Apostleship of Prayer

The name of today’s saint has become synonymous with Catholic education. He was born in France and as a young priest saw the need for the education of poor boys. In 1684 he and twelve teachers formed a religious congregation which came to be known as the Christian Brothers. Today they serve over 900,000 students in 80 countries. In 1950 Pope Pius XII named him the patron saint of teachers.

With the intercessory help of St. John Baptist de La Salle, let us focus our attention on this month’s Mission Intention, asking God to bless the seminarians in mission countries with the same zeal for souls that our saint had. May they have the charity revealed in the following excerpt from the writings of St. John Baptist de La Salle.

Adapt yourself with gracious and charitable compliance to all your neighbor’s weaknesses. In particular, make a rule to hide your feelings in inconsequential matters. Give up all bitterness toward your neighbor, no matter what. Each day look for every possible opportunity to do a kindness for those you do not like. After examining yourself on this matter every morning, decide what you are going to do, and do it faithfully with kindness and humility. Be sure to be warmly affable toward everyone. Speak to and answer everyone with very great gentleness and deference. Keep in mind the way the Lord spoke and replied to others even when he was most harshly treated. Never comment on the faults or the behavior of your neighbors. When others speak of them, put a good interpretation on their actions. If you cannot, say nothing at all. In short, decide never to speak of the failings of others nor to reprimand them no matter how serious they seem to you. When you see someone fall into some fault, call to mind the gospel saying, “You can see the splinter in your brother’s eye, but you cannot see the beam in your own” (Matthew 7: 3).

Today’s Readings: Acts 6: 8-15;  Psalm 119: 23-24, 26-27, 29-30;  John 6: 22-29

St. Vincent was born in Spain and entered the Dominican Order when he was seventeen. He became a powerful preacher and miracle-worker who traveled throughout Europe. He lived at one of the lowest points in the Church’s history—the Great Western Schism—when there were three different bishops who claimed to be pope. The Council of Constance resolved the issue in 1414 and, through St. Vincent’s tireless work on behalf of Church unity, peace was restored.

On this First Saturday, when we honor the Immaculate Heart of Mary, let us continue to reflect on Pope John Paul’s Angelus Meditation of August 27, 1989, praying that through Mary’s intercession our faith in the resurrection may grow.

Brothers and sisters, no one experienced that the Heart of Jesus is “life and resurrection” as Mary did. From him, the life, Mary received the life of original grace and by listening to his word and attentively observing his salvific actions she was able to preserve and nourish it. From him, the resurrection, she was associated in a singular way to his victory over death. The mystery of her assumption—body and soul—into heaven is the consoling proof that Christ’s victory over sin and death is extended in the members of his Mystical Body, first of all to Mary, the “most eminent member” of the Church (Lumen Gentium #53).Glorified in heaven, with her motherly heart the Virgin is at the service of the redemption effected by Christ. “Mother of life,” she is close to every woman who brings a child into the world, and is near every baptismal font where Christ’s members are born of water and the Spirit (John 3: 5). “Health of the sick,” she is present where life is languishing, stricken by suffering and illness. “Mother of mercy,” she calls those who have fallen under the weight of guilt to return to the fountains of life. “Refuge of sinners,” she shows those who have strayed from it the way that leads to Christ. “Sorrowful Virgin,” near her dying Son (John 19: 25), she is to be found wherever life is drawing to a close. Let us invoke her now with the Church: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.”

Today’s Readings: Acts 6:1-7;  Psalm 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19;  John 6:16-21

St. Isidore followed his brother St. Leander as Archbishop of Seville, Spain. During the Middle Ages he was looked upon as “the Master” because of his “Etymologies,” twenty books that brought together all the religious and secular learning of his time. As a result, he has been invoked recently as the patron saint of the Internet and computer programmers.

On this First Friday in the Easter Season, let us ask for the grace to love the Sacred Heart of Jesus more faithfully. Because He has risen, His Heart never ceases to beat with love for us. Knowing this love, may we reveal it to the world by the way we live. Our reflection is from Pope John Paul II’s Angelus Meditation of August 27, 1989.

“Heart of Jesus, our life and resurrection, have mercy on us.” This invocation from the Litany of the Sacred Heart, strong and persuasive as an act of faith, contains the entire mystery of Christ the Redeemer in a terse phrase. It recalls the words Jesus addressed to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, shall live” (John 11: 25).

Jesus is the life which springs eternally from the divine wellspring of the Father…. Jesus is also the resurrection. Nothing is so radically opposed to the holiness of Christ, the Holy One of the Lord (Luke 1: 35; Mark 1: 24), as sin. Nothing is so opposed to him, source of life, as death. There is a mysterious bond between sin and death (Wisdom 2: 24; Romans 5: 12, 6: 23); both are realities which are essentially contrary to God’s plan for man, who was not made for death but rather for life. In the face of every expression of death, Christ’s Heart was deeply moved, and for love of the Father and mankind, his brothers and sisters, he made his life a “combat stupendous” (Easter Sequence) against death.

Today’s Readings:  Acts 5:34-42;  Psalm 27:1,4,13-14;  John 6:1-15

At an early age today’s saint followed his namesake and became a Franciscan of great piety. God inspired him to become a hermit and when others joined him he founded the Order of Hermits of St. Francis of Assisi in 1456, later to be known as the Order of Minims (little ones). They lived a strict Lenten fast all year long abstaining from eggs and milk as well as from meat. He was sent by the pope to be the spiritual director for several kings of France.

Today is also the third anniversary of Pope John Paul’s death. Our belief consoles us that this beloved pope is not dead and gone forever. Our hope is that he is with the Lord and that one day we will be with him in heaven. As we pray for Pope Benedict’s intentions, let us reflect on his homily at last year’s Mass on this anniversary.

In Karol Wojtyla’s life, the word “cross” was not merely a word. From his childhood, he was familiar with suffering and death. As priest and Bishop and especially as Supreme Pontiff, he took most seriously the Risen Christ’s last call to Simon Peter on the shore of the Lake of Galilee: “Follow me… Follow me!” (John 21: 19, 22). His whole life, particularly with the slow but implacable advance of the disease which gradually stripped him of everything, became an offering to Christ, a living proclamation of his passion in hope brimming with faith in the resurrection. …Dear brothers and sisters, the Responsorial Psalm has placed words full of trust on our lips. In the Communion of Saints, we seem to hear them spoken aloud by our beloved John Paul II, who, from the Father’s House, we are sure of it, never ceases to accompany the Church on her way: “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord!” (Ps 27[26]: 13-14). Yes, let your heart take courage, dear brothers and sisters, and burn with hope! With this invitation in our hearts let us continue the Eucharistic Celebration, already looking at the light of the Resurrection of Christ…. May the Totus tuus of the beloved Pontiff encourage us to follow him on the path of the gift of ourselves to Christ through the intercession of Mary, and may she herself, the Virgin Mary, obtain it for us while we entrust to her motherly hands this father, brother and friend of ours, that he may rest in God and rejoice in peace. Amen.

Today’s Readings: Acts 5:17-26; Psalm 34:2-9; John 3:16-21