Angels Everywhere

From Fr. Mark on the feast of St. Michael:

Are we in danger of forgetting the angels? While the liturgy mentions them repeatedly, all too often we assist at the Sacred Mysteries as if the angels were not there, joining in our praises, observing our attitudes, grieving over lack of zeal, and rejoicing to see us recollected and reverent. Saint Benedict speaks explicitly of the presence of the angels in Chapter 19 of the Rule: “We must therefore consider how we should behave in the sight of the Divine Majesty and his Angels, and as we sing our Psalms let us see to it that our mind is in harmony with our voice” (RB 19:6-7).

One thing is certain. We need the angels. God created the angels for the praise of his glory and for our salvation, that is, to participate in his work of bringing us to wholeness, to peace, and to life everlasting in his presence. The angels are sent to us to comfort us in the hour of trial and affliction. Saint Luke, the evangelist most sensitive to angelic interventions, relates that an angel was sent to console Jesus during His agony in the garden (cf. Lk 22:43).

The angels are sent to bring us the healing of heavenly medicine, and the brightness of God’s deifying light. The angels are sent before every advent of the Word, to dispose our hearts and unstop our ears. The angels are sent before Christ, our Priest and our Victim, present in the offering of His Body and of His Blood. The angels are sent to bear our prayers up to heaven, and to descend to us, laden with heavenly blessings. The angels protect us in all our ways. They do all of these things gladly, joyfully, and unhesitatingly in obedience to the command of God. (Read more.)

Who is like God?

It is the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. The name "Michael" means "Who is like God?" It is a name which contains in itself the simplicity of the angelic being, for in those words the ineffable supremacy of God is magnified. It is a name which signifies the dark night of the soul in its ascent to God, for as St. John of the Cross says: "All the beauty of creatures compared to the infinite beauty of God is the height of ugliness." (The Ascent of Mount Carmel) In the eternal question "Who is like God?" many truths can be boiled into one: there is no one like God; He is our end, He is our ultimate and only goal, there is nothing else worth striving for if it is outside of Himself. While in our human nature it is impossible to obtain anything resembling the unwavering angelic attention and single-mindedness, it is possible in Christ to strive to model the dedication of St. Michael to the cause of God.

The Archangel Gabriel said to the Prophet Daniel: "And, behold Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me . . . and none is my helper in all these things, but Michael your prince."(Daniel 10:13) In the midst of the present battle, may St. Michael be our champion, our brother, our protector, not only of individual souls but of the whole Church, the people of God.

Angels and Dragons

St. Michael and the dragon

From ACNM:

In these dark times we must contemplate and understand the spiritual battle we are facing. We must take a step back and ask ourselves, “What is happening to the world and to us?” The answer is that mankind is at the threshold of the greatest combat we have ever faced. The Church and the world are at crossroads. We are under siege! In the words of Pope Benedict XVI on February 17, 2013, “The time of testing is here!”

We must understand the struggle, the weapons, and the tactics of the enemy, but most importantly we must understand without a doubt that, “Our side outnumbers theirs” (2 Kings 6:16) lest humanity loses hope and everyone follows after the beast …yes even the elect if it were possible. (Mark 13:20)

Remember God’s holy angels outnumber the fallen angels. Only, “A third of the stars,” (Rev. 12:4) were cast down to the earth. Two thirds of God’s holy angels remained faithful and are now standing by for us to engage them in the fight. Yes, in Book of Revelation, “Stars are angels.” (Rev. 1:20)

St. Thomas Aquinas says, “All have to wage spiritual combat with our invisible enemies.” We must enter the fray; none can stand by dispassionate or idle for, “The ‘spiritual battle’ of the Christians new life is inseparable from the battle of prayer.” (CCC 2725) All have to pick up spiritual weapons (Mass, the Word of God, Confession, Adoration, Divine Mercy Chaplet, Rosary, Divine Office etc) or accept to be taken captive by the red dragon (Rev.13:10), as there will be a time when the whole world will marvel at him (as when a whole country marveled at Hitler). (Read more.)

Our Lady of Ransom

This is a special feast for all who suffer any type of enslavement. The origins of the Feast can be found in the little known Mercedarian Order. This was founded in the early thirteenth century by St Peter Nolasco and St Raymond of Penafort (who can both be seen at Our Lady's feet in the picture above) to ransom Christian slaves taken by the Muslims during their frequent raids on Europe. The Order's original name was the 'Order of the Virgin Mary of Mercy of the Redemption of Captives of St Eulalia' (an early martyr venerated in Barcelona). Christian captives in Muslim lands were a huge problem up until the eighteenth century. Barbary pirates even troubled English waters - 466 English ships were taken between 1609 and 1616 and a thousand people were taken captive after a raid on the West Country in 1625. We ask Our Lady of Ransom to intercede for Christians who experience hardships in Muslim countries today. Mother of Mercy, pray for us!

Novena to the Little Flower

It begins today. Here are some lovely recommended prayers:

O Little Therese of the Child Jesus,
Please pick a rose for me
From the heavenly gardens
And send it to me
As a message of love.

O little flower of Jesus,
Ask God today to grant the favors
I now place with confidence
In your hands.

(Mention your specific requests)

St. Therese, help me to always believe, As you did, In God's great love for me, so that I might imitate your "Little Way" each day. Amen


O Glorious St. Therese, whom Almighty God has raised up to aid and inspire mankind, I implore your Miraculous Intercession. You are so powerful in obtaining every need of body and spirit from the Heart of God. Holy Mother Church proclaims you a 'Prodigy of Miracles... the Greatest Saint of Modern Times.' Now I fervently beseech you to answer my petition (mention here) and to carry out your promises of spending Heaven doing good on earth...of letting fall from Heaven a Shower of Roses. Little Flower, give me your childlike faith, to see the Face of God in the people and experiences of my life, and to love God with full confidence. St. Therese, my Carmelite Sister, I will fulfill your plea 'to be made known everywhere' and I will continue to lead others to Jesus through you. Amen

The Call of Saint Matthew

From The Catholic Physicist:

Let’s take a look at Matthew first; immediately, we can see that he has a look of surprise on his face and he gestures to himself as if to ask, “Me?”  This speaks to the tendency we have as humans to be skeptical or even to deny ourselves the love of God.  Often, we feel that we are not worthy of God’s mercy because of our sinful nature and rather than asking for forgiveness, we turn away from God, the one who wants to forgive us and welcome us back into His arms.

We can also see that he is leaning back toward his friends and metaphorically, to his life before this moment – a life of greed centered around money.  Upon closer investigation however, we can see his legs seemingly drawn toward Christ as though they would get up and walk on their own.  This is a statement about the yearning that each one of us has inside us – a restlessness until we leave ourselves and our worldly attachments to follow Christ’s call.

It’s also worth noting that the people to the left of Matthew are completely oblivious to Christ as he is calling their friend.  They are so engrossed in the coins on the table that they cannot see anything else.  In much the same way, as we give in to sin and let it become the center of our focus, we are not only separated from God, but we fail to even notice Him when He is standing right in front of us.  Therefore, we feel the most distant from God and His saving love when we fall into sin and spend all our effort adoring worldly idols.  This is the reason that the sacrament of reconciliation is so important to us as Catholics; when we commit mortal sin, we are separating ourselves from God and from the Church.  Frequent confession of our sins frees us from the distraction of unholy obsessions and keeps us tuned in on Christ’s call to follow Him.

This body language of Matthew and those around him represents a pivotal moment; Matthew’s life is on the brink of something great – he can either get up and leave his money and friends to follow Christ, or he can stay where he is and continue to live his life as he has so far.  If we look at Jesus’s feet, we can see them pointing away from everyone which gives his call a sense of urgency.  Christ is calling, not waiting.  God does not want us to wait around doing our earthly, human things and maybe get around to following his call eventually.  He wants us to follow him now.  Both of Matthew’s choices are simultaneously easy and difficult at the same time.  Let’s imagine ourselves in Matthew’s shoes; we’re having some laughs with our friends and enjoying your day when suddenly, a man whom we have never seen before walks by, points at us, and says two words, “Follow me.”  What do we do?  We have places to be, people to meet, and a million other things we’d like to get wrapped up before we could even consider going along with this guy.  That is not what Matthew does.  Matthew simply got up and followed him.  In an instant, Matthew made that terribly difficult decision; he made it look easy, in fact.  His actions set the bar high for us as we receive the very same call from Jesus that he so fluidly accepted. (Read more.)

Martyrs

 

From Catholicism:

The Church was born out of blood and persecution. As the traditional saying credited to Tertullian went: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of Christians.” All of the Apostles were martyrs, including Saint John, who, although submerged into boiling oil during the persecution of Emperor Domitian, was miraculously preserved from death and bodily harm. The fact that he was willing to die for Christ (tradition has it that he also felt the pain) merited for him the martyr’s crown. All of the saints named in the canon of the Mass were martyrs, except for Our Lady, whose unique, un-bloody martyrdom was like a sword piercing her soul. The first thirty-three popes were martyrs. It was revealed to Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori that in the first three centuries of persecution, from the Edict of Nero (which began the persecutions) in the year 66 to the Edict of Milan (which ended them) in 313 eleven million of the faithful were martyred for their Faith in Christ. Finally, in the last days, during the reign of antichrist, the faithful will endure the worst of all persecutions, and martyrs will usher in the final triumph of the Church, which will precede the end of the world.

Truly, then, we belong to a Church of martyrs. Every age has contributed its share, some ages many more than others, but there have been martyrs at all times, some of whom are known only to God, His angels, and His saints. We have our martyrs today and we shall surely have them tomorrow.

Some of the victims of Communism who were spared the shedding of blood unto death suffered more than the martyrs, even thirty years of prison or in labor camps, under the most inhuman of conditions. In Communist China, to be a bishop loyal to the pope, guaranteed a prison sentence with at least mental torture, or death.

Why does God require so much blood from His servants? Why such a price? Why so much suffering?

Could it be that God wishes to exact from His closest disciples that greatest of all acts of love which Jesus was Himself to manifest for all men: “Greater love than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)?

At the Last Supper, in anticipation of His Passion and Death, Our Lord was very anxious to assure His Apostles that they were now His intimate friends: “I will not now call you servants: for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends: because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

It was in His Passion and Death that Christ manifested how great was His love for men. “In this we have known the charity of God, because he hath laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1John 3:16). So, too, with the martyrs, in their passion and death they manifest how great a love they have for their Savior.

Nevertheless, many of the holiest of saints, even though they desired the crown of martyrdom, were not asked to make that sacrifice. Rather their whole lives were continual oblations of self-sacrifice. Think of Saints Francis of Assisi or Teresa of Avila. Then, there are the stigmatists, such as Saint Padre Pio, who suffered a martyrdom in his hands, feet, and side, on the cross every day, but without death, for fifty years. (Read more.)