Queen of the Holy Rosary

Today is the feast of Mary, Queen of the Holy Rosary. I invited my students to pray the Rosary today and they were quite enthusiastic about it. That brought joy to my heart.

In this post, to honour our Mother Mary, I have inserted St. Francis' salutation of the Blessed Virgin. Many people know of St. Francis for his love of God's creation, yet are not aware of his great love of Mary. This prayer shows the warmth of his love as he extols her using images from the liturgy.

Hail, holy Lady, most holy Queen, Mary, Mother of God, ever Virgin; chosen by the most holy Father in heaven, consecrated by Him, with His most holy beloved Son and the Holy Spirit, the Comforter. On you descended and in you still remains all the fullness of grace and every good. Hail, His palace. Hail, His tabernacle. Hail, His robe. Hail, His handmaid. Hail, His Mother. and Hail, all holy virtues, who, by the grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are poured into the hearts of the faithful so that, faithless no longer, they may be made faithful servants of God through you. (Omnibus of Sources 135-136)

St. Francis' Letter to All the Faithful

In the Office of Readings for the Solemnity of St. Francis, there is an excerpt from his letter to all the faithful. When I read these words, I am filled with such joy in being called to follow the Lord Jesus in the footsteps of St. Francis, His faithful servant and truly a living image of the Gospel.

St. Francis says of himself: Since I am the servant of all I am obliged to serve all and to carry out the fragrant words of my Lord, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the Word of the Father. I must also bring to your attention the words of the Holy Spirit which are spirit and life...

He wants us all to be saved through Him and to receive Him with pure heart and sinless body. How happy and blessed are they who love the Lord and do what He says in the Gospel: You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and your whole soul, and your neighbour as yourself. Let us therefore love God and adore Him with pure heart and soul since He says that He is especially seeking authentic worshippers who will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Let us sing His praises and pray day and night because we must pray always without losing heart....

Let all firmly believe that no one can be saved except through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Lord's holy words which clerics proclaim and administer. Religious, however, who have renounced the world are obliged to do more and greater things while not neglecting these.

St. Francis tells us that our Lord is looking for disciples even today as He did long ago along the shores of Galilee. It is through discipleship of Jesus that we experience the fullness of life, nourished by His holy Word and by the Eucharist which is His very Body and Blood offered to us through the hands of the priest. Let us run to Him, drawn by the fragrance that attracted St. Francis to give up everything for love of Him Who gave the fullness of everything to St. Francis and Who offers us the same gift.

At this link is the full text of the letter in another translation.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/wosf/wosf12.htm

Transitus of St. Francis

Tonight around the world Franciscans (those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ according to the example and spirit of St. Francis of Assisi) gather to celebrate the transitus, the passing of St. Francis to eternal life with God. This is the final important event of any Christian's life, when we are united with the Lord we have loved and Who has loved us throughout our existence.

St. Francis was known in his lifetime as a most perfect copy of Jesus in his imitation of the life that Jesus lived while on earth. St. Francis was enamoured of his Lord and sought to follow Him so closely that he longed to suffer crucifixion alongside the Lord while experiencing the immense love that Jesus had that led Him to the cross for us. He was granted this desire when two years before his death, he received the marks of the crucifixion on his flesh. While living, St. Francis kept these stigmata from others, with only his closest companions having seen them, but when he died, many people witnessed these wounds of love.

When I first learned about St. Francis, I was very much moved by the account of his life and how he gave up everything in order to be conformed to the One he loved deeply and with all the joy of his heart. When St. Francis first heard the Gospel account of the sending of the disciples to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, he declared that this was what he longed to do with all his heart, and he set out to fulfill that directive in unswerving faith that this word was given directly to him. When I read the life of St. Francis and St. Clare, his first woman companion, I too experienced this call of the Gospel as what I longed to do with all my heart.

Tonight is a good time again to reflect upon how the Lord Jesus is calling all of His people to complete conformity to the Gospel and how for each of us He has a loving plan that will move our hearts to follow Him in joy and fullness of life. For me that means living the Religious life as a Franciscan Sister. I pray that many other young women and men will listen to the call of Jesus to this amazing life of intimate union with Christ, such as St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi lived.

Accenting the Faith in Catholic Schools

Recently the Congregation for Catholic Education posted a letter about the importance of accenting the faith in schools. I found the letter on Zenit. http://www.zenit.org/article-26802?l=english

This photo which I found on the internet is of a Dominican Sister with school children. Although most children in Catholic schools are taught by laypeople, some are blessed to have Religious Sisters, Brothers or Priests as their teachers. No matter what their tradition in the Church , these bring to the classroom the benefit of a spirituality recognised by the Church as an efficacious means of being in union with God.

The letter also draws attention to the importance of a quality religious education. “It is necessary, therefore, that religious instruction in schools appear as a scholastic discipline with the same systematic demands and the same rigour as other disciplines. It must present the Christian message and the Christian event with the same seriousness and the same depth with which other disciplines present their knowledge. It should not be an accessory alongside of these disciplines, but rather it should engage in a necessary inter-disciplinary dialogue” (DGC 73). This too corresponds with the educational tradition of the Religious communities who have focussed on providing the best education in all fields enhanced with the Catholic faith.

We continue to need Religious teaching in our schools. The gift they offer is unique to them and a blessing to the Church. Please continue to pray for vocations to Religious life, especially for Religious as educators of our youth.

Life is short--eat dessert first!

Religious life is about the best of life, a life of heaven lived on earth. Why wait for heaven in the future when we can have heaven now?

The Religious state manifests in a special way the transcendence of the Kingdom of God and its requirements over all earthly things. (LG 44) It is based on a radical dependence on God. Jesus tells us: Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. (Lk 12:32) Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven...for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Mt 6:20-21) Your heavenly Father knows what you need. Strive first for the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Mt 6:33)

Our Church teaches us that: The state of life which is constituted by the profession of the evangelical counsels belongs to the life and holiness of the Church. (LG 44) Religious life is intended to shine before all the members of the Church as a sign which can inspire them to fulfill the duties of their Christian calling. (LG 44) The Religious state constitutes a closer imitation and an abiding re-enactment in the Church of the form of life which the Son of God made His own when He came into the world to do the will of the Father. (LG 44)

Christ counsels us to live Gospel poverty: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. (Mt 19:21) Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life. (Mt 19:29)

Christ counsels us to live Gospel chasitity: There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can. (Mt 19:12b) You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. (Mt 22: 36-39)

Christ counsels us to live Gospel obedience: You did not choose me but I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last. (Jn 15:16) If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His live...This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. (Jn 15: 9-10, 12)

St. John describes our future: I saw a new heaven and a new earth ...I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (Rev 21:1-2)

Religious life says: Heaven? Bring it on!

Martyrs: Witnesses for Christ

"They loved Christ in this life and imitated Him in their death, and so they will rejoice with Him for ever." This is the Magnificat antiphon for the Protomartyrs of Rome, which is the feast day today. Martyrdom for the faith, the total self-gift unto death, seems to be unlikely in the place where I live, yet I know that there are Christians dying for the faith in other parts of the world. Their example calls to us to be firm in the faith in the face of any sort of opposition.

St. Cyprian, bishop and martyr, wrote of the inspiration that motivates martyrdom for faith in Christ: "I urge you to persevere courageously and steadfastly in your witness to heavenly glory, and to continue with spiritual courage, now that you have entered on the way that the Lord has graciously opened up for you, until you receive the crown of voctory. You have the Lord as your protector and guide, for He has said: Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the world.

"Let nothing else be now in your hearts and minds except God's commandments and the precepts of heaven: by their means the Holy Spirit has always inspired you to bear your sufferings. Let no one think of death, but only of immortality; let no one think of suffering that is for a time, but only of glory that is for eternity. It is written: Precious in the sight of God is the death of His holy ones. And again: A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a broken and humbled heart God does not despise.

"The Lord Himself is an example of all this in His own person. He teaches us that only those who have followed Him along His way arrive at His kingdom."

When I read these words this morning at the Office of Readings, I was encouraged to offer myself totally to the Lord, to follow Him completely, even though He has not (yet) asked of me the supreme sacrifice of my life. With models such as the Protomartyrs of Rome and St. Cyprian set before our eyes, I know that God will provide for us the grace to persevere in faith.

Pope Benedict XVI on the Consecrated Life

This link provides an excellent resource for the statements by our Holy Father on the Consecrated Life.
http://www.apostolicvisitation.org/en/materials/benedict.pdf