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St. Catherine of Alexandria

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, Martyr, St. Catherine of Alexandria 1 Comment

We look to the heroic martyrs more now than ever. St. Catherine of Alexandria whose feast we celebrate today (11.25) was a grandiose witness.

PC – Sweetie

Before dying she said the following prayer:

“Lord Jesus Christ, my God, I thank Thee for having firmly set my feet on the rock of the Faith and directed my steps on the pathway of salvation. Open now Thy arms wounded on the cross to receive my soul, which I offer in sacrifice to the glory of Thy Name…

Forgive the faults I committed in ignorance and wash my soul in the blood I will shed for Thee.

Do not leave my body, slaughtered by love for Thee, in the power of those who hate me.

Kindly regard these people and give them the knowledge of the truth.

Finally, O Lord, in Thy infinite mercy exalt those who will invoke Thee through me so that Thy name be always glorified.”

Once her prayer was said, she calmly tolerance d the soldiers to carry out her sentence. No trembling, no desire to prolong her life a little more. Also, no precipitation, which sometimes is a reflection of fear. No. She said everything she wanted to say, and when she finished, she delivered herself into the hands of God. The soldiers beheaded her, and immediately afterward, her prayer started to be answered.

What grace should we ask of St. Catherine of Alexandria?

We should ask her that when the chastisement predicted in Fatima will be realized and we face the enemies of the Church and Christendom, that we have the same serenity she had in face of death.

It is a serenity that only grace can give. In face of death, there are two kinds of serenity: one is the serenity of the idiot, another is the serenity that comes from grace. Death, the separation of the body and soul, the apparent plunging into nothingness, is such a terrible thing that only two kinds of serenity are comprehensible: that of the idiot who never measures the consequences of anything, or the serenity of the man inundated by grace.

So then, let us ask St. Catherine to help us be calm in every situation in our lives, and especially in the risks and dangers of life, and even in the extreme sacrifice of death, if that should be the will of Our Lady for us.” – Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Maxims of St. John of the Cross

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, St. John of the Cross Leave a Comment

The following maxims of St. John of the Cross are fierce and perfect to meditate on in all seasons for the good of our souls.

PC Sweetie – Oct. 2020

* I did not know Thee, my Lord, because I still desired to know and relish trifling things. My spirit became dry because it forgot to rest in Thee.

* If you wish to attain holy recollection, you will do so not by approving but by denying.

* The devil fears a soul united to God as he does God Himself.

* The purest suffering produces the purest understanding.

* Through small things, one reaches the great. The evil that at the beginning appears insignificant, later becomes enormous and without remedy.

May we “Live in the world as if God and your soul only were in it; so shall your heart be never made captive by any earthly thing.”

Advent Plans 2020

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, Advent, St. Clement Leave a Comment

This reflection on today’s saint (the 4th pope and saint from the Canon) is just what I needed to read as my husband and I finalize our Advent plans which always includes the spiritual & physical.

Today, has been set aside for my family to prepare our home for Advent, a soft prep for an even greater purge that we will embark on during Advent in preparation for the Christ-Child.

I have been prompted by the Holy Ghost to “lay everything on the line” specifically in regards to my physical wellness. The message is imprinted in my heart but my mental conviction has not caught up. I desire not to be held up any longer by my concerns about tomorrow.

I realize that there is a fine line between prudence and trust in His care & providence. I pray for His grace.

I fully understand that nothing on this earth can compare to the sufferings of Hell, purgatory, or that which Our Lord suffered for me (us).

This understanding of this reality is what compels me to push forward — to die to my flesh and glorify Him with everything I have.

Today’s reading is a consolation of sorts for me to keep going forward with our Advent plans.

“Did you observe how St. Clement encouraged himself and his fellow captives in the hard labor they had to perform?

To work for the sake of Christ, and to expect for one’s work an eternal reward in heaven, is surely enough to make all suffering and exertion sweet.

Every man is bound to work according to his station, and it is quite sure that we are in danger of losing our souls, if we do not work as we ought, but lead an idle, luxurious and sensual life.

One station, however, has harder and more troublesome work than another, and there are numbers of people who earn their bread by the sweat of their brow and have, day and night, hardly an hour for rest.

It is quite natural that these sometimes become impatient…

Their impatience goes so far that they become dissatisfied with God’s providence in their regard, and murmur against Him, curse their labor, or perform it unwillingly; and thus not only lose all the merits which they might have earned, but incur heavy responsibility.

I would ask such people to recollect, that their work, if performed with a good intention, in the grace of God and according to His will, will merit for them great glory in heaven.

They ought to arm, themselves against the impatience which sometimes rises in them, with the thought of the reward that awaits them in heaven; for God recompenses every man according to his work, as Holy Writ teaches us. Ought not every one to work with pleasure, when he expects an eternal reward?” -Father Francis Xavier Weninger, Lives of the Saints, 1876.

A Patron Saint Assigned by God

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, Nameday, Patron Saint, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Leave a Comment

Happy nameday to our beautiful #1, Rose.

My husband and I believe that the Good Lord ordained this beloved patron saint for our daughter.

We had her when were very young and not fully practicing the faith. We chose her name, never considering the saints or our Faith.

As we returned to the Faith, we held a great sadness that she didn’t have a patron saint from birth. She did adopt many patron saints over her young life. But it wasn’t the same to her.

She began to prepare for her Confirmation around the age of 10. She continued to study the lives of the saints and prayed for her decision to select a special patron saint as an intercessor.

One day we heard a squeal from upstairs. It was followed by feet quickly running towards us. In a tear-filled voice we heard, “I do have one, mama! I do have a name saint!”

In sheer joy, she continued to inform us that this specific saint was hers!

One of the saint’s nicknames was my daughter’s name — an uncommon name for the saint’s time and an unusual spelling of the name in general.

We all cheered and gave thanks to God for His tender care of our beloved girl from the very start. It was, indeed, a consolation for us all!!

It brings me to tears every time I retell the story. Not only did he provide her with a name saint, He also infused the saint’s great virtues in our daughter from her earliest days. GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME!!!

St. Elizabeth of Hungary, ora pro nobis.

…Thou, illuminated by supernatural light and faith immovable, didst show thyself to be a true daughter of the Holy Gospel, by seeing in the person of thy neighbour the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, sole object of thy affections; and therefore didst thou place all thy delight in holding converse with the poor, in serving them, in drying their tears and comforting their spirits, in assisting them with every pious good office, in the midst of pestilence and the miseries to which our human nature is subject.

Thou didst make thyself poor in order to succour thy neighbour in his poverty–poor in the good things of earth, to enrich thyself with the goods of heaven.

…vouchsafe to be the heavenly friend of our souls,… AMEN

The life of Saint Elizabeth may serve as a model to persons of every age and station. Children may learn to fear God from their earliest years, and to increase their devotion with their age; single persons, how to live chastely in their state; married people, how husband and wife ought to live together; and the widowed how to sanctify their solitude. Masters and mistresses may learn how to take care of their domestics, and pay their wages regularly. Those of a higher station may learn to set a good example to others, and not to be ashamed to appear at public worship. All Christians can find instruction in it, for employing their time well, helping the needy, and bearing crosses and trials sent by heaven. God permitted a Landgravine, a royal princess, to be banished unjustly from court, to beg her bread, and, besides other ignominies, to be refused a shelter among her own subjects. Still she complained not; but, submissive to the decrees ot Providence, gave humble thanks to the Almighty for all that He, in His wisdom, had sent her. Even at the death of her husband, what fortitude, what submission to the divine will she manifested! Oh! that all would endeavor, in trials of much less severity, to unite their will with that of God, and patiently bear the cross that He has laid upon them.

Father Francis Xavier Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Landgravine of Hesse and Thuringia” Lives of the Saints, 1876.

St. Martin of Tours

by Filed Under: 11 November Saints, St. Martin of Tours Leave a Comment

St. Martin of Tours — “The Glory of Gaul” — was born around A.D. 316 in Szombathely, Hungary (known then as Sabaria, Pannonia) and grew up the son of a Roman military officer in Pavia, Italy. He joined the Roman army and was sent to Amiens, where, on horseback, he met a starving man begging alms at the city gates. Moved by deep compassion, he tore his red, woolen his cloak in two with his sword and gave half to the beggar. The next night, he had a dream in which he saw Jesus wearing the half of the cloak he’d given away, surrounded by angels. In the dream, Our Lord asked him to look at it and to see if he recognized it. He did, of course, and realized that he must convert and devote his life to Christ. (St. Martin’s remaining piece of cloak became a very revered relic. In fact, the building where his cloak — “cappa” in Latin — was preserved was known as the “cappella,” the root of our words “chapel” and “chaplain.”)

Let us ask St. Martin to give us his zeal for the House of God, the Holy Catholic Church, and his efficiency in destroying idols. May he help us apply his spirit in fighting the idol of sentimental religiosity in our souls, so that we might truly understand the lives of the saints, follow their example, and become saints ourselves.

“O holy Martin, have compassion on our depth of misery! A winter more severe than that which caused thee to divide thy cloak now rages over the world; many perish in the icy night brought on by the extinction of faith and the cooling of charity.

Come to the aid of those unfortunates, whose torpor prevents them from asking assistance. Wait not for them to pray; but forestall them for the love of Christ in whose name the poor man of Amiens implored thee, whereas they scarcely know how to utter it. And yet their nakedness is worse than the beggar’s, stripped as they are of the garment of grace, which their fathers received from thee and handed down to posterity.

Has that history of the brightest days of the Church, of the reign of Christ as King, come to an end, O Martin? Let the enemy imagine he has already sealed our tomb. But the story of thy miracles tells us that thou canst raise up even the dead.

Was not the catechumen of Ligugé snatched from the land of the living, when thou didst call him back to life and Baptism? Supposing that, like him, we were already among those whom the Lord remembereth no more, the man or the country that has Martin for protector and father need never yield to despair.

If thou deign to bear us in mind, the Angels will come and say again to the supreme Judge: “This is the man, this is the nation for whom Martin prays;” and they will be commanded to draw us out of the dark regions where dwell the people without glory, and to restore us to Martin, and to our noble destinies.” – Dom Prosper Gueranger

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