Quotes

Celebrating Conversion on the Feast Day of the Conversion of St. Paul

Quote January 24, 2017 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

St. Paul was not one of the original apostles. While persecuting Christians after the death of Jesus, he was thrown to the ground by a bright light. He heard a voice asking him;

“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

He responded with;

“Who are you, Lord?”

Jesus answered him,

“I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

But get up and enter the city and you will be told what you are to do.”

Paul was blinded by the light for three days after which scales fell from his eyes. He then joined the apostles, becoming known as “The Apostle of the Gentiles”. He wrote many of the epistles in the Bible. He is the patron saint of writers, the press, and missionaries.

St. Paul was not Jewish like the other Apostles. He convinced St. Peter that Gentiles did not need to become Jewish in order to follow Jesus. They then decided that it was not necessary for Gentiles to be circumcised in order to be Christian.

The Catholic Church celebrates the Feast day of the Conversion of St. Paul on Jan. 25. We should all be able to relate in a personal way to the conversion of St. Paul.

We are all sinners.

Sometimes it feels as if ‘the scales have fallen from our eyes’. One day we are blindly acting like hypocrites and then we awaken to a new day. We know without a doubt that our behavior must change. This is a conversion experience. Conversion can be frightening at first. It is God asking us to change our lifestyle and behavior. Hopefully, we can respond like St. Paul did…with tireless zeal and love. If we do let God direct our lives, we will be filled with an indescribable joy. This joy that is also known as the Peace of Christ.

This is what happened to St. Paul. After his conversion experience, he felt the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. This forgiveness filled him with inner joy.

As we celebrate the feast day of the Conversion of St. Paul, let us ask ourselves the following questions.

Do we want to live as lukewarm Christians or follow Jesus now and experience his forgiveness and love?
What does it really mean to be a Christian?
Do people know I am a Christian by my actions?
Which behaviors in my life need to come to an end to make me a true follower of Christ?
What is Jesus asking me to do with my life?

Save

Dominican, Dominican Saints, Martyr, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. John Alcober, Feast Day December 30

Quote January 3, 2017 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

The feast day of St. John Alcober is celebrated on December 30. He was a Dominican Priest, a missionary to China and a Martyr of the Church.

St. John Alcober was born in Granada.in 1694. He entered the Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominicans, in 1709. When marooned for a time on Lorca, he became popular there as a preacher. He reached China in 1728 where he was a missionary for sixteen years. His ministry was done in secret. St. John is considered one of the Martyrs of China.

He, along with Francis Serrano and Father Francis Diaz, was tortured to disclose the location of Bishop Pere Sans Jorda and Father Joachim Royo, who surrendered to stop the torture.

St. John Alcober, St. Francis Serrano, St. Joachim Royo, and St. Francis Diaz were all martyred on October 18, 1739.

“The prayer of a good innocent,

and obedient child is like dew

from heaven falling upon

his whole family.”

Quote of St. John XXIII; Feast Day October 11

December is the Month of the Divine Infancy

Carmelite Saints, Doctor of the Church, Faith, patron saints, Prayer, Saint of the Day, Spirituality

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. John of the Cross, Feast Day December 14

Quote December 13, 2016 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. John of the Cross,

Feast Day December 14

The feast day of St. John of the Cross is celebrated on December 14. Because of his mystical writing, he is called the Mystical Doctor. He is one of the 35 Doctors of the Church. He is the patron of mystics.

Juan de Yepes Alvarez was born in Spain in 1542. His father was disowned by the family when he married a weavers’ daughter. His father died soon after his birth. Most of Juan’s childhood was spent in poverty. As a teenager, Juan worked in a hospital caring for the terminally ill and mental patients.

At the age of 21, Juan became a brother in the Carmelite Order. He went for higher studies in Slamanca and was ordained a priest, taking the name of John of the Cross at age 25. He soon met St. Teresa of Avila, a Carmelite nun, who convinced him to help her in the work of reforming the Carmelite Order. There was great resistance to the reforming of the order to a more prayerful life. Those against the reform actually kidnapped him. They held him prisoner for over nine months in a small cell, six by ten feet wide. He was beaten often. During this time of trial, St. John of the Cross became very close to God, spending his time writing his mystical poetry. He eventually escaped using a rope made of strips of blankets to climb out the window. The only thing he took with him was his writings. John hid in a convent infirmary where he read his poetry to the nuns. From this period on he shared his experience of God’s love.

St. John of the Cross wrote many books including:

Ascent of Mount Carmel,
Dark Night of the Soul
A Spiritual Canticle
Living Flame of Love

In 1579, he became Rector of Colegio de San Basilio, continuing his writing ministry. He is known for a spirituality which believes in the prayer of detachment. His spirituality also focused on joining our suffering to the Paschal Mystery (the death and suffering of Jesus Christ). He taught that the Cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial of self to union with God.

St. John of the Cross died of fever caused by cellulitus. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726. His feast day is Dec. 14, the day of his death and entry into heaven.

“Live in the world as if only God

and your soul were in it;

then your heart will never be made

captive by any earthly thing.”

Quote of St. John of the Cross

December is the Month of the Divine Infancy

SaveSave

Faith, Martyr, patron saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. Lucy, Feast Day December 13

Quote December 12, 2016 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

The feast day of St. Lucy is celebrated on December 13. She is the patron saint of the blind and visually impaired. She is also a martyr.

St. Lucy was born in 283 in Syracuse (Sicily). The name Lucy means “Light”. Her feast day is celebrated on Dec. 13, the day she was executed.

Lucy was born into a wealthy family of Greek ancestry. She vowed her life to Christ. Her Roman father died when she was young. Her mother tried against her will to arrange a marriage for her. After Lucy prayed at the tomb of St. Agatha, her mother’s illness (probably a hemorrhage), was cured. Her mother then agreed to let Lucy consecrate herself to Christ and to remain a virgin.

The rejected suitor of Lucy denounced her and reported her Christianity to the authorities. The magistrate Paschasius was known for his persecution and torture of Christians. He ordered her to burn a sacrifice to the emperor’s image. When she refused, she was ordered to be executed, in the year 304, at the age of 21. The attempt to burn her to death failed, so she was executed by a sword to the throat. Before the execution, she was tortured, having her eyes gouged. This is why she is the patron of the blind and visually impaired. In art St. Lucy is frequently shown holding a golden plate with her eyes on it.

Legend concludes that God restored her sight before her death.

While some of the history of St. Lucy is legend, her name is mentioned in several different places, including the canon of St. Gregory, indicating that she is a real person. By the sixth century, devotion to St. Lucy was widespread.

“O Jesus, Divine Savior,

grant that I be no longer deaf

to your heavenly call.”

Quote of St. Katherine Drexel; Feast day March 3

December is the Month of the Divine Infancy

Save

Faith, Our Lady, Saint of the Day, Spirituality, Visionary

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: St. Juan Diego, Feast Day December 9

Quote December 8, 2016 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

St. Juan Diego

The feast day of St. Juan Diego is celebrated on December 9. Juan was born in a ward of Tlayacac in Cuauhtitlan. His birth name was Cuauhtlatzin, which means “The talking eagle”. He was a farmer and a weaver. He is the first indigenous American Saint.

After the arrival of the Franciscans, Juan and his wife, Maria Lucia, converted to the Catholic faith in 1524-1525. Juan was baptized by Father Peter da Gand at the age of 50. He and his wife moved closer to Mexico City to be closer to the Franciscan Catholic Mission.

Juan had a special devotion to the Eucharist. In 1529, several years after his conversion, Maria Lucia died. As a widower, he walked 15 miles three times a week to attend Mass and receive the Eucharist.

One Saturday, on Dec. 9, as he was walking to Mass, a woman’s voice called out to him as he passed Tepeyac Hill. He heard music and saw a cloud encircled by a rainbow. Our Lady appeared to him dressed as an Aztec princess. She told him she was The Virgin Mary and asked him to tell the bishop to build a church on that site. She said to him;

“I vividly desire that a church be built on this site, so that in it I can be present and give my love, compassion, help and defense, for I am your most devoted mother….to hear your laments and to remedy all your miseries, pains, and sufferings.”

When he told the bishop what had happened, the bishop was kind, but skeptical. He requested proof. Before Juan could return to the site, he learned his uncle was dying. On his way to see his uncle, Our Lady appeared to him again, telling him his uncle had been cured. She told Juan to climb to the top of the hill where she had first appeared. When he did this he was shocked to find flowers growing in the frozen earth. He gathered them in his cloak and took them to the bishop. When he opened his cloak, the flowers that fell to the ground were Castilian roses (not native to Mexico). The bishop saw a glowing image of Our Lady imprinted inside Juan’s cloak. This is referred to as The Miracle of the Roses.

Soon after, a church was built at the site. In the seven years following the building of the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, six million people converted to the church because of the apparition. Twenty million pilgrims visit the Basilica yearly, second only to St. Peters Basilica in Rome.

An investigation by the Vatican (which included thirty researchers) confirmed that Juan Diego was not a mythical character.

Pope John Paul II praised St. Juan Diego for his simple faith who said to the Virgin Mary,

“I am a nobody, I am a small rope, a tiny ladder, the tail end, a leaf”

Pope John Paul II called him a model of humility.

Our Lady of Guadalupe has been declared the patroness of the Americas.

St. Juan Diego lived the rest of his life as a hermit in a hut near the church, caring for both the church and the first pilgrims.

St. Juan Diego died on May 30, 1548.

The Cloak of Juan Diego was framed and is on display at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is still intact, showing no signs of decay after nearly five hundred years.

The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated on Dec. 12th.

God calls and chooses us in the way we will be most pleasing to Him.

Quote of St. Catherine of Sienna; Feast Day April 29

December is the Month of the Divine Infancy

Save

Faith, Feast Days, Our Lady, patron saints, Saint of the Day

Prayers, Quips and Quotes: Immaculate Conception of Mary, Feast Day December 8

Quote December 6, 2016 Vicki Scheenstra Leave a comment

The Immaculate Conception
by Padre Manuel

The Feast day of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on Dec. 8 during the season of Advent. The feast day celebrates the belief that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin. It is often misunderstood as the celebration of the conception of Jesus.

Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception is the Patron Saint of Brazil and the United States.

The feast day became a celebration for the universal church in the 18th century. Pope Pius IX declare;

“The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

Mary herself confirmed her title to St. Bernadette saying to her;

” I am the Immaculate Conception.”

The largest Marian shrine in the U S. is the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception located in Washington D.C.

Just as Eve was conceived without sin, Mary also was conceived without sin. Mary is considered, ‘the new Eve’.

Rather than disobeying God, Mary said, “Let it be.”

Purer than heaven’s purest angels, brighter than its brightest seraph:

Mary, after her Creator, God, made her and gave her all,

the most perfect of beings, the masterpiece of Infinite Wisdom,

Almighty Power and Eternal Love.

To such a being we cannot reasonably suppose that

a perfection was denied her which had been already

gratuitously bestowed on inferior creatures;

on the angelic spirits.

Quote of St. John N. Newmann; Feast day January 5