Holiness

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Today, Pope Benedict XVI concluded his catechetical series “on the lives of the saints.”  (I have thus changed the designation of those audiences from “The Fathers” to “The Lives of the Saints”, which is a more apt title considering the direction the series has gone in.)

To wrap things up, the Holy Father reflects on Holiness, “the holiness to which each Christian is called.”  It is the natural way to end the series and it really drives home the entire point of what Benedict has been doing with this series — and the one before it on the Apostles — for the past five years.  Indeed, this series on the saints is really all that Pope Benedict XVI has been teaching us for the entirety of his pontificate since he finished off the series that John Paul II had started on Vespers.

That is, all of us are called to be holy, to be saints.  Pope Benedict has given us this rich catechesis on the lives of the saints to give us role models so that we can “go and do likewise”.  The saints are given to us not to fulfill some historical curiosity but so that we have some concrete guidance in achieving that holiness in our own lives.

It is a fitting end to a wonderful series.  I cannot wait to see what is in store for us in the next series.  Next week  (and perhaps the week after) will be dedicated to Holy Week and Easter.  So we will see after that where the Holy Father wishes to take us.

Here is an excerpt from this audience:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

As a conclusion to this series of catecheses on the lives of the saints, I would like today to speak of the holiness to which each Christian is called. Holiness is the fullness of the Christian life, a life in Christ; it consists in our being united to Christ, making our own his thoughts and actions, and conforming our lives to his. As such, it is chiefly the work of the Holy Spirit who is poured forth into our hearts through Baptism, making us sharers in the paschal mystery and enabling us to live a new life in union with the Risen Christ. Christian holiness is nothing other than the virtue of charity lived to its fullest. In the pursuit of holiness, we allow the seed of God’s life and love to be cultivated by hearing his word and putting it into practice, by prayer and the celebration of the sacraments, by sacrifice and service of our brothers and sisters. The lives of the saints encourage us along this great path leading to the fullness of eternal life. By their prayers, and the grace of the Holy Spirit, may each of us live fully our Christian vocation and thus become a stone in that great mosaic of holiness which God is creating in history, so that the glory shining on the face of Christ may be seen in all its splendour.

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St. Thérèse of Lisieux

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Today Benedict finishes his catechesis of the remaining Doctors of the Church.  It will be interesting to see where he goes from here as he has now gone through most of the major thinkers of Catholic history.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today deals with Saint Theresa of Lisieux, the young Carmelite nun whose teaching of the “little way” of holiness has been so influential in our time. Born and raised in a devout French family, Theresa received permission to enter the Carmel of Lisieux at the tender age of fifteen. Her name in religion – Sister Theresa of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face – expresses the heart of her spirituality, centred on the contemplation of God’s love revealed in the mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption. In imitation of Christ, Theresa sought to be little in all things and to seek the salvation of the world. Taken ill in her twenty-third year, she endured great physical suffering in union with the crucified Lord; she also experienced a painful testing of faith which she offered for the salvation of those who deny God. By striving to embody God’s love in the smallest things of life, Theresa found her vocation to be “love in the heart of the Church”. May her example and prayers help us to follow “the little way of trust and love” in spiritual childhood, abandoning ourselves completely to the love of God and the good of souls.

(read more)

Related Links:

St. Thérèse of Lisieux at NewAdvent.org

St. Thérèse of Lisieux at SQPN

VIS article on the audeince

Zenit article on the audience

St. Juliana of Cornillon

Benedict continues his catechetical series on important women in the life of the medieval Church:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today deals with Saint Juliana of Cornillon, better known as Saint Juliana of Liège. Born at the end of the twelfth century, Juliana was orphaned young and became an Augustinian nun. Intelligent and cultured, she was drawn to contemplative prayer and devotion to the sacrament of the Eucharist. As the result of a recurring vision, Juliana worked to promote a liturgical feast in honour of the Eucharist. The feast of Corpus Christi was first celebrated in the Diocese of Liège, and began to spread from there. Pope Urban IV, who had known Juliana in Liège, instituted the solemnity of Corpus Christi for the universal Church and charged Saint Thomas Aquinas with composing the texts of the liturgical office. The Pope himself celebrated the solemnity in Orvieto, then the seat of the papal court, where the relic of a celebrated Eucharistic miracle, which had occurred the previous year, was kept. As we recall Saint Juliana of Cornillon, let us renew our faith in Christ’s true presence in the Eucharist and pray that the “springtime of the Eucharist” which we are witnessing in the Church today may bear fruit in an ever greater devotion to the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.

(read more)

Related Links:

St. Juliana of Cornillon at NewAdvent.org

St. Juliana of Cornillon at Catholic Answers OCE

St. Juliana of Cornillon at SQPN

VIS article on the audeince

Zenit article on the audience

Marguerite d’Oingt

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This week’s audience focuses on a lesser known female Blessed from the late 13th/early 14th century:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today deals with Marguerite d’Oingt, a thirteenth-century Carthusian prioress and mystic. Marguerite’s writings, which include the earliest known examples of Provençal French, were inspired by the evangelical spirituality of Saint Bruno; they reveal her fine sensibility and her deep desire for God. Marguerite viewed life as a path of perfection leading to complete configuration to Christ, above all in the contemplation of his saving passion. She imagined the Lord’s life, his words and his actions, as a Book which he holds out to us, a Book to be studied and imprinted on our hearts and lives, until the day we read it from within, in the contemplation of the Blessed Trinity. Marguerite’s writings, filled with imagery drawn from family life, radiate a warm love of God and deep gratitude for his grace which purifies our affections and draws us more closely to him. The life and writings of Marguerite d’Oingt invite us to meditate daily on the mystery of God’s infinite love, revealed above all in the sufferings of Christ on the Cross, and to find in it the strength and joy to place our lives at his service and that of our brothers and sisters.

(read more)

Related Links:

• VIS article on the audience
• Zenit article on the audience

St. Bridget of Sweden

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Co-Patroness of Europe.  The next audience in Benedict’s series on women saints of the medieval time period:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today is on Saint Bridget of Sweden.  Born in thirteen hundred and three, she grew up steeped in the faith.  She and her husband had eight children, and dedicated themselves with great fervour to the spiritual life and their children’s Christian formation.  Bridget was the driving force behind her and her husband’s “conjugal sanctity”, and became a model for many women through the ages of how to be the spiritual centre of the family.  Following her husband’s death, Bridget renounced further marriage in order to deepen her union with the Lord, through prayer, penance and works of charity.  She gave away her possessions and lived in a monastery.  In her prayer, she experienced many intense mystical experiences.  In thirteen forty-nine, she made a pilgrimage to Rome, to obtain Papal approval for a religious order of both men and women which she intended to found, and, while in Rome, she lived a life of intense apostolic prayer and activity.  Bridget died in thirteen seventy-three, and was canonized eighteen years later.  She is a significant reminder of a united Western Christendom, a powerful example of feminine sanctity, and was proclaimed co-Patroness of Europe by the Venerable John Paul the Second, during the Great Jubilee.  May her intercession help unite all Christians, and draw the people of Europe to an ever greater appreciation of their unique and invaluable Christian heritage.

(read more)

Related Links:

St. Bridget of Sweden at NewAdvent.org

St. Bridget of Sweden at Catholic Answers OCE

St. Bridget of Sweden at SQPN

VIS article on the audeince

Zenit article on the audience

John Paul II, Homily at the Ecumenical Celebration of Vespers on the Seventh Centenary of the Birth of St. Bridget of Sweden, Co-Patroness of Europe, October 4, 2002

John Paul II, Proclaiming Saint Bridget of Sweden, Saint Catherine of Siena, and Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Co-Patronesses of Europe, October 1, 1999.

St. Elizabeth of Hungary

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis today I wish to speak about Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia. She was born in the early thirteenth century. Her father was the King of Hungary, and Elizabeth was known from an early age for her fidelity to prayer and her attention to the poor. Though she was married to Ludwig, a nobleman, for political reasons, she and her husband developed a sincere love for each other, one deepened by faith and the desire to do the Lord’s will.

In her married life, Elizabeth did not compromise her faith in spite of the requirements of life at court. She preferred to feed the poor than to dine at banquets, and to clothe the naked than to dress in costly garments. Because of their deep faith in God, Elizabeth and Ludwig supported each other in their religious duties. After his early death, she dedicated herself to the service of the poor, always performing the humblest and most difficult works. She founded a religious community, and lived her vows until her death at an early age. She was canonized four years later, and is a patroness of the Third Order of Saint Francis. May her dedication to the poor and needy inspire in us the same love for Christ in our neighbour.

(read more)

Related Links:

St. Elizabeth of Hungary at NewAdvent.org

St. Elizabeth of Hungary at Catholic Answers OCE

St. Elizabeth of Hungary at SQPN

VIS article

Zenit article

Blessed Angela of Foligno

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So it continues:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today recalls the medieval mystic Blessed Angela of Foligno, born in 1248. A carefree wife and mother, Angela at one time looked down on the mendicants and observers of strict poverty in religious life. However, tragic events and suffering in her personal life gave her cause to become aware of her own sins, leading her to a decisive moment of conversion in the year 1285. Invoking the aid of Saint Francis, who appeared to her in a vision, she made her confession at San Feliciano. Upon the death of her mother, husband and children, she sold all she had and joined the Third Order of Saint Francis. She died in 1309.

The Book of Blessed Angela of Foligno recounts her conversion, and indicates for us the necessary means of our own turning to the Lord: penance, humility and tribulations. This same book describes the numerous mystical experiences of Blessed Angela, ecstasies which she had great difficulty putting into words because of the intensity of her spiritual union with God. Her fear of sin and punishment was overcome by her growth in love for God, drawing her along the “way of the Cross” to “the way of love”. My dear brothers and sisters, may we share her prayer to the Father: “My God, make me worthy to know the most high Mystery, which is your strong and ineffable love… the greatest love possible!”.

(read more)

Related Links:

Blessed Angela of Foligno at NewAdvent.org

Blessed Angela of Foligno at Catholic Answers OCE

Blessed Angela of Foligno at SQPN

VIS article

Zenit article

St. Gertrude the Great

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Today’s papal audience continues with the theme of great women saints from the medieval Church.  Here is the excerpt from tha Vatican site.  The full text will be available next week:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Our catechesis today focuses on Saint Gertrude the Great, a remarkable figure associated with the monastery of Helfta, where so many masterpieces of religious literature were born. Saint Gertrude is the only woman of Germanic descent to be called “Great”, an honour due to her exceptional natural and supernatural gifts. As a youth, Gertrude was intelligent, strong and decisive, but also impulsive. With humility she asked others for advice and prayer. Eventually, she experienced a deep conversion: in her studies she passed from worldly pursuits to the sacred sciences, and in her monastic observance she moved from concern with external things to a life of intense prayer. In her writings, she sought to explain the truths of the faith with clarity and simplicity, while not failing to develop spiritual themes associated with Divine Love. In her religious practice, she pursued prayer with devotion and faithful abandonment to God. Dear friends, may we learn from Saint Gertrude the Great how to love Christ and His Church with humility and faith, and to cultivate our personal prayer through an intense participation in the Holy Mass and the sacred liturgy.

Related Links:

St. Gertrude the Great at NewAdvent.org.

St. Gertrude the Great at Catholic Answers OCE.

St. Gertrude the Great at SQPN.

VIS article

Zenit article

Saint Matilda of Hackeborn

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Yesterday’s audience discusses this less well known, yet very important saint:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In our catechesis today, we focus on the life of Saint Matilda of Hackeborn, one of several important thirteenth-century figures of the convent of Helfta in Saxony. Entering there at an early age, Matilda was formed in an intensely spiritual and intellectual atmosphere founded upon Sacred Scripture, the liturgy, and the patristic tradition. This climate, along with the gift of divine illumination that she received through her mystical contemplation, enabled her to compose numerous prayers and be of counsel and consolation to many.  Distinguished by her humility and intelligence, and by the intensity with which she lived her relationship with God and the saints, Matilda became the director of the convent’s novices, its choir, and its school. In this way she also became the spiritual guide of Saint Gertrude the Great, another important figure of Germanic monasticism. Dear friends, Saint Matilda’s life of prayer, guided by Sacred Scripture and nourished by the Holy Eucharist, led her to an intimate union with Christ, expressed in her devotion to his Sacred Heart. May we too grow in that devotion, through the power of her intercession.

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Related Links:

• St. Matilda of Hackeborn at NewAdvent.org.
• St. Matilda of Hackeborn at Catholic Answers OCE.
• St. Matilda of Hackeborn at SQPN.
• VIS article
• Zenit article

St. Clare of Assisi (Part 3)

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Here is the article on the audience on St. Clare of Assisi from Zenit.  It contains a few different excerpts from the audience than the VIS article, focusing largely on St. Clare as an influential leader:

Pope: It’s the Saints Who Change the World

Reflects on Example of Beloved Woman-Saint, Clare of Assisi

VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 15, 2010 (Zenit.org).- It is the saints who change the world, Benedict XVI says, affirming that they are the “great benefactors of humanity.”

The Pope made this affirmation today during the weekly general audience when he reflected on St. Clare of Assisi, whom he referred to as “one of the most beloved saints” of history.

The Holy Father spoke of the saint’s role as a bride of Christ, and how in this way, she reflected the identity of the Church.

“Over the course of history innumerable women like Clare and her companions have been fascinated by Christ who, in the beauty of his Divine Person, fills their hearts,” he said. “And the entire Church, through the mystic nuptial vocation of consecrated virgins, shows what she will always be: the beautiful and pure Bride of Christ.”

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