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SAINTS AND FEASTS

- Home ⇰ The Current ⇰ Previous Issues ⇰ September Saints
- This Week in Heaven
  
  September 27-October 3, 2020; 26th Week in Ordinary Time
  A reflection on our heavenly guides this week (by Blake Billings '77).
- Saint Michael and All Angels; St. Jerome, priest and doctor; St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor; The Holy Guardian Angels; Blessed Columba Marmion, abbot
  
  This week’s heavenly patrons include Thérèse of Lisieux, who intended to, “spend my Heaven in doing good upon earth.” We take consolation in this hope, expressed by her and witnessed in the miracles attributed to the intercession of all saints on our behalf. This week indeed accentuates this heavenly relationship with the earthly, as we celebrate Saint Michael and All Angels (Tuesday, September 29). The parish in my hometown, where I received my first communion, was St. Michael’s. I remember the statue of this archangel with his spear, vanquishing Lucifer. How did I understand this event then, as a child envisioning this winged warrior? How do I now understand the nature of this victory; how do I see what is at stake in this battle? It is good to meditate on the heavenly host, fighting spiritual warfare along with us. A prayer to St. Michael, perhaps less well-known than the “Prayer to Saint Michael”: O glorious prince, St. Michael, chief and commander of the heavenly hosts, guardian of souls, vanquisher of rebel spirits, servant in the house of the Divine King and our admirable conductor, you who shine with excellence and superhuman virtue deliver us from all evil, who turn to you with confidence and enable us by your gracious protection to serve God more and more faithfully every day. Amen
  
  We turn from the heavenly warrior to a personality of great earthly strength: Jerome, priest and doctor (Wednesday, September 30) the biblical doctor, who taught us that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ Himself. Jerome, whose discipline and dedication to study of the written page remain exemplary for us, continues in our scriptures to place his mark on our spiritual heritage. May we carry just a little of his limitless intellectual energy to our own study, and be assisted by his intercession in our own lectio.
  
  Following the feast of Jerome, we turn to a doctor of such a different sort, one of less severe countenance; one whose wisdom is in simplicity. St. Therese of the Child Jesus, virgin and doctor (Thursday, October 1), the Little Flower, offers us the gospel message in a most intimate and appealing way. We may recall Saint Benedict’s admonition to listen to the young, particularly in our students, who may speak most clearly with the promptings of the spirit, and with gratitude encounter this young doctor who continues to “do good on earth.”
  
  We return to the heavenly host, in the form of our own personal connection, in The Holy Guardian Angels (Friday, October 2). We may recall the Angel of God, a well-known prayer to our guardian angel, but do we rely on them as we might? The church’s calendar gives us this opportunity to remember this angelic support network, mentioned by Christ Himself: “See that you do not look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven” (Mt 18:10). Particularly now, when the gravity of earth seems unduly heavy, the lightness of this heavenly ether may be a welcome antidote.
  
  We finish the week with one of my Benedictine favorites, Blessed Columba Marmion, abbot (Saturday, October 3), who was beatified in 2000, in the pontificate of pope Saint John Paul II, himself a Marmion enthusiast. Marmion’s writing do much to crystalize the essentials of Benedictine life and teaching, in doing so illuminating the life-giving fundamentals of the Christian faith. We, inheriting and shaped by the Benedictine heritage, are blessed to have such a guide to lead us.
  
  (October feast days, and other months, can be found here)
SAINTS AND FEASTS
September
SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT, POPE AND DOCTOR
PATRON OF PORTSMOUTH ABBEY
- Feastday: September 3
  
  While this patronal feast of the monastery typically now occurs prior to the beginning of the school year, this year it coincided with the third day of faculty meetings prior to the start of the term. The following words are taken from a homily on Ezekiel by Saint Gregory the Great (Lib. 1, 11, 4-6: CCL 142, 170-172). They would seem to resonate with any authentic leader in our contemporary day, struggling to address the many issues with which we presently contend, sincerely aware of his own sinful limitations.
  
  For Christ's love I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
  
  “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel.” Note that a man whom the Lord sends forth as a preacher is called a watchman. A watchman always stands on a height so that he can see from afar what is coming. Anyone appointed to be a watchman for the people must stand on a height for all his life to help them by his foresight.
  
  How hard it is for me to say this, for by these very words I denounce myself. I cannot preach with any competence, and yet insofar as I do succeed, still I myself do not live my life according to my own preaching.
  
  I do not deny my responsibility; I recognize that I am slothful and negligent, but perhaps the acknowledgment of my fault will win me pardon from my just judge. Indeed when I was in the monastery I could curb my idle talk and usually be absorbed in my prayers. Since I assumed the burden of pastoral care, my mind can no longer be collected; it is concerned with so many matters.
  
  I am forced to consider the affairs of the Church and of the monasteries. I must weigh the lives and acts of individuals. I am responsible for the concerns of our citizens. I must worry about the invasions of roving bands of barbarians, and beware of the wolves who lie in wait for my flock. I must become an administrator lest the religious go in want. I must put up with certain robbers without losing patience and at times I must deal with them in all charity.
  
  With my mind divided and torn to pieces by so many problems, how can I meditate or preach wholeheartedly without neglecting the ministry of proclaiming the Gospel? Moreover, in my position I must often communicate with worldly men. At times I let my tongue run, for if I am always severe in my judgments, the worldly will avoid me, and I can never attack them as I would. As a result I often listen patiently to chatter. And because I too am weak, I find myself drawn little by little into idle conversation, and I begin to talk freely about matters which once I would have avoided. What once I found tedious I now enjoy.
  
  So who am I to be a watchman, for I do not stand on the mountain of action but lie down in the valley of weakness? Truly the all-powerful Creator and Redeemer of mankind can give me, in spite of my weaknesses, a higher life and effective speech; because I love him, I do not spare myself in speaking of him.
CUTHBERT, ABBOT
- Feastday: September 4
  
  St. Cuthbert makes special appeal today as a keenly observant man, interested in the ways of birds and beasts; in his own time he was famed as a worker of miracles in God’s name, on one occasion healing a woman’s dying baby with a kiss. The ample sources for his life and character show a man of extraordinary charm and practical ability, who attracted people deeply by the beauty of holiness; it is not for nothing that Bede so often refers to him as ‘the child of God.’ (Donald Atwater)
  
  (Saint Cuthbert shrine at Durham pictured)
TERESA OF KOLKATA
- Feastday: September 5
  
  'Her mission to the urban and existential peripheries remains for us today an eloquent witness to God’s closeness to the poorest of the poor. Today, I pass on this emblematic figure of womanhood and of consecrated life to the whole world of volunteers: may she be your model of holiness! I think, perhaps, we may have some difficult in calling her “Saint Teresa”: her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful that we continual to spontaneously call her “Mother Teresa”. May this tireless worker of mercy help us increasingly to understand that our only criterion for action is gratuitous love, free from every ideology and all obligations, offered freely to everyone without distinction of language, culture, race or religion. Mother Teresa loved to say, “Perhaps I don’t speak their language, but I can smile”. Let us carry her smile in our hearts and give it to those whom we meet along our journey, especially those who suffer. In this way, we will open up opportunities of joy and hope for our many brothers and sisters who are discouraged and who stand in need of understanding and tenderness.' (Pope Francis, homily at Mass of canonization, September 4, 2016)
THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN
- Feastday: September 8
  Nine months to the day after celebrating her Immaculate Conception, the church commemorates the birth of Mary. This date is shared by several Rites of the Orthodox church. Our earliest source for the names of Mary’s parents is second-century’s the Protoevangelium of James, which mentions Joachim and Anne, and offers more detail on the birth and childhood of Mary. Pope Saint John Paul II wrote in 2004: 1. “The liturgy today commemorates the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This feast, very important to popular piety, leads us to admire in Mary the Child, the purest dawn of the Redemption. We are contemplating a little girl like every other, yet at the same time the only one who was ‘blessed among women’ (Lk 1: 42). Mary was the immaculate ‘Daughter of Zion’, destined to become the Mother of the Messiah.” (General Audience)
PETER CLAVER, PRIEST
- Feast Day: September 9th
  
  A native of Spain, the young Jesuit Peter Claver left his homeland forever in 1610, arriving in the New World at Cartagena, in the Caribbean. Ordained there in 1615, Claver declared himself “the slave of the Negroes forever.” During the forty years of his ministry, Claver instructed and baptized an estimated 300,000 slaves. (see franciscanmedia.org). Peter Claver has inspired the Knights of Peter Claver, the largest African-American lay organization in the United States, whose mission is “to render service to God and His Holy Church, render aid and assistance to the sick and disabled, and promote social and intellectual association among our members.” (see kofpc.org)
JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, BISHOP AND DOCTOR
- Feast Day: September 13th
  
  John, the great preacher – his name means “golden-mouthed” – was brought to Constantinople from Antioch after a dozen years of priestly service in Syria, being made bishop in 398. Ascetic, unimposing but dignified, and troubled by stomach ailments from his desert days as a monk, John became a bishop under the cloud of imperial politics. If his body was weak, his tongue was powerful. The content of his sermons, his exegesis of Scripture, were never without a point. Sometimes the point stung the high and mighty. Some sermons lasted up to two hours.
  
  (source: franciscanmedia.org)
EXALTATION OF THE CROSS
- Feast Day: September 14th
  
  The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross celebrates two historical events: the discovery of the True Cross by Saint Helena in 320 under the temple of Venus in Jerusalem, and the dedication in 335 of the basilica and shrine. However the feast, more than anything else, is a celebration of God's greatest work: his salvific death on the Cross and His Resurrection
  (source: catholicnews agency.com).
CORNELIUS (POPE) AND CYPRIAN (BISHOP), MARTYRS
- Feast Day: September 16
  
  These third century popes presided over a church divided and under persecution. Cornelius sought to end a schism rooted in competing visions of mercy and whether the Church could receive back those who had apostatized in the face of martyrdom. Cyprian similarly steered a middle course between those who refused to accept the lapsed and those diminishing the need for penance. Both ended up martyred under the persecutions.
HILDEGAARD OF BINGEN, VIRGIN AND DOCTOR
- Feast Day: September 17
  
  This medieval Benedictine mystic was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Benedict XVI in 2012: “This great woman truly stands out crystal clear against the horizon of history for her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching… Hildegard asks herself and us the fundamental question, whether it is possible to know God: This is theology’s principal task. Her answer is completely positive: through faith, as through a door, the human person is able to approach this knowledge."
THE KOREAN MARTYRS
- Feast Day: September 20
  
  These martyrs include the first Korean priest, Andrew Kim, as well as Chong Ha Sang, one of the lay leaders of the persecuted 19^th century Korean church. Canonizing the group, which includes French missionary priests, in 1984 at a great open-air Mass in Seoul, Pope St. John Paul II quotes them in his homily: “Listen to the last words of Teresa Kwon…: ‘Since the Lord of Heaven is the Father of all mankind and the Lord of all creation, how can you ask me to betray him? Even in this world anyone who betrays his own father or mother will not be forgiven. All the more may I never betray him who is the Father of us all.’ A generation later, Peter Yu’s father Augustine firmly declares: ‘Once having known God, I cannot possibly betray him.’”
MATTHEW, APOSTLE
- Feast Day: September 21
  
  This apostle is commonly known as a self-acknowledged example of Christ’s teaching: “Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Matthew 9:13).
PADRE PIO PIETRECLINA, PRIEST
- Feast Day: September 23
  
  The Capuchin friar Pio of Pietrelcina died in 1968, and was canonized in 2002 by John Paul II. Paul VI draws us to his simple witness: “Look what fame he had, what a worldwide following gathered around him! But why? Perhaps because he was a philosopher? Because he was wise? Because he had resources at his disposal? Because he said Mass humbly, heard confessions from dawn to dusk and was – it is not easy to say it – one who bore the wounds of our Lord. He was a man of prayer and suffering.” (20 Feb 1971)
CEOLFRID, ABBOT
- Feast Day: September 25
  
  We honor Ceolfrid, a Benedictine abbot today. The Venerable Bede writes in his Lives of the Holy Abbots of this 7^th century Northumbrian abbot: “He was a man well skilled in the knowledge of Holy Scripture of most excellent manners, of wonderful continence, and one in whom the virtues of the mind were in no small degree depressed by bodily infirmity, and the innocency of whose heart was tempered with a baneful and incurable affection of the lungs.”
COSMOS AND DAMIAN, MARTYRS
- Feast Day: September 26
  
  Cosmos and Damian, whose names are familiar to us from the Canon of the Mass, were twin brothers who suffered martyrdom together with three of their brothers, in the Diocletian persecution of the third century.
VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST
- Feast Day: September 27
  
  Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), whose name is well-known from the eponymous charitable society, himself established confraternities for the relief of the poor and sick in each parish. This learned and revered saint remained focused on simplicity, and is known for his direct teachings: “Humility is nothing but truth, pride is nothing but lying,” and, “Go to the poor, and you will find God.” The name “Vincentian” now encompasses both an order of priests, brothers and sisters, as well as one of the largest Catholic lay organizations in the world, with over 190,000 members.
JEROME, PRIEST AND DOCTOR
- Feast Day: September 30
  
  Pope Benedict XVI tells us: “What can we learn from St Jerome? …this above all: to love the Word of God in Sacred Scripture. St Jerome said: ‘Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ’. It is therefore important that every Christian live in contact and in personal dialogue with the Word of God given to us in Sacred Scripture.” (November 11, 2007)