Feast of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha

July 14 , 2009


God, who among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant, we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession -- that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among her Saints by Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The young woman now honored with such beautiful titles as "the Lily of the Mohawks" and "the Wonderworker of the New World" was born in 1656 at Ossernenon, a village of longhouses which stood on a high hill overlooking the Mohawk River. The daughter of a Turtle Clan chief and a Christian Algonquin captive, she was orphaned at the age of four when a smallpox epidemic decimated Ossernenon .
Her great devotion to Our Lord is one of the most profound aspects of her story and one that is occasionally overlooked these days when her life is simplified and sentimentalized. Yet it was Kateri herself who said, "I have given my soul to Jesus in the Eucharist and my body to Jesus on the Cross."

The feast of St. Bernadette

The message of Saint Bernadette is "Every human being is precious in God's eyes".
We are all brothers and sisters. God welcomes us as we are, no matter what we did or did not do. His pardon and Love are greater than any of our human values. God loves us more than we can imagine. Saint Bernadette was poor, ill and considered so insignificant in people's eyes and yet she was chosen to show us this message from God.
From her birth, Bernadette was a weak child, suffering even then from the asthma which would cause her so much suffering that later, in the convent, she would beg the nuns to tear open her chest that she might breathe. Because of her delicate constitution, her parents would endeavour to give her little morsels of food not available to the other children, such as white bread instead of black. Invariably, the young girl would share these treats with her siblings - often missing out herself on the sumptuous feast.
Later in life she became a Sister of Charity of Nevers, and was besieged by many faithful and religious. Bernadette (in religion, Sister Marie-Bernarde) spent the latter part of her life at the convent, saying that she had come to hide herself. She sought God in the silence of the cloister, serving Him in humility and under the vows of her profession as a Sister of Charity of Nevers.
The Lady of Lourdes had kept the promise She made to Bernadette in 1858 -
"I do not promise to make you happy in this world, but in the next".
Although the apparitions of Our Lady at Lourdes were over for Bernadette (at least in this life), their message and mission were never to be forgotten. Bernadette silently offered all of her sufferings, internal and external, for the benefit of "poor sinners".
Here is a Vatican translation of the address Benedict XVI gave Saturday at the end of the torchlight Marian procession in Lourdes (September 14 , 2008 ):
"One hundred and fifty years ago, on 11 February 1858, in this place known as the Grotto of Massabielle, away from the town, a simple young girl from Lourdes, Bernadette Soubirous, saw a light, and in this light she saw a young lady who was "beautiful, more beautiful than any other". This woman addressed her with kindness and gentleness, with respect and trust: "She said vous to me", Bernadette recounted, "Would you do me the kindness of coming here for a fortnight?" she asked her. "She was looking at me as one person who speaks to another." It was in this conversation, in this dialogue marked by such delicacy, that the Lady instructed her to deliver certain very simple messages on prayer, penance and conversion. It is hardly surprising that Mary should be beautiful, given that-during the apparition of 25 March 1858-she reveals her name in this way: "I am the Immaculate Conception."
[..]
The apparitions were bathed in light and God chose to ignite in Bernadette's gaze a flame which converted countless hearts. How many come here to see it with the hope-secretly perhaps-of receiving some miracle; then, on the return journey, having had a spiritual experience of life in the Church, they change their outlook upon God, upon others and upon themselves. A small flame called hope, compassion, tenderness now dwells within them. A quiet encounter with Bernadette and the Virgin Mary can change a person's life, for they are here, in Massabielle, to lead us to Christ who is our life, our strength and our light. May the Virgin Mary and Saint Bernadette help you to live as children of light in order to testify, every day of your lives, that Christ is our light, our hope and our life! Amen.

Let us faithfully pray :
Dear Saint Bernadette, Chosen by Almighty God as a channel of His Graces and Blessings, and through your humble obedience to the requests of Our Blessed Mother, Mary, you gained for us the Miraculous waters of Spiritual and physical healing.
We implore you to listen to our pleading prayers that we may be healed of our Spiritual and physical imperfections.
Place our petitions in the Hands of our Holy Mother, Mary, so that She may place them at the feet of Her beloved Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that He may look on us with mercy and compassion: (Make Petition)
Help, O Dear Saint Bernadette to follow your example, so that irrespective of our own pain and suffering we may always be mindful of the needs of others, especially those whose sufferings are greater than ours.
As we await the Mercy of God, remind us to offer up our pain and suffering for the conversion of sinners, and in reparation for the sins and blasphemies of mankind.

Pray for us dearest Saint Bernadette, that like you, we may always be obedient to the will of Our Heavenly Father, and that through our prayers and humility we may bring consolation to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary that have been so grievously wounded by our sins.
Holy Saint Bernadette of Lourdes, Pray for us.
One Decade of the Rosary.
Memorare.
O Mary conceived without sin,pray for us who have recourse to Thee. (Say (3) Three Times)

Saint Dismas ( Feast 25 March )

Today is the Holy Feast of Annunciation , but beside the great joy of incarnation of our Lord , catholics are celebrating the Feast of Saint Dismas

Saint Dismas(sometimes spelled Dysmas or only Dimas, or even Dumas), also known as the Good Thief or the Penitent Thief, is the apocryphal name given to one of the thieves who was crucified alongside Christ according to the Gospel of Luke 23:39-43:
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, "If thou be Christ, save thyself and us."
But the other answering rebuked him, saying, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss."
And he said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise."
Let us faithfully pray :
Glorious St. Dismas, you alone of all the great Penitent Saints were directly canonized by Christ Himself; you were assured of a place in Heaven with Him "this day" because of the sincere confession of your sins to Him in the tribunal of Calvary and your true sorrow for them as you hung beside Him in that open confessional; you who by the direct sword thrust of your love and repentance did open the Heart of Jesus in mercy and forgiveness even before the centurion's spear tore it asunder; you whose face was closer to that of Jesus in His last agony, to offer Him a word of comfort, closer even than that of His Beloved Mother, Mary; you who knew so well how to pray, teach me the words to say to Him to gain pardon and the grace of perseverance; and you who are so close to Him now in Heaven, as you were during His last moments on earth, pray to Him for me that I shall never again desert Him, but that at the close of my life I may hear from Him the words He addressed to you: "This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise."

19 March ~~ Feast of Saint Joseph , chaste spouse of Holy Mother of God

I'll start this day meditation with a confession : I never called Jaint Joseph only husband of Mary , because Saint Joseph is the chaste spouse of Immaculate Mother of God .

We know also that he was a carpenter, a working man, for the skeptical Nazarenes ask about Jesus, "Is this not the carpenter's son?" (Matthew 13:55). Despite his humble work and means, Joseph came from a royal lineage. Luke and Matthew disagreed some about the details of Joseph's genealogy but they both mark his descent from David, the greatest king of Israel (Matthew 1:1-16 and Luke 3:23-38). Indeed the Archangel Gabriel who first tells Joseph about Jesus and greets him as "son of David," a royal title used also for Jesus.
We know Joseph was a compassionate, caring man , devoted to his Holy family and God . We know Joseph was man of faith, obedient to whatever God asked of him without knowing the outcome. When the angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him the truth about the child Mary was carrying, Joseph immediately and without question or concern for gossip, took Mary as his wife. When the angel came again to tell him that his family was in danger, he immediately left everything he owned, all his family and friends, and fled to a strange country with his young wife and the baby. He waited in Egypt without question until the angel told him it was safe to go back (Matthew 2:13-23).
More that this we know how much Saint Joseph loved and adored the Saviour of mankind and Redeemer of the world . His one concern was for the safety of this child entrusted to him. Not only did he leave his home to protect Jesus, but upon his return settled in the obscure town of Nazareth out of fear for his life.
We celebrate two feast days for Joseph: March 19 for Joseph the Chaste spouse of Mary and May 1 for Joseph the Worker.
There is much we wish we could know about Joseph -- where and when he was born, how he spent his days, when and how he died. But Scripture has left us with the most important knowledge: he was -- "a righteous man" (Matthew 1:18).

Meditation before Saint Joseph's Feast

God the Holy Father chosed , in His infinite wisdom , Saint Joseph to guide and guard His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In these prayers, we turn to Saint Joseph and ask him to guide us as a father would.

The path of Saint Joseph through his earthly life was a quiet hidden one. The same may be said of his devotional path through the Christian centuries. Many have carried him silently in their hearts, have looked at his statues in the Christmas stable scene. And they have understood that he was an intimate, important part of the silent night when a Star shone from above, and the song of the angels joined the praise of the shepherds.

But, as Cardinal Newman has pointed out, Joseph himself was long a star dimly seen in devotional practice, a man quietly loved by many, but waiting, so to say, in the vestibule until the strong voices of Saint Bernardine, Saint Teresa of Avila and others summoned him into the sanctuary. It was only in 1870 that Pius IX declared him universal Patron of the Church and extended his major feastday to the whole Church.
Pope Pius XI invoked him as the saint whom we should call upon to defeat atheistic communism.
Pope Pius XII, for his part, proclaimed the Feast of Saint Joseph the Worker (1 May) as a counter-point to the May Day celebrations held throughout the communist "workers paradise" world.
Saint Joseph is, as we all know, the Patron of the Universal Church. Along with Mary he is one of the most honored saints in the entire array of saints found in the life and history of our Church. It is fitting that this be so - he was next to Mary, the Guardian of Jesus, the link between Christ and the prophetic portrayal of the origins of the Messiah being found in the "House of David".
In addition to being honored as the Patron Saint of the Universal Church, he is hailed as the Patron of Workers, Patron of Families, Patron of the Sick and Dying, and the Guardian Saint of Virgins. He is also the patron of those engaged in the interior life, as well as being the patron saint of those in authority, of fathers, priests, and those placed in charge over the poor and defenseless.
In every Catholic Church throughout the world , there is a side alter dedicated to the Spouse of Mary. Before that altar or in the solitude of one’s own home, or under the vault of the open skies, a person can appear to Saint Joseph for aid in life’s struggle.
Let us prepare morally and faithfully for one of the Feast of Saint Joseph , let us ask Saint Joseph intercession for all our daily needs and entrust our dear ones to the head of the Holy Family .
Happy Feast of Saint Joseph for each all of you !