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Saint John Mary Vianney

JEROME:

Jeremiah needed the help of Ahikam. How much more do we need that of God?

AGAINST THE PELAGIANS 2.27. Wenthe, D. O. (Ed.). (2009). Jeremiah, Lamentations (p. 192). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

THEODORE OF HERACLEA:

Thinking that the Baptist had risen from the dead, Herod began to be afraid of him, as though John had become all the more powerful. He was alarmed lest John should employ against him even more of his caustic freedom of speech, which was a terror to him, frustrating him by revealing his crooked deeds.

FRAGMENT 93. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2002). Matthew 14-28 (p. 2). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

CHRYSOSTOM:

Do you see the intensity of his fear? Herod did not dare speak of it openly, but he still speaks apprehensively to his own servants. Yet this whole opinion was absurd. It savored of the jittery soldier. Even though many were thought to have risen from the dead, no one had done anything like what was imagined of John. Herod’s words seem to me to be the language both of vanity and of fear. For such is the nature of unreasonable souls; they often accept a mixture of opposite passions. read more

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Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, virgin

The ultimate end of our lives, as proposed by Jesus Himself, appeals to every human heart.  Kateri was humble in her requests to be admitted to the sacraments of initiation, but from the time the seeds of faith had been planted in her heart by her mother, a deep longing for God was begun that drove her – despite her shyness – to ask to receive them.  The faith was never imposed on Kateri – she was not forced to abandon her Native American beliefs.  The message of faith brought her heart to an intimate relationship not with a great spirit, but with the man-God.  Kateri tasted this Love in such a radical way, that the sufferings she could endure liberated her spirit to cling only to that Love.  Her love for mortification brought her to an early death, but her love for Jesus brought her a fullness of life even before she died.

Bl. Kateri, the daughter of a Christian Algonquin mother, who had been taken captive by the Mohawk Indians, and of a pagan Mohawk father, was born at Ossernenon (today’s Auriesville, New York) in April 1656. Because she was born at sunrise, she was given the name Ioragade (“Sunshine”). As a result of a smallpox epidemic (1659), she lost her parents, and she was subsequently brought up by an aunt. Because Kateri’s vision had been weakened by the disease, and because she walked with her hands extended in front of her, her uncle gave her the name Tekakwitha (“who stretches out her hands”). Kateri remembered the rudiments of the Catholic faith that her mother had instilled in her, and when Jesuit missionaries visited the camp in 1667, she hesitated, in her shyness, to ask about the God whom her mother had worshiped. It was only in 1675 that she asked the missionary, who then resided at the camp, about becoming a Christian. She was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, and was given the name Kateri (Catherine). Because she had been harshly treated by her aunt and uncle since her conversion, the missionary suggested that she secretly go to the Indian settlement at Caughnawaga, near Montreal, where other Catholic Mohawks were then living. She arrived there in October 1677 and made her First Communion that Christmas. Her three years there were years of peace; she prayed and cared for the sick and elderly. Due to excessive acts of penance, her health failed, and she died at Caughnawaga on April 17, 1680. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980. The monument, which marks the site of her original tomb, bears the inscription: “the most beautiful flower that blossomed.” read more

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Tuesday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Drawing by Brie Schulze

We know how important humility is, but sometimes the only way we know of to grow in humility is by accepting humiliations. There is actually a much more evangelical way to grow in humility shown by the Virgin Mary and recommended by Jesus Himself: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord”, “Whoever would be greatest among you must become the servant of all.” Service is the evangelical way of humility.

As with everything in the Christian life however, it is not so much what we do as how we do what we do. The one who truly becomes a servant becomes the friend of Jesus: “I no longer call you servants, but friends.” The one condition of friendship, the how of our service, is the commandment of Christ, “…you are my friends if you do what I command you… this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.” How do we serve authentically? By serving with Christlike love.

True service should take us out of our comfort zone by challenging us to love by putting the wants and needs of others first. Service is only evangelical when it is undertaken out of love and not simply out of a sense of obligation or duty. The occasions of service present themselves as ways to obey Christ out of love by obeying one another, “subject yourselves to one another out of reverence for Christ.” In the Gospel, Christ tells us the story about the man with two sons he sent to work in the field. The first said he would go, but did not. The second said he would not go, but then did. We should be more concerned with concretely obeying the movement of love in our hearts that leads us to serve than with how willing to serve we appear to others.

DIDYMUS THE BLIND:

The Savior said: “Ask and you will receive. Everyone who asks will receive.” How can it be then that some people pray but do not get what they ask for? To this it must be answered that if someone comes to prayer in the right way, omitting none of the prerequisites for intercession, he will receive everything he asks for. But if someone appears to be going beyond the permissible bounds laid down for intercession, he will appear to be asking for something in the wrong way and therefore will not obtain it. read more