The canonized women who are mothers add to our altars a special kind of incense – a two-fold fragrance of motherhood, both natural and spiritual. The very definition of their sainthood reveals that the life of the soul was sacrosanct to them and that while they nurtured the physical life of their children, it was eternal life which they desired to impart above all.
The next two days mark the feasts of two great saints of the Church, a mother and a son, whose lives give testimony to a sure-fire method of evangelizing those we love.St. Monica (August 27) is the mother of St. Augustine (August 28), though Augustine was no saint when Monica began her earnest intercession. At that time he was a pagan and a member of the heretical Manichean sect. He was known to be a carouser who lived with a woman to whom he had fathered a child. A brilliant mind, he was "devoted" to his views and his lifestyle, and had no intention of converting to the Catholic faith.
St. Monica was distraught about her son's dissolute ways and decided to do something about it. She prayed. And in the end, her prayers won the soul of her son.
What was it that made St. Monica's prayers so effective? I think five strategies are primarily responsible. Perhaps you can implement them as you seek to evangelize those you love.
"We want God!"
This was the rallying cry of the people of Poland on June 2, 1979. A son of Poland had been elevated to the throne of St. Peter, Pope John Paul II.
Thank you for joining our Rosary praying army! Your prayers and sacrifices are much needed "for such a time as this!"
by Susan TassoneIs a Mass offered for one who is still living more powerful than a Mass celebrated for that person after he or she has died? I often wondered about that, so I wrote to Father Edward McNamara, a noted professor of liturgy, at the Regina Apostolorum University in Rome. This is how he responded to my inquiry:
A soldier must be armed for battle. We have in our arsenal of weapons the sacramentals.
August 11th marks the feast day of Saint Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), a woman of outstanding virtue such that she was canonized only two years after her death. Her name is forever linked with that of the man she called “our Blessed Father Francis,” the beloved saint of Assisi who paved the way for Clare and her Sisters.
I will never forget the word my prayer partner, Judy, spoke to me just before we uprooted our lives to retire in Florida. “Are you going to leave your children and your friends and move all the way to Florida?” These words came from the heart of God and from the knowledge of being a friend who knew me like a sister. We had been daily prayer partners for almost thirty years. Those words took root in my soul.
Today we celebrate the Feast of St. John Vianney, patron of priests. In this time of great difficulty, we desperately need the example and intercession of St. John Vianney.
Painting of the vision of St. Francis in the Portiuncula - Bartolome Esteban Murello (1617-1682)Legends abound surrounding the life and times of Francis, the saintly little poor man of Assisi (1182 – 1226): his affinity for all of nature, preaching to the birds, taming the ravenous wolf, recreating the Christmas crèche, receiving the sacred stigmata. What is not so well known is the role Saint Francis played in the bestowal of an amazing gift from a gracious God to His creatures.
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