(During her retreat before profession) September 4, 1890. The heavenly music falls but faintly on the ear of your child, and it has been a dreary journey towards her Bridal Day. It is true her Betrothed has led her through fertile lands and gorgeous scenery, but the dark night has prevented her admiring, much less revelling in, the beauty all around. Perhaps you think this grieved her. Oh, no! she is happy to follow her Betrothed for His own sake, and not for the sake of His gifts. He is so ravishingly beautiful, even when silent--even when concealed. Weary of earthly consolation, your little child wishes for her Beloved alone. I believe that the work of Jesus during this retreat has been to detach me from everything but Himself. My only comfort is the exceeding strength and peace that is mine. Besides, I hope to be just what He wills I should be, and in this lies all my happiness. Did you but know how great is my joy at giving pleasure to Jesus through being utterly deprived of all joy! . . . . Truly this is the very refinement of all joy--joy we do not feel.
Category Archives: Saints
Cause for Joy
Bishop Alphonse Gallegos Member of the Order of Augustinian Recollects and Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento, California, whose cause for beatification and canonization was introduced to the Vatican in Rome in November, 2006.
Prayer
God our Father in Bishop Alphonse, you gave a light to your faithful people. You made him a pastor of the Church to feed your sheep with his word and to teach them by his example. We pray that his life of holiness and service to the People of God be acknowledged and that this loyal son of Our Lady of Guadalupe be counted among the saints of your Kingdom. We ask this blessing through Christ our Lord. Amen
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
To communicate favors received at the intercession of Bishop Gallegos and contribute to his Cause of Canonization please contact:
Augustinian Recollects
Provincial Residence
29 Ridgeway Avenue
West Orange, NJ 07052
augustinianrecollects.org
This Is What Love Looks Like
While I’ve given the secular world it’s due, I’d be remiss in not mentioning that today is actually the Feast day of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, not St. Valentine. These brothers of the ninth century loved Christ, His Church and the Slavic peoples. They heroically endured the politics of their day. Do you think the political storms of our day might actually challenge us to end as saints?
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
“When I am weak, then I am strong” (2Cor 12:9-10)
This is what real love looks like.
The Incorruptible
Today is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes, the shrine of healing, will be forever linked to the weak and the humble. The miracles that happen are often those of the soul. It should be noted the Bernadette Soubirous to whom Our Lady appeared, had a tuberculous tumor on her knee and was never herself healed. In life, she knew great suffering. The miracle that did happen to her body,, though, is ongoing. After her death, her body proved to be in corrupt.
Old school Catholics are very familiar with the injunction, “Offer it up!” St. Paul, you will recall, made an outrageous claim. He said, ” Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” Col. 1:24
Rev. Jeffrey Whorton, now, a Catholic priest, coming to us from Episcopal fields, offers this in his inimitable fashion. He found the Catholic concept of “Offer it up!” astonishing. That our warts and wrinkles, our far from perfect acts and sufferings, could ever be more than the sad effects of the Fall, seemed far too good to be imagined. He did find something to which he, and, perhaps, we, could relate. He said for us to think of our 401Ks and an employer who offers to match any funds that we contributed to our account. Now, God the Father, in his magnanimity, goes far beyond matching funds. He turns our humble dross into pure and eternal gold by clothing it in the sufferings of His Son. The thing, Fr. Jeff says we must remember is: “No funds, no matching fund!” So “Offer it up!” The corruptible can become incorruptible.
The Anchoress has more and more and more on St. Bernadette
Love Works Wonders!
Valentine’s Day with cards and roses is fast approaching. They’ll be proclamations of love: undying love, puppy love, romantic love and”so called” love. Here’s a charming story of real love from the Dialogue of Pope St. Gregory the Great:
Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.
One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together. Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother: “Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life.” “Sister,” he replied, “what are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell.”When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly he began to complain: “May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?” “Well,” she answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery.”
Reluctant as he was to stay of his own will, he remained against his will. So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.
You may wonder why I call this “real love.” I guess it’s because all love worthy of the name is God’s Love. You may think Scholastica was praying for trifles. The story, however, is about what God thinks. Gregory saw it this way: “It is not surprising that she was more effective than he, since as John says, ‘God is love.’ It was absolutely right that she could do more, as she loved more.”
With Abba Father, nothing is too small or trivial. We are His children. It is as though everything that we refer to our Father He receives as a gift that He happily, lovingly, and joyfully, sticks on His heavenly version of the refrigerator. A little soul doesn’t differentiate between great and small. Everything comes from God’s gracious hand.
Be Holy! 