God's Word and Daily Life

By Tony Morales

The Church has been celebrating the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) since 1914. It is always an occasion to express concern for different vulnerable people on the move; to pray for them as they face many challenges; and to increase awareness about the opportunities that migration offers.

Every year Migrants’ Sunday is the last Sunday of September; in 2022, it will be celebrated on 25 September. As the title for his annual message, the Holy Father has chosen “Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees”.

This Sunday is an opportunity for the Church to reflect on the circumstances confronting migrants, including immigrants, refugees, children, and victims and survivors of human trafficking.

Commenting on the place of migrants in God’s plan, Pope Francis emphasizes that “the Kingdom of God is to be built with them, for without them it would not be the Kingdom that God wants. The inclusion of those most vulnerable is the necessary condition for full citizenship in God’s Kingdom.

What is the reality of the country’s migrants? Why did they become migrants? How can we help migrants in the Philippines?

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa 

Last Sunday, September 4, 2022, Pope Francis beatified Pope John Paul I.

He only exercised his ministry as Pope for only 33 days! This was enough to impress the whole world. He impressed his crowds with his smile. 

Let us meditate on Pope Francis' homily on the day of John Paul I’s beatification. May it inspire our prayer and help us smile and comfort those around us. 

“With a smile, Pope John Paul managed to communicate the goodness of the Lord.  How beautiful is a Church with a happy, serene and smiling face, a Church that never closes doors, never hardens hearts, never complains or harbours resentment, does not grow angry or impatient, does not look dour or suffer nostalgia for the past, falling into an attitude of going backwards.”

“Let us pray to Pope John Paul I, our father and our brother, and ask him to obtain for us “the smile of the soul”, a transparent smile that does not deceive, the smile of the soul. 

Let us pray, in his own words: “Lord take me as I am, with my defects, with my shortcomings, but make me become what you want me to be”. Amen.”

Jesus empowered the Church to continue His mission when He said, "Full authority has been given to me both in heaven and on earth; go, therefore and make disciples of all the nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you. And know that I am with you always, until the end of time. " (Mt. 28:18-20)

This great commission has been handed to women and men, whom God has called, to proclaim the Good News. This ministry of teaching and forming has traditionally been referred to as catechesis. Let us pray to for our Catechists!

By Tony Morales

Today, we celebrate the feast of Saint Rose of Lima, the secondary patroness of the Philippines.

Saint Rose was born Isabel Flores de Oliva in colonial Spain, today’s Peru, to a middle-class Catholic family. She took the name “Rose” when she was confirmed by Lima’s bishop, the future Saint Turibius of Mongrovejo. “Rose” had been her nickname since infancy after a servant said that she was as beautiful as a rose. Young Rose was indeed beautiful and attracted the attention of various suitors. But she had decided from a young age to give herself to Christ alone, so she actively deterred male interest by cutting off her hair, rubbing pepper into her pure skin to blister her face, and by damaging her feminine hands with the acidic juice of limes.

Her natural affinity for the things of God was not reciprocated by her father, who blocked her desire to enter a Dominican convent as a nun. Instead, Rose became a Third Order Dominican, a lay woman dedicated to living Catholicism in accord with Dominican spiritual ideals outside of the cloister.

Rose died in the perfume of holiness at the age of thirty-one. Her funeral was held in Lima’s Cathedral with all local dignitaries in attendance. She was beatified in 1667 and canonized in 1671. She is interred in the same church as Saint Martin de Porres in central Lima. Her pre-Vatican II feast day of August 30 is a national holiday in Peru and her image graces that country’s highest denomination currency. She is known as a powerful miracle worker credited with numerous physical healings unto today.

Saint Rose of Lima, you were young and holy. You dedicated your body and soul to God while still a child. Through your example and through your heavenly intercession, help all Catholics, especially the young, to dedicate their lives to God from the very start

By Anton Morales

This week, on August 16, is the feast day for our Patron Saint, St. Roch. As we pray today for his blessings let us take a look back on his life and why he became a saint. Roch was born in Montpellier, France about 1295 to a very rich and noble family. They were very pious and had prayed to our Lord daily for a child. When Roch was born they thanked God with tears of joy. Roch was born with a birthmark, a red cross, on his chest. When his parents saw this mark they knew it to be a sign of his future work and sanctity.

Roch grew both in age and grace with the help of his parents. He spent much of his boyhood in the practice of piety, penance, and charity. At a very young age God took both his father and his mother from him. His father’s dying words to him were something that the youth cherished as a sacred legacy. “Before all things, devote yourself to the service of God, and meditate diligently on the sufferings of our Divine Lord. Be the stay of the widow, the orphan, and all those in misfortune. Above all, keep yourself from avarice, the source of very many sins. Be eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, be a father to the poor, and know that by employing the property which I leave you in works of mercy, you will be blessed by God and man.”

He stood firm in his resolutions to serve the Lord. His heart was set on the things of Heaven. He joined the Third Order of St. Francis, sold all his possessions, resigned his principality in favor of his uncle and gave all he had to the poor. Having put on a pilgrim’s habit, he set out on foot for Rome to visit the Tomb of the Holy Apostles. He was a firm believer in the Holy Scriptures and the fact that with God nothing was impossible. He believed that if one wished to stand on the day of the last judgment one must practice charity. That is why he stopped along his way to Rome in a town stricken by the plague.

By Father Bernard Holzer, aa

 As tensions grow around the world, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, urges us to be builders of peace.

In an interview with the Italian geopolitical magazine "Limes", he recently calls us again that in matters of peace, the compass to follow is unique: the Gospel, "proclamation of peace, promise and gift of peace", "all its pages are filled with it. The angels invoke him at the time of Jesus' birth in Bethlehem. He himself wishes it to his family as soon as he is resurrected. The Church follows the example of her Lord: it believes in peace, works for peace, fights for peace, testifies to peace and seeks to build it. In this sense, she is a pacifist."

 With him, let us help the Holy Father to build peace in the midst of this "third world war in pieces" that Pope Francis has been talking about for years.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;`

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

(Prayer for Peace of St. Francis of Assisi)

By Fr. Bernard Holzer, aa

 The past teaches us that “colonization and genocide” start when believers "became worldly, and rather than fostering reconciliation, they imposed their own cultural models."  And Pope Francis went on to emphasize that "this attitude dies hard, also from the religious standpoint."

To be Jesus’ disciple is demanding:

 "It may seem easier to force God on people, rather than letting them draw near to God. This is contradictory and never works, because that is not how the Lord operates. He does not force us, he does not suppress or overwhelm; instead, he loves, he liberates, he leaves us free. He does not sustain with his Spirit those who dominate others, who confuse the Gospel of our reconciliation with proselytism. One cannot proclaim God in a way contrary to God Himself.”

"While God presents Himself simply and quietly, we always have the temptation to impose Him, and to impose ourselves in His name. It is the worldly temptation to make Him come down from the cross and show Himself with power. Yet Jesus reconciles us on the cross, not by coming down from the cross.

… Even today there is the temptation to manifest Jesus with the power and influence of the institution and its structures, with the appearance of projects that we think are working “without God, relying on human strength alone."

During this week, how can I meditate on these reflections of Pope Francis, and listen, dialogue and encounter my neighbor more?

On July 31, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus otherwise known as the Jesuits.

St. Ignatius’ inspiration to cast aside a life of privilege and to take up a life of generous service for “the greater glory of God” has guided Saint Louis University since the first Jesuits began as teachers and administrators of the St. Louis College in 1829. 

During his life, St. Ignatius and his Jesuit companions helped to lead the renewal of the Church, promoted the sharing of the Gospel with others near and far, established the foundation for what is today the largest system of private education in the world and exhorted Jesuits as well as nobles and common folk to care for and advocate for the poor and the marginalized. His Spiritual Exercises have given us a powerful method of prayer that leads a retreatant to prayerfully consider one’s relationship with God and one’s place in the beauty of God’s creation. The Spiritual Exercises reflected St. Ignatius profound experience of God and his great desire to discern what God desired of him. As Pope Francis observed in 2017, “Like Saint Ignatius of Loyola, let us be won over by the Lord Jesus and, led by Him, place ourselves at the service of others.” 

Let us all remember that whatever we do, even in the simplest of things- is for the greater glory of God!

By Anthony Morales

Pope Francis, in his message to mark this day, acknowledges the effect of the pandemic on all people, but most especially the elderly who have been hit harder than most others by death and loneliness. On a positive note, however, and in contrast to an attitude that prevails among many, Pope Francis states that grandparents and the elderly do indeed have a purpose in life, even if they feel they are running low on energy and that their solitude is burden enough. Their vocation is “to preserve our roots, to pass on the faith to the young and to care for the little ones.”

So often today, one sees grandparents acting as surrogate parents. Due to financial pressures, in many cases both parents are having to work and so call upon their own parents to care for their children. Of course, grandparents love spending time with their grandchildren, but acting in loco parentis often puts a significant strain on them physically, emotionally and financially. Such pressures were less of a concern in the past when grandparents connected with their grandchildren simply to revel in the pleasure of being present to them and enjoying their company.

As we celebrate World Grandparents’ Day and the Elderly on July 24, let us remember the love and care that we have received from our grandparents. We would not be the kind of person we are today without them. Let us offer a prayer for them today as well.