon of Cyrene, Mary, and Veronica did.

His Gifts of Grace and Divine Mercy embodies all at once the strong physical help of the until then unknwon, un-Christianized Jewish Simon of Cyrene.

Simon had traveled for Passover with his two sons, Alexander and Rufus, whom we can tell were eventually baptized and had to be at least of Bar Mitzvah age to accompany Simon on such perilous journey.

They had come all the way from Lybia, from the city of Cyrene - Cyrenea in Greek & Latin, now called Ben Gazi of Lybian Arab Spring fame.

Along the Grace of Simon's help, the blessed help we get from the least expected corners and foreigners, Jesus gifts us in Divine Mercy with the steadfast love of His Mother Mary.

Mary is ever devoted to us since we were conceived in our mother's womb.

She offers to the little brothers and sisters of her firstborn Divne Son the same devotion she loved Him and hoped for Him with.

Her Gift of motherly flows to us, especially to those of us who lost a mother or grand-mother too young or never even knew motherly love.

Christ' Mom adopts us lovingly at his request but also out of her own compassionat heart as much hoped siblings. As numerous as the stars, she did not get to bear us in human life but embraces at the foot of the Cross where all of us meet Her eventually in a whispered "Hail Mary" or the comforting embrace of Mother Church's nave.

Jesus reveals then at the very place of Calvary, the garbage dump where He Chose since the beginning of time to be crucified, how His Cross crushes even the stinking garbage of our lives.

Only at this sorry smelly sight, and moaning sounds of the dying, does our dim understanding grasp the reach of the incomprehensible Divine Love God gifts to His Children since before we were only a thought in the vast universe.

A Jewish proverb says that "God could not be everywhere so He invented the mother. This goes on to mean that God's way of being there for us from the beginning, and teaching us what Divine Love is, starts with the unconscious nurturing of each child of man cradled in the womb's warm waters, unbeknownst in the very beginning even to his mother. So each child has a moment at the beginning of time where he or she would experience an all encompassing love where all needs are met, and our very being grow and unfolds nuturingly unfettered.

Veronica's loving gesture of compassion to the bruised, beaten, grotesquely tortured Christ in full sight of a jeering crowd reminds us that there should never be self-consciousness in helping even the most despised and rejected.

On the precious cloth that had veiled her beautiful hair and now wiped His swollen brow, untold suffering inprinted the Face of God desecrated in the face of every mistreated being by the hands of misguided men. The image remains to this day drawn in the Holiest Blood and Sweat of the Divine carpenter.

And so it is that He helps and teaches us to carry these crosses by carrying this One.

I lost recently three dear friends to cancer - a year and a half of Calvary - for each of them. For each of them, cancer spread to their brain. Yet, when I prayed for them at the very hour when they lost consciousness, I could feel interiorly Our Lord's Presence and Love and Light reaching to them and calling me to call, visit and pray.

An interior anguish as the time nears leads when responded to in humble trust aglow by His Divine Mercy to a radiance calling upon Him.

At that dark hour of struggle between life and death, where what is sown by us along the paths of our life journey bears in sudden light fruits we knew not existed, an incapacitated friend needs a friend

The paralytic is brought by his dedicated friends through Peter's roof, an unorthodox entrance into the Church in Peter's Capharnaum home, where the Divine Presence of Jesus teaches to scribes and beggars alike the Gospel of Mercy.

Each time we lift a suffering brother or sister to Him, the true Light overcomes more darkness, by reaching where there is hurt in a life, and can turn that hurt into a source of Healing and Mercy.

And somehow we all share then more deeply the Light of Christ we are reaching out to for our friends and loved ones. And it helps to share It with you.

"All who undertake to teach must be endowed with deep love, the greatest of patience, and, most of all, profound humility. They must perform their work with earnest zeal. Then, through their humble prayers, the Lord will find them worthy to become fellow workers with him in the cause of truth. He will console them in the fulfillment of this most noble duty, and finally, will enrich them with the gift of heaven."

-- Saint Joseph Calasanz

Read more: http://origin.ewtn.com/devotionals/inspiration.htm#ixzz1SHtzmSEk

faustynka

On Friday June 24th, Feast of the Birth of St John the Baptist, I became first time Grand'Ma of Ian!

*†ç Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!

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faustynka

Today's Feast of Servant of God Orlando Catanii, Servant of Lady Poverty with his friend Francis

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Servant of God Orlando Catanii

An unexpected encounter with St. Francis of Assisi in 1213 was to forever change—and enrich—the life of Count Orlando of Chiusi.
On the day a festival was being organized for a huge throng, St. Francis, already well known for his sanctity, delivered a dramatic address on the dangers of worldly pleasures. One of the guests, Orlando (also known as Roland) was so taken by Francis' words that he sought out the saint for advice on how best to lead a life pleasing to God.

A short time later, Francis visited Count Orlando in his own palace, located at the foot of Mount La Verna. Francis spoke again of the dangers of a life of wealth and comfort. The words prompted Orlando to rearrange his life entirely according to the principles outlined by Francis. Furthermore, he resolved to share his wealth by placing at Francis' disposal all of Mount La Verna, which belonged to Orlando. Francis, who found the mountain's wooded recesses and many caves and ravines especially suitable for quiet prayer, gratefully accepted the offer. Orlando immediately had a convent as well as a church built there; later, many chapels were added. In 1224, two years before the death of Francis, Mount La Verna was the location where Francis received the holy wounds of Christ.

In return for his generous gift, Orlando desired only to be received into the Third Order and to have St. Francis as his spiritual director. Under Francis' guidance, Orlando completely detached himself from worldly goods. He zealously performed acts of charity as a Christian nobleman. After his happy death, Orlando was laid to rest in the convent church on Mount La Verna.

Comment:
Even Francis, Lady Poverty's favorite knight, needed a suitable place to pray. Captivated by Francis' preaching, Orlando restructured his life. One of the possessions he parted with was Mount La Verna, which he offered to the Little Poor Man. There Francis found the solitude he sought. In one mountainside cave, he was branded with Christ's own wounds. We may not be as wealthy as Orlando, but we have enough to spare. Only God can know who in Lady Poverty's realm will be nurtured in sanctity because we imitate Orlando in generosity.

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