July 23 2024 - St. Bridget of Sweden - Holiness in the different paths of life

 The Opening Prayer mentions how God guided Saint Bridget of Sweden “along different paths of life.”  Bridget was a wife, a mother, a lady-in-waiting in the royal court, a mystic, a third Order Franciscan, and finally a foundress of a religious order.  

Throughout her marriage to a Prince of Sweden, she was dedicated to the works of mercy. She even had a monastery built for the good sisters which she later joined after the death of her husband, when she renounced her wealth in order to live as the ascetical life as a Third Order Franciscan. Together they had 8 children, one of whom is also honored as a saint, St. Catherine of Sweden.

The Opening Prayer also referred to the Lord teaching her the wisdom of the Cross by her contemplation of the Passion.  At ten years of age young Bridget had a mystic vision of Jesus on the cross, covered with fresh blood and speaking to her about his Passion.  She received many such revelations which fill 8 volumes.

Through all those different paths of life, she sought to unite herself ever more closely to the suffering Christ. After ensuring the care of her children, she renounced her wealth and lived as an ascetic.  

It is fitting that her feast day is celebrated during the month of July.  For July is dedicated to the Precious Blood of Jesus and St. Bridget founded the religious Order of the Most Holy Savior who have a special devotion  to the Precious Blood of Christ.  The order is known also as the Bridgettines.

In 1999, Pope John Paul II declared St. Bridget a Co-Patroness of Europe, along with Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Theresa Benedicta of the Cross.

In his declaration naming Bridget a Co-Patroness of Europe, the Pope said, that Bridget of Sweden is not just a model for those in consecrated religious life, but especially for married people—that those who have “the high and demanding vocation of forming a Christian family will feel that she is close to them.”  The Pope emphasized how “she and her husband enjoyed a married life in which conjugal love was joined to intense prayer, the study of Sacred Scripture, mortification and charitable works. Together they founded a small hospital, where they often attended the sick. Bridget was in the habit of serving the poor personally. At the same time, she was appreciated for her gifts as a teacher”

We see in the Saints what life is supposed to look like.  The Lord guides us along many different paths an desires to teach us, like St. Bridget, the wisdom of the cross: that fulfillment in this life and happiness in the life to come is found, not in wealth and possessions, and making a name for ourselves but seeking the Lord’s will in all things, particularly in accepting the cross for the sake of the kingdom.

“Walking worthily in our vocation” may we seek Christ in all things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That members of the Church, priests, religious, married, and single, may seek the kingdom of God His and righteousness and the Divine Will above all.

For an increase in vocations to the religious life, for the spiritual good of the Bridgettine Order, for third Order Franciscans, that our consecrated religious may continue to bless the Church by their faithful living of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Through the intercession of St. Bridget, co-patroness of Europe, for the conversion of the people of Europe from all that keeps them from following Christ.

That the sick, suffering, and sorrowful may know the consolation and peace of the living God.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, for deceased priests and religious, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Hear Our Prayers, O Lord, and through the intercession of St. Bridget of Sweden, help us, as we walk the many paths of life, to serve you in all things and come to the eternal kingdom of heaven. Through Christ. Our Lord.

July 2023 - First Friday Holy Hour - Adoring the Precious Blood of Jesus

 

The month of July is traditionally devoted to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.

And as we kneel before the Blessed Sacrament exposed in the monstrance, let us remember that we adore both the Lord’s Body and His Blood, for the Blessed Sacrament contains the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Devotion to the Holy Eucharist is devotion to the Blood of Christ.

One of the oldest Christian documents, outside of sacred scripture, from the first century of the Christian era, by Pope St. Clement I, dated about 96 A.D. says: “Let us fix our gaze on the Blood of Christ and realize how truly precious It is, seeing that it was poured out for our salvation and brought the grace of conversion to the whole world.”

The blood of Christ is truly worthy of our adoration, for St. Peter says, “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, as gold or silver… but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb unspotted and undefiled.”

In 1960, Pope St. John XXIII wrote an apostolic letter on devotion to the Precious blood. He writes: “Unlimited is the effectiveness of the God- Man’s Blood - just as unlimited as the love that impelled him to pour it out for us, first at his circumcision eight days after birth, and more profusely later on in his agony in the garden, in his scourging and crowning with thorns, in his climb to Calvary and crucifixion, and finally from out of that great wide wound in his side which symbolizes the divine Blood cascading down into all the Church’s sacraments. Such surpassing love suggests, nay demands, that everyone reborn in the torrents of that Blood adore it with grateful love… God wants all men to be saved, for he has willed that they should all be ransomed by the Blood of his only-begotten Son; he calls them all to be members of the one Mystical Body whose head is Christ. If only men would be more responsive to these promptings of his grace, how much the bonds of brotherly love among individuals and peoples and nations would be strengthened.”

We gather here this evening, prompted by God’s grace to adore the Lord’s Body and Blood. May what we do here this evening strengthen those bonds of love among Christians and work toward the conversion of many to belief in Christ whose blood was poured out for sinners, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

13th Week in Ordinary Time 2023 - Friday - Power in the Blood

 There is an old southern Baptist hymn that goes “would you be free from your burden of sin?  There’s power in the blood. Would you over evil a victory win?  There’s wonderful power in the blood.  Would you be free from your passion and pride? There’s power in the blood.  Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide.  There’s power in the blood.”

The month of July is traditionally devoted to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus. 

I like the lyrics of that old hymn because it expresses how the Blood of Jesus has powerful effects.

The blood of Jesus frees us from the burden of sin. It helps us win victory over evil. It frees us from our passions and pride. And it is an encounter with the Lord on calvary.

Our Faith tells us that the Lord loved us so much that he poured out his blood for us, for “the forgiveness of our sins”. The Blood of Jesus has relieved us of a burden, a terrible burden, the heaviest of burdens—the weight of sin--which keeps us from heaven. And now, freed from the weight of sin by the blood of Jesus Hebrews says Christians are able to “run with endurance the race that is set before us”. The burden of unforgiveness no longer weighs us down, and now we are able to persevere in the ways of God with a newborn lightness. 

I don’t know about you, but it’s a lightness I feel every time I go to confession, and often when I receive Holy Communion. A lightness to persevere in the faith.

Secondly, the hymn says the blood of Jesus helps us win victory over evil. This is consistent with the old Baltimore catechism, which taught that the eucharist—the sacrament of the body and blood of Jesus—was instituted To lessen our evil inclinations. The blood of Jesus in the Eucharist preserves us from future sins by lessening or loosening evils grips on us. 

The blood of Jesus frees us from our passions and pride. The power of our passions are often very strong, but the blood of Jesus is stronger, the power of God is stronger, and helps us not to be ruled by our passions. Many people believe that happiness is found by following every passion that arises in their hearts and bodies. But because of sin, our passions do not always point to happiness and holiness. And the blood of Jesus helps us to resist those sinful passions, in order to follow what is truly good for us.

Finally, the hymn tells us “come for a cleansing to calvary’s tide. When we receive the blood of Jesus in the Eucharist, we are cleansed of our venial sins, as if we are kneeling at the very cross of calvary. In fact, when we come to Mass, we are made spiritually present to Calvary, the source of our salvation, which is why we call the mass, the sacrifice of the mass, because the mass makes us present at the one saving sacrifice of Christ, in which blood is shed for our salvation.

May Christians truly open their hearts and souls to the true power of the blood during this Eucharistic revival for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty, may every prayer of our heart be directed, for it is His will that all humanity should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

For the Church during this time of Eucharistic Revival: for a deeper love and reverence for the Bread of Life; that the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist will help us to live out our vocation to holiness with greater zeal, self-sacrifice, and trust in God.  

That during this month of July dedicated to the Most Precious Blood of Jesus: we may grow in gratitude for the gift of our salvation and more zealous for souls. 

For our nation, that we may be always grateful for our freedom, and that with God’s help we will work to preserve that freedom and to use that freedom to build up the city of God.

That our young people on summer vacation, for their protection from physical and spiritual evils, that faith may be practiced in their homes, that their parents may raise them rightly in the faith, teaching them to value the things of heaven over the things of earth.

For all those who suffer from violence, war, famine, extreme poverty, addiction, discouragement, loneliness, and those who are alienated from their families.  

For all those who suffer illness, and those in hospitals, nursing homes and hospice care, that they may be comforted by the healing light of Christ.  

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, the deceased members of our families friends and parishes, for those who fought and died for our freedom, and for N. for whom this mass is offered.

Graciously grant our petitions, we beseech thee, O Lord; may your grace sustain us always in your service, through Christ Our Lord.

15th Sunday in OT 2018 - Redeemed by His Blood

One of the most important dimensions of the seminary formation of priests is learning how to minister in a bunch of different settings.  We learn how to minister in hospitals and nursing homes in jails and at schools, and the people who hope to help in each of these settings each have their own set of challenges. 

One particularly challenging area is ministry to those who struggle with addiction. My eighth year of seminary, I was able to minister at an addiction treatment center primarily for adolescents with addiction, but I would also meet some parents who also had addiction problems. 

And I can remember an adult woman I met in recovery who had been, what she called “a hopeless alcoholic.”  She had been through a number of programs, and had attained sobriety for a while, but she would always end up getting drunk again. She told me how she reached where she really hit rock bottom. She had fallen-off-the-wagon and had gone on a drinking binge lasting several months in Chicago; she woke up one morning in an alley next to a dumpster, not remembering how she got there. And in utter desperation she had decided to take her life—she planned to jump in front of a train.

And on her way to take her own life, she passed by St. Peter’s Church, and for a reason she couldn’t quite explain she went into the Church and into the Confessional.  And she told the Confessor Priest that she was in such desperation that she was going to kill herself.  “Why do you want to end your life?” the priest asked her.  She said, “because I am a hopeless drunk, I am a bum, I am an addict. I am good for nothing.”  And she said that that priest answered with great vigor and said, “No you are not.  You are a child of God and made in God’s image and likeness, bought back from evil, from darkness and death at the cost of His only begotten Son, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  That’s who you are.  You also happen to have a severe drinking problem.  But maybe, if we begin to work on who you are as a Christian, the bad things that you do will begin to take care of themselves.” This woman, who I met, here in Cleveland, said that was the turning point in her life. 

What that priest told her, was a restatement of what we just heard in our second reading. It is in Christ, through His blood, that we have been redeemed, and our sins forgiven. You have been chosen, destined by adoption, to be holy and blameless.”

This is a message that we must all take to heart: You and I, Christians, are sacred, because you and I have been purchased by the blood of the Son of God, bought back from evil, from darkness and death.

What does it mean that you are sacred? I can think of a story to illustrate: In Virginia a few years back, there was a squabble over a parcel of land. A group of developers had purchased a parcel of land and wanted to build on it a shopping center. But there was a problem, this piece of land was venerated as a Civil War Battlefield upon which was fought the great Battle of Manassas. Well, when these developers announced their plans to build a shopping mall, and a cry went up from the people who said, “your can’t do that. This ground, this earth is sacred, because the blood of brave soldiers had been spilled here.” That which is held sacred, we make every effort to protect from profanation.

Why do Catholics work to defend innocent life in the womb with such vigor? Because innocent life, too is sacred. Why do we work to protect and defend the institution of marriage, because marriage is sacred.

What St. Paul is saying, dear Christians is that you have become sacred ground: your minds, your wills, your bodies, your souls have been sanctified by the blood of Christ through baptism, and when you really believe that, you make effort to protect it from profanation.

What had made the blood of the Manassas battlefield sacred was the blood of the soldiers who died there. But, the Christian, has been covered, has been washed, with the Blood of the Innocent Lamb, the Incarnate God.The Lord Jesus shed his precious blood and gave his life to redeem us, to save us from hell, and has made us adopted sons and daughters of God. “It through His blood that we have been redeemed and our sins forgiven.”

Pope Leo the Great encouraged the Church to remember this often. He said, “Christian, remember your dignity, and now that you share in God's own nature, do not return by sin to your former base condition. Bear in mind who is your head and of whose body you are a member. Do not forget that you have been rescued from the power of darkness and brought into the light of God's kingdom.” Whenever you are tempted, whenever you begin to believe that you are a hopeless case, call to mind that you have been washed and sanctified by the blood of Christ.

There is an old southern Baptist hymn that goes “would you be free from your burden of sin?  There’s power in the blood, would you over evil a victory win?  There’s wonderful power in the blood.  Would you be free from your passion and pride? There’s power in the blood.  Come for a cleansing to Calvary’s tide.  There’s power in the blood.”

The Month of July is traditionally dedicated to the Precious Blood of the Lord, and we do well to meditate frequently and thank God for the Precious Blood shed for us, the blood which has the power to redeem the gravest of sinners.

One such meditation is that beautiful litany, the Litany of the Precious Blood: listen:

Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us
Blood of Christ, victor over demons, save us

The blood of Christ has the power to break the most powerful addiction…if you let it. It has the power to impel the most timid soul to be a prophet in the world, like Amaziah in our first reading…if you let it. The blood of Christ has the power to transform ordinary fishermen, like the Apostles, into Princes and Heralds of the Gospel…if you let it.. The blood of Christ has the power to make you and me into great instruments of God, even in this increasingly secular age, and holy and without blemish…if we let it.

As we continue this Eucharistic Sacrifice, offering again the sacrifice of the Son’s Blood to The Father, let us be renewed and nourished, strengthened, sanctified and saved by that same Precious Blood for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

June 30, 2017 - The First Martyrs of Holy Roman Church - Rejoicing at the Triumph of Faithful Love

The month of June is traditionally devoted to the Sacred of Jesus: the sacred Heart, aflame with love for God and man, shining with the light of truth, pierced with thorns to show Our Lord’s willingness to suffer for our salvation. July is devoted to the Precious Blood of Our Lord, shed on the cross, poured out to wash us of our sins and to sanctify the Church.

So how fitting, June transitions into July with three days of martyrs, St. Ireneaus, Saints Peter and Paul, and today the Holy Martyrs of Rome, who in imitation of the Sacred Heart shined with the light of truth and endured suffering for the Gospel, whose Blood, like the Precious Blood of Christ is poured out as a sign of God’s love.

We may think it strange that we almost seem to fixate on these bloody deaths, but I think Mother Church in her wisdom wants us to keep the image of martyrdom always in our sights. We are not to forget about these people. They are Christianity exemplified.

They are the ones who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness. They are the ones who do not worry when they stand for judges and kings. They are the ones who love and forgive their persecutors. They are the ones who though betrayed by brother and father, they are the good and faithful servants who persevere to the end. They are the ones who, as Our Lord promised, will on his account be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and the Gentiles, who take Christ at his word, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” They are the ones who as St. Peter says, rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. “

I think Mother Church celebrates these martyrs so frequently, even throughout Ordinary Time that we may imitate their courage in our day to day, Ordinary sharing of the Gospel, their perseverance in the day to day Ordinary struggle against temptation, their forbearance in remaining patient with those who don’t quite get it, their spirit of mercy in forgiving those who persecute, and of course their all-consuming offering of the whole of their lives to Christ. The gift of self to God being the point of life, the purpose of life.

Christian heroes and martyrs | William A. Foster | The Library of Congress

The martyrs we celebrate today were those murdered by the barbaric Emperor Nero in 64 AD. Christians of course have been persecuted in every age, they continue to be persecuted in this age, put under the sword, imprisoned, beheaded by hate-filled adherents of false religions, but also in subtle ways, by governments and professionals, so-called experts, who think the world needs to just be a little less “Christian”.

May the martyrs lend us their courage and standing up for the Gospel, for spreading the Truth of Christ, that share in the triumph of their faithful love for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 

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That our bishops and clergy may be zealous in preaching and teaching the truth of the Gospel, and that our future bishop of the diocese of Cleveland may be a man of true faith and the Holy Spirit.

That this fortnight of prayer for religious freedom may help people of faith remain vigilant in defending their religious liberty and that Christ may govern the minds of those who govern to promote the religious freedom and the common good according to his will.

That the witness of the martyrs may never be in vain.

For all the needs of the sick and the suffering, the homebound, those in nursing homes and hospitals, the underemployed and unemployed, victims of natural disaster, war, and terrorism, for all those who grieve the loss of a loved one, and those who will die today, for their comfort, and the consolation of their families.

For the repose of the souls of our beloved dead, for all of the poor souls in purgatory, for the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, for the deceased priests and religious of the diocese of Cleveland, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.