Daily Reflection – I Will Not Leave You Orphans
Saint of the Day – February 9 – Saint Jerome Emiliani
Saint Jerome Emiliani’s Story (1486 – February 8, 1537)
A careless and irreligious soldier for the city-state of Venice, Jerome was captured in a skirmish at an outpost town and chained in a dungeon. In prison Jerome had a lot of time to think, and he gradually learned how to pray. When he escaped, he returned to Venice where he took charge of the education of his nephews—and began his own studies for the priesthood.
In the years after his ordination, events again called Jerome to a decision and a new lifestyle. Plague and famine swept northern Italy. Jerome began caring for the sick and feeding the hungry at his own expense. While serving the sick and the poor, he soon resolved to devote himself and his property solely to others, particularly to abandoned children. He founded three orphanages, a shelter for penitent prostitutes and a hospital.
Around 1532, Jerome and two other priests established a congregation, the Clerks Regular of Somasca, dedicated to the care of orphans and the education of youth. Jerome died in 1537 from a disease he caught while tending the sick. He was canonized in 1767. In 1928, Pius Xl named him the patron of orphans and abandoned children. St. Jerome Emiliani shares the celebration of his liturgical feast with St. Josephine Bakhita on February 8.
Reflection
Very often in our lives it seems to take some kind of “imprisonment” to free us from the shackles of our self-centeredness. When we’re “caught” in some situation we don’t want to be in, we finally come to know the liberating power of Another. Only then can we become another for “the imprisoned” and “the orphaned” all around us.
Saint Jerome Emiliani is the Patron Saint of:
Orphans
Abandoned Children
Saint of the Day – April 11 – St. Gemma Galgani
St. Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) was born in Italy, the fifth of eight children born to a prosperous pharmacist. When she was young, Gemma’s mother and three of her siblings died of tuberculous. When she was 18 her father died as well, leaving Gemma to help care for her younger siblings. She rejected two marriage proposals and became a housekeeper while trying to enter the religious life as a Passionist. She was rejected due to her poor heath, and later became a Tertiary member of the order. Gemma developed spinal meningitis but was miraculously healed, which she attributed to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the intercession of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. Throughout her life she united herself with the Passion of Christ and experienced great suffering as a result, but not without receiving many remarkable graces as well. She experienced many mystical visions and was often visited by her guardian angel, Jesus, and the Virgin Mary. For this she was known as a great mystic, and, according to her spiritual director, developed the stigmata at age 21. After a selfless life of love given to God for the conversion of sinners, she died on the Vigil of Easter at the age of 25. She is the patron saint of pharmacists, loss of parents, back illnesses, temptations, and those seeking purity of heart. Her feast day is April 11th.
//Catholic Company//
Saint of the Day – November 13 – Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (1850–1917) was the thirteenth child of a modest farming family born near Milan, Italy. Her father would often gather his children in the kitchen to hear him read from a book on the lives of the saints. St. Frances was endeared to the stories of missionaries working in the Orient and desired to become one herself, which in her day was a man’s role. Turned away from being a nun twice due to poor health, she prayed before the relics of her patron, Francis Xavier, the great Jesuit missionary-saint, about founding a new religious order to evangelize the East just as he did. Pope Leo XIII approved of her order, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, but instead of sending her to China as she had desired since childhood, he sent her to the West, specifically to America to serve the growing European immigrant population which faced poverty and disenfranchisement. St. Frances Xavier Cabrini moved to New York in 1889 and went on to found 67 institutions—schools, orphanages, and hospitals—throughout the Western Hemisphere. She received American citizenship, and in 1946 became the first United States citizen to be canonized by the Catholic Church. Her ministry left a significant mark on the Americas, creating lasting institutions to educate and care for those in need. She is the patron saint of immigrants, orphans, and hospital administrators. Her feast day is November 13th.
Sermon Notes – We Are Not Orphans
“We Are Not Orphans”
Father Peter Fitzgibbons
May 23 – 24, 2020
Scripture: Matthew 28: 16-20
Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Solemnity of the Church and the Ascension of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Our Lord used the body and human nature that He took from the Blessed Virgin Mary to teach, console, heal, suffer and redeem us. He had two natures in one… a divine nature and a human nature. Two “Whats” and one “Who.” His body was united and assumed into His divine nature. He took the body He redeemed us with to heaven. That’s your theology lesson for the day. What does the body that He suffered and died with actually do in heaven? He uses it to intercede for us. How does He do that? He shows the Father His sacred wounds. So the body with all the marks of love on it…the five sacred wounds…the marks of divine love….was offered to the Father on our behalf…His way of pleading for us. We should take great comfort in that…not assumption, but comfort. Always pray for intercession. Remember, the sixth word from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That is our only excuse for sin.
He said “I shall come back and take you with Me.” Indeed, He teaches us exactly how to gain salvation. He shows us the way by leading and asking us to follow Him. “Take up your cross and follow Me.” We follow Him to the cross…carrying whatever crosses we have and those that await us. From that cross, we will die, rise, and be with Him. I will come back to take you with Me whether from this world or at the end of time. He will come back to take us with Him…those who love Him. That’s good news…we get to be with the One we should love above all things. We get to go to heaven, and He has shown us the way there. We know that Heaven is a place, because the body cannot exist without a place. But, what is Heaven? Theology 101: It is the presence of God. So, we will dwell with Him. Remember the transfiguration? We will have a human body once it is perfected after we die. Our body, when resurrected, on the last day will be like His.
A good leader goes out before everyone else and shows them the precise way. One thing I was praised for in my Officer Basic Course was my willingness to help other officer candidates. I was pretty fast back then and a lot younger too. After I finished my run, I would go back to help others finish the course. If you didn’t pass, you failed the course, and you didn’t receive a commission. So, you helped anyone who was struggling by picking them up and dragging them across the finish line if necessary. Our Lord does that. After all, we are not orphans. As Pope Leo the Great said, we see His physical presence in the teachings of the Church. He is still teaching us the way to salvation. We see Him in the most Blessed Sacrament. He is present in all seven of the Sacraments. He is present and active among us. We will get more in to that next week when we talk about Pentecost.
We hear His voice how? We hear His voice in the teachings of the Church that tell us about the divine truth….the revelation of His great love and mercy. He is still here; we can see Him, and we can feel Him. If we look, we can see Him right now. I bet Mass won’t be over long before an ambulance flies down the highway. Who is treating that person on the way to the hospital? My brother did it for a living. God used my brother’s human nature to provide healing and to keep that person alive long enough to get to the hospital and the doctors. That is God’s healing power. The nurses in Hospice when they were able to…not anymore…hold a man’s hand as he is dying because his wife isn’t there anymore and the memories come back. Now they have to wear PPE and latex gloves. Nothing like the feeling of latex on the hand.
The love of God’s presence is with you. He is in heaven, but He is also everywhere else. He said, “I am with you always until the end of time.” And that’s true. He is always there. The apostles had trouble seeing Him even after three years of observing miracles…and right up until the end those who had doubts bowed in homage. We, too, have trouble seeing Him, although some days are better than others. That’s why He said “blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.”
How will you apply this message to your life? Can you see Him? Hear Him? No? Perhaps you need to visit the Sacraments.