The feast day of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary is celebrated on September 8. On this day the church reflects on the birth of Mary and her role in salvation.
Mary was the only child of St. Anne and St. Joachim. They had been praying for a child and it seemed as if they would be unable to conceive. However, although St. Anne was not young, she conceived and became the mother of the mother of God!
The feast day is celebrated nine months after the celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8. The Immaculate Conception celebrates the belief that Mary was born without the stain of original sin. She was the “second Eve”. Eve, also was born without original sin but she chose to disobey God. Mary, however, always said “yes” to God.
Reflecting on the life of Mary can take us in many directions. How is it possible to become the Mother of God? How is it possible to become the Grandmother of God as St. Anne did? We know that Mary was chosen for the title of Mother of God. St. Anne and St. Joachim were also chosen…to be the parents of Mary.
We too have been chosen. Where is God leading you? Is your family life holy? What needs to improve in your life to help you grow closer to God? Is your prayer life healthy? Learning to communicate with God leads us to know his will in our life. Just as Mary said “yes”, we too must try to do the will of God.
Each of us is unique in the way we communicate with God. Exploring the different prayer styles can help us to find the type of prayer that suits us best. To understand what God’s will is, we must discover how God is “present” in our life. Making time for prayer is the first step. Admitting that we need guidance (humility) will help us to take the time to listen for the whisper that comes from God.
The Virgin Mother’s heart remained perpetually inflamed with the holy love which she received of her Son.
Quote of St. Francis de Sales; Feast Day January 24
The feast day of St. Regina is celebrated on September 7. She was born in Alise, France. Her mother died at childbirth. Regina’s father was a prominent man who was a pagan. He hired a Christian nurse to raise Regina. While Regina was quite young the nurse secretly baptized Regina.
St. Regina became more and more religious as she grew older. When her father learned that she had been baptized, he disowned her. She lived with her nurse and worked in the fields to earn money. She also tended sheep. While working, she meditated on the love and mercy of God.
When Regina was 15 years old, the prefect of Gaul named Olybrius noticed Regina and became determined to marry her. He was unhappy that she was a Christian. Olybrius tried to convince her to deny her faith but she not only refused but proclaimed her faith even louder. Olybrius then had her imprisoned. She was chained to the walls of the cell with an iron belt. After she still refused to deny her faith, she was whipped and scourged. Finally she was beheaded. She died in the year 286. Many were converted after seeing a solitary dove hover over her during the torture.
The relics of St. Regina are enshrined in Flavigini Abbey where many miracles have since occurred.
St. Regina is honored as a martyr for the faith. She is the patron saint against poverty and for victims of abuse.
If the moon is beautiful as it reflects the light of the sun at so great a distance, what will be the beauty of the saints, who for all eternity and not at a distance, will reflect the divine image of God!
The feast day of Bl. Bertrand of Garrigua is celebrated on September 6. He was born in Garrigua, France in 1195. Bl. Bertrand was ordained a secular priest preaching with the Cistercians against the Albigenses. In the year 1216 he met St. Dominic. He soon joined St. Dominic helping him to found the Order of Preachers.
While St. Dominic was in Rome seeking approval of his new order he left Bertrand in charge. He was an important part in the founding of the Order of Preachers, becoming known as the “second Dominic”. He was known to be a traveling companion with St. Dominic.
Bl. Bertrand was known for continually weeping for his sins. St. Dominic convinced him that it would be better to pray for ht sins of others instead. Bertrand continued weeping, however, he was weeping for others sins instead of his own. After having a vision he also began to pray for the souls in purgatory.
Bl. Bertrand fell sick while preaching a mission in 1230 and died at the age of 35.
The body of Bl. Bertrand was found to be incorrupt in 1881, 23 years after his death.
Bl. Bertrand was beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1881.
A person who governs his passions is master of the world. We must either rule them or be ruled by them. It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
The feast day of St. Teresa of Calcutta is celebrated on September 5. On September 4, 2016 Pope Francis canonized Mother Teresa, proclaiming her a saint.
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.
Mother Teresa, as the world knows her, 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.
While on a train, she received a second calling. 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 Charity with 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 at the age or 87. At the time of her death her Missionaries of Charity numbered over 4,000. She had 610 foundations in 123 countries.
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.
Mother Teresa is known for saying,
“The greatest poverty in the world, among the affluent, as well as the poorest of the poor, is to be unloved, unwanted, and uncared for.”
The world did not know that she spoke from her own experience.
There are many books written about Mother Teresa and her great love and service to the world. The following is one of my favorite quotes.
Suffering is a sign that we have come so close to Jesus on the cross that He can kiss us; that He can show that He is in love with us by giving us an opportunity to share in His Passion.
The feast day of St. Rose of Viterbo is celebrated on September 4. Rose was born in Viterbo, Italy in 1234. The city was in revolt against the pope. Her family was exiled for supporting the Pope. After the Pope won the dispute, Rose returned to the city.
St. Rose was pious from a very young age. She practiced contemplative prayer by age 7. She had the gift of miracles and visions. While still a child she is credited with the healing of her Aunt who was believed to be dead. At the age of ten, Mary instructed her to join the 3rd Order of St. Francis. Shortly after, Our Lord appeared to her on a cross wearing a crown of thorns. When Rose asked him why this had happened he told her his deep love for men was the reason. Rose persisted asking him who had pierced him. He told her:
The sins of men have done it.
This vision inspired young Rose to take to the streets preaching penance. St. Rose tried and failed to join the Order of Poor Clare’s due to lack of a dowry. She tried to found a religious community of her own but it was not approved. She lived a life of prayer and penance in her father’s home. She died in 1251 at the age of 18.
The body of St. Rose was discovered to be incorrupt and lies in the monastery of St. Mary of the Roses which refused her entry. St. Rose was canonized in 1457.
Rose’s dying words to her parents were:
“I die with joy, for I desire to be united to my God. Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious.“
The feast day of St. Gregory the Great is celebrated on September 3.
St. Gregory the Great was born in Rome, Italy around the year 550. He was born into a wealthy family. By the age of 23, he had become the prefect of Rome. The following year his father died. He decided to leave office and to become a monk. St. Gregory is the patron saint of musicians, students, singer and teachers.
St. Gregory turned his family home into a monastery which he dedicated to St. Andrew. He built six other monasteries on family land in Sicily and gave the remainder of his inheritance to the poor. As a monk he devoted time to prayer, study and meditation. He studied the writings of the Latin fathers.
After four years of prayer as a monk, Pope Pelagius II ordained Gregory a deacon and sent him to Constantinople. He returned to Rome in 586 to serve Pope Pelagius until his death four years later.
Although Gregory was only a deacon he was elected Pope by popular acclaim. His first act was to organize a three day penitential procession asking God to end the plague. The plague ended after the procession reached the church of St. Mary Major.
As pope, Gregory negotiated for peace when the Lombards threatened Rome.
Over sixty of Pope Gregory’s sermons have survived, as well as over 80 letters he wrote. He organized the liturgy and is given credit for the Gregorian Chant becoming popular.
Pope Gregory was well known for his compassion. During a famine Pope Gregory ordered the church to use its assets to feed the poor. He also ordered the clergy to go into the streets to help the poor. If they did not they were replaced.
While Pope Gregory considered the Bishop of Rome to be the first among the bishops he also considered bishops to be equal. Pope Gregory considered the Bishop of Rome to be likened to a final court of appeal. He referred to himself as “the servant of the servants of God.”
Pope Gregory suffered from arthritis in his later years. Pope Gregory was acclaimed a saint by popular decree. St. Gregory the Great died on March 12, 604.
For it was not poverty that led Lazarus to heaven, but humility; nor was it wealth that prevented the rich man from attaining eternal rest, but rather his egoism and his infidelity.
