Blog

Posted on

Saint of the Day – January 12 – Saint Marguerite Bourgeoys

St. Marguerite Bourgeoys (1620-1700) was born in France to a large middle-class Christian family. After having a deep religious experience at the age of 20, Marguerite dedicated her life to God through the Virgin Mary. She then joined an aposolate which served God by educating underprivileged children. When she was 32 the governor of Fort Ville-Marie (now Montreal, Canada), visited Marguerite’s town and invited her to be a missionary in the New World as a lay teacher, instructing the children of the colonists and the Native Americans. Marguerite agreed and made the long ocean journey. Realizing the importance of the family in establishing New France, Marguerite mentored young ladies and prepared them for marriage and family life as pioneer women. She signed as a witness on the marriage certificates of many early settlers. As a result of these activities she was affectionately called the “Mother of the Colony.” She also worked to build the first church and the first school. She also founded the Congregation of Notre Dame of Montreal, which is an active religious order to this day. For her great apostolic and missionary activity she is considered the co-foundress of Montreal. She is also the first woman saint of the Catholic Church in Canada. Her feast day is January 12.

//Franciscan Meda//

Posted on

Saint of the Day – January 14 – Saint Felix of Nola

St. Felix of Nola (d. 250 A.D.) was born in Italy near Naples, the son of a Syrian soldier. After his father’s death, Felix gave his goods to the poor and entered the priesthood. He was ordained by his bishop, St. Maximus of Nola, and served as his assistant. When persecution against Christians increased under Roman Emperor Decius, St. Maximus hid in the desert while St. Felix was captured, tortured, and thrown into prison. While in prison an angel appeared to Felix and freed him from his chains, bidding him to go to the aid of his bishop, St. Maximus, who was at the point of starving to death. After assisting the bishop, Felix fled from his captors by hiding in a hole. Miraculously, a spider quickly spun a web over the hole and prevented St. Felix from being caught by his pursuers. Felix continued hiding in a dry well for six months until the persecution abated. Afterwards he declined an offer to become the bishop of Nola following the death of St. Maximus. Felix’s property was confiscated in the persecutions, so he lived his remaining years farming a few acres of rented land for his own sustenance as well as alms for the poor. His feast day is January 14.

//Catholic Company//

Posted on

Saint of the Day – January 15 – Saint Arnold Janssen

St. Arnold Janssen (1837–1909) was born in Germany to a large Catholic family. He was a man of simple faith who studied theology, entered the priesthood, and served as a school teacher. He had a profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which awakened in him an increasing desire for missionary work. This led him to found The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart, a monthly magazine sharing news of the Church’s missionary activities and encouraging German Catholics to do more to help the missions. This was during a time of anti-Catholic persecution in Germany, and many priests were expelled from the country. Arnold suggested that these expelled priests serve in the missions, and for this purpose he founded the Society of the Divine Word, known as the Divine Word Missionaries, a religious congregation of missionary priests and lay brothers. He also founded two Orders of religious sisters associated with this missionary activity. Today more than 6,000 Divine Word Missionaries are active in 63 countries. St. Arnold was canonized in 2003 by Pope St. John Paul II. His feast day is celebrated on January 15.

//Catholic Company//

Posted on

Saint of the Day – January 18 – Saint Margaret of Hungary

St. Margaret of Hungary (1242–1271) was the daughter of King Bela IV of Hungary, and niece of the famed St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Her royal parents made a vow to God that if Hungary was saved from the Mongol invasion they would dedicate Margaret to religion. God heard their prayer and the country was saved. The king and queen then entrusted four-year-old Margaret to be raised and educated in a Dominican convent. At the age of ten Margaret was transferred to the Convent of the Blessed Virgin founded by her parents, built on an island her parents named after her. Margaret spent the rest of her life there, dedicating herself to prayer and severe penances. She opposed her father’s attempts to arrange her political marriage with the King of Bohemia, even though her suitor obtained a dispensation from the pope to release her from her religious vows so that she could enter into matrimony. Margaret made her solemn vows as a Dominican nun at the age of eighteen. Although a beautiful princess, she took the most menial tasks in the convent and dedicated her life to serving the poor and sick. She was considered a saint during her life and after her death. Many miracles, especially the curing of illnesses, were attributed to her intercession. She died at the age of 28. Her feast day is January 18.

//Catholic Company//

Posted on

Saint of the Day – January 17 – Saint Anthony

(251 – 356)

Click here to listen

Saint Anthony of Egypt’s Story

The life of Anthony will remind many people of Saint Francis of Assisi. At 20, Anthony was so moved by the Gospel message, “Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor” (Mark 10:21b), that he actually did just that with his large inheritance. He is different from Francis in that most of Anthony’s life was spent in solitude. He saw the world completely covered with snares, and gave the Church and the world the witness of solitary asceticism, great personal mortification and prayer. But no saint is antisocial, and Anthony drew many people to himself for spiritual healing and guidance.

At 54, he responded to many requests and founded a sort of monastery of scattered cells. Again, like Francis, he had great fear of “stately buildings and well-laden tables.”

At 60, he hoped to be a martyr in the renewed Roman persecution of 311, fearlessly exposing himself to danger while giving moral and material support to those in prison. At 88, he was fighting the Arian heresy, that massive trauma from which it took the Church centuries to recover. “The mule kicking over the altar” denied the divinity of Christ.

Anthony is associated in art with a T-shaped cross, a pig and a book. The pig and the cross are symbols of his valiant warfare with the devil—the cross his constant means of power over evil spirits, the pig a symbol of the devil himself. The book recalls his preference for “the book of nature” over the printed word. Anthony died in solitude at age 105.

Reflection

In an age that smiles at the notion of devils and angels, a person known for having power over evil spirits must at least make us pause. And in a day when people speak of life as a “rat race,” one who devotes a whole life to solitude and prayer points to an essential of the Christian life in all ages. Anthony’s hermit life reminds us of the absoluteness of our break with sin and the totality of our commitment to Christ. Even in God’s good world, there is another world whose false values constantly tempt us.

Saint Anthony of Egypt is the Patron Saint of:

Butchers
Gravediggers
Skin Diseases

//Franciscan Media//

Posted on

Sermon Notes: January 1-2, 2021 – “Even Superman Gets Sick”

 “Even Superman Gets Sick”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

 January 1 – 2, 2021

Gospel:  Matthew 2:1-12

As you may already know, the word “epiphany” means a manifestation or revelation.  There have been other epiphanies which are a revelation of who God is.  By our own reason, we can come to the knowledge of God through natural law and reason, but that only gets us so far.  God has to reveal Himself as He did in Genesis so that we can come to love Him.  We cannot gain knowledge of Him without His help. He made prudent use of the Wise Men to reveal Who His son was. 

Remember who Jesus is…the second person in the Blessed Trinity.  He was one “Who” but He was also two “What’s.”  He was one person which is the “Who,” and two “What’s” which are His two natures, human and divine.  We only have a human nature.  That’s all we have; it doesn’t get any better than that.  Jesus had both a human and divine nature.  His human nature He took from the Blessed Mother and is the one He suffered with and that was assumed and lost in His divine nature.  This is shown in the Mass.  I put one drop of water in the chalice of wine, not more and not less.  If I don’t put just one drop of water into the chalice, the Mass is invalid because that is a symbol of Christ’s humanity being assumed and lost in His divinity.  Our eventual goal is to know who He is…King of the Universe.  The Jews worshiped God and offered incense in the Temple.  We use frankincense which symbolizes God.  Read the Old Testament.  Read Revelation in the New Testament.  Incense is the prayers of God’s holy people.  That’s why we use it in church.  It is scriptural prayer. He was presented with myrrh because He was God.  Myrrh was used in burials and represented His coming into the world to die so that we may have an opportunity to get to Heaven.  So, this is a Christological feast. 

Our good Lord reveals Himself so that you can know His Son.  The Wise Men revealed our response to His great love.  They came from a far distance.  We don’t know how far they came or from where.  It could have been from Aquadale, but it was a long distance.  Travel back then was very dangerous.  When the Wise Men came, they left everything to find Jesus.  They risked everything to find Him.  They came to worship and knelt in His presence.  The Wise Men were in the presence of the King, and they knelt in a posture of prayer.  This is our response, whether convenient or inconvenient, to come see God’s great presence.  The Wise Men were no more blessed than we are.   We have God made present.  Yes, the Wise Men saw God in the guise of a child.  We see God in the Blessed Sacrament in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  But we see the same God.  How do I love Thee, God? 

Father’s Afterthoughts:
I am still very, very tired, and the nurses tell me this could last for a while.  One of the symptoms of my illness has been insomnia.  I have been blessed to have so many wonderful people in my parish and also family and friends.  They have all been concerned and called to ask how I’m doing.  And I may not have handled that very well.  I had a beautiful chance for long-suffering patience, and I think I blew it most of the time.  Well, think about it.  A couple of people would call and ask how I’m doing and then want to chat.  Shut up!  My cousin called and asked, “How are you doing?”  I told her I was resting at which point she wanted to chat.  Shut-up!  I’m sick!  I do this for a living, trust me.  You don’t stay long; it’s not a discussion.  Eventually, one of my cousins by-passed me and asked Lori how I was doing.  One of my chaplain friends at the hospital who I’ve known for 33 years and served with overseas was asked by the nurses if he had called me.  He told them he texted me every few days.  He’s sick.  He’s a soldier – just leave him alone.  They occasionally walk by the house and if there’s no smell, they know he’s okay.  So, if I have been short with anyone and been in anything but perfect character, I do apologize and ask for your forgiveness.  Illness is not an excuse, nor does it develop character.  It reveals it.  So, please forgive me.

How will you apply this message to your life? 

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to https://annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com/ and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.”   Sermon notes can also be found on the church Facebook page by searching for “Facebook Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”

Posted on

Sermon Notes – December 24, 2021 – The Wonder and Awe of Christmas

“The Wonder and Awe of Christmas”

Father Peter Fitzgibbons

December 24, 2021

Gospel:   Luke 1:67-79.

I think of some of the Christmases I have had, and I’ve had some pretty interesting ones, like the one when I would got into a vehicle with no seat belts and a loaded weapon with a round in the chamber.  Because I have been sick, this Christmas hasn’t been a fairly pleasant one, but all in all, not bad. 

We all think about Christmas and how beautiful it is.  The elves have done so much work to make it so.  My brother priests send me pictures of their churches.  I do not send them a picture of ours, because I don’t want to hurt their tiny little feelings.  Sissy boys!  When I was a child, Christmas time was so beautiful.  We helped serve at the Mass and were seated by the Red Cassocks.  It was a step up from the regular action and was the closest I ever got to being Monsignor.  Do you ever wish you had the time to reflect on the wonder of Christmas through the eyes of a child?  To see again the wonder of God?  What happened to that wonder?  No matter the age in your reflections, you would have missed so much.  That was just the beginning.  Part of God’s revelation is that He draws you closer to Him to become part of His sacrifice, to receive His life thru the Sacraments, and to receive more knowledge and deeper love. 

Your wedding day is not the same as your 50th anniversary.  The 50th anniversary is supposed to be better.  Different yes, but deeper.  Change is not always bad.  Change can be very good.  Heraclitus, a 5th Century Greek philosopher said, “you cannot step into the same river twice.”  And that’s true.  You never do because there have been changes.  We are called to change and to grow in love so that the Christmases we are called to now are felt deeper and are even more wonderful.  There’s a way to do it but I’m all preached out and running out of energy.  [Father Fitz is recovering from COVID-19.]  But to have a deeper wonder and awe of a child.  Scripture says, “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Matthew 18:3).   We are supposed to be true to that wonder and awe in the simplicity of love, to the resignation of ourselves to the Savior, and to be lost in that great gift of love…to be grateful and to experience it. 

Each day we have the opportunity to grow in that love, and one day it will come to its fulfillment in the Kingdom of Heaven.  Do not sell yourself short by wanting to go back to your childhood.  Don’t.  You will miss so much.   If there have been intervening problems during the years from then and until now, that can all be fixed and done away with.  God can restore the beauty and majesty of life.  He has come to give the gift of Himself as promised by the Profits.  The gift is His death and resurrection.  Once we receive the fullness of it, we will finally enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

How will you apply this message to your life? 

You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to AnnunciationCatholicAlbemarle.com/, clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” and then “Sermon Notes.”  They can also be found on Facebook by searching for “Our Lady of the Annunciation Albemarle”

Posted on

Saint of the Day – December 14 – Saint John of the Cross

Saint John of the Cross’ Story (June 24, 1542 – December 14, 1591)

John is a saint because his life was a heroic effort to live up to his name: “of the Cross.” The folly of the cross came to full realization in time. “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34b) is the story of John’s life. The Paschal Mystery—through death to life—strongly marks John as reformer, mystic-poet, and theologian-priest.

Ordained a Carmelite priest in 1567 at age 25, John met Teresa of Avila and like her, vowed himself to the primitive Rule of the Carmelites. As partner with Teresa and in his own right, John engaged in the work of reform, and came to experience the price of reform: increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, imprisonment. He came to know the cross acutely—to experience the dying of Jesus—as he sat month after month in his dark, damp, narrow cell with only his God.

Yet, the paradox! In this dying of imprisonment John came to life, uttering poetry. In the darkness of the dungeon, John’s spirit came into the Light. There are many mystics, many poets; John is unique as mystic-poet, expressing in his prison-cross the ecstasy of mystical union with God in the Spiritual Canticle.

But as agony leads to ecstasy, so John had his Ascent to Mt. Carmel, as he named it in his prose masterpiece. As man-Christian-Carmelite, he experienced in himself this purifying ascent; as spiritual director, he sensed it in others; as psychologist-theologian, he described and analyzed it in his prose writings. His prose works are outstanding in underscoring the cost of discipleship, the path of union with God: rigorous discipline, abandonment, purification. Uniquely and strongly John underlines the gospel paradox: The cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial to self to union with God. If you want to save your life, you must lose it. John is truly “of the Cross.” He died at 49—a life short, but full.

Reflection

In his life and writings, John of the Cross has a crucial word for us today. We tend to be rich, soft, comfortable. We shrink even from words like self-denial, mortification, purification, asceticism, discipline. We run from the cross. John’s message—like the gospel—is loud and clear: Don’t—if you really want to live!

Saint John of the Cross is the Patron Saint of:

Mystics

//Franciscan Media//

Posted on

Saint of the Day – December 13 – Saint Lucy (283 – 304)

Saint Lucy’s Story (283 – 304)

Every little girl named Lucy must bite her tongue in disappointment when she first tries to find out what there is to know about her patron saint. The older books will have a lengthy paragraph detailing a small number of traditions. Newer books will have a lengthy paragraph showing that there is little basis in history for these traditions. The single fact survives that a disappointed suitor accused Lucy of being a Christian, and she was executed in Syracuse, Sicily, in the year 304. But it is also true that her name is mentioned in the First Eucharistic Prayer, geographical places are named after her, a popular song has her name as its title, and down through the centuries many thousands of little girls have been proud of the name Lucy.

One can easily imagine what a young Christian woman had to contend with in pagan Sicily in the year 300. If you have trouble imagining, just glance at today’s pleasure-at-all-costs world and the barriers it presents against leading a good Christian life.

Her friends must have wondered aloud about this hero of Lucy’s, an obscure itinerant preacher in a far-off captive nation that had been destroyed more than 200 years before. Once a carpenter, he had been crucified by the Romans after his own people turned him over to their authority. Lucy believed with her whole soul that this man had risen from the dead. Heaven had put a stamp on all he said and did. To give witness to her faith she had made a vow of virginity.

What a hubbub this caused among her pagan friends! The kindlier ones just thought her a little strange. To be pure before marriage was an ancient Roman ideal, rarely found, but not to be condemned. To exclude marriage altogether, however, was too much. She must have something sinister to hide, the tongues wagged.

Lucy knew of the heroism of earlier virgin martyrs. She remained faithful to their example and to the example of the carpenter, whom she knew to be the Son of God. She is the patroness of eyesight.

Reflection

If you are a little girl named Lucy, you need not bite your tongue in disappointment. Your patron is a genuine authentic heroine, first class, an abiding inspiration for you and for all Christians. The moral courage of the young Sicilian martyr shines forth as a guiding light, just as bright for today’s youth as it was in A.D. 304.

Saint Lucy is the Patron Saint of:

The Blind
Eye Disorders

Posted on

Saint of the Day – December 12 – Our Lady of Guadalupe

The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe

The feast in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower, and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

Juan was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared, and within it stood an Indian maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the lady appeared.

Eventually the bishop told Juan to have the lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Juan to try to avoid the lady. Nevertheless the lady found Juan, assured him that his uncle would recover, and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.

On December 12, when Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground, and the bishop sank to his knees. On the tilma where the roses had been appeared an image of Mary exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac.

Reflection

Mary’s appearance to Juan Diego as one of his people is a powerful reminder that Mary—and the God who sent her—accept all peoples. In the context of the sometimes rude and cruel treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards, the apparition was a rebuke to the Spaniards and an event of vast significance for the indigenous population. While a number of them had converted before this incident, they now came in droves. According to a contemporary chronicler, nine million Indians became Catholic in a very short time. In these days when we hear so much about God’s preferential option for the poor, Our Lady of Guadalupe cries out to us that God’s love for and identification with the poor is an age-old truth that stems from the Gospel itself.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Patron Saint of:

The Americas
Mexico

//Franciscan Media//