BIG C CATHOLICS

September 5th, is the feast of Saint Teresa of Calcutta, (1910-1997) the Catholic religious, missionary and foundress of the Missionaries of Charity who experienced a “call within a call” to devote herself to caring for the sick and the poor. She was born, Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, in the Ottoman Empire (now the Republic of Macedonia), in the city of Skopje. By the age of 12 she resolved to commit herself to a religious life and to go to India to care of the poverty-stricken. At 18, Agnes left home to enter the Sisters of Loreto Abbey in Ireland as a missionary. She took her first religious vows on May 24, 1931. Six years later, she took her solemn vows on May 14, 1937, while serving as a teacher at the Loreto convent school in Calcutta. Teresa would serve there for almost twenty years. On September 10, 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" to help the suffering and the marginalized. From her Vatican biography: "On that day, i

Saint Thomas, the Apostle who at first did not believe, has become for the Church one of the first and most compelling witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ. His initial skepticism mirrors that of many. May his profession of faith upon touching Our Savior's wounds, "My Lord and my God!", redound through the ages to convince and confirm others that Christ's Incarnation, ministry, and victory over sin and death are empirically and existentially real. Jesus' reply to Thomas, "Have you come to believe because you have seen me?" Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed," is less a condemnation of Thomas and more a confirmation of the demands of faith. Among the Apostles, Thomas does not stand out. His knowledge of Jewish scripture and well-formed conscience enabled him to recognize Christ as the Messiah foretold by the Prophets and to follow him as soon as he was called. When Christ traveled the road to Jerusalem to offer himself as a

Miguel Jose Serra was born November 24, 1713, on the island of Mallorca, Spain. He took the name Junipero when he entered the Franciscan Order in 1730. Ordained in 1737, he taught philosophy and theology at the University of Padua for twelve years. At age 37, he went to Mexico City where he spent the rest of his life working for the conversion of the peoples of the New World. Largely responsible for the spread of the Church on the West Coast of the United States, Junipero founded twenty-one missions and converted thousands of Native Americans. Imbued with a penitential spirit, he practiced austerity in all things. On August 28, 1784, exhausted by his labors, Father Serra was called to his eternal rest. Pope Francis canonized Junipero Serra during his visit to the United States on September 23, 2015. On that occasion the Holy Father remarked, "[Junípero Serra] was the embodiment of 'a Church which goes forth', a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling