St. Peter Thomas 1305-1366 Jan. 8

Peter Thomas was born into a poor peasant family in the southern Périgord region in France. His piety and skill as a teacher attracted the attention of the Carmelite prior of Bergérac, who invited him to join the Carmelite community there at age twenty-one. He taught in various houses of study until he was sent to University in Paris for advanced scholarship. While his studies were still in progress he was elected by the Order as its procurator general to the Papal Court at Avignon in 1345.

Peter Thomas proved to be a brilliant diplomat, all the while committed to an austere, simple and prayerful life of a Carmelite friar. He was known to have a disarming humility that enabled him to converse with peasants, soldiers and sailors just as easily as high government officials. After being made Bishop of Patti and Lipari in 1354, he was entrusted with many papal missions to promote peace and unity with the Eastern Churches. He held positions of Papal Legate for the East, Archbishop of Crete and Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, all the while working for peace and unity between churches of East and West. His work ended in 1366 when he died of a fever at Famagosta on Cyprus, where his body was then buried in the Carmelite church there.

St Peter Thomas lived as a devout Carmelite and was a diplomatic healer and reconciler, reminding us that finding common ground and bringing reconciliation are always possible with God’s help.

St Raymond of Peñafort (c.1175 - 1275)

 

He was born near Barcelona somewhere between 1175 and 1180. He was educated at the University of Barcelona, where he taught canon law for fifteen years. After a spell at the University of Bologna he returned to Barcelona in 1222 and became a Dominican. At the command of Pope Gregory IX he organised, codified and edited canon law, which, when he started, was nothing better than a chaotic accumulation of isolated decrees. He was elected to be General of the Dominicans and gave the order an excellent set of regulations for its better governance. He died in 1275. Among his works, the Summa casuum is noteworthy. This gives guidance as to how the sacrament of Penance may be administered justly and with benefit to the penitent.

"Look then on Jesus, the author and preserver of faith: in complete sinlessness he suffered, and at the hands of those who were his own, and was numbered among the wicked. As you drink the cup of the Lord Jesus (how glorious it is!), give thanks to the Lord, the giver of all blessings."

St. Andre Bessette

 

(1845 - 1937)

He was born in Québec and joined the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1872: the parish priest sent this functionally illiterate, frail young man to the Congregation with the words “I am sending you a saint”.

He had great confidence in Saint Joseph and recommended prayer to him to all who were sick. So many were cured that Brother André himself was acclaimed as a miracle-worker, and when he died on 6 January 1937, a million people filed past his coffin. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 17 October 2010.

„I thank God for giving me the grace to suffer; I need it so much!“

“Only a tool in the hands of providence; a lowly instrument at the service of St. Joseph” • “Put yourself in God's hands; He abandons no one.” • “It is with the smallest brushes that the Artist paints the best paintings.” • “Practice charity with your neighbor—and this doesn't mean only to give money to the poor.”

St. John Neumann

 

1811 - 1860

He was born in Bohemia and studied for the priesthood. His bishop would not allow him to be ordained because the diocese had too many priests already, and eventually he went to the United States and was ordained in New York in 1836. He was consecrated Bishop of Philadephia in 1852 and died there in 1860.

To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.

I will trust Him. Whatever, wherever I am, I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. My sickness, or perplexity, or sorrow may be necessary causes of some great end, which is quite beyond us. He does nothing in vain.

Life passes, riches fly away, popularity is fickle, the senses decay, the world changes. One alone is true to us; One alone can be all things to us; One alone can supply our need.

Elizabeth Ann Seton 1774-1821

 

She was born in New York into an Episcopalian family, who ostracized her and left her penniless when she became a Catholic in 1805. She had to leave New York and in 1808-9 she founded a religious community and a school for poor children at Emmitsburg, near Baltimore in Maryland. Mother Seton died in 1821 but the Sisters of Charity continue her work to this day.

“The accidents of life separate us from our dearest friends, but let us not despair. God is like a looking glass in which souls see each other. The more we are united to Him by love, the nearer we are to those who belong to Him.”

“God is everywhere, in the very air I breathe, yes everywhere, but in His Sacrament of the Altar He is as present actually and really as my soul within my body; in His Sacrifice daily offered as really as once offered on the Cross”

“Disorder in the society is the result of disorder in the family.”

The Most Holy Name of Jesus

 

Jan. 3

Call My Name.

You can be in a crowded room and everyone is talking

And you may not be listening or following the conversations

But as soon as someone from across the room

Calls out your name,

Your turn and stop

And look and listen.

Because there is something about hearing one’s name called,

That makes a person stop and listen.

It is the same with Jesus.

When we call out His Name with Love.

He too stops and listens.

And turns His Face towards us.

The Epiphany

 

Be Wise Mt: 2:1-12

We call them Wise Men but are they?

They came to the Son of God

Bearing gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

But did the Son of God need Gold, Frankincense or Myrrh.

After all He is God!

If He wanted these things

all He would have to do is snap His fingers

And they would appear!

So If they were truly Wise Men they would have known that the Son of God does not need these things.

Instead the greater gift they could have offered was their hearts.

Because the Son of God did not come into the world looking for Gold or Frankincense or Myrrh

But for human hearts.

That would return His Love.

We now know they were not as Wise as they thought.

For they offered gifts to God that He neither needed nor wanted.

When we come to Church what gifts do we bring with us to offer to the Lord?

An hour in our day?

Does God who is Eternal really need an hour from us?

Our envelope for the collection?

This is not so much a gift for the Lord as it is too keep the lights of the Church on!

So what DO we bring?

There is only one thing God seeks.

And that is our hearts.

We will be the truly Wise Ones,

If we come offering God the one and only gift that He really wants.

A heart filled with love and adoration and praise.

New Year’s Day

A Prayer

 Heavenly Father,

You have given me another year!

What are Your plans for me?

You ave given me this Time to do not my own will, 

but Yours as Jesus did. 

Fill me, mold me and shape me into your Divine Image,

So that all I do this coming Year

Will be pleasing to you,

And bear fruit that will transform this world,

Into the Garden you always intended it to be. 

I ask this through Christ my Lord. 

New Year’s Eve

Only in the Eucharist

It is New Year's Eve!

Do you want to look back or forward?

It all depends. 

Where have you been and where are you going?

On New Year's Eve we straddle the past and the future. 

Memories become mixed with dreams. 

Tears with Hope. 

Laughter with Sighs. 

We see the faces of those no longer with us,

And wonder whose face we will see in the year ahead. 

We think about the things we did,

And make resolutions to do better. 

On New Year’s Eve, The past, the present and the future all seem to blend into one moment. 

In Mass The past, the present and the future all come together in one Heavenly Moment!

For in Heaven the Past, the Present and the Future all come together in one Eternal Now. 

At Mass we Remember.

We remember all that Jesus did for us,

His birth, His Death and His Resurrection. 

At Mass we remember all our loved ones who are no longer here with us. 

At Mass we Give Thanks for what we have Today. 

Our life and our loves. 

And at Mass we look Forward to that Day,

Where there will be no more mourning or suffering. 

Where everyone we love will be gathered around the Table in our Heavenly Father’s house for one Never Ending Thanksgiving Dinner. 

Every Mass is a New Year’s Eve. 

We look Back on our lives. 

We Give thanks for what we have Today. 

And we look Forward to the Supper of the Lamb,

Around Our Heavenly Father’s table with all our family and friends. 

Every Mass, is New Year’s Eve

When we look back, give thanks today and get ready for what is to come. 

Dec. 30. Anna the Prophetess

 

Lk.  2:36-40

Anna never left the Temple, 

but stayed there worshipping day and night, fasting and praying. 

And because she did;

She was there when Mary and Joseph Presented Jesus in the Temple. 

Every parish needs an Anna. 

Someone who is always in Church;

Keeping the doors unlocked. 

Praying day and night. 

Keeping the Flame of Faith burning. 

For they are the living Flame of Faith

Like the Tabernacle Candle 

Always present before the Lord. 

Dec. 29. St. Thomas Becket

 

Thomas was the Archbishop of Canterbury and martyred on this day in 1170 in the Cathedral by henchmen from King Henry. 

Thomas defended the rights of the Church against the King Henry. 

Sometimes we have to defend the Church in our own hearts as society and government try to influence us against the Faith. 

And so we must guard our hearts and our Faith. 

Even at the cost of rejection and ridicule. 

Dec. 28 The Holy Innocents

Toyland is a very special place

Filled with magic and wonder and imagination. 

But once you cross its borders you can ne’er return again. 

It is the same with innocence. 

As a child we are innocent. 

And the world is a place of magic and wonder and imagination. 

But one day we wake up and it is all gone.  

Our dreams are replaced with cynicism and all of the other other “isms”

That compete for our attention, our vote and our time. 

Like Herod who killed the Holy Innocents;

The world seeks to kill our Innocence 

And only the Innocence of the Christ child,

Wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger,

Can save us and bring us back to our Innocence. 

And this is why we are drawn to Christmas;

Not only to see a Child lying in a manger;

But hoping to find our Innocence once again.  

Dec. 27. St. John the Evangelist

 

1 John 1:1-4

What makes Christianity different from all other religions 

Is the Incarnation. 

God becoming flesh. 

Judaism, Islam and Buddhism do not believe this. 

But as Christians we believe that the Son of God became flesh. 

That He has eyes and ears and hands just like us. 

This is why St. John writes about what he has

Heard with his ears

Seen with his eyes

And touched with with hands. 

Because he heard and saw and touched the Son of God. 

How glorious that must have been. 

If only we could do that. 

Well we can. 

Because of the Incarnation 

God has eyes and ears and hands just like us. 

So if God is like us,

Then we are like God. 

This is why God became flesh. 

So that we can hear and see and touch God,

In each other. 

Holy Family

 

There are many different types of families. 

There is the immediate family

With moms and dads and children.

There is also the parish family,

Made up of  all the Parishoners. 

And There is the Human Family. 

Made up of every race, language and people. 

And For a family to be Holy 

Each member of the Family must play their part. 

So What role do we play in our various families?

In our immediate family?

In our parish family?

In the Human Family?

In our immediate family

Are we loving and supportive?

Do we give and take?

In our Parish Family,

Are we Faithful to coming to Church?

Do we give more to the Church than just when the collection comes around?

In our Human Family,

Are we concerned with those around us?

And that we are all children of God?

Maybe if we started treating all those in our different families

The way Jesus, Mary and Joseph

Treated each other. 

Then maybe our immediate family,

And our parish family

And the human family,

Would become Holy Families.

Christmas

Christmas Eve will find me,

Where the love light gleams,

I’ll be home for Christmas,

If only in my dreams.

This song was originally written in 1943 to honor soldiers during World War II

Who were overseas and who longed to be home for Christmas.

Who doesn’t want to be home for Christmas?

But sometimes Home can seem so far away.

For some home is half way across the country

And for others home is in Heaven,

Where loved ones have gone.

And so being Home for Christmas sometimes seems to be only in their dreams.

Every Christmas since that First Christmas has been about being home with family.

Because at that first Christmas,

God became flesh and made HIS home with us.

In a family,

With Mary as His mom and Joseph as His dad.

They spent their first Christmas far away from family and friends.

Joachim and Ann, Mary’s parents were back in Nazareth.

Elizabeth and Zachariah were in the hill country of Judea.

So they were all alone.

But not really.

There were Shepherds keeping watch ;

And Angels singing;

And Wise men bearing gifts

Even the animals gathered round to keep them warm.

While Mary and Joseph were far from family,

They still had so much right in front of them!

While at times we may dream about being home for Christmas

with those who are not with us;

Do not overlook those who are!

The family and friends who are right in front of you.

For That is where the Love Light gleams!

As long as we have love in our hearts,

Home is never far away.

For home is where the heart is.

In the faces of those all around us.

In the gift of love that we share with one another.

This is my home,

And that is why I am home for Christmas.

December 24

 Christmas Eve

Tonight the Word will become flesh and dwell among us. 

Tonight the Virgin Mary will give birth to a Son.

Tonight we are all innkeepers. 

Will there be room in our hearts?

Tonight we are all angels. 

Will we proclaim Peace on Earth and good will to all?

Tonight we are all shepherds,

Will we hasten to see the Lord?

Tonight we are all Wise Men,

Will we come to adore Him?

Tonight the Christ Child reminds us

That we are all children of God!

Will we see each other as brothers and sisters in the Lord?

December 23 O Emmanuel, Come!

O Come, O come Emmanuel 

And ransom captive Israel.

That mourns in lonely exile,

Until the Son of God appears. 

From slavery in Egypt to Exile in Babylon. 

Israel always seemed to be wandering;

Trying to find its way to the Promised Land

Or back to it. 

We are all Prodigal children. 

Who think they I know what they want and where they are going

Only to be disappointed and disillusioned in the end. 

Trying to find our way back home. 

Held captive by our passions and desires. 

Only when the Son of God can ransom us from sin and death

By His cross;

And only when the Son of God appears again in all of His glory,

Will we find our way home,