Catholic Fire

September 26 is the memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, the 17th century French priest known for his apostolic work among the poor and marginalized. Born to a poor family in Pouy in the southwest of France in 1581, Vincent was an intellectually gifted youth who began his theological studies at the age of 15 and was ordained at the age of 20. On a voyage to the Holy Land, Vincent's ship was boarded by pirates and he was captured and sold into slavery in Africa, where he was held for two years before he converted his master to Christianity and was freed. He returned to France and was appointed to a parish near Paris, from where he began to initiate and organize missions for the poor, destitute, forgotten, sick, uneducated, and unemployed. He founded the Congregation of Priests of the Mission and the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity and sent priests to Africa to minister to and ransom slaves. He vigorously opposed Jansenism and helped reform orders of priests and re...

August 8 is a special day for me because not only is it my birthday, but it is the feast day of one of my favorite saints -- St. Dominic, a Castilian priest and founder of the Dominican Order. Also, the founder of my Oblate community, Fr. Marie-Dominique Philippe, is a Dominican. This is a special feast day for the Community of St. John. St. Dominic was a remarkable man – a bold and brilliant priest who is the patron saint of astronomers and scientists. As the saint who preached the mysteries of the Holy Rosary, he converted the Albigensians and set the world on fire with the Truth of the Gospel message. Dominic Guzman was born in Castile (Spain) in 1170 to affluent aristocrats, Blessed Joan of Aza and Felix Guzman. When she was pregnant, Joan had three dreams. First, she dreamed that she would give birth to a son who would be a brilliant light to the Church.  Second, she dreamed that she gave birth to a dog and that it broke away from her, carrying in its mouth a burning t...

July 23 is the feast of St. Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden (1303 – 1373), a widow and a Third Order Franciscan. For twenty-eight years, she was a devoted wife and mother of eight. Following her husband's death, she pursued a life of contemplation and charity, caring for the sick and the poor.  She is one of the most prominent women of the Christian Middle Ages. St. Bridget is renowned for her astonishing revelations documented carefully by her confessors, filling several volumes. Their accounts of her visions of biblical scenes, especially the nativity and the crucifixion, have greatly inspired imagery in Christian art and her devotions have inspired popular piety. It was, however, for her practical works of charity, that she was canonized, and not for her private revelations. Bridget was born in Finista in Sweden. From childhood, the Lord granted her special graces, visions and an extraordinary understanding of divine mysteries. At age seven, she had a vision of the Crucifie...

The saint of the day for March 9th is St. Frances of Rome, one of the great mystics of the 15th century. She was born in Rome to a noble family in 1384 and died in Rome on March 9, 1440. She desired to enter the convent, but in obedience to her parents was instead married at age twelve to a young nobleman named Lorenzo de' Ponziani. Frances was a good wife and homemaker, and the mother to three children. As a lay person, she became an Oblate with the Benedictine Oblate Congregation of Tor di Speechi and led the life of a religious, without taking formal vows. She spent much of her time in prayer and in doing works. She was humble, detached, and advanced in a life of contemplation. She had the supernatural gift of visions, miracles, and ecstasy and saw the bodily image of her guardian angel. She had visions of heaven and hell and foresaw the Western schism. She also possessed the gift of reading consciences. Frances was known for her great works of charity to the poor and...

On March 7, the Church honors St. John of God, Founder of the Order of the Brothers Hospitalers, which bears his name. He is the patron of the sick, the dying, firefighters, and alcoholics. St. John of God was born on March 8, 1495 in a small village in the south of Portugal called Montemor-o-Novo. At the age of eight, he left home and was raised by a Spanish family in Oropesa. John spent most of his life as a wanderer, working as a shepherd, soldier, a religious bookseller and laborer, traveling in Europe and North Africa. When St. John of God settled in Granada around the age of forty he was so deeply moved by a homily of Blessed John of Avila, that he gave away all his worldly possessions to the poor and went about the city beating his breast, begging for God’s mercy. His conversion experience was so dramatic in its intensity that he was locked up in a lunatic asylum, where he was flogged and placed in solitary confinement. His brief experience of this kind of treatment ...

                              Katharine Drexel at 16                    Mother Drexel On March 3, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Katharine Drexel, an American heiress and socialite who shocked the world when at age 31, she abandoned her family’s fortune to become a Roman Catholic nun and to found an order of sisters dedicated to serving the impoverished Blacks and American Indian populations of the United States. Using her inheritance of $7 million, she spent the next 60 years and an estimated $20 million building missions, schools and churches for Native Americans and Blacks. She is the patron saint of racial justice and philanthropists. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1858, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Hannah died about a month after Katherine's birth. A few...

Today, February 1 is the feast of St. Brigid of Ireland, a fifth century convert to Christianity, who was inspired by the preaching of St Patrick. As an abbess and Catholic nun, she founded a double monastery, of monks and nuns, at Kildare, the first women’s monastic community in Ireland. St. Brigid is the patron saint of: babies, children whose parents are not married, dairy workers, midwives, nuns, poets, poultry farmers, printing presses, sailors, scholars, and travelers. Brigid is often called the Mary of the Gael. Around 453 AD, a child was born out of wedlock between Dubhtach and one of his Christian slaves named Brocessa. The slave girl was sent to a cabin at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dundalk, Co Louth, to have the child. The baby was a healthy girl which was no great joy to Dubhtach who wanted a son. The mother was sold to a Chieftain in Connaught, and the child was given to a Druid to be raised and educated. As a child, Brigid vomited when the Druid tried t...

By Jean M. Heimann The season of Advent is a time of preparation. It is a time to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus. It is a time to make more room for him in our lives. During Advent, we wait patiently and prayerfully, with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in joyful hope and in anticipation of the miracle of the Incarnation. This year is remarkable in that Pope Francis has proclaimed it to be an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. During this Advent, then, we are called to come to Jesus and to seek out his merciful love which can heal all that is injured within us. He calls us out of the darkness into the light of His radiant and merciful love. For, his mercy has the power to free us of our fears, worries, and all the burdens that weigh us down.  It can heal us of the hurts that lie deep within and of the despair that accompanies our darkest sins. First and foremost, God invites to embrace his mercy, to repent and to be cleansed, to be made spotless and holy. This Adv...

The Church remains faithful if she keeps her eyes fixed on Jesus, but she becomes lukewarm and mediocre if she seeks comfort in worldly things. That was Pope Francis’ message on Monday as he reflected on the Gospel reading at Mass in the Casa Santa Marta… Pope Francis noted that the reading from St Luke’s Gospel tells the story of the widow who puts her two coins in the temple treasury box, while other wealthy worshipers make a great show of the money they're putting in. Jesus says that “this poor widow put in more than all the rest” because the others were giving away money from their surplus wealth, while she, in her poverty, “has offered her whole livelihood”. In the Bible, Pope Francis said, the widow is the woman who is alone, who has no husband to look after her, who has to manage on her own, who survives on charity. The widow in this Gospel passage, he said, was “a widow who had placed her trust only in the Lord”. I like to look at the widows in the Gospel, he said, as...

Today many of us are entertained and fascinated by the lifestyles of royalty and their romantic adventures in movies. However, St. Elizabeth was a genuine princess, who served as an exemplary model of the heroic virtues of charity and humility. Her life is true love story. Born in Bratislava, Hungary in 1207, Princess Elizabeth was the daughter of King Andrew of Hungary and his wife Gertrude. Her aunt was St. Hedwig and her great niece was St. Elizabeth of Portugal. Elizabeth was betrothed at the age of four to Prince Herman of Thuringia (in central Germany) and grew up in his father's court. In 1216, Hermann, who Elizabeth was to marry, died. After this, she then became engaged to Ludwig, the second son. The couple married when she was fourteen and he was twenty-one.  She loved him and bore him three children. They were very happy together and deeply devoted to one another. Ludwig was protective of his wife and the couple often prayed together, holding hands while kneelin...

On November 3, we celebrate the feast of St Martin de Porres, a Peruvian Dominican Brother whose life of charity and devotion led to his canonization as the first black saint of the Americas. Martin was born in Lima, Peru in 1579, the son of a Spanish knight, Don Juan de Porres and the former Panamanian slave Ana Velazquez. His father initially refused to acknowledge the boy publicly as his own, because Martin, like his mother, was black. Though Martin's father later helped to provide for his education, his son faced difficulties because of his family background. At age 12, Martin studied to be a barber, which at that time meant he was also a druggist, a physician and a surgeon. Once trained, he began to use his skills to serve the poor. He became very well known for his compassion and skill as a barber, and cared for many people as well as animals. Martin was a pious child, who began praying at a young age. He had a deep devotion to our Lord’s Passion, and prayed for di...

The saint of the day for September 10 is St. Nicholas of Tolentino, a simple priest and Augustinian friar whose life influenced many. His powerful preaching and practice of the virtue of charity brought many to Christ. His life of prayer, penance, and austerity shaped his holiness. He is known for his strong devotion to the poor souls in purgatory. Nicholas was born in 1245 in Sant’Angelo in the diocese of Fermo in Italy. His middle-aged parents named him in thanksgiving to St. Nicholas of Myra, to whose shrine they had made a pilgrimage after being childless for several years. Nicholas showed early signs of piety. At age seven, he hid away in a nearby cave and prayed there like the hermits whom he had observed in the mountains. He became an Augustinian friar at age eighteen and was ordained at twenty-five. Nicholas had visions of angels reciting "to Tolentino" and took this as a sign to move to that city in 1274, where he lived the rest of his life. Tolentino ...

On August 18, we commemorate Saint Helena of Constantinople (246-330), mother of Constantine the Great, and finder of the True Cross of Jesus Christ. St. Helena was the daughter of an innkeeper in Bithynia, Asia Minor. She was married to an ambitious Roman general and they had one son, Constantine.  When her husband was named Caesar, he promptly divorced Helena to marry another woman for political gain. Following the death of his father, Constantine became emperor of Rome, and one of his first acts as ruler was to declare his mother empress. Constantine had converted to Christianity, and with his encouragement, Helena also became a Christian.  As empress, Helena spent her days in acts of charity, and built magnificent churches on the holy sites of the faith, frequently tearing down pagan temples that had been built on those sites. She worked tirelessly for the poor, released prisoners, and humbly mingled with ordinary worshipers in modest attire. Throughout her life, s...

August 12 is the optional memorial of St. Jane Frances de Chantal, the foundress of the Order of the Visitation of Mary. Biography Jane Frances Fremiot was born on January 23, 1572, into a prominent and prosperous family of Dijon, in France. Her father was the president of the parliament and a wealthy landowner; her mother, who died in childbirth when Jane was about eighteen months old, was a descendant of St. Bernard of Clairvaux. By the time she was twenty, Jane was a beautiful, lively, charming young woman, not only rich and clever, but also possessing high ethical standards of service and a capacity for hard work. In 1592, she was wed to Baron Christophe Rabutin-Chantal, a member of the aristocracy and a soldier in the king’s service, who did not hesitate to leave the care of his neglected estate to Jane. As result of her diligent efforts, the family lived comfortably. In spite of the fact that her first two children died in infancy, Jane was supremely happy in her role...

St. Lawrence Crowned by Baby Jesus -  Claude de Jongh Today is the feast of St. Lawrence, deacon and martyr.Lawrence was one of the seven deacons of the Church of Rome, who along with Pope Sixtus II and other deacons, was executed in 258 under the Emperor Valerian. St. Lawrence Distributing the Treasures of the Church - Bernardo Strozzi  St. Lawrence was in charge of the poor and had a great love for the poor and needy. The Prefect of Rome, a greedy pagan, thought the Church had a great fortune hidden away. So he ordered Lawrence to bring the Church's treasure to him. The saint said he would, in three days. Then he went through the city and gathered together all the poor and sick people supported by the Church. When he showed them to the Prefect, he said: "This is the Church's treasure!" The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence --Tintoretto  In great anger, the Prefect condemned Lawrence to a slow, cruel death. Lawrence was tied on top of an iron grill ove...

On July 2, we comemorate St. Bernardino Realino, "the Apostle of Leece",  who was known for his great charity and kindness to the people of that city. Bernardino was born in 1530 in Capri, Italy, a city located in the northern part of Italy, to noble parents. He studied law and medicine in Bologna and initially became an attorney, followed by a political career, in which he served as judge, tax collector, Superintendent of the fiefs of the marquis of Naples, and mayor of three different cities in Italy. While in Naples, Bernardino, now 34 years old, he met some priests of the Society of Jesus and made an eight-day retreat with them. During this retreat, he felt a strong call to the religious life and asked the Jesuits for admittance into their Society. He was accepted and ordained a priest in 1567. For ten years he served in Naples, preaching, teaching catechism, visiting the sick, the poor, and those in prison. He also served as the novice master there. Then he was t...

The Holy Father's universal prayer intention for July is: “That political responsibility may be lived at all levels as a high form of charity”. His intention for evangelization is: “That, amid social inequalities, Latin American Christians may bear witness to love for the poor and contribute to a more fraternal society”.

The saint of the day for May 11th is St. Ignatius of Laconi, OFMCap. Born on December 18, 1701 the second of seven children, to a poor Italian farming family, he received the name Francis Ignatius Vincent after St. Francis of Assisi, who had interceded for his safe delivery at birth. In turn, his mother promised the saint that she would name her unborn baby Francis and that he would join the Capuchins as an adult. Vincent was a pious child and loved to go to church which he called "my home." Noticing the youngster's prayerful attitude, people called him "the little saint." He was also a hard worker on the farm. He desired to join the Capuchins as a teenager, but his father would not allow him to because the family depended on his labor to survive. During adolescence, Vincent fell seriously ill. He promised that, if he recovered, he would become a Capuchin. Despite his recovery, his father continued to oppose his call to the religious life. At age 20, h...

The saint of the day for March 5 is St. John Joseph of the Cross, a Franciscan priest who practiced self-denial in order to grow in the virtue of charity. Saint John Joseph of the Cross was born on the feast of the Assumption in 1654 on the Island of Ischia in Southern Italy. He was a pious and virtuous child. Even as a child, he devoted himself to poverty and fasting. He wore the clothes of the poor, despite the fact that he was a noble. At the age of sixteen, he entered the Franciscan Order of the Reform of Saint Peter of Alcantara, at Naples. St. John Joseph was a quiet man of contemplation. He practiced self-denial in the form of strict penances: he fasted constantly, never drank wine, and slept only three hours each night. In 1674, he was sent to found a friary at Afila, in Piedmont and helped to build the friary with his own hands. Afterwards, he was elevated to the priesthood and became the master of novices, becoming an excellent model and mentor to them which he ev...

                     Katharine Drexel at 16                                        Mother Drexel  On March 3, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Katharine Drexel, an American heiress and socialite who shocked the world when at age 31, she abandoned her family’s fortune to become a Roman Catholic nun and to found an order of sisters dedicated to serving the impoverished Blacks and American Indian populations of the United States. Using her inheritance of $7 million, she spent the next 60 years and an estimated $20 million building missions, schools and churches for Native Americans and Blacks. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on November 26, 1858, Katharine Drexel was the second daughter of Francis Anthony Drexel and Hannah Langstroth. Hannah died about a month after Katherine's birth. A few years later, Kath...