Vultus Christi

The liturgical memorial of Saint Gaetano Catanoso occurs on September 20th. Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on October 23, 2005. In the homily of the Mass of Canonization, the Holy Father said:

Saint Gaetano Catanoso was a lover and apostle of the Holy Face of Jesus. "The Holy Face", he affirmed, "is my life. He is my strength". With joyful intuition he joined this devotion to Eucharistic piety.

Daily Mass and frequent adoration of the Sacrament of the Altar were the soul of his priesthood: with ardent and untiring pastoral charity he dedicated himself to preaching, catechesis, the ministry of confession, and to the poor, the sick and the care of priestly vocations. To the Congregation of the Daughters of St Veronica, Missionaries of the Holy Face, which he founded, he transmitted the spirit of charity, humility and sacrifice which enlivened his entire life.

The Priest of the Holy Face of Jesus

Gaetano Catanoso was born on 14 February 1879 in Chorio di San Lorenzo, Reggio Calabria, Italy. His parents, wealthy landowners, were exemplary Christians. Gaetano was ordained a priest in 1902, and from 1904 to 1921 he served in the rural parish of Pentidattilo.

The Holy Face of Jesus illumined Father Catanoso's life. He venerated the Holy Face as depicted in the image of Veronica's Veil diffused by the Carmel of Tours in France. He began "The Holy Face" Bulletin and established a local chapter of the "Archconfraternity of the Holy Face" in 1920. "The Holy Face," he wrote, "is my life." Saint Gaetano directed anyone seeking the Face of Christ to the Most Holy Eucharist, saying, "If we wish to adore the real Face of Jesus, we can find it in the divine Eucharist where, with the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ, the Face of our Lord is hidden under the white veil of the Host."

A Parish Priest

On 2 February 1921, Father Catanoso was transferred to the large parish of Santa Maria de la Candelaria. He served there until 1940. The daily celebration of Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration were the soul of his priesthood and the sustenance of his apostolate.

September 26th is also the feast of Saint Thérèse Couderc (1805–1885), an old friend of mine. Immensely humble, the foundress of the Religious of Our Lady of Retreat in the Cenacle suffered calumny, rejection, betrayal, and endless humiliations without becoming hard and bitter. Just look at that face! She remained serene and confident in God. Mother Thérèse Couderc was, to use her own favourite word, utterly livrée, that is, handed over to God. In her honour, I decided to translate a page of her writings today. Here it is:

What does it mean to hand oneself over? I understand the full extent of the meaning of the expression, to hand oneself over, but I cannot explain it. I know only that it is very vast, that it encompasses the present and the future.

To hand oneself over is more than to devote oneself, it is more even than to abandon oneself to God. To hand oneself over is, in fine, to die to all things and to oneself, to have no more preoccupation with self apart from keeping oneself always turned toward God.

Again, To hand oneself over is is to seek oneself no longer in anything, not in things spiritual, nor in things temporal; it is to seek no satisfaction for self, but only God's good pleasure.

I must add that to hand oneself over is also that spirit of detachment by which one holds onto nothing: not to persons, nor to things, nor to times, nor to places. It is to adhere to everything to accept everything, to submit oneself to everything.

You will perhaps think that this is very difficult to do. Get this straight. Nothing is easier to do. Nothing is sweeter to put into practice. The whole thing is to make once and for all a generous act, saying with all the sincerity of one's soul: "My God, I want to be all yours. Deign to accept my offering." That says it all. Be careful thenceforth to keep yourself in this disposition of soul and not to pull back from any of the little sacrifices which may serve to our advancement in virtue. Recall that you are handed over.

I pray Our Lord to give the intelligence of this expression to all the souls desirous of pleasing Him, and to inspire them [to practice] so easy a means of sanctification. Oh! If only one could understand ahead of time the sweetness and the peace that one tastes when one no longer places any reserve in the way of the Good God. How He communicates Himself to the soul who seeks Him sincerely and who has known how to hand herself over. Let one experience it and one will see that happiness is there and that, without it, one searches for happiness in vain.

The soul that is handed over has found paradise on earth, since she enjoys that gentle peace that is part of the happiness of the elect.

Thérèse is so often referred to as “little,� that we risk not seeing the breadth and depth that are really characteristic of her, and the immensity of her desires. Paradoxically, there is nothing small, nothing narrow in this painfully sensitive middle-class girl who, at fifteen years of age, closed herself up in Carmel with a certain number of saints, a certain number of women not altogether right in the head, her own sisters, and one rather unusual prioress. Once Thérèse opened herself to the workings of the Holy Spirit, her heart began to expand — even in the midst of real emotional, spiritual, and physical sufferings, — until it reached the dazzling dimensions of the charity of Christ.

In the beginning of her journey, Thérèse recognized herself in the classic lines of every feminine vocation: “To be your spouse, O Jesus, to be a Carmelite, to be, by virtue of my union with you, the mother of souls, this ought to be enough for me . . . but it is not so . . . I feel other vocations within myself . . . O my Jesus! To all these crazy aspirations of mine what will you reply? Today, you want to fulfill other desires of mine bigger than the universe.�

The liturgy, rather audaciously, applies the prophecy of Isaiah to Thérèse. “Rejoice with Jerusalem� becomes “Rejoice with Thérèse and be glad because of her, all you who love her� (Is 66:10). The passion of Thérèse was to love and to be loved. And love was given her. It rushed upon her like a river, invaded her like an overflowing torrent. She dared to open herself to immense desires, and God gave to her with immensity.

Many of us have loved Thérèse for a long time, loved her as a sister, a friend very close to us, someone capable of understanding both the little things that make up our day to day lives and the big things that weigh heavily on us at certain moments, testing our faith in love and causing hope’s little flame to flicker. We are all, I think, fond of repeating that promise of hers that has been translated into countless languages, and rightly so: “If the good God grants my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth even until the end of the world. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth.�

If we are to share in the spiritual experience of Thérèse, it will not be by the hammer blows of a steel willpower, nor by dint of effort and striving, nor by a glorious record of victories. It is not by going up but rather by going down, by descending into the last holdouts of our weakness, into the emptiness of a terrible and magnificent poverty, that we will find ourselves with Thérèse in the peace of the weaned child on its mother’s lap (Ps 130:2).

There, in an intimacy open to the little, the broken, and the poor, and closed to everyone else, the Father surprises the friends of Thérèse with the mysteries of the kingdom hidden from the learned and the clever, and revealed to children (Lk 10:21). God waits for us, not on the summits of perfection with crown in hand to reward what we, of ourselves, may have done. He waits for us rather with all the tenderness of His motherly heart, exactly where we fall weak, bruised, humiliated, and reduced to powerlessness. Yes, we fall, but only to discover with amazement that it is into the bosom of the Father. There, in the gentleness of the Spirit, the Son waits to welcome us, saying, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest� (Mt 11:28).

On the lips of Thérèse, this word — “Father� — learned from the lips of Jesus, was, in some way, reinvented for our times. On the lips of Thérèse, the word “Father� was rescued from the bland formulas of a piety past its expiration date, to be pronounced for our world and for our time with the radical newness of the Gospel. If we learn anything at all from this twenty-four year old Doctor of the Church, let it be this: to dare to say “Father� in the breath of the Holy Spirit, to dare to call God “Father� with the boldness of the little, the poor, and the half crazy, a boldness that shocks the custodians of a religion of convention and routine to speak the Gospel again to those who, hoping against all hope, believe in Love.

My friend Terry at Abbey–Roads has some brilliant posts for today's feast of Saint Francis of Assisi. He says, among other things, that "Francis, in his most authentic image, is an icon of Jesus Crucified. He is in a tattered habit, his side and limbs wounded with the stigmata, his body like gnarled roots, barefoot, trampling the globe representing the world underfoot. He holds a cross, and perhaps a skull, representing the brevity of life and our final end. The authentic image of St. Francis calls us to penance, while urging us to love - to love love, and make love loved."

Do pay Abbey–Roads a visit and be sure to scroll down to the entry for October 3rd on the Transitus of Saint Francis.

I told you that once, when I had to pass through a heavy storm, I found myself before my sacramental Love and my soul flew in spirit to embrace that Infinite Love exposed on the altar for the adoration of the people. Then I heard my Savior speak this sweet message: “My son, he who embraces me, embraces thorns.� Do you believe, my daughter, that my soul fails to understand that our Jesus is a sea of infinite sweetness? Certainly, I have understood that, but God made me understand something further with the words: “He who embraces me, embraces thorns.� Just as our good Jesus willed that his life on earth should be passed always in the midst of the thorns of pain, sufferings, fatigues, privation, agony, contempt, calumny, sorrow, nails, thorns, and a most bitter death on the cross, so he made me understand that in embracing him, I would have to live my life in the midst of pain. Oh! how my heart exulted and embraced every sort of pain. But I have been unfaithful.
(Saint Paul of the Cross, Letter 54, 29 August 1737)

Saint Paul of the Cross (1694–1775) has long been a favourite of mine. (I rather suspect that Terry over at Abbey–Roads feels the same way about him.) He is depicted in this painting just as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux is often shown: in the embrace of Jesus Crucified, with the instruments of the Passion round about him. Paul of the Cross frequently quotes Saint Bernard's writings on the Passion of the Lord.

Laus Crucis introduces us to yet another holy young Passionist: Blessed Pio (Campidelli) of Saint Aloysius. In many ways, Blessed Pio reminds me of Blessed Marie–Joseph Cassant, the young Trappist of Sainte–Marie–du Désert. Pio Campidelli was born at Poggio Berni (Forli) in Italy on April 29, 1868. He entered the Passionists in his fourteenth year. The young Pio was drawn to the Mother of God, to the mystery of the Eucharist, and to Jesus Crucified. His way of holiness was fidelity to ordinary things with an extraordinary love. Pio received the Minor Orders and, after offering his life for his beloved native region of Romagna, died on November 2, 1889. He was twenty–one years old.

Pope John Paul II beatified Pio on November 17, 1985. The Passionists celebrate his liturgical memorial on November 3rd. Here is the Collect for the Mass and Office of Blessed Pio:

O God,
who reveal yourself in a marvelous way
to the little ones and to the pure of heart,
manifest yourself to us, we beseech you,
as you did to Blessed Pius,
and grant that we may follow you unceasingly,
our one and true God, in purity and sincerity of life,
loving you above all things and loving others with your love.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God forever and ever.

Energetic in Everything He Undertook for God

Saint Willibrord is the patron saint of Holland. He was also a Benedictine, one of the companions of Saint Boniface and Saint Lioba in the English evangelization of Northern Europe. Alcuin, in his Life of Willibrord, describes him as “comely of face, cheerful in spirit, wise in counsel, pleasing in speech, grave in character and energetic in everything he undertook for God.� Willibrord’s ministry was one of zealous preaching shaped by the psalmody of the Hours and by the practice of lectio divina.

Willibrord Changes Water Into Wine

Alcuin relates a number of miracles performed by Saint Willibrord. I especially like one having to do with wine. It shows a fully human and compassionate Willibrord. On one occasion, Willibrord came with his companions to the house of a friend of his and wished to break the fatigue of the long journey by taking a meal there, but it came to his ears that the head of the house had no wine. He gave orders that four small flasks — all that his companions carried with them for their needs on the journey — should be brought to him. He blessed them in the name of Christ who at the marriage feast of Cana changed water into wine. After Willibrord’s gracious blessing about forty people drank their fill from the small bottles. With great thanksgiving and joyful hearts, they said one to another: " The Lord Jesus has in truth fulfilled His promise in the Gospel: 'He who believes in me will do the deeds I do, and greater than these shall he do.'"

Plant the Cross and Build A Monastery Around It

Saint Willibrord illustrates for us, in this time of the “new evangelization,� the enduring value of the monastic mission. To plant the Cross and to build a monastery around it remains, even today, an act of evangelization, an effective way of preaching the gospel. Monasteries open and monasteries close but wherever men and women truly seek God and prefer nothing to the love of Christ the seed of the Gospel is planted in the earth to bear a fruit that will abide (Jn 15:16).

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity
+ 9 November 1906

The centenary of the death of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (1906–2006) is a moment of grace for all who love her and for the whole Church. Her "Elevation to the Most Holy Trinity" has touched thousands of souls. For many it is has opened the door of an interior life of adoration and of love.

O my God, Trinity whom I adore;
help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You
as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity.
May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You,
O my Unchanging One,
but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your mystery.
Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven,
Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place.
May I never leave You there alone
but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant,
wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.

O my Three, my All,
my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself,
I surrender myself to You as Your prey.
Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You
until I depart to contemplate in Your light
the abyss of Your greatness.

-Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity, 21 November 1904

Elizabeth of the Trinity's words are not unlike those of her sister in Carmel, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, who promised to spend her heaven doing good on earth. Elizabeth envisaged that she too would have a mission in heaven:

"I think, that in Heaven my mission will be to draw souls by helping them go out of themselves to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within that will allow God to communicate Himself to them and transform them into Himself."

I happen to have a friend who — quite apart from the fact that she is of Hungarian descent — reminds me of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary. She is not a queen. She is a wife, the mother of two teen–agers, and a nurse. She offers friendship, comfort, help in need, and good counsel. She accompanies insecure, inept, and frightened people to the doctor's office, visits the sick at home, runs to the assistance of families in distress, and occasionally looks after injured animals in her neighbourhood. On Thanksgiving she opens her home to those without family. For all of that, she finds time to pray, often slipping into church for a time of Eucharistic adoration or a rosary. She goes to Mass during the week. Like Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, she practices the Seven Corporal and Seven Spiritual Works of Mercy.

I mused in my homily this morning that an artist should paint a series of fourteen panels showing Saint Elizabeth of Hungary practicing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Adé Béthune did her own series for The Catholic Worker many years ago. At Santa Croce in Gerusalemme we have enormous canvases depicting them all over the abbey; I wish I had photos of them to post here.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Mother Clelia Merloni (1861–1930), the foundress of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart. Mother Clelia’s life was marked by the betrayal of her confidence, by financial ruin, calumny, plotting, and the loss of her good name. In 1911 the Holy See removed Mother Clelia from the office of superior of the institute she had founded. She accepted the humiliation with quiet courage, never losing her confidence in the Heart of Jesus.

In 1916, after an agonizing struggle, she requested and obtained a dispensation from her vows, preferring to withdraw from her community rather than be an obstacle to its growth. In 1928, two years before her death, she was readmitted into the congregation she had founded and welcomed back at the house in Rome. She spent the time that remained in solitary prayer, in reparation, adoration, and silence. As a very young woman she had desired the cloistered life; in the end it was given her, not in a monastery, but in a simple “upper room� on the Via Germano Sommeiller in Rome. There Mother Clelia became a flame of love burning itself out for the love of Christ, the mystery of his Sacred Heart, the Eucharist, the priesthood, and the institute to which she gave birth. Mother Clelia died on Friday, November 21, 1930. The cause for her canonization was opened in 1989.

Mother Clelia is close to those who suffer rejection and apparent failure. She understands the plight of those who are misunderstood and judged. She has a maternal sympathy for those who make false starts in life and for those who, in spite of obstacles and hardships, persevere in searching for the will of God. She is a faithful friend of priests. Pray to her.

I never tire of looking at the statue of Saint Cecilia which lies over the tomb in her church in Rome’s Trastevere. Cecilia is lying on her side, looking almost as if she had been flung there. Her lovely face is hidden and her head is covered with the veil of virgins. The slash of the cruel blade across her neck is visible.

Even in death Cecilia declares her Catholic faith: the finger of one hand is extended, signifying her faith in the one true God. With three fingers of the other hand she confesses the Most Holy Trinity. Her knees are drawn up, making her look like a sleeping child. Her dress falls in graceful folds about her body. The whole composition is marked by purity and grace.

In 1599, when Pope Clement VIII disinterred Saint Cecilia’s body, it was found to be incorrupt. The Pontiff engaged Stefano Maderno to carve Cecilia just as she was discovered. The artist inscribed his testimony on the statue’s base: “Behold the body of the most holy virgin Cecilia whom I myself saw lying incorrupt in her tomb. I have in this marble expressed for thee the same saint in the very same posture of body.�

Maderno was only twenty–three when he carved his Saint Cecilia; though he lived be forty, Saint Cecilia is his masterpiece. Reposing in death, Cecilia illustrates the truth of the psalmist’s words: “God gives to His beloved in slumber� (Ps 127:2).

Maderno’s Saint Cecilia reminds me also of the young Thérèse Martin who lingered before it while on pilgrimage to Rome with her father in 1887. Later on, Thérèse was inspired to write this prayer:

Cecilia, lend to me thy melody most sweet:
How many souls would I convert to Jesus now.
I fain would die, like thee, to win them to His feet;
For him give all my tears, my blood. Oh, help me thou!
Pray for me that I gain, on this our pilgrim way
Perfect abandonment that sweetest fruit of love.
Saint of my heart! Oh, soon, bring me to endless day;
Obtain that I may fly, with thee, to heaven above!

April 28, 1893

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face (1873–1897)
Saint Théophane Vénard (1829–1861)

It is true that the Lord chooses the little ones to confound the strong of this world. I do not rely on my own strengths, but on the strength of Him who, on the Cross, conquered the powers of hell.
(Saint Théophane Vénard quoted by Saint Thérèse)

Speaking to French pilgrims on the day after the canonization of the Martyrs of Vietnam, Pope John Paul II said, "Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was on intimate terms with Saint Théophane Vénard whose picture never left her as she suffered the pangs of death."

Thérèse wrote, "I like Théophane Vénard even more than Saint Aloysius Gonzaga because the life of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga was extraordinary and Théophane Vénard's was quite ordinary. . . . My soul is like his. He is the one who has best lived my way of spiritual childhood." The young Carmelite pinned a picture of Théophane Vénard to her bed curtains, together with one of the Blessed Virgin and photos of her little siblings who had died.

Thérèse had read the young martyr's biography and his correspondence. She composed a poem in his honour and, at the end of her life, expressed the deepest sentiments of her soul by copying out passages from Théophane's letters. "Théophane is a little saint," she wrote. "As a parting souvenir I have copied for you certain passages of the last letters he wrote to his parents; these are my thoughts. My soul resembles his."

On 6 September 1867, twenty–four days before her death, Thérèse was presented with a relic of Théophane Vénard. She caressed it and asked to hold it close that she might kiss it. It was the life and death of Théophane that inspired Thérèse to say that after her death she would return to work on earth until the end of the world.

I have some personal reasons for being very fond of Saint Théophane Vénard. Many years ago when I was serving as Master of Novices, I had in my care a Vietnamese novice who had taken the name of Marie–Théophane. While in France to preach a retreat I had the opportunity to stop at the Missions Étrangères de Paris. I asked if it might be possible to obtain a first–class relic of Saint Théophane for my young confrère. The kind priest who welcomed me was a retired missionary. He radiated a gentle, sturdy holiness. He explained that no relics were available. "But," he said, "we do have here in this glass case the soutane worn by Saint Théophane when he was beheaded." With that, he unlocked the case, pulled scissors out of his pocket and cut off a generous piece of the black soutane. "Take this to your petit frère vietnamien," he said. I was astonished. And tears came to my eyes. You can imagine Frère Marie–Théophane's joy when he received the precious relic.

The second thing that moves me is Théophane's utter fidelity to the Divine Office, even in the most trying conditions. Any priest who has difficulty being faithful to the Liturgy of the Hours should invoke Saint Théophane Vénard. Right up until his martyrdom, even while imprisoned in a bamboo cage, he prayed his breviary, the only book that remained in his possession.

The third and last thing I want to mention is that in 1860, the year before his death, with his bishop's permission, Saint Théophane offered himself to God as a victim for the Church in Tonkin. He offered himself by the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary, consecrating himself to her according to the formula of Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort. That, it seems to me, is the perfection of the eucharistic and priestly life: total identification with Christ, the immolated Lamb. It is not fashionable in some circles to speak of "victimhood." It makes the learned and the clever sniff and grimace. Tant pis! One who approaches the altar day after day "in spirit and in truth" will, if he surrenders to the Mystery and allows himself to be formed by the Blessed Virgin, realize in his own flesh not only the priesthood of Christ, but also His victimhood. This mystical identification with Christ Priest and Victim is the secret of all sacerdotal fecundity.

I have never made a secret of it: Blessed Abbot Marmion has been for me a spiritual master, a father, and a friend from the time I was fifteen years old. I am thrilled to see a new edition of his spiritual letters.

Zaccheus Press is pleased to announce the release of Union with God: Letters of Spiritual Direction by Blessed Columba Marmion.

One of Mother Teresa's favorite books, Union with God is a collection of letters written by Blessed Columba Marmion to the many persons who sought his spiritual counsel -- with questions about prayer, faith, temptation, suffering, and the struggles of daily life. Marmion excelled in the art of letter-writing -- his advice was always simple and direct, yet profound. In his letters we see him bringing to bear his great depth of theological knowledge in a practical and human way.

Union with God: Letters of Spiritual Direction by Blessed Columba Marmion
ISBN 0-9725981-6-2
233 pages • $14.95 (paperback)

Read Father David L. Toups' Foreward to the new edition of Union with God:

December 1st is the dies natalis of four holy priests who figure in my personal gallery of heavenly heroes.

Saint Ralph Sherwin, Priest and Martyr, (1550–1 December, 1581)
Saint Edmund Campion, Priest and Martyr (1540–1 December 1581)
Saint Ralph Sherwin and Saint Edmund Campion were both martyred for the Catholic faith at Tyburn under Elizabeth I on 1 December, 1581.

The last words of Saint Ralph Sherwin were:
Iesu, Iesu, Iesu, esto mihi Iesus.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be to me a Jesus.
These words, singularly suited to the ceaseless prayer of the heart, are inscribed above the altar in the crypt chapel of Tyburn Convent of the Benedictine Adorers of the Sacred Heart in London.

Blessed Charles de Jésus (de Foucauld), Priest and Martyr (1858–1 December 1916) Blessed Charles de Jésus, the hermit of the Sahara, was martyred on 1 December 1916. The Prayer of Abandonment of Blessed Charles of Jesus has helped souls the world over to walk in the path of confidence and spiritual childhood.

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.

Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

The Servant of God Jean–Edouard Lamy, Priest (1853–1 December 1931)
Père Lamy, a priest greatly devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the founder of the Cistercian–inspired Congregation of the Servants of Jesus and Mary, died on 1 December 1931. Père Lamy touched countless souls, among them the French Catholic author Julian Green, and Jacques and Raïssa Maritain. Père Lamy used to say:

The Blessed Virgin can bring down the mercy of God on almost anything. What matters is to go on praying. The Blessed Virgin offers our prayers to God. She touches them up. She makes them into something pleasing. She gilds them when they are only wretched tin–pottery. She is a rag–picker, divinely clever. . . . Prayer even made without great attention is none the less prayer and our holy Mother finishes off what is lacking. . . . She is busy perpetually lessening our weakness before the face of God. What works in her is her kindness, her charity.

I am mindful today of the dear friends named Barbara whom God has sent into my life. According to tradition, Saint Barbara was confined to solitude in a tower with two windows. She had a third window added in honour of the Most Holy Trinity. Thus did the deifying light of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit shine in her solitude and in her soul. It is noteworthy too that Saint Barbara lived and died in Turkey, recently visited by the Holy Father. I very much like this painting of Saint Barbara lifting high the adorable Mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood. It is reminiscent of certain depictions of Saint Clare of Assisi. Both saints shine with a eucharistic light.

At Holy Mass today there will be an intercession in honour of Saint Barbara;

For those called to a life of solitude,
that through the intercession of Saint Barbara, virgin and martyr,
they may persevere in adoration of the Most Holy Trinity
and be strengthened in the virtue of hope,
let us pray in silence — for the Lord is near.

"Hear and let it penetrate into your heart, my dear little son: let nothing discourage you, nothing depress you: let nothing alter your heart or your countenance. Also do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Am I not here who am your Mother? Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms? Is there anything else that you need?" (Words of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Juan Diego)

Saint Juan Diego whom we remember on the day after the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is listed in the Martyrology not as a visionary but as a hermit. Graced with seeing the holy Mother of God in all her radiance, Juan Diego’s vocation unfolded in a life of solitude, ceaseless prayer, and watchfulness.

The holiness of Saint Juan Diego was more in waiting than in seeing. In this, he is a model for all of us. Saint Juan Diego is an Advent saint. The Church sets him before us as a model of vigilance. To those who remain close to her, the Virgin Mother teaches perseverance in the prayer of watching and waiting. I think that this is why she so loves the Rosary and asks us to pray it.

The Rosary is the perfect Advent prayer, especially with the additional mysteries of Our Lady's life, all of which are either found in Sacred Scripture or celebrated in the Church's liturgical tradition: 1) The Immaculate Conception, 2) The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 3) Her Presentation in the Temple, 4) Her Betrothal to Saint Joseph, 5) The Annunciation, 6) The Visitation, 7) The Blessed Expectancy of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 8) The Nativity of Jesus, 9) The Presentation in the Temple, 10) The Finding of Jesus in the Temple.

Soeur Bénédicte's Closet

When, on the occasion of her twenty-fifth anniversary of profession, Sister Bénédicte–Marie de la Croix asked to make her retreat with us, we prepared a room for her and, knowing her Carmelite love of silence and solitude, whitewashed a large closet to serve as her hermitage. In it we placed two things: an icon of Saint John of the Cross and a Bible. Sister Bénédicte was deeply moved. She lived that retreat in the company of Saint John of the Cross. Before coming to know our Sister Bénédicte, I used to be afraid of Saint John of the Cross. He seemed so extreme, so forbidding, so unbearably absolute. It was in contemplating Sister Bénédicte’s icon of Saint John of the Cross; then, in reading him, that he became a friend, a brother, a teacher.

John of the Cross: A Saint for Advent

Saint John of the Cross comes to us in the middle of Advent; he comes to us just one week before the longest night of the year. He comes to us today when, by a wonderful coincidence, God speaks to us through the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, saying: “I am the Lord, there is no other; I form the light, and create the darkness� (Is 24:6). Saint John comes to guide us through the night; he is familiar with all its secrets.

Blest night of wandering
In secret, where by none might I be spied,
Nor I see anything;
Without a light to guide,
Save that which in my heart burnt in my side.

(In an Obscure Night, trans. by Arthur Symons)

Poetry, the best poetry, is born of suffering and forged in the crucible of life. Though I find in the poems of Saint John of the Cross a fire that unfailingly warms and illumines, I have, over the years, come to rely more and more on his Precautions, an incomparable guide for the terrible quotidian, wise rules for coping with the struggles and stress of living with oneself and others.

Fra Angelico (1400–1455), of course. Saint Peter is ordaining Stephen to the diaconate while Saint John, holding his Gospel, looks on. The composition is remarkable: the three heads of Peter, John and Stephen form a triangle, a symbol of communion in the Three Divine Persons. Peter is handing over the chalice and paten; they are very large. Fra Angelico makes the Most Holy Eucharist central; he paints what Saint Thomas Aquinas taught, i.e. that the communion of the Church is held together by participation in the Body and Blood of Christ.

December 26
Saint Stephen the Protomartyr

Acts 6:8-10; 7:54-60
Psalm 30:2cd-3, 5, 6b-7a, 16, 20ab
Matthew 10:17-22

The Holy Spirit at Christmas

The liturgy of Christmas, while drawing our gaze to the Son, the Word made flesh, in no way obscures or minimizes the presence and the work of the Holy Spirit. This was brought home to me again yesterday when, quite chance, I came upon an astonishing text of Saint Ephrem the Syrian: “At this feast of the nativity let each person wreathe the door of his heart so that the Holy Spirit may delight in that door, enter in and make there his dwelling; then by the Spirit we will be made holy.�

Already on the First Sunday of Advent, we sang in the Benedictus Antiphon, “The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, O Mary. Do not be afraid.� And on the Second Saturday of Advent, Blessed Isaac of Stella explained that“what is said in the particular case of the Virgin Mother Mary, is rightly understood of the Virgin Mother Church universally� (Sermon 51). Today’s feast of Saint Stephen is the liturgy’s way of repeating now to the Virgin Mother Church the mysterious words of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mother Mary: “Fear not, for thou hast found grace with God.� (Lk 1:30).

Grace and Power

It is remarkable that Saint Luke, author of the Acts of the Apostles describes Saint Stephen in today’s first reading as “full of grace and power� (Ac 6:8). The phrase has a distinctively Marian resonance. To Mary, the “highly-favoured� of God (Lk 1:28), the “full of grace,� the angel Gabriel says: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee� (Lk 1:35). The words addressed to the Virgin Mary in a particular way hold universal import for the Church.

Stephen, “full of grace and power� (Ac 6:8) stands for us on the second day of Christmas, as the radiant icon of the Church indwelt and overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. Without leaving Mary and the Infant Christ, we pass to Stephen and the Infant Christ, to Stephen and the Infant Church.

This Saint John the Evangelist was painted by Francesco Furini sometime in the 1630s. Today it hangs in the Musée des Beaux–Arts of Lyon.

December 27
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

1 John 1:1-4
Psalm 96: 1-2. 5-6. 11-12. R. v.12
John 20: 2-8

The Logic of the Liturgy

The liturgy has a marvelous logic all its own. On this second day of the Christmas octave, Mother Church gives us an Easter Gospel! While we are yet at the manger, the liturgy compels us to run to the empty tomb! John, the disciple whom Jesus loved is there before us. His virginal love gave wings to his feet. “Draw me in your footsteps, says the bride of the Canticle, let us run� (Ct 1:4). John is the first of those who “hasten with swift pace and light step and unstumbling feet,� arriving even before Peter, and yet deferring to him.

Peter and John

Hans Urs von Balthasar speaks of a double authority in the Church, a double ministry: the Petrine and Johannine. The Petrine authority is firmly established by Christ on the solid rock of Peter; it continues in the Church through the ministry of Peter’s successors, teaching, reproving, testing, correcting, forgiving and calling together in unity. The Johannine authority speaks with the voice of love, with the inimitable accents of direct experience. It is the authority of the saints and mystics, the authority of holiness, the authority of the greatly loved and of the great lovers. “ I belong to my love, and my love to me� (Ct 6:3).

What We Have Seen and Heard

The Church has need of both voices. She needs the strong, unwavering voice of Peter; she also needs the many-voiced Johannine chorus of those who sing: “Something which has existed since the beginning, that we have heard, and we have seen with our own eyes; that we have contemplated and touched with our own hands: the Word who is life—this is our theme. That life was made visible; we saw it and are giving our testimony. . . . We declare to you what we have seen and heard, so that you too may share our life� (1 Jn 1:1-3).

Love of Things Invisible

The Johannine chorus speaks with the unmistakable authority of those who have gone into the wine-cellar and rested beneath the banner of love (cf. Ct 2:4-5). Their breath is fragrant with honey and with the honeycomb, of wine and of milk: that is with the imperishable sweetness of the Holy Spirit, with the Blood of the Lamb and with the pure milk of the living Word of God. These are the ones who have eaten and drunk, drunk deeply (cf. Ct 5:1) of the streams of living water that flow ever fresh from the pierced Heart of the Bridegroom (cf. Jn 7:37-38). These are the descendants of Saint John the Beloved, those to whom the Father has given the eagle’s vision, those who are little enough and poor enough to be borne aloft and carried away into the “love of things invisible,� as the Christmas Preface puts it.

BLESSING OF WINE ON THE FEAST OF SAINT JOHN, APOSTLE AND EVANGELIST

On the Feast of Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, at the end of the principal Mass, that is, after the last Gospel, the priest, retaining all his vestments except the maniple, in the following manner blesses wine brought by the people in memory and in honor of Saint John, who drank poison without harm:

V. Our help is in the name of the Lord.
R. Who has made heaven and earth.

V. The Lord be with you.
R. And with your spirit.

Let us pray.

Be so kind as to bless and consecrate with Your right hand, Lord, this cup of wine, and every drink. Grant that by the merits of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist, all who believe in You and drink of this cup may be blessed and protected. Blessed John drank poison from the cup, and was in no way harmed. So, too, may all who this day drink from this cup in honor of blessed John, by his merits, be freed from every sickness by poisoning and from any harms whatever. And, when they have offered themselves in both soul and body, may they be freed, too, from every fault, through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen.

Bless, Lord, this beverage which You have made. May it be a healthful refreshment to all who drink of it. And grant by the invocation of Your holy name that whoever tastes of it may, by Your generosity receive health of both soul and body, through Christ our Lord.
R. Amen

And may the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, descend upon this wine which He has made, and upon every drink, and remain always.
R. Amen.

And it is sprinkled with Holy Water. If this blessing is given outside of Mass, the priest performs it in the manner described above, but with surplice and stole.

I like this painting by the Dominican Fra Bartolomeo (1473–1517), a disciple of Savonarola, because it shows our Holy Father Saint Bernard together with Saint John the Evangelist and our Holy Father Saint Benedict. The Virgin Mother is looking at the Bambino Gesù while the Bambino looks at Saint Bernard. An angel holds the open book of the Scriptures before Bernard, but Bernard is not reading the text. His eyes are raised to contemplate the Infant Christ. Bernard has passed from the written word to the Word made flesh. Saint John the Evangelist, pointing to his heart, looks on; he recognizes that Bernard is of his spiritual family. Saint Benedict, full of gravity and peace, remains in the background with his hands crossed over his breast, an expression of humility.

December 27
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist

1 John 1:1-4
Psalm 97:1-2, 5-6, 11-12
John 20:2-8

A Liturgical Theology of the Trinity

On Christmas Day, our eyes were fixed on the Light, the Word made flesh, the Son eternally begotten of the Father. Yesterday, the feast of Saint Stephen the Protomartyr drew our attention to the Holy Spirit indwelling and overshadowing the Body of Christ. Today, Saint John the Beloved Disciple, venerated in the East as Saint John the Theologian (or John the Divine), draws our hearts to the mystery of the Eternal Father. We have, in these first three days of Christmastide, a liturgical theology of the Trinity.

The Gospel of the Father

The Gospel of Saint John has been called the Gospel of the Father and rightly so, for it is the particular charism of Saint John to lead us through the Word made flesh, and by the Word made flesh, and with the Word made flesh, into the bosom of the Father. The magnificent First Preface of Christmas wonderfully expresses the essential movement of Saint John’s Gospel. “By the mystery of your Word made flesh, a new and radiant light floods our spiritual eyes so that, even as we know God in what is visible, we are ravished (rapiamur) unto the love of things invisible.� This sentence of the Christmas Preface is a distillation of the mystical theology of Saint John. Proceeding from what is revealed, we are drawn into what is concealed. Holding fast to what is shown, we are held in the embrace of what is hidden.

Communion

This is the joy of Saint John. “The eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us — that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ� (1 Jn 1:3). The English word fellowship translates here the Greek koinonia and the Latin communio. Saint John is saying, “Our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.� Now, communion simply means “union with.� “Our communion is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.� But communion is also used in the New Testament to designate the presence and the effect of the Holy Spirit. We have communion — union with — the Father and with the Son by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This is why Saint John writes in the same epistle, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because he has given us of His own Spirit� (1 Jn 4:13).

New York Again

Yesterday I returned to the Italian Consulate in New York City to pick up my visa. The magnificent Church of Saint Jean–Baptiste at Lexington and 76th Street is just a short walk from the Consulate. Sister Barbara Ann, A.S.C.J. and I were there for the 12:15 p.m. Mass. I concelebrated with Father Bernard Camiré, S.S.S., and Deacon Richard Russo assisted. The late John Cardinal O'Connor described Saint Jean–Baptiste as "quite possibly the most beautiful church in New York."

Church of Saint Jean–Baptiste

The beauty of Saint Jean's is more than the effect of its architecture and gorgeous appointments. The church has a spiritual beauty that is the radiance of holiness: the effect of nearly a century of daily adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament exposed. The church is staffed by the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual sons of Saint Peter Julian Eymard.

Saint Peter Julian Eymard (1811–1868)

After Mass there was a prayer to Saint Peter Julian Eymard and the veneration of his relic by the faithful. Last August 2nd, on his liturgical memorial, I preached on this saint who has become for me an intercessor, a model, and a friend.

Saint Peter Julian’s Eucharistic vocation unfolded amidst sufferings of the heart and painful detachments. God called him out of the religious family he loved — the Marist Fathers — to begin a new work, a Cenacle entirely devoted to the Blessed Sacrament. From the beginning this new Eucharistic work comprised priests, consecrated women, and laity. He challenged his little family of adorers to set souls ablaze with Eucharistic fire.

In the Blessed Sacrament Saint Peter Julian Eymard recognized “the treasure hidden in the field� (Mt 13:44) and “the pearl of great price� (Mt 13:46). He gave up all that he had to possess the mystery of the Eucharist and to be possessed by it. Peter Julian Eymard is a saint for the Church today: a Church called to rediscover Eucharistic adoration and to live “from the altar and for the altar�; a Church that will be incomplete so long as so many of the baptized are not receiving the Sacred Body and Precious Blood of Christ; a Church suffering in priests who broken and wounded with no one to care for their souls. Saint Peter Julian, share with us your passion for the Eucharist, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ!

A New Shoot On An Old Tree

About twenty years after the death of Saint Peter Julian Eymard. one of his disciples, Père Bernard Maréchal, Assistant General of the Congregation, sought to have the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament adopt the Rule of Saint Benedict so as to become "The Congregation of Cistercian Adorers of the Most Blessed Sacrament." When Maréchal's proposal was refused by the General Chapter of 1887, he left the Blessed Sacrament Fathers to pursue his aspirations.

In 1891 Dom Maréchal founded the Cistercian Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament at Pont–Colbert in France. The Congregation joined perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament to the traditional Benedictine observance. From France it spread to Holland and to North America. Dom Maréchal's Congregation was weakened greatly by the First and Second World Wars. By 1950 its remaining houses had, for various reasons, abandoned their specifically Eucharistic characteristics.

Monasteries of Adoration Today?

Since that time, especially in the wake of Pope John Paul II's Year of the Eucharist, there has been a revival of interest in Dom Maréchal's project. While there are many monasteries of adoration for women — I am thinking of the Tyburn Benedictines and of the Benedictines of Perpetual Adoration — there are very few for men. The Monastery of Santa Cruz in Guadalajara, Mexico, a foundation of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome, has, in fact, made Eucharistic adoration a defining characteristic of its identity. Will other monasteries of Eucharistic adoration sprout from the ancient Benedictine–Cistercian tree? "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Ap 2:29).

Some years ago I received the inspiration for these prayers to Saint Joseph. It was at a time of darkness and discouragement for many priests. Saint Joseph is the champion and protector of the weak, the vulnerable, and the poor. He is close to priests in their most intimate struggles, frailities, and fears. Go to Joseph.

Is it not significant that in this painting by Juan Simon Gutiérrez (1643–1718) the heads of the Child Jesus and Saint Joseph are touching? Note that the little Jesus and Saint Joseph together hold the fragile branch of lilies, the sign of chastity, in their hands. In most paintings of the Holy Family the most tender intimacy is between the Virgin Mother and her Child; here it is between Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus. The Virgin Mother understands the bonding that must take place between Saint Joseph and her Child; she holds the mystery of it in her Immaculate Heart.

Prayer to Saint Joseph for Priests

O glorious Saint Joseph,
who, on the word of the angel
speaking to you in the night,
put fear aside to take your Virgin Bride into your home,
show yourself today the advocate and protector of priests.
Protector of the Infant Christ,
defend them against every attack of the enemy,
preserve them from the dangers that surround them
on every side.
Remember Herod's threats against the Child,
the anguish of the flight into Egypt by night,
and the hardships of your exile.
Stand by the accused;
stretch out your hand to those who have fallen;
comfort the fearful;
forsake not the weak;
and visit the lonely.
Let all priests know that in you
God has given them a model
of faith in the night, obedience in adversity,
chastity in tenderness, and hope in uncertainty.
You are the terror of demons
and the healer of those wounded in spiritual combat.
Come to the defence of every priest in need;
overcome evil with good.
Where there are curses, put blessings,
where harm has been done, do good.
Let there be joy for the priests of the Church,
and peace for all under your gracious protection.
Amen.

A Priest's Prayer to Saint Joseph

Saint Joseph,
I take you this day as my advocate and defender,
my counselor and my friend.
Open your heart to me
as you opened your home to the Virgin Mother
in her hour of need.
Protect my holy priesthood
as you protected the life of the Infant Christ
threatened by cruel Herod.
In darkness bring me light;
in weakness, strength,
and in fear the peace that passes understanding.
For the sake of the tender love that bound you
to the Virgin Mary and the Infant Christ,
be for me, Saint Joseph, a constant intercessor
and a shield against every danger of body, mind, and soul
so that, in spite of my weaknesses and sins,
my priesthood may bring glory to Christ
and serve to increase the beauty of holiness
in his bride the Church.
Amen.

Today is not only the feast of Saint John Bosco, the gentle spiritual father of countless children and young people, it is also the feast of Saint Marcella of Rome. Saint Jerome called Marcella “the glory of the ladies of Rome.�

As a young girl Marcella met Saint Athanasius; his stories of the Desert Fathers of Egypt enthralled her. Marcella married but was widowed after only seven months. Saint Jerome lodged in Marcella’s house on the Aventine. Today one has this marvelous view from the Aventine.

The young widow’s home became an academy for the study of Sacred Scripture and a school of prayer. Saint Paula and other Roman ladies joined her. Marcella was a woman of no mean intellectual prowess. While she respected her spiritual father Jerome, he did not intimidate her. More than once she challenged him with difficult and subtle questions concerning the Scriptures. It was for Marcella that Saint Jerome wrote his explanation of the Hebrew words Amen and Alleluia.

In a letter to the Roman lady Principia, Saint Jerome compares Marcella to the prophetess Anna in Saint Luke’s Gospel. “Let us then compare her case with that of Marcella,� he says, “and we shall see that the latter has every way the advantage. Anna lived with her husband seven years; Marcella seven months. Anna only hoped for Christ; Marcella held Him fast. Anna confessed Him at His birth; Marcella believed in Him crucified. Anna did not deny the Child; Marcella rejoiced in the Man as king� (Saint Jerome, Letter 127). This is Jerome’s spiritual portrait of Marcella: she clung to Christ, believed in Him crucified, and rejoiced in Him as King.

In some martyrologies, today is the feast of Saint Veronica, the woman of courage and compassion commemorated in Catholic piety at the Sixth Station of the Cross. It is the feastday of my niece Veronica Kirby and of Mère Véronique, prioress general of the Benedictines of Jesus Crucified. This painting of "The Veronica" by the Master of Flémalle (ca. 1375–1444) depicts the Holy Face on a finely woven and transparent cloth, exactly like the Holy Face of Manoppello.

On March 24, 2005, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger offered the following meditation and prayer during the Via Crucis in the Colosseum:

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. 53:2-3

Lord, grant us restless hearts, hearts which seek your Face. Keep us from the blindness of heart which sees only the surface of things. Give us the simplicity and purity which allow us to recognize your presence in the world. When we are not able to accomplish great things, grant us the courage which is born of humility and goodness. Impress your Face on our hearts. May we encounter you along the way and show your image to the world.

Just yesterday I found this prayer to the Holy Face printed on the back of a reproduction of the Volto Santo in the Chapter Room of the Cistercian monastery of Santa Susanna:

Holy Face of my sweet Jesus,
living and eternal expression of the love
and of the divine martyrdom suffered for the redemption of mankind,
I adore Thee and I love Thee.
Today and for always
I consecrate to Thee my whole being.
By the most pure hands of the Immaculate Queen
I offer Thee the prayers, actions, and works of this day,
in expiation and reparation for the sins of poor creatures.
Make me Thy true apostle.
May your gentle gaze be ever present to me
and, at the hour of my death,
grow bright with mercy.
Amen.

I would ask all my readers to join me today in praying for a very bright, engaging young woman who has been in poor health for the past few years..

Lord Jesus Christ Divine Physician, through the intercession of Saint Agatha, Virgin and Martyr, be pleased, we beseech Thee, to heal Thy handmaid from every affliction of body, mind, and soul. Amen.

Saint Agatha shines today as the fifth star in the Church's winter constellation of women martyrs, all of whom are named in the venerable Roman Canon:

Cecily, Virgin Martyr — 22 November
Lucy, Virgin Martyr — 13 December
Anastasia, Virgin Martyr — 25 December
Agnes, Virgin Martyr — 21 January
Agatha, Virgin Martyr — 5 February
Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs — 6 March

GENERAL INTERCESSIONS

That the Church in every place,
made radiant by the example of Saint Agatha
and so many other virgin martyrs,
may remain steadfast in the love of Christ
and so present to the eyes of the world
the witness of a joyful fidelity to her Bridegroom,
to the Lord we pray, Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That, with reverence for the mystery of life,
the leaders of nations
may promote the dignity of women in society,
to the Lord we pray, Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That, following the example of Saint Agatha,
the sick may place their hope in Christ
who by his word alone restores all things;
and that women afflicted with cancer of the breast
may find in Saint Agatha an intercessor and friend,
to the Lord we pray, Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

That we,
approaching the adorable mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood,
may seek the healing that goes forth from him
to deliver us from evil and strengthen us for good,
to the Lord we pray, Christ, hear us. R. Christ, graciously hear us.

Almighty and merciful God,
who, by the gift of your Spirit,
strengthened the virgin martyr Agatha
to face death with a pure and fearless gaze;
grant us, we beseech you,
a like surrender to the severe and tender claims of love,
that we, by holding nothing dearer than Christ,
may go forward in faith with unstumbling feet,
and open wide our weakness
to the strength that comes from you alone.
Through Christ our Lord.

The Saints in Our Lives

The saints come into our lives, each one with a particular mission. We do not choose the saints to whom we are devoted in a special way; it is they who, in obedience to a mysterious design of God, make themselves known and devote themselves to us. This is something I have experienced over and over again. When a particular saint offers me the gift of his or her friendship, it is because God chooses, through this saint, to teach me something, to offer me a particular gift or, quite simply, to give me a heavenly companion for my journey, a counselor, and a friend.

Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Apostle of the Eucharist

Last December I was given a first class relic of Saint Peter Julian Eymard. Then, several trips to the Italian Consulate in Manhattan gave me the opportunity to pray in the magnificent Church of Saint Jean–Baptiste. The Church contains an altar dedicated to Saint Peter Julian and an important relic. Saint Peter Julian Eymard seemed to be approaching me with a message and with a gift.

I just finished reading two biographies of the saint; both books are in Italian. I found them here in the abbey library. San Pietro Giuliano Eymard, Apostolo dell'Eucaristia by Quirino Moraschini and Mondolfo Pedrinazzi, S.S.S. (Roma 1962), and Il Beato Pietro Giuliano Eymard by Paolo Dott. Fossati, Sacerdote Adoratore (Milano 1925).

What I found most striking is this particular teaching of Saint Peter Julian Eymard. Excuse my translation from the Italian, itself a translation from the French.

"The secret for arriving quickly at a life centred in the Eucharist is, during a certain period of time, to make Jesus in the Most Holy Sacrament the habitual object of the exercise of the presence of God, the dominant motive of our intentions, the meditation of our spirit, the affection of our heart, the object of all our virtues. And if the soul is generous enough, one will come at length to this unity of action, to familiarity with the adorable Sacrament, to think of it with as much and even greater ease than of any other object. Easily and gently one's heart will produce the most tender affections. In a word, the Most Holy Sacrament will become the magnet of devotion in one's life and the centre of perfection of one's love. Eight days would be enough for a simple and fervent soul to acquire this Eucharistic spirit; and even if one should have to put weeks and months to acquire it, can this ever be compared with the peace and the happiness which this soul will enjoy in the Divine Eucharist?"

A Eucharistic "Conversion of Manners"

What exactly is Saint Peter Julian Eymard saying here? To use the classic Benedictine expression, he is talking about a conversatio morum, a Eucharistic conversion of the way one lives, a turning toward the mystery of the Eucharist. the first expression of this Eucharistic conversion will be the re–ordering of one's priorities beginning with the organization of one's day. He is suggesting an intensive eight–day exposure to the healing radiance of the Most Holy Eucharist.

Power Comes Forth From Him

I have always loved the Communion Antiphon Multitudo languentium (p. 471 in the Graduale Romanum). The theological and musical summit of the antiphon is in the last line: Quia virtus de illo exibat et sanabat omnes. "For power came forth from Him and healed them all" (Lk 6:19). The fact that the liturgy makes us sing this text during Holy Communion tells us that healing power radiates from the Body and Blood of Christ received from the altar, and contemplated and adored in the tabernacle and in the monstrance. Saint Peter Julian Eymard is suggesting that eight days of conversion, i.e. of turning toward the Most Holy Eucharist is sufficient to begin the healing of one's heart and the renewal of one's life.

Bringing the Messy Bits to Adoration

My friend Lisa H. is famous for counseling folks with problems of all sorts to bring them to Eucharistic adoration. Lisa is 100% right. Bring your whole life to adoration, especially the messy bits, the very parts that you would be tempted to hide or disown. Bring your broken heart and your wounds to adoration. Try it for eight days. It will be the beginning of a Eucharistic conversatio morum.

"In human affairs we must be content to do the best we can and then abandon ourselves to Providence, which will heal our human faults and shortcomings."
Blessed Pius IX

Pius IX, Newman, and Santa Croce in Gerusalemme

In 1847 Blessed Pius IX sent John Henry Newman and six other Englishmen to live at the Abbey of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme while preparing together for life in the English Oratory.

Mr. Bowles, one of Newman's companions in Rome wrote: "Pius IX chose Santa Croce as the place where we should all go, the Pope himself calling it un bel sito — a beautiful situation, which it certainly was. We were then Newman, St. John, Penny, Dalgairns, Coffin, Stanton, and myself. We had a whole wing of the monastery on the upper floor to ourselves with a kitchen and man cook, an Italian named Michele, as servant, and a dining room to ourselves on the ground floor. Father Rossi was appointed, by the Pope, from the Oratory in Rome, to be our Novice Master. He also had his room on the same floor, and there was a recreation room also, which was also the Chapel, with an Altar in it."

John Paul II on Pius IX

Blessed Pius IX was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 September 2000. His liturgical memorial occurs on 7 February. Read what Pope John Paul II said about his sintly predecessor:

"Listening to the words of the Gospel acclamation: 'Lord, lead me on a straight road', our thoughts naturally turn to the human and religious life of Pope Pius IX, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti. Amid the turbulent events of his time, he was an example of unconditional fidelity to the immutable deposit of revealed truths. Faithful to the duties of his ministry in every circumstance, he always knew how to give absolute primacy to God and to spiritual values. His lengthy pontificate was not at all easy and he had much to suffer in fulfilling his mission of service to the Gospel. He was much loved, but also hated and slandered.

However, it was precisely in these conflicts that the light of his virtues shone most brightly: these prolonged sufferings tempered his trust in divine Providence, whose sovereign lordship over human events he never doubted. This was the source of Pius IX's deep serenity, even amid the misunderstandings and attacks of so many hostile people. He liked to say to those close to him: 'In human affairs we must be content to do the best we can and then abandon ourselves to Providence, which will heal our human faults and shortcomings'.

Sustained by this deep conviction, he called the First Vatican Ecumenical Council, which clarified with magisterial authority certain questions disputed at the time, and confirmed the harmony of faith and reason. During his moments of trial Pius IX found support in Mary, to whom he was very devoted. In proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, he reminded everyone that in the storms of human life the light of Christ shines brightly in the Blessed Virgin and is more powerful than sin and death."

My beloved Poor Ladies at Bethlehem Monastery in Barhamsville, Virginia gently chided me for forgetting that today is indeed the solemn festival of Saint Colette, their mother after Saint Clare. In Rome we were all about Blessed Pius IX today!

The Ty Mam Duw Poor Clares in Wales have a very rich section on Saint Colette on their site. Do read it!

Mother Vicaress Thérèse offered to post Paul Claudel's poem on Saint Colette for us. We are waiting, Mother! Blessed festival of Saint Colette to her worthy daughters the world over, especially to those who bear her name!

The Ty Mam Duw Poor Ladies write:

Colette's intercession with the Lord has spanned the five centuries since her death, calling forth miracles of love. The deaf hear, the blind see, the lame walk and the dead are restored to life.

Colette's method of proclaiming the Gospel was not to preach but to pray. Her whole life was spent in prayer. Even when she was asked to help her brothers the Friars Minor, in their reform, and was invited into their chapter room, she did not tell them what they ought to do, she simply knelt down and prayed, and those who watched, one by one, also fell on their knees.

There is a lot of talk today among religious about "refounding" their institutes. Most are still reticent about "reforming" them. To acknowledge the need for reform implies that, somewhere along the way, we have become deformed. It takes humility and courage to say, "We have made mistakes. We have made wrong decisions. We are not living in fidelity to the grace of our origins. Worldliness and activism are snuffing out the living flame of love." Saint Colette shows all of us the way to true reform. Reform begins in prayer. Reform is sustained by prayer. Reform bears fruit — fruit that will abide (Jn 15:16) — in prayer.

Reform, like conversion, is ongoing. It is movement. Mother Rosaria, with her walking stick and pilgrim's hat (looking ever so much like Saint Colette), shows us the way: one step at at time.

Saint Josephine Bakhita

We celebrate today the memorial of Saint Josephine Bakhita as well as the sixtieth anniversary of her death. Born in Sudan, Africa in 1869, she died in Italy in 1947, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II on October 1, 2000. Her memorial, endowed with a magnificent new Collect, was inserted into the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal published in 2002.

The Holy Spirit Interceding for Us in the Liturgy

I have had occasion to say this many times before, but it bears repetition: the Collect prescribed by the liturgy on any given day is a pure distillation of the Church’s prayer. The Collect of the day is nothing less than the Holy Spirit “helping us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought� (Rom 8:26). The Collect of the day is the Church articulating for us those “sighs too deep for words� (Rom 8:26) by which the Holy Spirit himself intercedes for us, filling us with the prayer of Christ.

Every line of the Collect for Saint Bakhita merits attention; every phrase needs to be repeated in meditation.

O God, who led Saint Josephine Bakhita
from abject slavery
to the dignity of being your daughter and the bride of Christ,
give us, we beseech you, by her example,
to follow after Jesus the Crucified Lord with unremitting love
and, in charity, to persevere in a ready mercy.

Called by a New Name

As a result of the trauma she endured when she was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a little girl, Saint Josephine Bakhita could not remember the name her parents had given her. Her captors called her Bakhita, meaning “fortunate� or “lucky.� “You shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will give. You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord� (Is 62:3). Years later, at her baptism, Bakhita received the name Josephine.

A Saint Sold and Resold

Bakhita’s life was marked by indescribable emotional, moral, and physical suffering. After her kidnapping, she was sold and resold in the slave markets of El Obeidh and Khartoum. In the capital of Sudan, Bakhita was bought — yes, bought — by the Italian Consul, one Callisto Legnani. Bakhita was surprised that her new owner didn’t use the lash on her when giving orders; he treated her with kindness and affection. When the political situation obliged him to return to Italy, he took Bakhita with him. There Bakhita entered the service of another family. These good people, in turn, entrusted Bakhita to the Canossian Daughters of Charity in Venice.

Daughter of God

Bakhita became a catechumen and was baptized on January 9th, 1890. From then on, she would kiss the baptismal font, saying, “Here I became a daughter of God.� The Collect echoes this: O God, who led Saint Josephine Bakhita from abject slavery to the dignity of being your daughter. . . .

Christ, the Gentle Master

Protected by Italian law, Bakhita chose to remain among the Canossians. The psalmist expresses her choice: “A day in thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked� (Ps 83:10). She who had been bought and sold by a series of human masters discovered the tender love of Christ, the gentle Master. Sweet paradox. Bakhita called God, “Master.�

La Madre Moretta

On December 8th, 1896, Bakhita was consecrated forever to God as a Canossian Daughter of Charity, becoming Mother Josephine. The local people and school children called her affectionately la Madre Moretta, “the little Black Mother.� Daughter of God, Bride of Christ, Mother of the little and the poor. Bakhita became the complete consecrated woman: free, loved, fruitful, fully realized. “You shall no longer be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no longer be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land married, for the Lord delights in you� (Is 62:4).

It seems to me that this sermon, preached on the feast of Saint John the Apostle, sheds some light on the way the Venerable Servant of God John Henry Newman understood friendship and love in his own life. The italics are my own.

Love of Relations and Friends

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God." 1 John iv. 7.

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist is chiefly and most familiarly known to us as "the disciple whom Jesus loved." He was one of the three or four who always attended our Blessed Lord, and had the privilege of the most intimate intercourse with Him; and, more favoured than Peter, James, and Andrew, he was His bosom friend, as we commonly express ourselves. At the solemn supper before Christ suffered, he took his place next Him, and leaned on His breast. As the other three communicated between the multitude and Christ, so St. John communicated between Christ and them. At that Last Supper, Peter dared not ask Jesus a question himself, but bade John put it to Him,—who it was that should betray Him. Thus St. John was the private and intimate friend of Christ. Again, it was to St. John that our Lord committed His Mother, when {52} He was dying on the cross; it was to St. John that He revealed in vision after His departure the fortunes of His Church.

Our Saviour Had a Private Friend

Much might be said on this remarkable circumstance. I say remarkable, because it might be supposed that the Son of God Most High could not have loved one man more than another; or again, if so, that He would not have had only one friend, but, as being All-holy, He would have loved all men more or less, in proportion to their holiness. Yet we find our Saviour had a private friend; and this shows us, first, how entirely He was a man, as much as any of us, in His wants and feelings; and next, that there is nothing contrary to the spirit of the Gospel, nothing inconsistent with the fulness of Christian love, in having our affections directed in an especial way towards certain objects, towards those whom the circumstances of our past life, or some peculiarities of character, have endeared to us.

With Our Saviour's Pattern Before Me

There have been men before now, who have supposed Christian love was so diffusive as not to admit of concentration upon individuals; so that we ought to love all men equally. And many there are, who, without bringing forward any theory, yet consider practically that the love of many is something superior to the love of one or two; and neglect the charities of private life, while busy in the schemes of an expansive benevolence, or of effecting a general union and conciliation among Christians. Now I shall here maintain, in opposition to such notions of Christian love, and with our Saviour's pattern before me, that the best preparation for loving the world at large, and loving it duly and wisely, is to {53} cultivate an intimate friendship and affection towards those who are immediately about us.

Friendship and Spiritual Childhood

It has been the plan of Divine Providence to ground what is good and true in religion and morals, on the basis of our good natural feelings. What we are towards our earthly friends in the instincts and wishes of our infancy, such we are to become at length towards God and man in the extended field of our duties as accountable beings. To honour our parents is the first step towards honouring God; to love our brethren according to the flesh, the first step towards considering all men our brethren. Hence our Lord says, we must become as little children, if we would be saved; we must become in His Church, as men, what we were once in the small circle of our youthful homes.

Cistercians celebrated today the memorial of Blessed Corrado (Conrad) of Bavaria. Born in 1105, Conrad was the son of Henry the Black, Duke of Bavaria. The young Conrad was sent to study under the doct canons of Cologne. Drawn to Saint Bernard by the latter's magnetic holiness and personal charm, Conrad entered the abbey of Clairvaux.

Shortly thereafter he received Saint Bernard's permission to go as a pilgrim to the Holy Land and to live there as a hermit. He remained in Palestine for several years in the service of an elder. Threatened by the incursions of Islamic forces and having learned of Saint Bernard's declining health, Conrad decided to return to Clairvaux.

When he arrived in Bari, he learned that Bernard was already dead. Rather than return to Clairvaux, he venerated the relics of Saint Nicholas in Bari and then withdrew to Modugno where he set himself up as a hermit in a grotto dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. He reposed in 1154 or 1155 with a reputation for holiness and miracles. His body was transferred to Molfetta, becoming its principal patron saint. On certain feastdays, his head, preserved in a reliquary, is carried in procession. Gregory VI confirmed his cultus on 6 April 1832. The photo shows the cathedral of Molfetta where Saint Corrado's body rests.

I don't know how many Benedictine readers Vultus Christi has. It occurred to me nonetheless that I should share this text — apocryphal though it may be — for the feast of Saint Scholastica.

A LETTER ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT SCHOLASTICA, VIRGIN AND ABBESS*

A certain researcher in Rome recently uncovered the manuscript of a late medieval copy of an earlier copy of a letter attributed to Scholastica, abbess of Plombariola. The original letter appears to have been written to another abbess, named Flavia, in about the year 535. It treats of the observance of Lent.

Salutation

To my beloved sister in Christ, the Lady Flavia, abbess of the handmaids of the Lord near Benevento.
Grace and peace from Scholastica, abbess in the school of the Lord’s service that is at Plombariola.

The School of the Lord's Service

Your letter brought me much joy and, bound by the sweetness of affection that unites us in holy friendship, I hasten to respond to your questions “with sincere and humble charity� (RB 72:10). Know that I have no teaching of my own; from the time of my veiling (velatio) the commands and teaching of my brother, blessed by grace and by name, “have mingled like the leaven of divine justice in my mind� (RB 25). In truth, dear sister, he who is my brother according to the flesh, has become my father in the Spirit. It was he who named me Scholastica, saying that, like him, I was destined to remain in the “school of the Lord’s service� (RB Pro:45). In this school I have found “nothing that is harsh or hard to bear� (RB Pro:46). On the contrary, through the continual practice of monastic observance and the life of faith� (RB Pro:49), my heart is opened wide, and even now I am running in the way of God’s commandments in a sweetness of love that is beyond words (cf. RB Pro: 49).

The Yearly Visit

I see my venerable brother but once a year, and even then he refuses to come to me, not wanting to leave the enclosure of his monastery. I am obliged to go to him at Monte Cassino, inspired by the example of the Queen of the South who traveled far to sit at the feet of Solomon and listen to his wisdom. My brother himself says that “we must hurry to do now what will profit us forever� (RB Pro 44). I will continue to go to him as long as I am able to make the journey, trusting that he who formed us together in our mother’s womb will one day bring us “together to life everlasting� (cf. RB 73:12).

Holy Lent

You ask me to tell you how we observe Lent here at Plombariola. My venerable brother, in his “little Rule written for beginners� (RB 73:8), says that “a monk’s life ought at all seasons to bear a Lenten character� (RB 49:1). He is also the first to admit that “such strength is found only in the few� (RB 49:2). Following his teaching, I urge my sisters to “keep the holy days of Lent with a special purity of life, and also at this holy season to make reparation for the failings of other times� (RB 49:3). I try to order Lent in my monastery with “discretion, the mother of virtues� (RB 54:19) in such a way that “the strong may desire to carry more, and the weak are not afraid� (RB 54:19). The task of ruling souls and serving women of different characters is, as you know well, arduous and difficult (cf. RB 2:31). I must adapt and fit myself to all. Dear old Nonna Fabiola needs to be encouraged. Sister Petronilla, thick-skinned as she is, responds only to sharp rebuke, whereas Sister Anastasia has to be persuaded. With some, I have to be tough, and with others lovingly affectionate. This is my brother’s way, and by following it, I have “not lost any of the flock entrusted to me, and rejoice as my good flock increases� (RB 2:32).

But I digress, dear Mother Flavia. Your question was about Lent. My venerable brother says that we are to “guard ourselves from faults� during this holy time. To do this, one must “always remember all God’s commandments, and constantly turn over in one’s heart how hell will burn those who despise him by their sins and how eternal life has been prepared for those who fear him� (RB 7:11). My brother calls this the first step of humility. As for me, my faults appear daily in the bright mirror of the Scriptures. I have no excuse for putting off the labour of my conversion. As the psalmist says: “Thou hast set our evil-doings before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance� (Ps 89:8).

Hosea 2:16bc, 17cd, 21-22
Psalm 15
Revelation 19:1, 5-9a
Luke 10:38-42

In a hymn composed some years ago for today’s feast, a Benedictine friend of mine addressed Saint Scholastica, saying:

How little do we know
revealing who you are:
this silence, born of peace,
perhaps speaks even more.

Apart from a few precious pages in the Dialogues of Saint Gregory, we know nothing of Saint Scholastica. The little revealed by Saint Gregory has, nonetheless, inspired an astonishing richness of liturgical texts: antiphons, responsories, hymns, and prayers. Like miners in search of a vein of pure gold, anonymous poets through the ages have extracted from Saint Gregory’s few pages the raw material of chants and prayers that, even today, delight us and draw us into the heavenward flight of Scholastica, the pure dove.

There is so much to see, to hear, to taste, to smell:
— psalms of praise sung around a table, men’s and women’s voices in antiphony;
— the breaking of bread and the fragrance of wine poured out;
— the impassioned sound of Mediterranean conversation;
— two saints locked in a holy difference of opinion;
— Scholastica’s hands folded upon the table;
— her head bowed and resting upon her hands;
— her tears flowing freely;
— the pentecostal wind, the crash of thunder and blaze of lightning;
— the torrential downpour, heaven’s answer to a woman’s tears.

In the end, Saint Gregory leaves us with the image of the dove, dazzling white in flight, disappearing into the light, and with the sound of Benedict’s voice raised in praise. That perhaps is more than enough for us, but in the readings of today’s Mass we are given still more.

The liturgy, wildly lavish — precisely because it is the gift of a God lavish in love, offers us today a kind of triptych, three icons hinged together. At the center is the icon painted by Saint Luke. See Jesus seated in the holy house of Bethany. At his feet, see Mary, fixed in the stability of love, listening intently, the words of the Word falling into the open vessel of her heart. In the background, see Martha, bustling with anxious energy, fragmented and mobilized by a multitude of cares and, for all of that, conscious enough of the presence of Jesus to address her complaints to him and to no other.

The scene is both strangely the same and yet different from the one described by Saint Gregory. In the Dialogues, the meal has already taken place, the bread has been broken and the darkness has fallen. In the gospel the meal has yet to take place but Jesus, anticipating the breaking of bread, is feeding Mary with his Word, causing the brightness of his glory to shine like the daystar in her heart. Christ is the Benedictus, the Blessed of the Father, speaking blessings, — bene dicere — uttering the good things that proceed from the goodness of his heart. Mary is the Scholastica, having placed herself in the schola Christi, the school of Christ. Martha, caught betwixt fear and freedom, is the tension between life’s regular demands — those of the Regula, the Rule — and the surpassing primacy of a love set free from fear.

To the left of the central panel is an icon having, at first glance, none of the comforting warmth of Saint Luke’s domestic scene. It depicts the desert, the archetypical monastic setting. We see the bride wooed by Love into the desert only to discover there a gift of vineyards and, in the valley of Achor (meaning “trouble) a door of hope. Scholastica, having inclined the ear of her heart to the Word becomes, in the desert, the sponsa Verbi, the bride of the Word. She passes through the door of hope opened by the Bridegroom and invites us to follow in her steps.

The third panel could not be more different from the first. It reveals what lies beyond the desert, mysteries prepared on the other side of the door of hope: “what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him� (1 Cor 2:9). An icon speaks to the eyes, shimmering with the light of heaven, and yet, if you put your ear to it in lectio divina, you will hear “the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty thunderpeals.� Waters and thunderpeals again! Images borrowed by Saint Gregory!

Listen closely: you will hear the sound of voices rejoicing at the marriage supper of the Lamb. There is the voice of a man; it is that of Benedict celebrating the triumph of Love. There is the voice of a woman; it is Scholastica singing a song never to be interrupted. “Lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone . . . the time of singing has come� (Ct 2:11-12). Today, Scholastica and Benedict together invite us to the Supper of the Lamb.

A Letter of John H. Newman
To Edward Heneage Dering on the Death of His Wife in 1876

My Dear Mr. Dering,

Yours most sincerely,
John H. Newman

* Father Ambrose St. John of the Oratory.

A Feast in Europe

In all of Europe today is the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius, co–patrons of Europe with Saint Benedict, Saint Catherine of Siena, Saint Birgitta of Sweden, and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross.

The Ascension of the Lord

The Gospel given us today is Saint Mark's account of the Ascension of the Lord (Mk 16:15–20). This particular pericope is constructed like a triptych. The central panel is the radiant image of the ascended Lord Jesus, the King of Glory, seated at the right hand of the Father. "So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mk 16:19).

O Jesus, our redemption,
our love, and our desire,
God, Creator of all things,
become Man in the fullness of time.

(Iesu nostra redemptio, Hymn at Vespers of the Ascension)

The Things That Are Above

It is in the light of the glorious mystery of the Ascension, recapitulating the whole work of redemption, that Saint Paul writes: "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God" (Col 3:1–3). This, it seems to me, is the message that contemporary Europe and the whole Western world need to hear.

Go Into the World

The first panel in Saint Mark's triptych depicts Our Lord's command to "go into the world and preach the Gospel to the whole creation" (Mk 16:15). Baptism is the necessary response to the prevenient gift of faith. Those who, having heard the preaching of the Gospel, refuse to put their belief in Christ, will be condemned by their own hardness of heart. The preaching of the Gospel is made compelling by the signs that accompany it. "And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover" (Mk 16:17–18).

Preaching Everywhere

The third panel of the Gospel triptych shows the Church's obedience to the command of the Lord. Saints Cyril and Methodius are, in fact, examples of the last verse of the Gospel: "And they went forth and preached every where, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen" (Mk 16:19–20). Saint Mark's phrase, "and the Lord worked with them," corresponds to Saint Matthew's expression of the same mystery: "Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20).

The Soul of the Apostolate

The preaching of the Gospel is sustained by the contemplation of the risen and ascended Christ hidden for our sake in the sacred mysteries until His return in glory. Those who seek His Face and His Heart hidden in the adorable mystery of the Eucharist will not be disappointed in their hope. The central panel of today's Gospel reveals what Dom Chautard called "the soul of the apostolate." Without seeking the Face of Christ and exposing ourselves to the flames that emanate from His Sacred Heart, it is impossible to hear the commands of the Lord, and impossible to carry them out.

February 15th is the liturgical memorial of Saint Claude La Colombière, Priest, S.J.

My God, I believe most firmly
that Thou watchest over all who hope in Thee,
and that we can want for nothing
when we rely upon Thee in all things;
therefore I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties,
and to cast all my cares upon Thee.

People may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors;
sickness may take from me my strength
and the means of serving Thee;
I may even lose Thy grace by sin;
but my trust shall never leave me.
I will preserve it to the last moment of my life,
and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrestle it from me.

Let others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents;
let them trust to the purity of their lives,
the severity of their mortifications,
to the number of their good works, the fervor of their prayers;
as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my hope.
"For Thou, O Lord, singularly has settled me in hope."
This confidence can never be in vain.
"No one has hoped in the Lord and has been confounded."

I am assured, therefore, of my eternal happiness,
for I firmly hope for it, and all my hope is in Thee.
"In Thee, O Lord, I have hoped; let me never be confounded."
I know, alas! I know but too well that I am frail and changeable;
I know the power of temptation against the strongest virtue.
I have seen stars fall from heaven, and pillars of firmament totter;
but these things alarm me not.
While I hope in Thee I am sheltered from all misfortune,
and I am sure that my trust shall endure,
for I rely upon Thee to sustain this unfailing hope.

Finally, I know that my confidence cannot exceed Thy bounty,
and that I shall never receive less than I have hoped for from Thee.
Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me against my evil inclinations;
that Thou wilt protect me against the most furious assaults of the evil one,
and that Thou wilt cause my weakness to triumph over my most powerful enemies.
I hope that Thou wilt never cease to love me,
and that I shall love Thee unceasingly.
"In Thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded."

Saint Claude La Colombière, Priest, S.J.

I think it was in 1974 that a priest friend gave me a little book of the writings of Saint Claude La Colombière in French. The book was covered in a kind of onion–skin paper and had belonged originally to a Religious of the Cenacle. Saint Claude La Colombière became a dear friend. I count on his intercession. I turn to him when I feel my heart growing cold.

The Franciscan Saint John Wall (Joachim of Saint Anne), who was martyred for the crime of being a Catholic priest near Redhill, Corcester, England on August 22nd, 1679, knew Saint Claude. After having spent a night in spiritual conversation with him, the soon–to–be martyr said, "When I was in his presence I thought that I was dealing with Saint John returned to earth to rekindle that fire of love in the Heart of Christ.�

Here is one of Saint Claude's prayers, in the original French and in English translation.

Jésus, vous êtes le seul et le véritable ami.
Vous prenez part à mes maux, vous vous en chargez,
vous avez le secret de me les tourner en bien.
Vous m'écoutez avec bonté lorsque je vous raconte mes afflictions
et vous ne manquez jamais de les adoucir.

Vous souffrez mes défauts avec une patience admirable;
mes infidélités même, mes ingratitudes ne vous blessent point tellement
que vous ne soyez toujours prêt à revenir si je le veux.
O Jésus, accordez-moi de le vouloir, afin que je sois tout à vous,
pour le temps et pour l'éternité.

On the occasion of the visit of the relics of Saint Claude La Colombière to Ireland in 2006, a remarkable website was prepared by Father Bernard McGuckian, S.J. It offers a biography of the saint, a selection of quotations, and a number of his prayers. Among the latter is this one addressed to the Divine Mercy. I know that it will speak to the hearts of many.

Prayer to the Divine Mercy

O Lord, behold here before You a soul who exists in this world
in order to allow You to exercise Your admirable mercy
and manifest it before heaven and earth.
Others may glorify You through their faithfulness and perseverance,
thus making evident the power of Your grace.
How sweet and generous You are to those who are faithful to You!

Should I fall a hundred times,
or should my crimes be a hundred times worse than they actually are,
I would continue to trust in your mercy.

Saturday of the Sixth Week of the Year I
Mark 9:2–13

Jesus Alone With His Friends

Who are the saints? The saints are those who allow themselves to be taken by Jesus “up a high mountain apart by themselves� (Mk 9:2). The saints are those who accept the invitation of the Master to go with him to a place of solitude and to remain with him there. The saints are those who, leaving behind what is familiar and reassuring, choose the company of Jesus alone — a wondrous and fearful thing — amazed that Jesus has chosen to be alone with them. “It is not you who seek my company,� he says, “it is who seek yours.�

Those to Whom God Speaks Face to Face

The saints are the blessed companions of Moses to whom “the Lord used to speak face to face, as a man speaks to his friend� (Ex 33:11). They are the friends of Elijah fed by an angel in the wilderness (1 K 19:5-7): Elijah to whom God spoke not in a great wind, nor in an earthquake, nor in fire, but in “a still small voice� (1 K 19:13).

Seekers of the Face of God

The saints are those in whom the prayer of David is a ceaseless murmur by day and by night: “It is your face, O Lord, that I seek; hide not your face from me� (Ps 26:8-9). The saints are those before whom Jesus shows himself transfigured, “his garments glistening, intensely white� (Mk 9:3), his face “shining like the sun� (Mt 17:2) — and this as “in a mirror darkly� (1 Cor 13:12). The saints are those who, having caught a glimpse of “the fairest of the sons of men� (Ps 44:2) cannot detach their gaze from his face, those who live with their eyes fixed in his.

Novena to Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata
February 18 — 27, 2007

The liturgical memorial of Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother falls quite suitably at the beginning of Lent on February 27th. I am very fond of Saint Gabriel. The affection I have for him goes back to my boyhood. The Passionist Fathers often preached missions in my home parish. At some point I must have been given a popular life of Saint Gabriel written for young lads. If I remember rightly, it was called "Boy in a Hurry." (Terry N. would know, or Father Gregory O., or Father Martin F. They probably read it too.) On the morning of February 27, 1862, Saint Gabriel died of tuberculosis. He was twenty-fours years old; although a professed Passionist, he was not yet ordained a priest

It occurred to me that some of the readers of Vultus Christi might want to join me in making a novena to Saint Gabriel from February 18—27. Here are two possibilities. The first prayer is suitable for everyone, but especially for parents and grandparents who want to recommend their children and grandchildren to him. The second set of prayers (antiphon, reading, litany, and collect) is inspired by the liturgical texts for Saint Gabriel's feast. Saint Gabriel is a wonderworker. There is no doubt about that. The miracles obtained through his intercession are too many to be counted.

A word from Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata:

Love Mary!... She is lovable, faithful, constant.
She will never let herself be outdone in love, but will ever remain supreme.
If you are in danger, she will hasten to free you.
If you are troubled, she will console you.
If you are sick, she will bring you relief.
If you are in need, she will help you.
She does not look to see what kind of person you have been.
She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her.
She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you,
embraces you and consoles and serves you.
She will even be at hand to accompany you on the trip to eternity.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

Today is the third day of our novena to Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata. At the Mass of the Holy Face we will be reading from the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according the Prophet Isaiah. Trusting in the intercession of Saint Gabriel, bring to the bruised and wounded Christ every bruise, every wound, every sorrow and infirmity of those for whom you are interceding in this novena. Remember that Christ Himself, the Immaculate Lamb, was judged as one "struck by God and afflicted."

Saint Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother, imbued with the charism of Saint Paul of the Cross, learned that the wounds of Jesus are wellsprings of healing. He prayed every day, "Holy Mother, this impart, Deeply print within my heart, All the wounds my Saviour bore."

Despised, and the most abject of men,
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with infirmity:
and His look was as it were, hidden and despised,
whereupon we esteemed Him not.

But He was wounded for our iniquities,
He was bruised for our sins:
the chastisement of our peace was upon Him,
and by His bruises we are healed (Is 53:3–5).

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

The fourth day of our novena coincides with the beginning of Holy Lent. At the beginning of his religious life Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata made a list of forty resolutions for the conversion of his life. Among them, we find the following:

— I will never excuse myself when I am blamed or corrected, nor even resent it interiorly, much less put the blame upon others.

— I will show the good opinion I have of each one by covering up his faults.

So, if you are looking for some serious Lenten practices, you need look no further.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

Following the same evocative rite used by Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata in 1857, young Indonesian Passionists making their First Profession are symbolically crowned with thorns and charged with the wood of the cross.

Saint Bernard, meditating the mystery of Passion of Christ, writes:

[The Church] beholds King Solomon,
with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him
in the day of his espousals;
she sees the Sole-begotten of the Father bearing the heavy burden of His Cross;
she sees the Lord of all power and might bruised and spat upon,
the Author of life and glory transfixed with nails,
smitten by the lance, overwhelmed with mockery,
and at last laying down His precious life for His friends.

Contemplating this the sword of love pierces through her own soul also
and she cried aloud, 'Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples;
for I am sick of love.'
The fruits which the Spouse gathers from the Tree of Life
in the midst of the garden of her Beloved, are pomegranates (Cant. 4:13),
borrowing their taste from the Bread of heaven,
and their color from the Blood of Christ.
On Loving God, Chapter Three

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

On December 30, 1861 Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata , who was twenty-three years old at the time, wrote these lines to his brother Michele. The young Gabriel comes across as somewhat cynical about human love and friendship. We know, however, from other sources, that he was sensitive, endearing, and capable of friendship. He wants, I think, to spare his brother the pain of romantic disappointments and, above all, lead him to an intimate relationship with the Blessed Virgin Mary. Gabriel's last sentence reminds me of certain texts of Saint Bernard.

People here on earth cannot make you happy. They are inconstant, untruthful in love; and when you find someone who doesn't have these defects, the very thought of one day having to be separated saddens and torments the heart.

If you are in dangers, she runs quickly to deliver you; if you are afflicted, she consoles you; if you are weak, she sustains you; if you are in need, she helps you.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

The Merciful Christ wants us for Himself. “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance� (Lk 5:32). And should anyone out of shame, or confusion, or fear, hesitate in answering His call, there is, very close, the presence of a Mother, a reconciling Mother, the Mother of Mercy and the Refuge of Sinners, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

I have known souls incapable of saying a heartfelt Act of Contrition and yet able to say the Hail Mary with humble sincerity. The strange and wonderful thing is that one who perseveres in saying the Hail Mary will be led gently, but inexorably, to true contrition and to compunction of heart.

Priests should never despair of penitents who return to Confession again and again with the same sins, even if these be grave sins. There is a sure and certain remedy: humble recourse to the Immaculate Mother of God.

Saint Alphonsus, one of the Church’s wisest spiritual physicians, knew that when all else fails, humble supplication to the Blessed Virgin Mary obtains miracles of grace. My own pastoral experience has taught me that the undoing of certain patterns of sin belongs in a special way to the Blessed Virgin. When one opens the door of one’s heart to her, she enters quietly and sweetly and, in the full force of her humility and purity, crushes the head of the menacing serpent.

It is worthy of note that the Collection of Masses of the Blessed Virgin Mary contains five formularies for use during Lent. Elements of these can be used most suitably when integrated with the Saturday Lenten Mass and with the Lenten lectionary. The Blessed Virgin Mary, the beloved Addolorata of Saint Gabriel, facilitates every return to her Son. With a gentle hand, she leads all who are sin-sick and weary to the Physician of souls.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata, even from his place in glory, makes friends easily. Like Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, he spends his eternity doing good on earth. He has the most charming way of making his presence known, of offering counsel, of showing sympathy, of placing his intercession at the service of the poor, the sick, the fearful, and the lonely. When necessary, he has been known to appear to those who need his presence: a smiling youth in his black Passionist habit. He has also been known to whisper a word of comfort or direction at precisely the right moment. With all who invoke him he shares his own tender and confident love for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In the lesson formerly assigned to Matins on the feast of Saint Gabriel, we read:

In the novitiate, day by day he became conspicuous for regular observance and for the exercise of all the virtues, and in a short time he came to be considered a pattern of perfect holiness, not only by his companions and his seniors, but also beyond the confines of the monastery ; he became a sweet odour in Christ in every place. An assiduous devotee of the Lord's Passion, he spent days and nights meditating upon it. He was drawn by unbelievable zeal towards the Holy Eucharist, a memorial of that Passion ; and when he nourished himself with it, he burned with seraphic ardour. There was nothing more noticeable than his filial piety towards the great Mother of God. He was accustomed to pay her honour for every type of devotion, but especially to contemplate her stricken and afflicted by the sufferings of Jesus, with such sorrow that he shed floods of tears. The sorrowful Virgin was, as it were, the whole reason of his being, and the teacher of the holiness that he had acquired.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

Yesterday in his Angelus address, Pope Benedict XVI returned to the subject of his Lenten message: the contemplation of the Sacred Side of Jesus, pierced by the soldier's lance. Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata lived profoundly and passionately the contemplation of Jesus Crucified with the Blessed Virgin Mary and with Saint John the Beloved Disciple to which the Holy Father is inviting the whole Church this Lent. This is what he said:

Him Whom They Have Pierced

This year, the Lenten message is inspired in the verse of John's Gospel, which in turn goes back to a messianic prophecy of Zechariah: "They shall look on him whom they have pierced" (John 19:37).

Contemplation of Jesus Crucified

The beloved disciple, present with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and the other women on Calvary, was an eyewitness of the thrust of the spear which pierced Christ's side, so that blood and water came out (cf. John 19:31-34). This gesture of an unknown Roman soldier, destined to be lost in oblivion, was imprinted on the eyes and heart of the apostle, who recounted it in his Gospel. In the course of the centuries, how many conversions have taken place precisely thanks to the eloquent message of love that he receives who contemplates Jesus crucified!

With Our Gaze Fixed on Jesus' Side

Therefore, we enter the Lenten season with our gaze fixed on Jesus' side. In the encyclical letter "Deus Caritas Est" (cf. No. 12), I wished to underline that only by gazing on Jesus, dead on the cross for us, can we know and contemplate this fundamental truth: "God is love" (1 John 4:8,16). "In this contemplation the Christian discovers the path along which his life and love must move" ("Deus Caritas Est," No. 12).

Sin and Mercy

Contemplating the Crucified with the eyes of faith, we can understand profoundly what sin is, its tragic gravity, and at the same time the incommensurable power of the Lord's forgiveness and mercy. During these days of Lent, let us not distance our hearts from this mystery of profound humanity and lofty spirituality.

An Inexhaustible Torrent of Merciful Love

On contemplating Christ, let us feel at the same time that we are contemplated by him. He whom we ourselves have pierced with our faults does not cease to shed over the world an inexhaustible torrent of merciful love. May humanity understand that only from this source is it possible to draw the spiritual energy indispensable to build that peace and happiness for which every human being is ceaselessly searching.

She Whose Soul Was Pierced

Let us pray to the Virgin Mary, whose soul was pierced next to her Son's cross, to obtain for us the gift of a firm faith. That, guiding us on our Lenten journey, she may help us leave everything that impedes us from listening to Christ and his word of salvation.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata died on February 27, 1862 at twenty–four years of age. Pope Benedict XV canonized him on May 13, 1920. A blessed feast of Saint Gabriel to all the readers of Vultus Christi who joined me in making the novena! I invite you to acknowledge graces received through his intercession in the comments section.

Click here for the Novena Prayers.

The Rich Young Man

Saint Mark (10:17–27) describes in vivid detail Jesus’ encounter with a youthful seeker. The Gospel does not say that the man is young, but his gesture and his discourse suggest the kind of spiritual idealism that rarely survives middle age. He is eager, spontaneous, and perhaps a little hasty. Our Lord seems to find these traits endearing. The Gospel does tell us that he is rich.

A Word With Jesus

He runs up to Jesus. Why does he run to him at the last minute? Was something holding him back? Fear perhaps? Does he realize that this may be his one opportunity to have a word with Jesus? He kneels before him: a gesture of reverence and humility. Only then does he blurt out his question: “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?� (Mk 10:17).

O Good Jesus!

Our Lord tests him. He answers the question with another question: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone� (Mk 10:18). Jesus does not deny that he is good. He identifies goodness with God alone. He treats the young man as he treated the Samaritan woman at the well. “If you but knew the gift of God, and who it is that is speaking to you� (cf. Jn 4:10). Jesus is no mere teacher of goodness; he is goodness itself. Saint Bruno, tasting the sweetness of God, used to exclaim, O Bonitas! O Goodness! If only the rich young man knew whom he was calling good!

They Shall See God

Jesus reviews the commandments for him. One comes to the knowledge of the goodness of God by imitating it. The commandments lead to purity of heart, and purity of heart leads to the vision of God. “Blessed are the pure in heart,� says Jesus, “for they shall see God� (Mt 5:8).

And Jesus Loved Him

The young man’s answer is candid: “Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth� (Mk 10:20). Looking into his heart, Jesus sees that he is ready for more. One of the most striking lines in Saint Mark’s Gospel follows: “And Jesus looking upon him loved him� (Mk 10:21). The eyes of Jesus shine divine light upon him. And the light of his eyes is love. The Latin version of this Gospel says that Jesus looked into him and loved him. “Iesus autem intuitus eum dilexit eum� (Mk 10:21).

Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil–Martiny

My dear friend, Monsignor A.C., reminded me earlier this week that today, besides being the feast of Saint Gabriel of the Addolorata, is also the dies natalis and liturgical memorial of Blessed Marie de Jésus Deluil Martiny. Born to upper middle class parents on May 28, 1841 in Marseille, Marie Deluil Martiny was the eldest of five children. She belongs to the vast family of saints and blesseds surrounding the Wounded Side and Sacred Heart of Jesus. Marie's own spiritual genealogy included her great grand–aunt, the Venerable Anne–Madeleine Rémuzat (1696–1730), a Visitandine like Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–1690) and, like the saint of Paray–le–Monial, an ardent apostle of the Sacred Heart.

The Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart

The vocation of Marie Deluil Martiny unfolded in two phases. In the first, she dedicated herself to propagating the Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart, a movement of reparation and of perpetual adoration of the Heart of Jesus present in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar. Marie du Sacré–Coeur, a Visitandine of the monastery of Bourg–en–Bresse launched the Guard of Honour on March 13, 1863. The following year the bishop of Belley recognized the movement as a confraternity, and in 1878 Pope Leo XIII elevated it to the rank of an archconfraternity in France and Belgium.

In the beginning, the movement obliged its members to spend an hour in adoration and reparation to the Heart of Jesus before the tabernacle. The hours of the day and night were so distributed among the members as to offer the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus an uninterrupted presence of reparation and adoring love. Later on, the manner of carrying out one's assigned hour was modified: no longer was a physical presence before the tabernacle required. One could participate in the Guard of Honour without interrupting one's daily activities, simply by offering an hour of one's day in the spirit of adoration and reparation to the Sacred Heart.

Zélatrice of the Sacred Heart

Marie Deluil Martiny was the first Zélatrice (or zealous apostle and promoter) of the Guard of Honour of the Sacred Heart. So effective was her apostolate that she came to be known as the Zélatrice of the Sacred Heart.

The Wound of the Divine Heart

She explains the movement in these words: "The Guard [of Honour of the Sacred Heart], the Work in itself, was placed by the Infinite Love of our Master at the entrance of the Wound of His Divine Heart. There, it calls souls, unites them, calls them together, preaches to them, if one may say so, pushes them, and draws them into the interior of the Divine Wound . . . it leads them there, and introduces them therein, after having, so to speak, opened to them the door of this sacred refuge . . . Souls, entering this safe abode are sprinkled, washed, whitened, purified, healed, and supernaturalized, by a most efficacious application of the Blood and Water that came forth from the Divine Wound.

But Jesus wants even more: this is the new step that Our Lord desires to make the souls He chosen to this end take: they must enter by the gate of the City of God, that is into the Heart of Jesus by the Divine Wound; therein will be their world, their dwelling, their place of rest."

I received two urgent requests for intercessory prayer today:
From Massachusetts, Father Jim O'Driscoll asks for prayer for his sister–in–law Emily suffering from cancer. Her doctor told her today that she has three weeks to live.

From Connecticut, Sister Mary Grace Walsh, A.S.C.J. asks for prayer for Dottie Person, a mother of two young daughters at Sacred Heart Private School in the Bronx, N.Y. Dottie is very ill at this time.

Also, from Australia, Father Paul Francis, C.P. writing on Laus Crucis asks for prayer for Passionist Father Kieran Creagh, founder of the Leratong Hospice in South Africa, who is in intensive care in hospital. Father Kieran received multiple gunshot wounds from a gang of youths on Wednesday night. One bullet is still in his lung. Otherwise he is stable but in pain. He is lucid and, according to doctors, “his condition is on the highest end of the scale it could possibly be on given the circumstances.�

I am continuing also to pray for A., a lovely young woman who has been suffering from poor health for the past several years.

Here in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme we have the tomb of the little Servant of God Antonietta Meo, fondly known as Nennolina. Nennolina was born on December 15, 1930. She was a lively and joyful child, quick to join in games at school. One day she fell while playing in the schoolyard and injured her knee on a stone. The pain did not go away: the doctors diagnosis was osteosarcoma. Her leg was amputated. A long way of the cross ensued. Hospitalized, she suffered atrocious pain. Nennolina died on July 3, 1937. She was not seven years old.

Nennolina left behind a diary and more than one hundred letterine (little letters) addressed to Jesus, to the Madonna, and to God the Father. Nennolina's letters reveal an extraordinary mystical union with Jesus Crucified. Her tomb, at the entrance to the Chapel of the Sacred Relics of the Cross and Passion in our Basilica, has become a place of pilgrimage. If canonized, Nennolina will be the youngest saint, not a martyr, in the history of the Church.

I am going to make a daily visit to Nennolina's tomb to entrust to her intercession the intentions recommended to me. I remember being told when I was in First Grade that God always listens to the prayers of little children. I still believe that.

The following prayer may be used in asking for Nennolina's intercession. You may want to join me in making a spiritual pilgrimage to her tomb each day.

Today is the First Saturday of March, an opportunity to draw near to the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mary. Cardinal Biffi’s incisive allusions to the Antichrist in his retreat to the Holy Father compel us to pray to the Mother of the Lamb, the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her to crush the head of the ancient serpent and to turn the eyes of all peoples to the Pierced Side of her Son.

Among the little known figures of holiness of the last century is the Neapolitan priest, Don Dolindo Ruotolo (1882–1970). Don Dolindo — his name means “Sorrow� — suffered cruel persecutions, calumny, and rejection, even from ecclesiastical authorities. Like his contemporary, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, Don Dolindo endured his trials with confident abandonment to the Father and in union with the Passion of Christ. He referred to himself as “the Madonna’s little old man�; the rosary was at every moment in his hands.

A lover of the Sacred Liturgy, Don Dolindo promoted Gregorian Chant. He was an ardent preacher; he also wrote extensively: commentaries on Sacred Scripture in the spirit of the Fathers of the Church, elevations for priests, meditations, and prayers. Here is my own translation of one of his prayers to the Blessed Virgin. How timely it is!

Come thou, O Mary, reign in the world!
Let new impulses of filial devotion to thee come from the Chair of Peter.
that thy most radiant light may dispel errors.

Come then, and rescue Thy servants, O Blessed One!
Come, and for the new mercy that Thou outpourest upon the world,
be endless glory to the Father,
equal glory to the Son,
and sovereign glory to God the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I was deeply moved when the martyrology for today, March 8th, was read in Chapter. Hearing the names of these English Cistercian martyrs read out here in Rome was a truly Catholic Moment.

From the Romano–Cistercian Martyrology:

In England, in the sixteenth century, the passion of a number of Cistercian monks cruelly put to death for different pretexts by order of King Henry VIII.

In the months of March and May 1537, died for the Catholic faith:

— the Lord Abbot of Kirkstead, Dom John Harrison and his brethren Dom Richard Wade, Dom William Small, and Dom Henry Jenkinson;

— the Lord Abbot of Whalley, Dom John Paslew and his brethren, Dom William Haydock and Dom Richard Eastgate.

Also died: the Lord Abbot of Fountains and a monk of Louth Park.

In the following year 1538, were martyred:

— the Lord Abbot of Woburn, Dom Robert Hobbes and the monks Dom Rudolph Barnes and Dom Laurence Blunham.

Recognized as authentic confessors of the faith:

Dom Thomas Mudd, monk of Jervaulx, who died on September 7, 1583;
Dom John Almond, who died on April 18, 1585,
and Dom Gilbert Browne, the last Abbot of Sweet Heart (Dulce Cor), who died on March 14, 1612.

My friend Terry will, I am sure, have a splendid entry on Saint Dominic Savio! The two of us, together with Father Gregory O. and Father Martin F., probably read the same biography of the saint as boys. I must have been in fourth grade when, thanks to Sister Mary Clara's school library, I discovered The Life of Saint Dominic Savio by Saint John Bosco: "the life of a saint by a saint." I read the book over and over again. Like many small boys in Catholic schools, I wanted to be like Saint Dominic Savio. . . but I wasn't!

My cousin Barbara S. teaches in a Salesian school in San Francisco. I am sure that she will be celebrating Saint Dominic Savio with her students. I don't know that Barbara reads this blog, but her sister Mary does!

In the end, what most impressed me and has stayed with me lo, all these years was Dominic Savio's ardent love for the Blessed Virgin Mary and for the Most Holy Eucharist.
On March 9, 1857, fifteen year old Domenico, stricken with cholera, died in the arms of his parents. To his mother, he said, "Mamma, non piangere, io vado in Paradiso — Mamma, don't cry, I am going to Paradise�.

O God, wellspring of all good,
who, in Saint Dominic Savio, hast given adolescents
an admirable example of charity and of purity
grant that we also, may grow up as Thy sons in joy and in love
even unto the full stature of Thy Christ.
Who is God, living and reigning with Thee,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
forever and ever.

By what doth a young man correct his way?
by observing thy words.
With my whole heart have I sought after thee:
let me not stray from thy commandments.
Thy words have I hidden in my heart,
that I may not sin against thee.

(Psalm 118:9–11)

Married Life and Monastic Conversion

Saint Frances of Rome — more properly called by her own name, Francesca — is the patroness of Benedictine Oblates. The collect for her feast tells us why. The Church has us pray: “O God, who in Saint Frances of Rome, have given us a model of holiness in married life and of monastic conversion, make us serve you perseveringly, so that in all circumstances we may set our gaze upon you and follow you.� It is not often that we mention both married life and monastic conversion in the same collect! Francesca is there to tell us that it can be done.

Patronness of Rome

I find it extraordinary that the Romans should be so proud of their Francesca, even to the point of considering her their special patron. They can lay claim, after all, to Saints Peter and Paul, to innumerable martyrs and glorious Popes, and yet, with all that spiritual richness, they remain attached to Francesca, a married woman, a servant of the poor, a mother to the sick, a spiritual daughter of Holy Father Benedict, and a mystic.

Enthusiasm for Holiness

Francesca did nothing by half-measures. Being Roman, she lived life with a kind of reckless enthusiasm — not for the usual things Romans get excited over — but for holiness! Her life was extraordinary in some ways. She went in for fasting, austerities, and almsgiving in a huge way. The devil bothered her continually, not as he bothers us with boring, nagging temptations, but with spectacular assaults. Francesca was in the same league as Saint Anthony of Egypt and the Curé d’Ars.

Intensely Alive

For me, Francesca’s appeal is in her warm and very human personality. She was no dried up prune of a saint. She was intensely alive to everything human and capable of the grand passions without which life is bleak and dreary. She suffered struggles, endured sorrows, and bore with every manner of disappointment and hurt. One cannot say that Francesca’s holiness was of the tidy sort. One might even say that Francesca’s life was a mess. Her desire to serve God and live for him was continually frustrated by persons and circumstances. It was precisely in the midst of these conditions that Francesca grew in holiness, “setting nothing before the love of Christ� (RB 4:21), and “never despairing of God’s mercy� (RB 4:74).

Married at Thirteen

As a young girl, Francesca did not want to marry. She lived, after all, in the city of the Church’s shining virgin martyrs: Agnes, Cecilia, and so many others. Like them she wanted to consecrate her virginity to Christ, but her parents had other plans. The first big decision in her life was out of her hands. At the age of thirteen she gave in to her parents and married Lorenzo Ponziano, the wealthy nobleman they had chosen for her.

Francesca was expected to be the perfect socialite, charming, beautiful, witty, and worldly as only Romans know how to be worldly. In her heart she longed for the cloister, but the will of God had placed her, concretely, in a setting far removed from it.

They Never Once Had A Quarrel

Lorenzo, Francesca’s husband treated her always with love and respect. He accepted that he had married an unusual woman, that she would never be like other Roman wives, and that there was something in her that he, try as he might, would never be able to satisfy. Francesca loved Lorenzo. She recognized his qualities and accepted that loving Lorenzo was part of God’s plan for her. It is said that through all their married life, Francesca and Lorenzo never once had a quarrel. For that alone they should both be canonized!