Today is the memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, patron saint of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia!
Statue of St. Vincent de Paul at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Richmond, Virginia
Very short on time today, so here is more info about this wonderful saint at Catholic Fire and at SQPN.
This image is a detail of the mural in the apse of Saint Benedict Catholic Church, Richmond, Virginia. I love how the painter has tried to represent a sort of full-body Glory radiating from Christ. I also love how Jesus is showing His nail-scarred hands.
The Raccolta has so many beautiful prayers, long and short. Here’s a short but beautiful prayer for the Sacred Heart: “May the Sacred Heart of Jesus be loved in every place.” And another, most appropriate for this weekend, when Pope Francis has asked us all to pray for peace, “Most sweet Heart of Jesus, grant that peace, the fruit of justice and charity, may reign throughout the world.”
For more posts about the Sacred Heart, try this Friday link-up at omostsacredheart.com .
Today is the feast day of Pope Saint Gregory the Great.
According to http://saints.sqpn.com/pope-saint-gregory-the-great/ he is the patron saint of the papacy, musicians, students, teachers, and others.
This image is a detail of the mural in the apse of Saint Benedict Catholic Church, Richmond, Virginia. Pope Saint Gregory the Great here is wearing the papal tara, and holding his Regulae Pastoralis Liber, which you can read in an English translation here.
In the Office of Readings today, we see from one of the saint’s homilies, “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.”
“Christ, you decided to show your merciful love through your holy shepherds, – let your mercy always reach us through them.” (LOTH)
A lovely video from some Dominicans, dominicanfriars.org, Come My Way. Lyrics here. Here’s the video:
Thank you, Dominicans!
“The burning zeal for God’s glory that motivates you fills my heart with joy. It is sad for us to see in our own time that indifferentism in its many forms is spreading like an epidemic not only among the laity but also among religious. But God is worthy of glory beyond measure, and therefore it is of absolute and supreme importance to seek that glory with all the power of our feeble resources. Since we are mere creatures we can never return to him all that is his due…
God, who is all-knowing and all-wise, knows best what we should do to increase his glory. Through his representatives on earth he continually reveals his will to us; thus it is obedience and obedience alone that is the sure sign to us of the divine will. A superior may, it is true, make a mistake; but it is impossible for us to be mistaken in obeying a superior’s command. The only exception to this rule is the case of a superior commanding something that in even the slightest way would contravene God’s law. Such a superior would not be conveying God’s will.
God alone is infinitely wise, holy, merciful, our Lord, Creator, and Father; he is beginning and end, wisdom and power and love; he is all. Everything other than God has value to the degree that it is referred to him, the maker of all and our own redeemer, the final end of all things. It is he who, declaring his adorable will to us through his representatives on earth, draws us to himself and whose plan is to draw others to himself through us and to join us all to himself in an ever deepening love.
Look, then, at the high dignity that by God’s mercy belongs to our state in life. Obedience raises us beyond the limits of our littleness and puts us in harmony with God’s will. In boundless wisdom and care, his will guides us to act rightly. Holding fast to that will, which no creature can thwart, we are filled with unsurpassable strength.
Obedience is the one and the only way of wisdom and prudence for us to offer glory to God. If there were another, Christ would certainly have shown it to us by word and example. Scripture, however, summed up his entire life at Nazareth in the words: He was subject to them; Scripture set obedience as the theme of the rest of his life, repeatedly declaring that he came into the world to do his Father’s will.”
From the Letters of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe, priest and martyr
(Scritti del P. Massimiliano M. Kolbe, Italian translation, vol. I, pt. 1 [Padua, 1971], 75-77; 166), in today’s Morning Prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours.
God is wonderful in his saints!
Read more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
Photo of St. Maximilian Kolbe in the Public Domain, from Wikipedia.
Forma Fidei 