This weekend the most amazing lady the world has ever known will be canonized, Mother...err, blessed Teresa of Calcutta! In honor of her sainthood, I wanted to talk about saints and why we need them.
As
Americans, our history books are filled with courageous men and women
who were founding fathers, fearless patriots, dedicated countrymen,
strong leaders, fierce fighters, many of whom were willing, and did, lay
down their lives for the country they believed in. It is through their
blood, sweat, and tears that America was built and their stories have
inspired us through the years to respect what we have and aspire to be
like them today. Their faces are on our coins, buildings, on statues in
town squares, their books fill our libraries, schools; their belongings
are preserved in museums, their words quoted in documents, speeches,
and along the way, they frame us in our thinking and desire to remain
American.
In
the same way, the saints are to the Catholic Church what these historic
people are to our country. They inspire us to be better, to love
Jesus, respect the Church teachings and know she is worth fighting for.
They are our teachers and role models, and because they were human like
us, we can relate to them more closely. Like St Augustine, who said,
"O Master, make me chaste, but not yet!"
-St. Augustine
So Who exactly is a Saint?
I
recently got turned on to Fr. Robert Barron and his “Word on Fire”
website. In his “Catholicism” project, Fr. Barron talks about the saints
and tells a story about when Simon Peter first met Jesus in Luke
5:3-11. Basically, Jesus got into his boat and started ordering him
around! Unprovoked, uninvited, and unsolicited! He goes on to say,
“Jesus’ uninvited boarding of the vessel represents the invasionof
grace, the incoming of the divine love into someone’s life. Precisely
because God is noncompetitive with creation, precisely because he wants
human beings to come fully to life, this inrushing of grace does not
destroy or interrupt what it invades; it enhances it and raises it to a
new pitch.” I love this, in nearly every saint story, you see where
they succumb to their calling, allowing Christ to live His life in us,
thus cooperating with grace.
"Teach us to give and not count the cost."
-St. Ignatius de Loyola
"We are to love God for Himself, because of a twofold reason; nothing is more reasonable, nothing more profitable."
-St. Bernard of Clairvaux
They
were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers; they were old and young,
religious and laity, and many different walks of life, such as lawyers,
doctors, carpenters, and nurses. Depending on where we are in life,
what we do, and where we live there is a saint that we can relate to,
follow their example, imitate their virtues, and ask them to pray for
us.
"You cannot be half a saint; you must be a whole saint or no saint at all."
-St. Therese of Lisieux
"The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are."
-St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)
"Charity is that with which no man is lost, and without which no man is saved."
-St. Robert Bellarmine
John
Paul II has made saints in many countries, too. For example, he
canonized 120 Chinese martyrs, he canonized Mother Katharine Drexel, an
American, and he canonized Sister Bakita, an African.
Suffering:
Each
of these beautiful people suffered in one way or another. Suffering is
not always a terminal illness, a torturous imprisonment or death,
sometimes suffering is depression, mourning loved ones, daily trials
that can and do overwhelm us, alcoholism, addictions are all ways that
we can suffer. But with suffering these saints shared their hearts,
their lives, and love for Christ in His passion for us. They learned to
give it back to Him in atonement for their and our sins as well. God
formed them and gave them the strength to endure and persevere through
their suffering and turn it around for good. They even learned to
appreciate and desire to suffer if that was how they could serve Jesus
more fully.
A
young blessed, Chiara Bedano, 18 was beatified sept 2010. She is a
young girl who died of bone cancer in 1989. She denied morphine at the
end of her life saying that her pain is all she had to offer to Jesus. “I want to share as much as possible the pain of Jesus on the cross.”
“Don’t cry for me. I am going to Jesus. At my funeral I don’t want people to cry, but rather to sing with all their voices.” – Blessed Chiara during a medical crisis near the end of her life
If
you have ever read about Bl. John Paul II’s life, he lost his mother at
age 8, his brother soon after that, his father when he was in his early
20’s. He learned painful separation and loss early on. He learned to
depend on our Holy Mother for intercession and guidance. I was struck
on how much his life looked like he was being formed for his greatest
job of all. Through all the pain and suffering of his childhood, the
struggles with Poland, he became one of strength, wisdom, and humility.
Personal note:
As a cradle Catholic, you would think I embraced the saints and the
benefit of studying their lives, but I didn’t really grasp this as a
young person. Basically, studying them meant going through the
grotesque murders and horrible torture stories of so many innocent
people that I ignored this part of the Church. I get nightmares so
easily and that this was just too close to nightmare material for my
liking. I knew about the some of the saints…well how can you get
through being a Catholic without someone telling you to pray to St. Jude
to find something you’ve lost, or St Anthony for a sick or lost animal,
St. Joseph to help you sell your house, or St. Michael for a safe trip
somewhere. But it wasn’t until we started homeschooling our daughters
and they had to do “Saint reports” each week that the started to
understand the value. Each week they would read about a new saint and
we would talk about them. They were intrigued about how they were
tortured and killed, ugh! I couldn’t listen to them. One day, we were
watching a documentary about St. Agnes’ shrines and basilica. The tour
guide talked about her torture and martyrdom…she was only 12! As
homeschoolers, a few families got together each week and formed a small
saint society; there the girls talked about the saints that were
murdered for the faith and were swapping gory details, watching this
documentary was too much and I ran upstairs and started to pray/ask God
why these faithful and good people suffered such horrible deaths for
being good!? I was in near tears in overwhelming confusion with my
hands clasped together in desperation, these words came to me, “I chose
the stronger ones.” That made sense; suddenly I understood that these
amazingly precious people were strong and fierce in their faith and love
for Jesus.
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I want to share with you a bit of dialogue from St. Catherine of Siena with our Lord about Obedience:
Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena about Obedience with Our Lord
And
if you ask Me where obedience is to be found, and what is the cause of
its loss, and the sign of its possession……..you will find it in its
completeness in the sweet and amorous Word, My only-begotten Son.
So prompt in Him was this virtue, that, in order to fulfill it, He hastened to the shameful death of the Cross.
What destroys obedience?
Look at the first man and you will see…. It was pride, which was produced by self-love, and desire to please his companion.
This
was the cause that deprived him of the perfection of obedience, giving
him instead disobedience, depriving him of the life of grace, and
slaying his innocence, wherefore he fell into impurity and great misery,
and not only he, but the whole human race, as I said to you.
The sign that you have this virtue is patience, and impatience the sign that you have it not
What caused the great obedience of the Word? The love which He had for My honor and your salvation.
Whence proceeded this love?
From the clear vision with which His soul saw ….. thus always looking on Me, the eternal God.
He
was faithful to Me, His eternal Father, and therefore hastened as one
enamored along the road of obedience, lit up with the light of glory.
And
inasmuch as love cannot be alone, but is accompanied by all the true
and royal virtues, because all the virtues draw their life from love, He possessed them all, but in a different way from that in which you do.
Among the others he possessed patience, which is the marrow of obedience, and a demonstrative sign, whether a soul be in a state of grace and truly love or not.
Wherefore
charity, the mother of patience, has given her as a sister to
obedience, and so closely united them together that one cannot be lost
without the other. Either you have them both or you have neither.
This virtue has a nurse who feeds her, that is, true humility;
therefore a soul is obedient in proportion to her humility, and humble
in proportion to her obedience. This humility is the foster-mother and
nurse of charity, and with the same milk it feeds the virtue of
obedience.
The garments given it by this nurse is self-contempt, and insult, desire to displease herself, and to please Me.
Where does it find this?
In
sweet Christ Jesus, My only-begotten Son. For who abased Himself more
than He did! He was sated with insults, jibes, and mockings. He caused
pain to Himself in His bodily life, in order to please Me.
And who was more patient than He? … He patiently embraced His injuries like one enamored, fulfilling the obedience imposed on Him by Me, His Eternal Father.
Wherefore in Him you will find obedience perfectly accomplished.
He left you this rule and this doctrine, which gives you life, for it is the straight way, having first observed them Himself.
He is the way, wherefore He said, ’He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’
For
he who travels by that way, travels in the light, and being enlightened
cannot stumble, or be caused to fall, without perceiving it.
For He has cast from Himself the darkness of self-love,
by which he fell into disobedience; for as I spoke to you of a
companion virtue proceeding from obedience and humility, so I tell you
that disobedience comes from pride, which issues from self-love depriving the soul of humility.
The
sister given by self-love to disobedience is impatience, and pride, her
foster-mother, feeds her with the darkness of infidelity, so she
hastens along the way of darkness, which leads her to eternal death.
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Martyrs
"We always find that those who walked closest to Christ were those who had to bear the greatest trials." -St. Teresa of Avila
“A great deal depends on the importance that John Paul II attributes to martyrs.
(John Paul II beatified 1,032 and canonized 402 martyrs)
The history of the Catholic Church is, in fact, a history of martyrs. I
often say that the Church has never taken off the red tunic of
martyrdom since her birth. It has been a constant. Also, we have to
remember that John Paul II comes from a country with a history of
Catholic martyrs.
"If this is the way You treat Your friends, no wonder You have so few!"
-St. Teresa of Avila
Martyrs are a treasure for
the Church, a precious inheritance. Their courage is not explainable in
natural terms. It is supernatural. They stimulate us to be ready to give
our lives. Today there is the tendency to live without sacrifice and
live in comfort. The martyrs tell us that life is not a matter of
pleasure, but of living supernatural values. Their importance to the
Church is immense.”
How does one become a saint?
Now the Church doesn’t make saints; God
makes saints, and the Church recognizes the saints that God has made.
The Catholic Church is in the business of fostering sanctity, so there
could never be too many saints.
So in 1588 ,
Pope Sixtus V created the
Congregation of Rites.
On
29 June 1908, the
Congregation of the Discipline of the Sacraments was erected, leaving the
Congregation of Rites to deal with
canonization causes and it only took 61 years for the Vatican to see that a name change was in order, so in
1969 the
Congregation was re-named
Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Here they investigate potential cases for canonization, to consider proposals, and decide whether the case may be taken to the Pope
A team studies each case, which as you know is a process that takes years, and they even have their own physicians to analyze reported miraculous healings.
While not secretive, the Congregation is often slow and reluctant to release news on a particular Cause in order not to spread rumours or cause sensationalism.
Bl. John Paul II canonized more saints than any other pope because he believed we needed more good examples to live by. He
was
convinced that God is extravagant in making saints, and that the Church
should recognize that. The world always needs examples of men and women
who have lived their lives nobly, courageously, generously. The world
especially needs such witnesses today, when a thick fog of cynicism
hangs over us.
Under
Pope John Paul II, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, has
beatified 1,338 men and women and canonized another 482 — which is
comparable to the beatification and canonization numbers of the four
previous centuries
combined. John Paul II has canonized hundreds of lay people. More than
220 lay beatifications and 245 are lay canonizations. Many people don't
know this.
Stages of becoming a saint:
1. Venerable
2. BeatificationLatin: ( beatus, blessed; facere, to make)
The declaration by the
pope as head of the
Church that one of its members deserves for
saintly life as
confessor or heroic
death as
martyr, to be entitled
Blessed,
that is, regarded as dwelling in the happiness of heaven. The
declaration is preceded by a double process, the first consisting of an
examination into the life, virtues, writings, and reputation for
holiness, or
martyrdom, of the Servant of God in question, conducted ordinarily by the
bishop of the place in which he or she
died or lived a long time. In the case of a
martyr no
miracles
are required in this first process, but they are required for others.
The second process, known as the Apostolic process, is instituted by the
Holy See in case the first inquiry shows that there is a likelihood of
proving that the Servant of God practised virtue to an heroic degree, or
died by the heroic death of
martyrdom. To go further and obtain
canonization,
miracles are required for both
martyrs and
confessors.
3. Canonizaton: (Latin: canonizare, to canonize)
Declaration of the
Sovereign Pontiff that the faithful should venerate as a
Saint one who had already been
beatified.
Beatification permits veneration of the
Blessed
one in certain places or communities: canonization commands it
everywhere. The decree is issued only after the Congregation for the
Causes of Saints has accepted proof of two miracles through the
intercession of the
Blessed who had been formally
beatified, occurring after the
beatification and of three
miracles for one whose
beatification had taken place without the ordinary process. The Saint is now entitled to the full honours of the
altar, though the
Mass and
Office may not be extended to the entire Church. The canonization is solemnly celebrated in
Saint Peter‘s and a solemn
novena or
triduum
is made in another church of the city chosen for this purpose; this
same nine or three days service may be also held elsewhere within a
given time following the canonization
Relic of the saints:
Veneration
of saint relics is similar to that of which we give to images. We do
NOT venerate the relics for their own sake, but for the sake of who they
represent.
There
are three degrees of relic: 1.) a body part of a saint 2.)
clothing/books/etc. used by the saint. 3.) articles that touched the
body or other relic of saint.
Relics
are in the bible, even God honored relics, in the IV book of Kings a
dead man was restored to life when his body touched the bones of
Eliseus. Remember the woman with the hemorrhage who merely touched the
cloak of Jesus? God used a material object as a means to transfer
Christ’s healing grace.
Does anyone know what we have as a relic of bl. John Paul II? Ans.: 2 vials of his blood taken for more tests just before he died.
Intercessory Prayer:
The
saints pray for us from Heaven much like our friends, relatives, and we
ourselves pray for special needs and concerns in our lives. We are
also their intercessors praying for the Church suffering, those in
purgatory and each other here on Earth. It is through these prayers
that God hears our free will desires for help and guidance.
The
Church is comprised of all believers living and who have lived and are
now beyond this life either in Purgatory or in Heaven. She has both a
visible and invisible body, but all the same, we are one body, one
family.
The Communion of Saints
· The Church Militant: are those of us here on earth fighting for Heaven against the devil and the temptations of the world
· The Church Suffering: are those souls in Purgatory suffering their just punishments before obtaining heaven.
· The Church Triumphant:
are the souls in Heaven because they won the battle against the
temptations of the world and are now enjoying their eternal reward.
Apologetics:
As
Catholic Christians, we are pounded by questions and critical attitudes
about what we believe and what has been passed down through the years
as heresy. One of the biggest has been whether we pray TO Mary and
worship her and why we put people that have gone before us between Jesus
and God. I have been asked why I talk to dead people.
Now
does this get in the way of praying directly to Jesus? We pray
directly to Jesus all day long, all the time, but remember, the Church
is more like a family.
"Let us go forward in peace, our eyes upon heaven, the only one goal of our labors."
-St. Therese of Lisieux
"On
the question of relating to our fellowman – our neighbor’s spiritual
need transcends every commandment. Everything else we do is a means to
an end. But love is an end already, since God is love."
-St. Teresia Benedicta (Edith Stein)
"You
learn to speak by speaking, to study by studying, to run by running, to
work by working, and just so, you learn to love by loving. All those
who think to learn in any other way deceive themselves." -St. Francis de Sales:
What’s wrong with lifting up such lives and celebrating the grace of God that makes such saintly people possible?