June 20 - St. Alban

St. Alban was the first Christian martyr in Britain during the early 4th century. He is the patron saint of converts and torture victims.

Although he was not a man of faith, St. Alban was very hospitable and compassionate. As a soldier, he sheltered a persecuted priest, Amphibalus, during a time when Christians were being put to death in Britain. The priest's faith and piety struck St. Alban, as well as his dedication to prayer.

Alban soon converted to Christianity.

In an effort to help the priest escape, he switched clothes with him. But Alban was caught and ordered to renounce his faith. St. Alban refused to worship idols, and when asked to state his name, answered “My name is Alban, and I worship the only true and living God, who created all things.

For his refusal to deny his beliefs, he was to be tortured and beheaded. The person first selected to execute Alban heard his testimony and converted on the spot. After refusing to kill Alban, he was executed as well.

A number of other conversions are claimed to have happened thanks to the witness of St. Alban’s martyrdom, specifically on behalf of spectators of his execution.

Finally, when the priest learned that Alban was arrested in his place, he turned himself in, hoping to save Alban’s life. But that wasn’t the case. The priest was killed as well.

St. Alban’s Cathedral now stands near the execution site. The town where he was born was also renamed after him.

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel, Matthew 10:  26 – 33, Jesus was sending the twelve apostles out into the world and instructing them to announce, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  This announcement was not to be “whispered,” in the dark.  Jesus directed the twelve apostles to “proclaim [it] on the housetops.”  “Speak in the light.” 

Proclaiming the gospel message required boldness then and it requires boldness today. Boldly proclaiming the gospel was so important that Jesus repeated it three times in seven short verses: “fear no one,” “proclaim on the housetops,” “Do not be afraid.” In addition, sharing the gospel message required/s faith.  It requires faith in God the Father who, as Jeremiah tells us in the first reading, is with us, “like a mighty champion.”  It requires faith in God’s infinite and overwhelming love, a love so fervent that God the Father knows how many hairs each of us has on our head. In the First Letter of John 4:18-19 we read that “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love. We love because [God] first loved us.” 

God’s transforming and empowering love is a gift; it is a gift revealed through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who died for all our sins.   In Romans 5:5-8 St. Paul said “the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us. For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. With such irrefutable proof, there is no room for fear.”  And so, we all should have the courage to proclaim the gospel message from our housetops, in our schools, in our work places and in our community THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS AT HAND!

Today is Father's Day.  It is a day set aside for us to honor and remember our fathers if they have died and to honor and thank our father’s if they are still with us.  The very first place we learn about God’s love for us is in our homes.  The very first people who demonstrate God’s compassionate love for us are our parents. Fathers have a special responsibility to make God’s love present to their families, their communities and to our world.  And so, on this day we say a special prayer for all fathers. 

God our Father
Bless these men,
that they may find strength as fathers.
Let the example of their faith and love shine forth.
Grant that we, their sons and daughters,
may honor them always
with a spirit of profound respect.
Amen!

Life is Simple

“Life is simple: We are living in a word that is absolutely transparent and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God manifests Himself everywhere, in everything--in people and in things and in nature and in events. It becomes very obvious that He is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. You cannot be without God. It's impossible. It's simple impossible. The only thing is that we don't see it. What is it that makes the world opaque? It is care.”

~ Thomas Merton

June 17 - St. Albert Chmielowski

Founder of the Albertine Brothers and Sisters, and one of the saints who inspired the vocation of the young Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II.

Saint Albert was born on August 20, 1845 in Igolomia, Poland (near Kraków) as Adam Hilary Bernard Chmielowski.  Born into a wealthy and aristocratic family, Adam was the oldest of four children.

Actively involved in politics from his youth, Adam lost a leg fighting in an insurrection against Czar Alexander III at age 18.  In Krakow, he became a popular artist and his talent in the subject led him to study in Warsaw, Munich, and Paris.

A kind and compassionate person, Adam was always deeply aware of human suffering, and felt called to help those in need.  Realizing that God was calling Him to a life of service, he returned to Krakow in 1874, determined to dedicate his talents to the glory of God.  Instead of continuing his work as an artist, he decided to care for the poor and became a Secular Franciscan, taking the name Albert.

In 1887, Albert founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants of the Poor, known as the Albertines or the Gray Brothers.  Then, in 1891, he founded a community of Albertine sisters, known as the Gray Sisters.

The Albertines organized food and shelter for the poor and homeless of any age or religion.  Albert preached on the great crisis that results from a refusal to see and aid the suffering individuals in society.

In 1949, Pope John Paul II, who was at the time Father Karol Wojtyla, wrote a well-received play about Albert called Our God’s Brother.  John Paul II later said that he found great spiritual support for his own vocation in the life of St. Albert, whom he saw as an example of leaving behind a world of art, literature, and theater to make a radical choice for the priesthood.

Brother Albert died on Christmas Day, 1916.  He was canonized on November 12, 1989 by Pope John Paul II.  The Church celebrates St. Albert’s feast day on June 17.

June 16 - St. Lutgardis

St. Lutgardis is the patron saint of the blind and physically disabled. Born in the 12th century, she came to her vocation in part due to her father’s bad business sense. Her father lost her dowry in a failed business venture and sent her to a Benedictine convent at the age of 12.

A few years later, she received a vision of Christ showing her his wounds, and at age 20 she became a Benedictine nun. Her visions continued and she is said to have levitated and dripped blood from her head when meditating on the Passion.

Seeking a stricter life, she joined the Cistercians and displayed the gifts of healing, prophecy, spiritual wisdom and teaching on the Gospels.

She accepted the blindness that afflicted her for the last 11 years of her life as a gift that helped reduce the distractions of the outside world. In her last vision, Christ told her when she was to die, the day after the Feast of the Holy Trinity, June 16, 1246. She was 64.

June 15 - St. Germaine Cousin

June 15 is the feast day of St. Germaine Cousin, a simple and pious young girl who lived in Pibrac, France in the late 1500s. Germaine was born in 1579 to poor parents. Her father was a farmer, and her mother died when she was still an infant. She was born with a deformed right arm and hand, as well as the disease of scrofula, a tubercular condition.

Her father remarried soon after the death of her mother, but his new wife was filled with disgust by Germaine's condition. She tormented and neglected Germaine, and taught her siblings to do so as well.

Starving and sick, Germaine was eventually kicked out of the house and forced to sleep under the stairway in the barn, on a pile of leaves and twigs, because of her stepmother’s dislike of her and disgust of her condition. She tended to the family's flock of sheep everyday.

Despite her hardships, she lived each day full of thanksgiving and joy, and spent much of her time praying the Rosary and teaching the village children about the love of God. She was barely fed and had an emaciated figure, yet despite this she shared the little bread that she had with the poor of the village.

From her simple faith grew a deep holiness and profound trust in God. She went to Mass everyday, leaving her sheep in the care of her guardian angel, who never failed her. Germaine’s deep piety was looked upon with ridicule by the villagers, but not by the children, who were drawn to her holiness.

God protected Germaine and showered his favor upon her. It was reported that on days when the river was high, the waters would part so that she could pass through them on her way to Mass. One day in winter, when she was being chased by her stepmother who accused her of stealing bread, she opened her apron and fresh summer flowers fell out. She offered the flowers to her stepmother as a sign of forgiveness.

Eventually, the adults of the village began to realize the special holiness of this poor, crippled shepherdess. Germaine's parents eventually offered her a place back in their house, but she chose to remain in her humble place outside.

Just as the villagers were realizing the beauty of her life, God called her to Himself. Her father found her body on her bed of leaves one morning in her 22nd year of life.

Forty-three years later, when a relative of hers was being buried, Germaine’s casket was opened and her body was found incorrupt. People in the surrounding area began praying for her intercession and obtaining miraculous cures for illnesses.

11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The creative power of our triune God never ceases to amaze me. God who created the entire universe, created us as well. He didn’t just create us like the earth, the sun or the moon, he created us in his image. He made promises to us. He made covenants with us. He has proved His love for us over and over and over again since the beginning of time as we know it. All three of our readings today reveal how, in God’s eyes, we are “special possessions” dearer to God “than all other people”; proven beneficiaries of “his love for us” and recipients of His Divine compassion and mercy. God sees the potential of each and every one of us who long to serve him.

In today’s Gospel Jesus sees a crowd of ordinary people who are “troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.” Recognizing that he cannot reach out to all these people himself, Jesus sends out his twelve, “hand picked” disciples to carry on his ministry. He commissions them to proclaim “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,” and to “cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons.”

The disciples were ordinary people just like the people in the crowd. He called them not for what they were but for what he knew they could become. Jesus calls all of us as well. At our baptism we are anointed to become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation,” just like the children of Israel. Jesus knows that none of us is perfect. That is the point of our second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans 5: 6-11, “while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” And he expects us to make sure that his message of love, his message about the Kingdom of Heaven is present in the world. We are God’s “laborers for his harvest.”

Oh God, Father of all Mercies,

Provider of a bountiful harvest,

Send your graces upon those You have called

To gather the fruits of Your labor;

Preserve and strengthen them 

in their lifelong service of you.

Open the hearts of us, Your children,

That we may discern Your Holy Will;

Inspire in us a love and desire 

to surrender ourselves to serving others

In the name of Your son, Jesus Christ.

Amen