And I saw a river over which every soul must pass to reach the Kingdom of Heaven, and the name of that river was suffering.and then I saw a boat which carried souls across the river, and the name of that boat was Love.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
I pray for Your healing touch upon my body, mind and spirit. I beg You to remove any fear or anxiety. Fill me with the Peace that You alone can give. I place myself completely in Your hands.
O my Lord Jesus, trusting in Your care and love for me, may my recovery be swift, my strength be renewed, and my health restored.
I lift up all my afflictions in Your hands, Lord, for You are the Divine Healer with Divine Mercy. O Sacred Heart of Jesus,I put my trust in You. Amen.
St. Gabinus was born into a noble family in Rome. His brother St. Caius became the 29th Bishop of Rome, serving as Pope for 12 years.
St. Gabinus was a priest and the father of St. Susanna whose original feast day was celebrated on August 11. Due to lack of information the feast day was removed. Her story is considered a legend, however her death is recorded in Roman Martyrology. She is believed to have been beheaded in her father’s house in the year 295 after refusing to marry Maximilian, the son in law of the pagan Emperor Diocletian. She was believed to have converted the court officers sent to convince her to marry, however, she had taken a vow of virginity.
One year later St. Gabinus was also beheaded, making him a martyr, in the year 296. He is believed to have been a missionary priest. His feast day is celebrated on Feb. 19. The Basilica San Gavino was built to honor him and local martyrs in Porte Torres, Italy.
” The tree of the cross bears fruit in every season ad i every land.”
Mother Teresa will soon be officially declared a saint!
The day before the feast day of Bl. Mother Teresa Pope Francis will proclaim that she is a saint. Her feast day is celebrated on Sept. 5. The world remembers her as a “living saint”.
St. Teresa of Calcutta was born to parents Nikola and Drana Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1916 in Skopje of Macedonia and named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu. She was baptized on August 17, 1910 in Macedonia. She was the third child in her family, following sister Aga and a brother, Lazar. Her father, Nikola died, when she was eight years old. Her father was a traveler, an extrovert, and a businessman who spoke five languages. Her mother, Drana, was extremely pious, adopting several orphans. She was known as Gonxha (pronounced gon’KHA) which means “flower bud”.
Gonxha desired early to become a missionary. At the age of eighteen, she joined the Sisters of Loreto. Here she took the name of Sister Mary Teresa after St. Therese of Lisieux. She was sent to Calcutta, India to teach at St. Mary’s High School for Girls, which was run by the Sisters of Loreto. On May 24, 1937, she took her final Profession of Vows to a life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. She then became known as Mother Teresa. In 1944, she became principal of the school.
Mother Teresa received a second calling while on a train. Christ spoke to her, asking her to work in the slums of Calcutta, caring for the sickest and poorest of the people.Pursuing this calling changed her life forever. In one year, she received approval to do the work she was being called to do. After six months of basic medical training she went to the slums to aid the needy and dying. Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charitywith 12 members, most of them students from St. Mary’s. She established a leper colony, an orphanage, a mission house, and several health clinics.
In 1971, Mother Teresa visited New York City, where she opened a soup kitchen and a home to care for HIV/AIDS sufferers. In 1979, she received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1983, Mother Teresa suffered her first heart attack. After suffering from lung, kidney and heart problems for several years, she died on Sept. 5, 1997, which is now her feast day. At the time of her death her Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000. She had 610 foundations in 123 countries.
Mother Teresa was beatified on October 19, 2003, after confirmation of her first miracle. The miracle was reported that a woman who had a large and very visible tumor, had stayed with the Missionaries of Charity. After she and the Sisters had prayed for Mother Teresa’s intercession, the growth, six to seven inches in length, had disappeared within several hours. Finding no other medical explanation for the sudden cure it was declared her first miracle. Over 3500 other reports are being investigated as possible miracles.
After accepting a second miracle, Pope Francis cleared the way for Mother Teresa to be declared a saint. Pope Francis signed a decree declaring that the inexplicable 2008 recovery of a Brazilian man who suddenly woke from a coma caused by a viral brain infection was due to the intercession of the Albanian nun, who died in 1997.
The Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the postulator spearheading Mother Teresa’s canonization case, stated that the man fully recovered following his wife’s prayers and he has since returned to work as a mechanical engineer. The couple also have had two children.
In 2003, Mother Teresa’s private correspondence revealed she had experienced a “dark night of the soul”… feeling abandoned by God and lacking in faith. This lasted unusually long; for fifty years. Many saints have experienced such feelings, described by John of the Cross, in his book Dark Night of the Soul. She was filled with loneliness, and torture, due to this lack of consolation from God.
Each image in the following list is accompanied by a quote or prayer of Mother Teresa. The images are all public domain images.
As we celebrate the sainthood and feast day of St.Teresa of Calcutta on Sept. 5, let’s remember the remarkable things she did and said.
Sisters of Charity
Prayer of Mother Teresa of Calcutta
Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance everywhere we go. Flood our souls with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly that our lives may only be a radiance of yours. Shine through us and be so in us that every soul we come in contact with may feel your presence in our soul. Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus. Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine, to shine as to be light to others. The light, O Jesus, will be all from you. None of it will be ours. It will be you shining on others through us. Let us thus praise you in the way you love best by shining on those around us. Let us preach you without preaching, not by words, but by our example; by the catching force – the sympathetic influence of what we do, the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen
Mother Teresa with Child/Associated Press
Mother Teresa: Smile
“Let us always meet each other with a smile for the smile is the beginning of love.”
“Peace begins with a smile.”
“Every time you smile at someone it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: God and Faith
“We are nothing without God, but if we put our lives in God’s hands miracles happen.”
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
“Faith in action is love, and love in action is service. Byt transforming that faith into living acts of love, we put ourselves in contact with God Himself, with Jesus our Lord.”
“I know God will not give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa with Pope John Paul II
Mother Teresa: Prayer
The fruit of silence is prayer.
The fruit of prayer is faith.
The fruit of faith is love.
The fruit of love is service.
The fruit of service is peace.”
Mother Teresa
Young Mother Teresa
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhju (Mother Teresa)
Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is life, fight for it.
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Abortion
“Any country that accepts abortion, is not teaching its people to love but to use any violence to get what it wants.”
“It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.”
“There are two victims in every abortion: a dead baby and a dead conscience.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Love and Forgiveness
“It is not how much we do, but how much love we put into the doing. It is not how how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.”
“I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”
“If we really want to love we must learn to forgive.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Helping the Sick
“Let us touch the dying, the poor, the lonely, and the unwanted according to the graces we have received and let us not be ashamed or slow to do the humble work.”
“Yesterday is gone, tomorrow has not come, we have only today. Let us begin.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa in service
Mother Teresa: Service
“If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank people may cheat you; be honest and frank anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous, be happy anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God, it was never between you and them anyway.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa Praying
Mother Teresa: Prayer
“Love to pray. Feel often during the day the need for prayer and take trouble to pray Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing God’s gift of Himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive Him and keep Him as your own.”
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa
Mother Teresa: Silence
“We need to find God and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature; trees, flowers, grass, grow in silence. See the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.”
St. Joan of Arc was born in Domremy, France in 1412 on the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6. Her parents, Jacques and Isabelle were peasants. She was the youngest of four children, having three older brothers. She helped her mother with spinning and helped shepherd the animals. She was very devout as a child enjoying her religious faith and spending her free time in church.
St. Joan grew up during the “Hundred Years War”, which never seemed to end. The French were losing the war while she was young. England was invading the country of France causing much suffering. Joan prayed with great devotion and fervor for the suffering people.
At the age of thirteen, Joan began to have visions and hear voices which counseled her. She claimed to hear the Voice of God, Michael the Archangel,St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch. In 1428, the voices told her to go tho the King of France and help him reconquer his kingdom. She was told to accompany Prince Charles to his coronation. St. Joan went to the town of Vaucouleurs seeking help from the military commander. After three trips he decided to listen to her.
She was given an escort of six which included two knights. They left on Feb. 23, 1429. The journey was 400 miles, taking eleven days in the winter to travel. She was given permission to meet with Prince Charles VII. However, he concealed himself in the crowd to test Joan. Joan, however, recognized him. St. Joan spoke to him, saying:
“I am Joan the Maid and to you is sent word by me from the King of Heaven that you will be anointed and crowned in Reims and you will be Lieutenant to the King of Heaven who is King of France.”
After being questioned by clerics who asked for a sign Joan was eventually given a sword, armor and a banner with the names of Jesus and Maria to lead the French Army to Tours in 1429. She was only 17 years old.
St. Joan led French troops against the English and recaptured the cities of Orleans and Troyes. Prince Charles was then anointed King with St. Joan at his side holding the banner in 1429.
St. Joan of Arc Burning at Stake
St. Joan was later captured and then sold to the English. Joan spent six months in prison before she was put on trial for heresy and witchcraft. After being found guilty she was burned at the stake in 1431. Her ashes were scattered in the Seine River. A second trial was held 25 years later which overturned the first verdict because it was politically motivated. Joan was declared a martyr.
St. Joan was beatified by Pope Pius X and canonize by Pope Benedict XV in 1920 who said that she is a “most brilliantly shining light of God.”
I know this now,
Every man gives his life for what he believes.
Every woman gives her life for what she believes.
Sometimes people believe in little or nothing.
One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it and then it’s gone.
But to surrender what you are and to live without belief
is more terrible than dying…even more terrible than dying young.
The feast day of St. Rita of Cascia is celebrated on May 22. She is the patron saint of impossible causes, abuse victims and widows.
St. Rita was born in 1386 in Cascia, Italy. She was known to be very spiritual even as a young child. She enjoyed visiting shrines and wished to become a nun. Her parents were opposed to the idea and arranged for her to be married. Her husband turned out to have a bad temper and was very difficult for her to live with. She dealt with his abuse with prayer, patience and kindness. They had twin sons. Their difficult marriage lasted 22 years.
One day while returning home from work her husband was ambushed and killed. St. Rita’s sons were now teenagers and began to talk of revenging their father’s death. St. Rita turned to prayer. She prayed that her sons would not be able to go through with the revenge. Her prayer was soon answered. Both her sons died from a deadly illness soon after without taking revenge on their father’s killer.
After the death of her husband and sons, Rita applied to enter the Augustinian Convent. Her first attempt was denied because of the ongoing feud. Rita persisted however. She convinced her husband’s family to put aside their hostility. The two rival families embraced peace. Rita turned to St. John the Baptist, St. Nicholas of Tolentino and St. Augustine, requesting their intercession. The convent changed their decision and allowed her entry. She was 36 when she entered the monastery.
St. Rita had a great devotion for the passion of Christ. She meditated often on the crucifix. On Good Friday, 1442, St. Rita meditated on the suffering of Jesus on the crucifix. She offered to relieve Christ’s suffering by sharing even the smallest part of his pain. As she was meditating, a small wound on her forehead appeared. It appeared to be a thorn from the crown that Jesus wore. St. Rita had this stigmatafor 15 years.
St. Rita was confined to bed for the last four years of her life. She ate very little. The Eucharist sustained her and she remained joyful during her suffering. Before her death St. Rita requested a rose be brought to her from her parents’ garden even though it was January. Surprisingly, a rose was discovered to be blooming on the rosebush and it was presented to her. St. Rita gave thanks to God for this sign of God’s love.
Because this impossible request of St. Rita for a rose in January was answered she became the patron of impossible causes. It was also known that her prayers were known to obtain remarkable cures.
St. Rita died on May 29, 1456. Many miracles were recorded after her death . She was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.
St. Rita’s incorrupt body is venerated today in the National Shrine of Cascia.
Be at peace with your own soul, then heaven and earth will be at peace with you.
