St.Theresa of the child Jesus - Virgin (October 1st)
St. Theresa was born in France in 1873. At the age of fifteen she entered the Carmelite Order.
During the nine years of her religious life, she lived as a humble, obedient and charitable sister. She did nothing which could be called extraordinary. Her sanctity consisted in doing well all her daily duties and practices of piety for the love of God and for the conversion of sinners. St. Theresa died in 1897 at the age of 24 and was canonized a saint in 1925. Because she offered all her mortifications and sufferings for the missionaries, St. Theresa is now the patroness of all Catholic missions.
Let us imitate this generous saint in her love of God and of souls.
At God's Disposal
If we always say "yes" to God, we shall take a decisive step forward. What formed St. Theresa of the Child Jesus was the resolution, made when she was small and always maintained-never to say "no" to the Lord.
It is good to say "yes" to God. It means imitating the holy Virgin when she replied to the angel: "Let what you have said be done to me: I put myself completely at God's disposal. I am the handmaid of the Lord." And we, like Mary, are handmaids of God. Handmaids have no right to make their own plans. Let the Master make them, let God make them!
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Guardian Angels (October 2nd)
This feast was instituted by Pope Paul V in 1608. As we learn in Scripture, the angels serve God in many ways. Some are God's messengers; some watch over us.
Let us love our faithful Guardian Angel and never cause him sorrow or shame by committing sin.
Someone Is with Us
May the angels have mercy on us and often during the day recall our destiny to us, especially in moments of discouragement, when we need to pluck up courage to walk on the difficult path of virtue. In such moments may these angels say a word of encouragement to us: heaven is beautiful ; God is waiting for you and this heaven is made for you.
Our duties to the Guardian Angel are listed by St. Bernard: "How much reverence, devotion and confidence should the word 'angel' inspire in you! Reverence, because we are in his presence. Devotion, because he loves us. Confidence, because he takes care of us.
Guardian Angel Prayer
Angel of God, my guardian dear
To whom God's love commits me here
Ever this day (night) be at my side,
To light and guard, to rule and guide
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Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4th)
He was the great reformer who was called the first Protestant. Bom Giovanni Francesco Bemadone in 1181, he died on this day in 1226. By living the Gospel in its simplest and most direct way, Francis had a profound effect upon religion poetry, art and life attitudes of the 13th century. One of his "inventions" was the Christmas Crib. Celebrate this feast by investing your life with great joy in God.
Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
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St. Teresa of Jesus (October 15th)
Teresa was born in Avila, Spain, on March 28, 1515 and died in 1582. Of the many women who have exercised leadership roles in the Church, Teresa is considered among the greatest.
She spent the early part of her life as a typical teenager, interested primarily in clothes and romance. Her father sent her away to be educated by nuns. When she entered the Carmelite convent, some thought Teresa was a spoiled young woman with an unremarkable prayer life. She soon advanced in prayer, took the veil, and experienced violent transports and visions, hearing voices. Dissatisfied with the laxity she perceived among religious, she determined to institute reforms. She founded St. Joseph's Convent and based it on rules of strict enclosure, poverty, and solitary prayer. With the assistance of Peter of Alcantara and John of the Cross, Teresa succeeded in founding the reformed (Discalced) Carmelite orders of nuns and friars.
Teresa wrote several works which are considered classics of spiritual literature, including The Way of Perfection and The Interior Castle. She was a great mystic, a strong, intelligent and active leader. She was canonized in 1622, and in 1970, she was declared a Doctor of the Church, the first female saint to receive this honor.
Teresa of Avila is frequently depicted in art with a flaming arrow or a dove above her head.
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St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (October 16th)
Between 800 and 1000 A.D., there developed the use of Jesus' heart as a symbol to focus the venerable devotion to Jesus' humanity and to the wounds of Christ. Saint John Eudes (1601-1680) especially promoted devotion to the Sacred Heart, prompting Pope Pius XI to call him the father of the tradition.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, who was born in France in 1647 and who was healed from a crippling disorder by a vision of the Blessed Virgin, received in 1673-1675, apparitions of Christ in which Jesus told of his concern about the indifference and coldness in the world in response to his love. He asked her to promote the practices of:
Devotion to his heart, symbolic of his love for all.
Frequent Communion in a spirit of reparation, especially on the
first Friday of the month.
Holy hours and other devotions.
Part of the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary included twelve promises in which Christ promised to provide abundant graces, spiritual strength and final refuge at the moment of death for all who practiced devotion to Jesus' sacred heart.
The symbol of the crown thorns around his Sacred Heart, is often used to represent Christ's sacrifices.
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Feast of St. Luke - Evangelist (October 18th)
St. Luke, a gentile, was born at Antioch and was converted by the Apostle Paul. A great follower and loyal companion of Paul, Luke, a medical doctor, accompanied the Apostle on many journeys. St. Luke is regarded as the historian of the New Testament. He authored the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.
Let us love the Word of God and do our utmost to make it known to others.
Gospel of Confidence
Among the four evangelists, St. Luke is the one who records for us all the parables of the mercy of Jesus. And St. Luke has the spirit of St. Paul.
In the parable of the prodigal son, St. Luke does not linger too much on what happened in the past but says a great deal about the feast the father gave on his son's return, about the son's rehabilitation, the festive welcome and the banquet. This is more than a mere pardon and the father defends the rights of his heart against the protests of the other brother, the rights of mercy which are those of the heart of Jesus.
If we do not hope for the grace to become saints, in the spirit of St. Paul, the apostle, we will not be followers of his.
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Feast of Sts, Simon and Jude (October 28th)
Jude is so named by Luke and Acts. Matthew and Mark call him Thaddeus. He is not mentioned elsewhere in the Gospels, except, of course, where all the apostles are referred to. Scholars hold that he is not the author of the Letter of Jude. Actually, Jude had the same name as Judas Iscariot. Evidently because of the disgrace of that name, it was shortened to "Jude" in English.
Simon is mentioned on all four lists of the apostles. On two of them he is called "the Zealot." The Zealots were a Jewish sect that represented an extreme of Jewish nationalism. For them, the messianic promise of the Old Testament meant that the Jews were to be a free and independent nation. God alone was their king, and payment of taxes to the Romans-the very domination of the Romans-was a blasphemy against God. No doubt some of the Zealots were the spiritual heirs of the Maccabees, carrying on their ideals of religion and independence. But many were the counterparts of modern terrorists. They raided and killed, attaching both foreigners and "collaborating" Jews. They were chiefly responsible for the rebellion against Rome which ended in the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.
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