For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16–17
If Jesus would never have given His life on a cross for the salvation of the world, then a cross would never have been seen in “exultation.” A cross, in and of itself, is an instrument of death, a horrific and violent death. It’s also an instrument of humiliation and torture. Yet, today, the Cross is seen as a holy and blessed object. We hang crosses in our homes, wear them around our neck, keep them in our pocket on the end of the rosary, and spend time in prayer before them. The Cross is now an exalted image by which we turn to God in prayer and surrender. But that is only the case because it was on a cross that we were saved and brought to eternal life. If you step back and consider the amazing truth that one of the worst instruments of torture and death is now seen as one of the holiest of images on earth, it should be awe inspiring. Comprehending this fact should lead us to the realization that God can do anything and everything. God can use the worst and transform it into the best. He can use death to bring forth life. Though our celebration today, the “Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross,” is first and foremost a feast by which we give glory to the Father for what He did in the Person of His divine Son, it is also a feast by which we must humbly understand that God can “exalt” every cross we endure in life and bring forth much grace through them. What is your heaviest cross? What is the source of your greatest suffering? Most likely, as you call this to mind, it is painful to you. Most often, our crosses and sufferings are things we seek to rid ourselves of. We easily point to crosses in life and blame them for a lack of happiness. We can easily think that if only this or that were to change or be removed, then our life would be better. So what is that cross in your life? The truth is that whatever your heaviest cross is, there is extraordinary potential for that cross to become an actual source of grace in your life and in the world. But this is only possible if you embrace that cross in faith and hope so that our Lord can unite it to His and so that your crosses can also share in the exaltation of Christ’s Cross. Though this is a profoundly deep mystery of faith, it is also a profoundly deep truth of our faith. Reflect, today, upon your own crosses. As you do, try not to see them as a burden. Instead, realize the potential within those crosses. Prayerfully look at your crosses as invitations to share in Christ’s Cross. Say “Yes” to your crosses. Choose them freely. Unite them to Christ’s Cross. As you do, have hope that God’s glory will come forth in your life and in the world through your free embrace of them. Know that these “burdens” will be transformed and become a source of exaltation in your life by the transforming power of God. My exalted Lord, I turn to You in my need and with the utmost faith in Your divine power to save. Please give me the grace I need to fully embrace every cross in my life with hope and faith in You. Please transform my crosses so that You will be exalted through them and so that they will become an instrument of Your glory and grace. Jesus, I trust in You.
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Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Feast Day: September 12. 2024 The Battle of Lepanto on October 7, 1571 was a pivotal naval conflict where the Holy League—a coalition of various Catholic maritime states—successfully defeated the Ottoman fleet. To give thanks for this victory, Pope Pius V instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory, later known as the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Just over a century later, another critical battle took place. On September 12, 1683, the Battle of Vienna was fought. The Christian forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, under the command of Poland’s King John III Sobieski, were victorious against the significantly larger Ottoman Empire’s forces. Prior to this battle, King John III Sobieski had entrusted his troops to the Blessed Virgin Mary, visiting the Shrine of Our Lady of Czestochowa. The victory was attributed to her intercession, and in gratitude, Pope Innocent XI instituted the feast of the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary into the universal calendar of the Church the following year, 1684. Of course, reverence for the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary did not begin in 1684. Prior to that, this feast was celebrated in various localities throughout the Church at various times. Reverence for the name of Mary, however, goes back much further. The Council of Ephesus in 431 taught that the Blessed Virgin Mary was properly called the “Mother of God,” or “God-Bearer” (Theotokos). By the sixth century, the angelic greeting in Luke 1:28 was commonly used as a prayer, “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you!” By the fourteenth century, the second part of the Hail Mary prayer was often used in conjunction, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” In the sixteenth century, the Council of Trent, in its catechism, formally recommended this entire prayer, as we have it today, to the faithful. It’s also providential to note that the date of September 12 falls shortly after we celebrate the Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8. When the Romans ruled Palestine, it was customary that newborn daughters were given their names at birth, or shortly afterwards. Thus, the Church celebrates Mary’s naming day four days after the celebration of her birth. Firstborn male children were traditionally named and circumcised in the Temple on the eighth day after their birth. Hence, we celebrate the Memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus on January 3, shortly after the completion of the Octave of Christmas on January 1. Mary and Jesus are the only two Who have liturgical celebrations honoring their names. Names bring with them much significance and meaning. When addressing someone formally and directly, it is common to first state their name. A name uniquely identifies and dignifies the person. For this reason, in praying to our Lord it is common practice to call on His name, “Jesus!” So also with Mary. Calling on her by name is a way of seeking her prayers in a personal and intimate way. Hence, the names of Jesus and Mary should be seen and understood as being powerful, compelling us to call upon them personally, with trust in Who they are. Reflection As we honor the Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary today, reflect upon the depth of trust you have in her motherly intercession. Kings and armies called upon her for protection and victory. Sinners have sought her motherly help to overcome their weaknesses. Saints have entrusted themselves to her, knowing that she would elevate them and present them to her divine Son. Popes have sung her praises. Church councils have taught definitively about her role in salvation history. All who call upon her should have certainty that their prayers will be heard. Turn to her today, entrust yourself to her intercession, and have confidence that her prayers will win for you an abundance of grace and mercy from her Son. Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Saint of the Day for September 5, 2024 The Church celebrates on September 5 the feast of Mother Teresa, a universal symbol of God's merciful and preferential love for the poor and forgotten. Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, the youngest of three children. She attended a youth group called Sodality, run by a Jesuit priest at her parish, and her involvement opened her to the call of service as a missionary nun. She joined the Sisters of Loretto at age 17 and was sent to Calcutta where she taught at a high school. She contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to rest in Darjeeling. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her calling - what she called "an order" from God to leave the convent and work and live among the poor. At this point she did not know that she was to find an order of nuns, or even exactly where she was to serve. "I knew where I belonged, but I did not know how to get there," she said once, recalling the moment on the train. Confirmation of the calling came when the Vatican granted her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and fulfill her calling under the Archbishop of Calcutta. She started working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. She was joined a year later by some of her former students and together they took in men, women, and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets and cared for them. In 1950 the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta and in 1952 the government granted them a house from which to continue their service among Calcutta's forgotten. The congregation very quickly grew from a single house for the dying and unwanted to nearly 500 around the world. Mother Teresa set up homes for AIDS sufferers, for prostitutes, for battered women, and orphanages for poor children. She often said that the poorest of the poor were those who had no one to care for them and no one who knew them. And she often remarked with sadness and desolation of millions of souls in the developed world whose spiritual poverty and loneliness was such an immense cause of suffering. She was a fierce defender of the unborn saying: "If you hear of some woman who does not want to keep her child and wants to have an abortion, try to persuade her to bring him to me. I will love that child, seeing in him the sign of God's love." Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997 and was beatified only six years later, on October 19, 2003. Mother Teresa once said, "A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace." She also said, "give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness." Reflection Saint Mother Teresa of Calcutta was one of the greatest saints in all of history. After her death, those closest to her shared many of her private letters that tell an incredible story. From the time she began her work with the poor and suffering, she started to experience an inner darkness, a complete loss of the sense of God’s presence. This interior darkness mirrors the spiritual writings of the greatest mystics, such as Saints John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila. God stripped her of every interior consolation so that her charity would be absolutely pure and devoid of all selfish motivation, resulting in pure selfless giving, fueled by unshakable faith, and driven by divine hope. She was truly a mystic in the deepest sense, an icon of the satiation of Christ’s Thirst. St. Rosalia
Saint of the Day for 4th September, 2024 St. Rosalia was a Christian hermit and mystic who lived in the 12th century in Sicily, Italy. She is the patron saint of Palermo, and her cult has been widespread in the island since the Middle Ages. According to tradition, Rosalia was born into a wealthy and noble family in Palermo, and from a young age, she felt called to a life of solitude and contemplation. In order to live out this calling, Rosalia renounced her family’s wealth and status and retreated to a cave in the mountains, where she lived as a hermit. There she devoted herself to prayer, fasting, and penance, and was known to have had a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary. According to legend, Mary appeared to Rosalia in a dream and revealed to her the location of the cave where she would spend her hermitage years. While living in the cave, St. Rosalia is said to have performed many miracles, and many people would come to seek her counsel and pray for her intercession. She was known for her wisdom, and many people sought her out to ask her advice on various spiritual and personal matters. Rosalia’s solitude lasted over 30 years, until her death in 1166. According to legend, after her death, a hunter discovered her remains in the cave and was overcome with a sense of holiness. He reported this to the people of Palermo and they took her remains and placed them in the crypt of the church of Santa Maria della Catena. In 1624, a severe plague broke out in Palermo, and the people of the city turned to St. Rosalia for help. According to tradition, Rosalia appeared to a young girl in a dream and told her where to find her remains, which were then brought to Palermo and displayed in the Cathedral of Palermo. The plague subsided shortly after, and the people of Palermo attributed this to the intercession of St. Rosalia. After this event, the cult of St. Rosalia grew rapidly in Palermo and all over Sicily, and her remains were held in high honor. She is the patron saint of Palermo and is celebrated annually in a festival, La Fiera di Santa Rosalia, which takes place each year in mid-July. St. Rosalia’s feast day is celebrated on September 4th. She was canonized by the Catholic Church, although her cult started much before the official process of canonization. She is considered a Saint by popular devotion. Many churches, chapels and shrines have been built throughout Sicily in her honor, and she is venerated as one of the most beloved saints of the island. Reflection St. Rosalia’s life serves as an inspiration to those who seek to live a simple, contemplative life and her devotion to the Virgin Mary is an example of deep spiritual devotion. Her legend is intertwined with the history of the city of Palermo, where her cult has continued to flourish for centuries. What stands out when analysing St. Rosalia’s life is the radicalness with which she corresponds to each invitation of grace. The relationship with the supernatural dominated her entire being, relegating material things to a secondary plane. This is how truly Catholic souls follow their vocation! And if today’s world seems to have forgotten the heavenly reality – the highest and most authentic of all realities – is it not because it has sinfully turned to what is vain and fleeting? May St. Rosalia help us, so that by her example and intercession, “already here on earth” we participate “in the blessed company of Angels and men united in God.” . |
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