BIG C CATHOLICS

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Asking the right question is always critical if we want arrive at good answers to what it is we seek or to the problems we face. With that in mind I want to ask us today: How much of your life and mine is governed by “we” and how much is it governed by “me?” That question is fundamental in our lives. Do I arrive at answers and base my decisions all by myself or with others? Do I live my life alone or with others? We need to see that all of life comes from God. We are made in God’s image and likeness. That being so we need to pay attention to the fundamental truth that God is a community of Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with their own characteristics but at the same time in mutual interdependency. Being excessively independent is not Godly. At times, we see ourselves and make our choices as autonomous individuals, accountable to no one else, all by ourselves. But isn’t it true that t...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) In the 1932 edition of the Rule of a certain religious order you find this statement: “The professed [= members with vows] cannot be denied anything that is necessary. However, the Superiors occasionally try their inferiors, by giving them an opportunity to feel some privation, and to be made aware of the fact that the poor cannot have everything they could wish for.” How times have changed! The language of “superiors” and “inferiors” is gone from the latest edition (1982), and the very idea of those in charge deliberately depriving others of what they need is unthinkable, repugnant even. Certain things made perfect sense in 1932; they made no sense at all fifty years later. That said, members of religious orders are still by definition different, counter-cultural. They still take the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, which makes them different fro...

August 27th, is the memorial of Saint Monica. She is an example of those holy matrons of the ancient Church who proved very influential in their own quiet way. Through prayer and tears she gave the great Saint Augustine to the Church, and thereby won for herself a place of honor in the history of God's kingdom on earth. The Confessions of St. Augustine provide certain biographical details. Born of Christian parents about the year 331 at Tagaste in Africa, Monica was reared under the strict supervision of an elderly nurse who had likewise reared her father. In the course of time she was given in marriage to a pagan named Patricius. Besides other faults, he possessed a very irascible nature; it was in this school of suffering that Monica learned patience. It was her custom to wait until his anger had cooled; only then did she give a kindly remonstrance. Evil-minded servants had prejudiced her mother-in-law against her, but Monica persevered. Her marriage was blessed with thre...

The Feast of Saint Bartholomew is August 24th. Bartholomew is one of the twelve Apostles. He is mentioned in all four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. John’s Gospel states he was from Cana and that Jesus said upon meeting him "Here is a true Israelite. There is no duplicity in him." It is clear, that our Lord appreciates the sincerity that He sees in Bartholomew. While little is known about his early life, Bartholomew was most certainly a devout Jew. His name means "son of Tolomai". Most scholars believe that he, and the Nathanael referred to in John, are the same person. An authority in the law of Moses, Bartholomew was a close friend of the Apostle, Philip. Following Pentecost, Bartholomew embarked on a missionary trip to India. Popular piety records him as serving in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. Bartholomew and Saint Jude are credited with bringing Christianity to Armenia. Both are the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Pius Pa...

Memorial - August 21st St, Pius X did great things for the Church during his relatively brief pontificate — he was pope from 1903 until 1914. He is perhaps best remembered as the "pope of the Eucharist," because he transformed the way ordinary Catholics regarded reception of Holy Communion. Among the modifications he introduced included lowering the age at which children received their first Communion to seven, the "age of reason." He believed that earlier reception of the Eucharist would lead to an earlier and deepened devotion to Jesus Christ in the most Blessed Sacrament. He was born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto on June 2, 1835, in the village of Riese near Venice, Italy, the second of ten children to a poor postman and his wife. He was baptized the following day. Though exceedingly poor, his devout parents valued education. At every stage of study, Giuseppe's intelligence and high moral character attracted notice. On September 18, 1858, Father Sarto wa...

August 20th, is the Memorial of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, (1090-1153) the 12th century French abbot, gifted spiritual writer, counselor to popes, and Doctor of the Church who reformed the Cistercian Order. His extensive Marian theology marks him not only as a theologian of the highest rank, but also as the "cithara of Mary," (A cithara is a stringed instrument similar to a lyre.) He is especially noted for his development of the Blessed Mother's role as mediator. Pope Pius XII’s encyclical Doctor Mellifluus , issued on the 800th anniversary of St. Bernard’s death, called him "The Last of the Fathers." The Divine Office contains numerous excerpts from his sermons. Like his other works, these are conspicuous for their genuine emotion and spiritual depth. He was born the third of seven children, to a prominent noble family, the son of Lord Tescelin de Fontaine and Alèthe de Montbard near Dijon, France. From an early age, his intellectual gifts, literary prop...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) Who was Shebna? Who was Eliakim? Why did Shebna lose his job to Eliakim? Why should we care? These questions are pretty irrelevant. Today’s reading from Isaiah was clearly selected only because of its reference to keys. The questions in today’s Gospel, on the other hand, are far from irrelevant. Can you imagine a head of state or a pope asking his closest associates, “Who do people say that I am?” The more normal question would be, “What are people saying about me?” The disciples felt no need, apparently, to ask what Jesus meant, and they gave precisely the kind of answer he  was looking for: “Some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (How anyone could think he was John the Baptist, whose death was so recent, is beyond me.) When Jesus asked the disciples the more pointed question, “Who do you say tha...

August 15, 2020 November 1st, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution  Munificentissimus Deus , Pope Pius XII proclaimed the Assumption of Mary a dogma of the Catholic Church. The doctrine of the Assumption solemnly decrees that at the end of her earthly life Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. Contrary to popular perception, Our Lady did not "ascend" into heaven. Only Christ ascended into heaven under his own power. Mary was taken up into heaven by God. In celebrating her most glorious Assumption, we ask Mary to help us live with faith and hope, seeking God's will in all things. May she enlighten our minds to the destiny that awaits us, the dignity of every person, and God’s immense love for all humanity. "Now toward the end of the summer season, at a time when fruits are ripe in the gardens and fields, the Church celebrates the most glorious "harvest festival" in the Communion of Saints. Mary, the supremely blessed one among women, Mary, the...

Memorial - August 14th I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared, holding in her hands two crowns, one white, one red. She asked if I would like to have them—one was for purity, the other for martyrdom. I said, ‘I choose both.’ She smiled and disappeared.” St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe was only 10 years old when he experienced this vision of Our Lady near his poor family home in Zduńska Wola, Poland. In time, both crowns would come to pass for him, and always the Blessed Mother would be by his side as he received them. Born Raymund Kolbe in 1894, Maximilian entered the Conventual Franciscans in 1907, just three years a er his encounter with Mary; when he professed his first vows in 1911 at the age of 16, he took the name Maximilian. At the profession of his final vows in 1914, he also adopted the name “Mary” in order to show his devotion to the Mother of God. It was while he was0 studying for his doctorate in theology in Rome in 1919 that Ko...

August 12th, is the optional memorial of Saint Jane Frances Fremiot de Chantal, the foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Mary. She was born in 1572 and came from a noble family, her father gave her in marriage to the Baron von Chantal in 1592. As mother she most zealously instructed the children in the ways of virtue and piety and in the observance of every divine precept. With great generosity, she supported the poor and took special joy in seeing how divine Providence often blesses and increases the smallest larder. Therefore, she made a vow never to refuse anyone who asked for alms in the Name of Christ. The death of her husband, who was accidentally shot while on the chase (1601), she bore with Christ-like composure and with all her heart forgave the person who had killed him; then she acted as sponsor for one of his children in order to show her forgiveness openly. There was a holy friendship between her and her spiritual guide, Saint Francis de Sales. With his approva...

Memorial - August 11th As a young girl, Saint Clare, in defiance of her parent’s wishes, escaped from her home one night, intent on meeting up with a group of friars. They conducted her by torch-light to a small chapel where Saint Francis of Assisi gave her a rough brown habit in place of her fine dress. She surrendered her jeweled belt for a knotted rope, which she fastened around her waist. In a final act of devotion, she permitted St. Francis to cut her long hair, in order that she might take the veil. A beautiful young Italian noblewoman, Clare was so moved by the preaching of Saint Francis of Assisi that she defied every convention of her privileged life to live the Gospel of Christ. One of St. Francis’ first and most ardent followers, she would become the foundress of the group of nuns known as the Second Order of St. Francis, more popularly, the Poor Clares. She did so despite great opposition. Her parents tried everything in their power to dissuade Clare from her v...

Fr. René J. Butler, M.S. La Salette Missionaries of North America Hartford, Connecticut ( Click here for today’s readings ) The image is a familiar one: one or more dogs begging while you are at table, ready to pounce on whatever falls from the table, if not actively “demanding tribute,” as my brother’s Chihuahua “Rosy” does. Cute, if you like that sort of thing. But there is nothing cute about the exchange between Jesus and the Canaanite woman in this Gospel. I once read an author, bent on finding humor in the Bible, who claimed that this was just a friendly little repartee, what Webster’s Dictionary describes as “amusing and usually light sparring with words.”  I couldn’t disagree more. The scene presented here by Matthew is no game of wits! Let me digress briefly with a little trip down memory lane: [Click on this link:] Kyrie eleison from the Missa de Angelis The point isn’t the music, the Gregorian chant or any other classic settings. The point isn’t the ...

Fr. Jean d'Elbee Jesus needs nothing but your humility and your confidence to work marvels of purification and sanctification in you. And your confidence will be in proportion to your humility, because it is to the extent that we realize our need of Jesus that we have recourse to Him, and we sense this need to the extent that we justly realize our unworthiness. Think of the woman of Canaan: she is a pagan, a foreigner. She asks Jesus to cure her daughter who is possessed by a demon. Jesus lets her see that since He has come for the lost sheep of Israel, He has nothing to do with her. Humbly she accepts this, which is the truth, but confidently she insists, 'Lord, come to my aid.' And Jesus shows Himself to be apparently even harder. Often He acts in this way with souls to whom He wishes to grant a high place in His love, in order to test their faith. He answers her, 'The bread of the children is not to be thrown to the dogs.' The Canaanite woman then finds, in her...

Fr. Charles Irvin Diocese of Lansing ( Click here for Sunday’s readings ) Watching TV news reports night after night can lead us into despondency to the point where we might lose our faith in the basic goodness in our world that seems to be buried alive in the tidal waves of the evils that are reported. Over and over again we are confronted by the actions and inactions of our government in Washington. Instead of concrete corrections we hear nothing but the blame game going on between our nation’s leaders. Added that that are the endless reports of violence in our cities, the horrors inflicted by terrorists in the Middle East, the sufferings of children from Latin America that are crossing our borders in order to escape the violence they face caused by the drug lords in their home countries, and the sufferings of people in the Ukraine. I could go on and on but won’t. We know we’re drowning in chaos. We know we are carrying heave burdens. “Where is God in the midst of all of...

August 6th, is the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It was declared a universal feast by Pope Callixtus III in 1456 to commemorate the victory of Christian forces at the Siege of Belgrade. The Transfiguration is found in all three Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1–9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28–36 describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16–18 refers to it). It is the only miracle involving Jesus exclusively. Prefiguring His Ascension and manifesting His Divinity, Jesus, is transfigured, becoming resplendent in glory upon Mt. Tabor. At that moment, Christ's interior Divinity and Beatific soul overflowed His body, so that Jesus shone as bright as the sun. The apostles Peter, who according to Aquinas, loved Jesus the most, James, who was the first of the Apostles to die for his faith, and John, who the Lord loved especially, were the only eyewitnesses. From the Gospel of Mark: Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfig...

By Msgr. Bernard Bourgeois 1 Kings 19:9a, 11-13a; Psalm 85; Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33 “Lord, save me!” (Mt 14:31) Imagine the scene. You are one of the disciples whom Jesus has sent out to sea on a boat. While out there, a storm kicks up and rocks the boat. It is dark. In the distance, you see what looks like the silhouette of a person walking toward you. As the person nears the boat, you realize it is Jesus! And He is walking on top of the water! “Take courage,” He says, “it is I!” Peter, overwhelmed with emotion at this scene, asks the Lord to allow him to walk on the water, which Jesus allows. Peter, of course, becomes frightened. Jesus asks, “Why did you doubt?” Falling in, he calls out to Jesus, who saves him. The story for this weekend’s Gospel as recounted above is the classic journey of faith. That journey often involves three steps: loving Jesus, faltering due to human imperfection, and calling out to the Lord. So, (1) Peter obviously loved Jesus, then...