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Together, with Fr. Mike, we reach the conclusion of the article on Social Justice. Fr. Mike emphasizes that although we have a right to private property, we also have a duty to meet the needs of those around us. Every human being has a right to what they need to thrive in this life. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1939-1948.
Click on link: https://youtu.be/Q03rdJe5mKA?si=NHGqwBwzJ1-NHY4p
The Story of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary
This feast is a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus; both have the possibility of uniting people easily divided on other matters.
The feast of the Most Holy Name of Mary began in Spain in 1513 and in 1671 was extended to all of Spain and the Kingdom of Naples. In 1683, John Sobieski, king of Poland, brought an army to the outskirts of Vienna to stop the advance of Muslim armies loyal to Mohammed IV of Constantinople. After Sobieski entrusted himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he and his soldiers thoroughly defeated the Muslims. Pope Innocent XI extended this feast to the entire Church.
Reflection
Mary always points us to God, reminding us of God’s infinite goodness. She helps us to open our hearts to God’s ways, wherever those may lead us. Honored under the title “Queen of Peace,” Mary encourages us to cooperate with Jesus in building a peace based on justice, a peace that respects the fundamental human rights of all peoples.
We know that God is calling us to spend time with Him in prayer. But sometimes it can feel like a waste of time. But is it?
Why do you pray? Does it make you feel good? Do you receive insight into your daily struggles? Do you leave prayer feeling energized and encouraged?
Today, Dr. Edward Sri challenges you to make time for prayer for one simple reason: it is essential.
The litany of humility is a powerful prayer. You know you should pray it but you don’t have the desire to. What should you do?
Today Fr. Mike encourages and challenges us to ask God to give us the grace to pray those prayers that are more difficult to pray. “Take, Lord receive, all my liberties!”
It can be easy in our modern world to fall into the trap of envy and jealousy. When we dedicate our energy and focus on what others have, we can get lost in what we don’t have.
But God hopes to remind us of a powerful truth through the practice of gratitude.
Today, Fr. Mark-Mary shares a secret for growing in gratitude and harnessing the power of living in the reality of who God has chosen us to be.
(See Ephesians 1:3-10)
Whether you’re cultivating a life of prayer with Jesus for the first time or you’re trying to reignite that fire in your soul, the breadth of prayer advice can be dizzyingly overwhelming.
If you’re open to it, today, Fr. Mike has one more prayer to try out: T-A-R.
1. Tell the Lord what’s on your heart
2. Ask him for what you need
3. Rely on the Lord to answer your prayer
It might seem simple, but it might change your prayer life forever.
Everyone you know and love is going to die someday. You will too, but… the thought of losing everyone else can sometimes be all the more frightening. This is a natural response to the ugly, “unnatural” reality of death, and those feelings of fear are not “wrong” to feel.
But, today, Fr. Mike implores you to take heart. There is yet one person who will never leave you.
Saint Cyprian’s Story (d. 258)
Cyprian is important in the development of Christian thought and practice in the third century, especially in northern Africa.
Highly educated and a famous orator, he became a Christian as an adult. He distributed his goods to the poor, and amazed his fellow citizens by making a vow of chastity before his baptism. Within two years he had been ordained a priest and was chosen, against his will, as Bishop of Carthage.
Cyprian complained that the peace the Church had enjoyed had weakened the spirit of many Christians and had opened the door to converts who did not have the true spirit of faith. When the Decian persecution began, many Christians easily abandoned the Church. It was their reinstatement that caused the great controversies of the third century, and helped the Church progress in its understanding of the Sacrament of Penance.
Novatus, a priest who had opposed Cyprian’s election, set himself up in Cyprian’s absence (he had fled to a hiding place from which to direct the Church—bringing criticism on himself) and received back all apostates without imposing any canonical penance. Ultimately he was condemned. Cyprian held a middle course, holding that those who had actually sacrificed to idols could receive Communion only at death, whereas those who had only bought certificates saying they had sacrificed could be admitted after a more or less lengthy period of penance. Even this was relaxed during a new persecution.
During a plague in Carthage, Cyprian urged Christians to help everyone, including their enemies and persecutors.
A friend of Pope Cornelius, Cyprian opposed the following pope, Stephen. He and the other African bishops would not recognize the validity of baptism conferred by heretics and schismatics. This was not the universal view of the Church, but Cyprian was not intimidated even by Stephen’s threat of excommunication.
He was exiled by the emperor and then recalled for trial. He refused to leave the city, insisting that his people should have the witness of his martyrdom.
Cyprian was a mixture of kindness and courage, vigor and steadiness. He was cheerful and serious, so that people did not know whether to love or respect him more. He waxed warm during the baptismal controversy; his feelings must have concerned him, for it was at this time that he wrote his treatise on patience. Saint Augustine remarks that Cyprian atoned for his anger by his glorious martyrdom. His liturgical feast is celebrated on September 16.
Reflection
The controversies about Baptism and Penance in the third century remind us that the early Church had no ready-made solutions from the Holy Spirit. The leaders and members of the Church of that day had to move painfully through the best series of judgments they could make in an attempt to follow the entire teaching of Christ and not be diverted by exaggerations to right or left.
Saint Cyprian is the Patron Saint of:
North Africa
Saint Thomas of Villanova’s Story (1488 – September 8, 1555)
Saint Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. He received a superior education at the University of Alcala and became a popular professor of philosophy there.
After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca, Thomas was ordained and resumed his teaching–despite a continuing absentmindedness and poor memory. He became prior and then provincial of the friars, sending the first Augustinians to the New World. He was nominated by the emperor to the archbishopric of Granada, but refused. When the see again became vacant he was pressured to accept. The money his cathedral chapter gave him to furnish his house was given to a hospital instead. His explanation to them was that “our Lord will be better served by your money being spent on the poor in the hospital. What does a poor friar like myself want with furniture?”
He wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate, mending it himself. The canons and domestics were ashamed of him, but they could not convince him to change. Several hundred poor came to Thomas’s door each morning and received a meal, wine, and money. When criticized because he was at times being taken advantage of, he replied, “If there are people who refuse to work, that is for the governor and the police to deal with. My duty is to assist and relieve those who come to my door.” He took in orphans and paid his servants for every deserted child they brought to him. He encouraged the wealthy to imitate his example and be richer in mercy and charity than they were in earthly possessions.
Criticized because he refused to be harsh or swift in correcting sinners, Thomas said, “Let him (the complainer) inquire whether Saint Augustine and Saint John Chrysostom used anathemas and excommunication to stop the drunkenness and blasphemy which were so common among the people under their care.”
As he lay dying, Thomas commanded that all the money he possessed be distributed to the poor. His material goods were to be given to the rector of his college. Mass was being celebrated in his presence when after Communion he breathed his last, reciting the words: “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit.”
In his lifetime Thomas of Villanova was already called “the almsgiver” and “the father of the poor.” He was canonized in 1658. Thomas of Villanova’s liturgical feast is celebrated on September 22.
Reflection
The absent-minded professor is a stock comic figure. Thomas of Villanova earned even more derisive laughs with his determined shabbiness and his willingness to let the poor who flocked to his door take advantage of him. He embarrassed his peers, but Jesus was enormously pleased with him. We are often tempted to tend our image in others’ eyes without paying sufficient attention to how we look to Christ. Thomas still urges us to rethink our priorities.