March 4 2025 - St. Casimir - To serve God is to reign

On this final day of Ordinary Time before the great season of Lent, we celebrate the memorial of St. Casimir, son of the king of Poland. Here is a man who was line to be king, but followed a higher calling.

Casimir He gave away his possessions, lived simply, devoted hours to prayer and study and helping the poor and imprisoned.  Despite pressure to marry the Emperor’s daughter, Casimir vowed to remain celibate.  He died of tuberculosis in 1483 at the young age of 23.  Casimir is the patron saint of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia.

The Collect Prayer this morning began with a powerful phrase: “Almighty God, to serve you is to reign”. Casimir could have ruled a kingdom, had his every whim satisfied. But he recognized this truth, to serve God is to reign. This echoes Paul’s words to Timothy: “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him”

And what does it mean that to serve God is to reign? It’s an apparent paradox: in our worldly thinking, we associate “reigning” with having control, issuing commands, and enjoying every comfort. Yet in the Gospel, we find that true power is expressed through self-giving love, humility, and service. Christ the King Himself washes the feet of His disciples—turning our assumptions upside down. When we serve God by placing our lives, our talents, and our hearts completely at His disposal, we share in the dominion of His love and the glory of His Kingdom.

This is precisely what we witness in the life of St. Casimir. Though he was a prince and heir to an earthly crown, he chose the path of service: prayer, charity, and chastity. He relinquished a throne but gained far more. He discovered that giving everything to God sets us free from the demands of worldly greatness and grants a deeper authority—the authority of a disciple firmly rooted in Christ. 

That’s the real invitation of Lent, which we begin tomorrow too: by stripping away our attachments, by fasting and praying, by loving the poor, we begin to see that the only kingdom worth possessing is the one Christ offers. It is in humble service that we truly reign, for in serving God we already share in the victory of Christ. May we live our lives in this spirit, convinced—like St. Casimir—that we are never more royal than when we bend our knee to serve the Lord, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

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Confident that God hears our prayers, let us offer our petitions to the Lord:

For the Holy Father, Pope Francis in this time of serious illness, that he may know the grace, strength, consolation of our merciful Savior.

For leaders of nations and communities: That they may govern with integrity, justice, and compassion, placing the needs of the poor and marginalized before their own interests.

For young people discerning their vocation: That through St. Casimir’s intercession and example of celibacy, prayer, and self-giving, they may have the courage to follow God’s will wholeheartedly, whatever their calling may be.

That the poor, sick, downtrodden and marginalized may know the closeness of the Lord through the charity of the Church.

As we prepare to embark on the great campaign of Lent, may our fasting, prayer, and almsgiving may draw us closer to Christ, helping us recognize that to serve God is to reign, and leading us to deeper conversion.

For all who have died: That they may share fully in the eternal kingdom where Christ reigns, especially...

Almighty God, you called St. Casimir to forsake earthly crowns and discover the true greatness of serving you. Grant us the grace to follow his example by offering our whole lives in service to your will. Hear these prayers we bring before you and graciously answer them, through Christ our Lord. 

 

7th Week of OT 2020 - Tuesday - Lover of the World or Lover of God

On this final weekday before the great season of Lent we are asked by St. James: do you want to be a lover of the world or a lover of God?

Loving things, loving earthly pleasure, loving the world more than we love Christ harms our relationship with God and threatens our eternal welfare. St. James certainly echoes the teachings of the Lord in the Gospels who says, “No one can serve two masters: Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon”

Our spirits, James says, tend toward jealousy and envy and covetousness. Part of us, our concupiscible appetites, tends toward wanting and desiring too little of what it does need and too much of what it doesn’t. Too little prayer, too much power, pleasure, and wealth. Too little time kneeling in Church, too much time at the sports arena, the fast food shack, or as a couch potato.
James provokes us to repentance, to help us examine our lives to discover any incompatibility with the Divine Will, any inordinate love of the world, and to repent, to do penance to restrain our concupiscible appetites, and to redirect them to love and serve God.

Between delicious Pączki today, we do well consider and to ask the Holy Spirit to help us identify what parts of us need to be reined in during lent, what appetites need to be suppressed and redirected. One way to identify these areas might be to simply ask, at the end of the day, what kept me from the prayer and service to which I know God is calling me? What earthly attachments keep me from the gentleness and generosity of Christ?

And once identified, to ask the Holy Spirit to help us fast from these things during Lent.

We won’t regret our fasting, in fact, St. James promises that our regrets from indulging our appetites will be turned into joy, our pride and self-centeredness will be transformed into exaltation in the living God.

May we generously turn toward the Holy Spirit’s guidance today, and prepare well for the season of penance, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the Holy Spirit may direct the appointment of a new Bishop for the Church of Cleveland, that he may be a man of true wisdom and understanding and fidelity to the Gospel

That young people may seek Christ amidst all the filth and evils of the world, and for the protection of innocent human life from evil.

For the grace to cooperate with the Divine Will today in all things and in the upcoming Lenten season.

For healing for all those suffering disease, for those afflicted with the Coronavirus, and all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief, and For the Holy Father’s prayer intentions for this month: that the needs of migrants and victims of human trafficking may be heard and acted upon.

For the dead, for all of the souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Holy mass is offered.
O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you are the source of all goodness, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith, we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.