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Thoughts for the 12th Sunday after Pentecost

8/30/2014

Charity Toward All Men

“Who is my neighbour” (Luke, 10:29)

The most important lesson taught by Jesus Christ was the commandment of love--love for God and love for our fellow men. In today's Gospel we hear Him repeating this commandment for the benefit of a lawyer, who doubtless thought he would make out very well in a debate with this simple carpenter from Nazareth. Our Lord not only proved to the lawyer that he was not so wise as he imagined, but also narrated a parable that will carry an inspiring lesson to mankind until the end of time, the parable of the good Samaritan.

To understand the full significance of this parable we must note the question of the lawyer which Our Lord answered —“Who is my neighbour?” By the parable of the good Samaritan Our Saviour intended not only to emphasise the excellence of charity but also to point out that true Christian charity must extend to all men without exception. This principle He made clear by stating that the generous traveller of the parable was a Samaritan; for between the Jews and the Samaritans there was a strong nationalistic antagonism. Consequently, Christ wished to teach us that we must be charitable to all human beings, even to those whom we naturally dislike.

The lesson of this parable is just as useful to the men and women of the twentieth century as it was to those who listened to it more than nineteen centuries ago. We may be tempted to dislike certain persons because of various reasons-perhaps because of racial or national difference, or perhaps because they lack courtesy or have been unkind to us personally. The inclination to show resentment toward such persons or to exclude them from our deeds of kindness is not sinful, as long as we do not deliberately yield to it.

If we possess the spirit of Christian charity, we shall overcome our natural feelings and show kindness and generosity toward such persons when the need for assistance arises. If we are tempted to be unkind or harsh, we should think of the parable of the good Samaritan and take to heart the words of Our Lord: “Go and do thou likewise.”

In a word, true Christian charity abstracts from the personal characteristics of our fellow men, however unpleasant they may be, and beholds in all human beings the beautiful image of God, reflected either actually or potentially, by sanctifying grace. Thus, when we help others in a spirit of true Christian charity, we are really expressing our love for God.

Practical Application

Strive to find opportunities in your daily life to do deeds of kindness for others. If you have the true spirit of Christian charity you will be kind to all persons, whether you naturally like them or not.

Thoughts for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost

8/24/2014

Doing Our Best

“He has done all things well” (Mark, 7:37)

When a person has done some piece of work efficiently, we praise him by saying: “Well done.” This praise was given to Our Lord by the people of Galilee almost two thousand years ago, not with reference to any particular task, but with reference to all His works. “He has done all things well,” they said. In a lesser degree these words should be applicable to every Catholic. Our faith tells us that we should try to do all things well, that we should put our best into everything we attempt to accomplish.

This means, in the first place, that we should try to perform each of our daily tasks in accordance with its particular standards, however lowly the task may be. The housewife should try to be a good cook and to keep the home clean and neat. The girl employed in an office should try to give her employer perfect service in the matter of typing and filing, etc., and should be careful to arrive on time in the morning and remain working as long as she is supposed to stay.

The carpenter and the stone-mason and the machinist should perform their tasks conscientiously, and avoid that spirit of carelessness and negligence that is so common among artisans today. The doctor and the nurse should do all within the scope of their professional skill to bring health and comfort to their patients. The man in public office should aim at promoting the welfare of the citizens in the most efficient manner. Thus we could go through every branch of human activity and point out the obligations of those engaged in this particular form of work to put their best efforts into their work, so that it could be said of each of them: “He has done all things well.”

For a Catholic the proper performance of a task means more than its efficient fulfilment. It means also that he should be actuated by a supernatural motive, the most perfect motive being love for God. Every day--at least once, and preferably several times-we should raise our hearts to God, offering to do all our actions out of love for Him. This supernatural motive--the good intention, as we call it--will inspire us to put our best efforts into all we do and if we are in the state of grace will make all our thoughts, words and deeds meritorious for eternal life.

Practical Application

Acquire the habit of making the good intention every morning, and renew it several times in the course of the day. This will elevate even the ordinary duties of daily life to the plane of supernatural merit.

Saint for Today - St Jane Frances Chantal

8/21/2014

Jane Frances Frémiot de Chantal was born of parents of the highest rank, at Dijon in Burgundy. From her earliest childhood she gave no dark promise of a life of eminent holiness. It is said that when she was scarcely fifteen years of age she confuted with precocious acuteness a Presbyterian nobleman, and when he gave her a little present she put it in the fire, saying: That is how heretics will burn in hell for not believing Christ when he speaketh. On the death of her mother, she placed herself under the keeping of the Virgin Mother of God, and discharged a maid who strove to beguile her into loving the world. She had nothing youthful about her ways. She shrank from the pleasures of life. She had a strong wish that she might die a martyr. She devoted herself unweariedly to religion and godliness. Her father gave her in marriage to the Baron de Chantal, and she strove to excel in all the duties and graces of a wife. She made it her work to see that her children, her servants, and all others under her authority were taught the doctrines of the faith and the practice of good living. She relieved the sufferings of the poor by plentiful almsgiving, for which purposes God not unfrequently miraculously multiplied her money. And so it came to pass that no one ever asked her for food in Christ's name and was refused it.

Her husband was accidentally killed out shooting, and in her widowhood she determined to embrace the more excellent way, and took a vow not to marry again. She bore her bereavement with resignation to the Will of God, and so far overcame her horror of the gentleman who had fired the shot, that, to shew she attributed no blame to him, she stood godmother to his little boy. She was quite content with few servants and plain cookery and dress, and sold her rich wardrobe for the benefit of charities. She received offers of second marriage which would have been both politic and honourable, but never was induced to accept one of them, and to harden herself in her intention of remaining in her widowhood, she renewed her vow to that effect, and branded on her chest with a hot iron the most holy Name of Jesus Christ. Her love grew tenderer every day, and she had brought to her the starving, the abandoned, the diseased, and those who were afflicted with the most sickening disorders. Them she not only sheltered, comforted, and nursed, but washed, and mended their filthy and ragged garments, and shrank not from putting her mouth to their sores oozing with disgusting matter.

She used the services of St. Francis de Sales as her spiritual adviser, and when she learnt from him what was the will of God, she scrupled not to disregard the wishes of her own father, brother-in-law, and even of her son, whom she left with calm determination, went forth from her home, and founded the holy Institution of the Sisters of the Visitation of St. Mary. She most rigidly kept the rules of this Institute, and loved so well to be poor, that it made her glad to lack even the necessaries of life. She shewed herself a model of Christian lowliness, obedience, and all graces. Having settled in her heart still to go up higher and higher towards the Temple of the Lord, she bound herself by a most difficult vow always to do that which she should understand to be best. It was chiefly through her labour that the holy Institute of the Visitation became spread far and wide, and she stirred up the sisters to godliness and love by her words, by her example, and by writings full of Divine wisdom. She duly received the Sacraments before her death, and then, at Moulins, on the 13th day of December, in the year 1641, departed hence, to be for ever with the Lord. St. Vincent de Paul, who was far distant, in a vision beheld her soul borne to heaven, and St. Francis de Sales coming to meet it. Her body was afterwards taken to Annecy. She was famous for miracles both before and after her death, and Pope Benedict XIV enrolled her among the Blessed, and Pope Clement XIII among the Saints. Pope Clement XIV ordered her Feastday to be kept by the whole Church upon the twenty-first day of August.

Saint for Today - St John Eudes

8/19/2014

John was born in the year 1601, of pious and respectable parents, at a village commonly known as Ri, in the diocese of Seez. While still a boy, when he was fed with the bread of Angels, he cheerfully made a vow of perpetual chastity. Having been received at the College of Caen, directed by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, he was conspicuous for a remarkable piety; and, committing himself to the protection of the Virgin Mary, when still a youth he signed with his own blood, the special covenant he had entered into with her. Having completed his courses of letters and of philosophy with great distinction, and having spurned opportunities of marriage which had been arranged for him, he enrolled himself with the Congregation of the Oratory de Bérulle, and was ordained priest at Paris. He was on fire with a marvellous love towards his neighbour: for he took the most constant pains in caring for both the souls and bodies of those smitten with the Asiatic plague, in many different places. He was made Rector of the Oratorian house at Caen, but since he had been thinking for a long time of educating suitable young men for the ministry of the Church, earnestly asking for the divine assistance, with a brave spirit he most regretfully departed from the associates with whom he had lived for twenty years.

Accordingly, associating five priests with himself, in the year 1643, on the feastday of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary, he founded a Congregation of Priests, to whom he gave the most holy names of Jesus and Mary, and opened the first seminary at Caen; and a great many others followed immediately in Normandy and Brittany, also founded by him. For the recalling of sinful women to a Christian life, he founded the Order of Our Lady of Charity; of which most noble tree, the Congregation of the Good Shepherd of Angers is a branch. Furthermore, he founded the Society of the Admirable Heart of the Mother of God, and other charitable institutions. He was the author of many excellent treatises, and laboured as an Apostolic Missionary to the very end of his life, preaching the Gospel in very many villages, towns, and cities, and even in the royal court.

His matchless zeal was very conspicuous in promoting the salutary devotion towards the most sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, whose liturgical worship he was the first of all to devise, although not without some divine inspiration. He is therefore held to be the father, the teacher, and the apostle of that worship. Courageously withstanding the doctrines of the Jansenists, he preserved unalterable obedience towards the Chair of Peter, and he constantly prayed to God, both for his enemies as well as for his brethren. Broken by so many labours, rather than by years, desiring to be freed and to be with Christ, on the 19th day of August, 1680, frequently repeating the sweet names of Jesus and Mary, he died in peace. As he became illustrious by many miracles, Pope Pius X added him to the list of the Blessed, and as he still shone forth with new signs and wonders, Pope Pius XI, in the holy year and on the day of Pentecost, placed him among the Saints, and extended his Office and Mass to the universal Church.

Thoughts for the 10th Sunday after Pentecost

8/16/2014

The Virtue of Humility

“O God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Luke, 18:13)

Humility is one of the most important moral virtues, which is unfortunately often misunderstood. There are some who believe that a humble person is a weak individual; but actually, true humility is rather the characteristic of one who is brave and strong. Humility means that a person recognises that all the good he has comes from God, and that whatever defects he may have are due to his failure to correspond to God’s grace. Hence, he is convinced that he needs God’s help for all his projects; but he knows full well that God helps those who seek His aid.

The publican described in today’s Gospel was a model of humility. He knew full well that he was a sinner, yet he turned to God in a spirit of contrition with the assurance that he would be pardoned. And Our Lord tells us that this man returned to his home justified, with his soul restored to the grace of God. On the other hand, the Pharisee is a deplorable example of pride.

Every practical and fervent Catholic will try to cultivate the virtue of humility, even though the surroundings in which we live are not favourable to this virtue. For our present-day world contains many persons who are filled with pride. They feel that the little success they have won in the world is due to their own abilities. They are very much offended when anyone contradicts them or says anything that might dim their glory. Even when they pray, instead of asking God for His Help in all humility, they rather imitate the Pharisee and extol their own good deeds.

The Catholic who wishes to imitate in his own life, as far as possible, the virtues of our Divine Model, Jesus Christ, will necessarily be humble, for humility was one of the outstanding characteristics of Our Blessed Lord when He dwelt on earth. He requires His followers to practice this virtue, for He said: “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart” (Matthew, 11:29). Although He was God, yet He lived a humble life, keeping in obscurity the supernatural gifts He enjoyed in full measure, so that we might be modest and reserved about any good qualities we think we possess.

Above all, He practised humility in the bitter hours of His passion, when He allowed Himself to be so gravely insulted, and yet uttered no remonstrance and inflicted no punishment on His persecutors.

Practical Application

Frequently remind yourself that all the success to which you have attained is really due to God’s goodness, and that He could, if He willed, withdraw it from you. Often thank God for the natural and supernatural favours He has bestowed on you. Thus you will cultivate humility.

Thoughts for the 9th Sunday after Pentecost

8/10/2014

Reverence the House of God

“My house is a house of prayer” (Luke, 19:46)

Our Blessed Lord always showed great reverence for the temple of Jerusalem. It was to this majestic edifice that He came at the age of twelve to manifest His reverence for His heavenly Father. Hence, when He found in the temple certain activities repugnant to the respect and the honour due to the house of God He showed justifiable anger in driving out those who were engaged in buying and selling and money-changing. St. John tells us that on this occasion Christ used a whip to put to flight those who were busy with this trafficking (John, 2:15).

If the temple of Jerusalem, where only symbolic sacrifices were offered, mere images of the sacrifice that was to be offered on Calvary, was so worthy of reverence, certainly much more deserving of honour is the Catholic church in which the holy sacrifice of the Mass is daily offered with Christ Himself as the principal Priest and Victim. The Catholic church is not a mere meeting-house where the congregation assembles to listen to a sermon, as is the case with Protestant churches. The Catholic church is the dwelling place of the Son of God, for Christ remains present on the altar night and day under the lowly appearances of bread, that He may give grace and consolation to those who come to kneel before Him.

This is the reason why Catholics manifest such great reverence in their churches. When a Catholic enters the church, his first thought should be that he is coming into the presence of Jesus Christ. His first act of homage should be to the Blessed Sacrament. Before he pays homage to any of the saints, or even to the Blessed Virgin, he should visit the altar on which the Blessed Sacrament is reserved-generally the high altar in our country--and there kneel in adoration. The Church grants an indulgence to those who, on entering a church, proceed immediately to the altar of the Blessed Sacrament and there make even a brief act of adoration (Raccolta, n. 147).

Because of the reverence due to the church, Catholics should not converse unnecessarily, and still less laugh and joke boisterously in church. Such conduct is likely to happen at weddings. Finally, when a Catholic man is passing before the church, he should tip his hat, and a woman should bow as an act of adoration to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. This act is also indulgenced by the Church (Raccolta, n. 146).

Practical Application
If you were invited to visit a distinguished personage, you would manifest all the required marks of respect. When you enter a Catholic church you are in the presence of the Lord of heaven and earth. Show Him the reverence due to God Himself.

Saint for Today - St Cajetan

8/7/2014

Cajetan was born at Vicenza of the noble family of the lords of Tiene, and was forthwith dedicated by his mother to the Virgin Mother of God. From his childhood such wonderful innocence shone in him that all called him the Saint. He took the degree of Doctor in Civil and Canon Law at Padua, and afterwards went to Rome, where Julius II gave him a place among the Prelates. Having taken Priest's Orders, he became so full of the fire of the love of God, that he left the Court, that he might be free to work entirely for God. He founded hospitals at his own expense, and nursed the sick, even such as were suffering from the plague, with his own hands. He laboured with such constant earnestness for the salvation of his neighbours that he got the name of the Hunter of souls.

From a desire to restore the corrupted discipline of the clergy to the mould of the Apostolic life, he founded a Congregation of Clerks Regular, who should give up all care of earthly things, neither keeping any income, nor begging the needful things of life from the faithful, but living only on such alms as might be given them unasked. For this end, and with the approval of Clement VII, Cajetan himself, together with John Peter Carafa, Archbishop of Chieti (afterwards Pope Paul IV), and two other men of eminent godliness, took solemn vows at the High Altar of St. Peter's Church in the Vatican. When the city of Rome was sacked by the troops, Cajetan was most cruelly ill-used to make him reveal his wealth, which had long before been laid up for him in heaven by the hands of the poor, and he endured with unconquered patience stripes, torture, and imprisonment. He held on bravely in the way of life he had taken up, trusting altogether to the Providence of God, whose unfailing care of him was sometimes attested by miracles.

He was a great advancer of care in the worship of God, of splendour in the house of God, of exactness in the holy ceremonies, and of the often receiving of the most holy Eucharist. The hideous forms and dark convolutions of heresy he more than once unmasked and abolished. He would remain in prayer with abundance of tears as much as eight hours at a time. He was often thrown into trances, and was celebrated for the gift of prophecy. One Christmas night at Rome, when he was praying before the Lord's manger, he was deemed worthy that the Mother of God should lay the Child Jesus in his arms. He sometimes spent the whole night in whipping himself, nor could he ever be persuaded to soften the hardness of his life, but witnessed that he was fain to die in sackcloth and ashes. In the end he fell ill with grief at the offence against God, which the people of Naples committed by rebelling against the establishment of the Inquisition. Refreshed by a vision from heaven, he departed thither. His body lieth at Naples in the Church of St. Paul, where it is held in great reverence. Pope Clement X, finding him to have been illustrious for miracles, both during his life and after his death, enrolled his name among those of the Saints.

Our Lady of the Snows

8/6/2014

Today is the feast of Our lady of the Snows. For more click here, http://www.archbishoplefebvre.com/1/post/2013/08/our-lady-of-the-snows.html

Thoughts for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost

8/3/2014

True Ambition

“The children of this world are in relation to their own generation more prudent than are the children of the light” (Luke, 16:8)

The Gospel of today is not easy to understand. At first sight one might conclude that Our Lord is praising the wicked deeds of the dishonest steward. Indeed, the words with which Christ concludes the parable, “Make friends for yourselves with the mammon of iniquity,” would seem to corroborate this interpretation. Actually, Our Lord spoke these words in a sarcastic sense, implying that, while friendship with the mammon of iniquity (the spirit of the world) may help toward success in the present life, it will be of little benefit toward the attainment of life eternal: The chief message which Our Saviour wished to communicate is that we should manifest in the task of saving our souls a spirit of ambition similar to that shown by worldly-minded persons in their desire to attain success in the present life.

How diligently people will work for the things of this world The politician will make every effort to win the votes he needs to be elected to office. The business man will toil from morning to night to carry out a profitable deal or to make a shrewd bargain. The scientist will work untiringly in his laboratory for years to discover some new phase of nature's laws or to invent some means of adding to men's bodily comfort.

The actor will rehearse his lines over and over again, so that he may win the applause of the audience and see his name in brilliant lights outside the theatre. Yet, how little ambition most of these people will manifest toward the all-important goal of life, the everlasting possession of God. Indeed, many Catholics are numbered among those who practice worldly prudence in their quest for success in the eyes of their fellow men, but show little concern for the most important success, their eternal salvation.

When we studied the Catechism in our childhood we learned that the chief purpose of our existence is to know, to love and to serve God in this world in order to be happy with Him forever in the next. Have we put this lesson into practice? Have we perhaps in the course of the years forgotten that everything the world can offer is of little value compared to the endless happiness promised us in the life beyond the gave? Can we honestly say that we have given to the task of saving our soul at least as much zeal as we have given to the quest for success and happiness on earth?

Practical Application

Life is very brief, and we know not when it will draw to a close. If we make it our first ambition to seek the kingdom of heaven, we shall not be much concerned with worldly ambitions. Let us prove that we have true prudence by making the service of God the principal object of our ambition and desires.

Eleison Comments -CCCLXVIII (368)

8/3/2014

Avenging God?

The latest horrible onslaught let loose against the virtually defenceless Palestinians in Gaza can raise in many people’s minds an obstacle to the true worship of the true God, because it is well known that many of today’s Israelis claim that they have from the Old Testament a God-given right to take all the land occupied by the Palestinians, by force if necessary. A reasonable person might ask two questions: what kind of a God can even remotely be pulled in to ‘justify’ such barbarous cruelty, together with such utter contempt for any world opinion condemning that barbarity? And what kind of a ‘Chosen People’ are these? The answer to both questions turns around Our Lord Jesus Christ, around whom of course all human history turns.

The Old Testament tells the story of mankind before Christ, especially the story of the Israelites, the people that God chose out from the rest of the human race to act as the cradle for the coming down from Heaven of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ. About a thousand years after Adam, mankind had grown so corrupt that God had to wash it out and start again with the eight souls saved on Noah’s Ark. About another thousand years later, mankind is again so corrupt that God has to pull Abraham out of the degenerate city Ur to be the founder of a race that must stay clear of all surrounding human contamination in order to be clean enough to act as that cradle. Here is the origin of that racial exclusivity observable in Jews ever since. It began with God, but it has fallen into the hands of men.

The Jews were indeed once, for the sake of Jesus Christ, the Chosen People. Thus St Thomas Aquinas has a tremendous article in his Summa Theologiae where he shows how every single detail in the furnishing of the Israelites’ exclusive Temple in Jerusalem pointed forward to Jesus Christ (Ia IIae, 102, 4). However, to clear the Promised Land for the Israelites to take over, there is no question that Almighty God gave them more than once the command to exterminate utterly the pagans occupying the land, and He punished King Saul severely for not observing this command to the letter (I Sam XV). What could justify such a command?

It is the same as what explains God’s exterminating all mankind (except eight souls) in Noah’s time. Firstly men’s sins. God creates men for Heaven, they choose sin that deserves Hell. For indeed sin offends God first of all. So the sense of God and the sense of sin get lost together, as all around us today. A godless generation like ours cannot possibly understand the justice of God. Secondly, God’s mercy, which goes hand in hand with His justice, and is today equally misunderstood. But given the reality of Hell, is it not a mercy of God if he cuts men off so that they can repent before they die, or at least be stopped from sinning so as not to deserve to go any deeper in Hell?

That is how it will have been with the pagan enemies of the Israelites between Abraham and Jesus Christ. To read the Old Testament is to see how often the Israelites were tempted to abandon the true God and to worship devils by the pagans all around them. As the Curé of Ars once said, ‘Get rid of the priest, and within 25 years men will be worshipping beasts.’ It is to the eternal credit of the Israelites that they did succeed in providing the cradle for the Messiah, for instance St Joachim and St Anne, especially their child, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the twelve Apostles and all other good Israelites who helped to launch their Messiah’s Catholic Church. For today’s Israelis see next week.

Kyrie eleison.

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