Saint Birgitta was the daughter of UpplandÂ?s Lagman, Birger Petersson and his wife, Ingeborg, who was a member of the same clan as the reigning family. BirgittaÂ?s family was pious; her father went to confession every Friday and made long and arduous pilgrimages as far away as the Holy Land.
BirgittaÂ?s mother died, leaving Birgitta, ten years old, Katharine, nine and a newborn baby boy, Israel. The children were sent to their maternal aunt for further education and care. It seems that as a …
Month: July 2020
A Child’s Prayer to Mary: Prayer of the Day for Thursday, July 23, 2020
Holy Mary, mother fair,
Filled with love for God,
Pray for us in all our needs.
Pray for us today.
The Magdalene and the Bride
In college I had the great blessing of taking a course on the Old Testament with renowned Biblical scholar Dr. John Bergsma. What I learned in that class fundamentally changed my life, especially the way I look at and pray with Scripture. Something I have carried with me from that class is the appreciation for how intentional Holy Mother Church is with her liturgical reading choices. For example, today’s feast is one of the few times when Song of Songs is read at Mass. There is a reason for that.
During that class, I developed a love for, and almost girl-crush on St. Mary Magdalene, whose feast we celebrate today. I will never forget how Dr. Bergsma led us through this passage from Song of Songs, and pointed out every parallel it carries to our Gospel reading today. The first time I read it through that lens, I got chills! Honestly, I still do.
On that first Holy Saturday, Mary Magdalene, in real time, experienced the dream sequence of Song of Songs from today’s first reading. We can parallel the two accounts verse for verse. The bride goes out at night in desperation to search for her loved one, just as Mary Magdalene headed to the tomb “while it was still dark” to find her Lord. Once there, Mary ran into the angels. Angels are often referred to as the “watchers of heaven.” In Song of Songs, as she looks for her beloved, the bride comes upon watchmen making their rounds around the city. She asks them if they have seen Him whom her heart loves. Mary Magdalene’s interaction with the angels, the “watchmen of heaven”, is almost identical. She tells them “they have taken my Lord, and I don’t know where they laid him.” The word she uses here for “Lord” is “kyrios,” which is oftentimes a term used by a woman referring to her husband. Obviously, we know that Mary Magdalene was not married to Jesus. However, this symbolizes that she is yearning for the one and only Bridegroom of her heart. In both Song of Songs and John 20, almost immediately after this interaction with the watchmen does the woman find her beloved.
Mary Magdalene is a type of all of us. The level of intimacy that she has with our Lord is the same intimacy that we are called to. Throughout the Gospels, we see Mary Magdalene clinging to Christ from the moment of her conversion; she cries at His feet, perfuming them with sacred perfumes and drying them with her hair, and clutches His risen body. She is wholly and freely intimate with Christ as man and God, and she holds nothing back from Him. Furthermore, Mary discovers in the Risen Christ the bridegroom of her Soul. Christ has come to be the Bridegroom of our souls. He gives Himself totally to us, as a Bridegroom does for His bride. A God who in Himself lacks nothing, desires our hearts.
Like I said before, today’s readings are a perfect example of how divinely intentional Holy Mother Church is in choosing and pairing readings for Mass. Our Psalm today perfectly captures the emotions of both the bride and Mary Magdalene as they seek their Bridegroom. “O God, you are my God whom I seek, for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts.” Those words echo almost exactly the words of the bride in the Song of Songs dream sequence, and they reflect the deepest desires of our hearts as well. We were created for communion with our Creator. Whether we have recognized it or not, we have all had or will have the same experience of finding Him for whom we were made. Until then, nothing else satisfies our thirst.
So now, instead of just having a girl-crush on Mary Magdalene, I want to be like Mary Magdalene. I desire to experience that level of intimacy with my Lord. I want to leave behind my old life of sin in pursuit of a Divine Love. I want to run to Him with reckless abandon WITHOUT looking back on what I am leaving behind. I want to live my life in total anticipation of my Bridegroom, the only one for whom my soul thirsts.
(P.S. The Apostle John paints Jesus with incredible Bridegroom imagery throughout his narrative. There are many more parallels between the Bridegroom of Song of Songs and Christ at His Passion and Resurrection that would take many more blog posts to unravel, but I encourage you to look into it and pray with it for yourself! A good place to start is with Dr. John Bergsma’s lectures that can be found on YouTube.)
Sarah Rose hails from Long Island and graduated from Franciscan University in 2016 with a Bachelor’s in Theology & Catechetics. She is happily married to her college sweetheart John Paul. They welcomed their first child, Judah Zion, in 2019. She is passionate about her big V-vocation: motherhood, and her little v-vocation: bringing people to encounter Christ through the true, the good, and the beautiful. She loves fictional novels, true crime podcasts/documentaries, the saints (especially Blessed Chiara Luce Badano), & sharing conversation over a good cup of coffee. She is currently the Coordinator of Young Adult Ministry at St. Cecilia Church in Oakley, Cincinnati. You can find out more about her ministry here: https://eastsidefaith.org/young-adult OR at https://www.facebook.com/stceciliayam.
St. Mary Magdalene: Saint of the Day for Wednesday, July 22, 2020
St. Mary Magdalene is one of the greatest saints of the Bible and a legendary example of God’s mercy and grace. The precise dates of her birth and death are unknown, but we do know she was present with Christ during his public ministry, death and resurrection. She is mentioned at least a dozen times in the Gospels.
Mary Magdalene has long been regarded as a prostitute or sexually immoral in western Christianity, but this is not supported in the scriptures. It is believed she was a Jewish woman …
Prayer for the Dying #1: Prayer of the Day for Wednesday, July 22, 2020
Most Merciful Jesus,
lover of souls,
I pray You,
by the agony of Your most Sacred Heart,
and by the sorrows of Your Immaculate Mother,
to wash in Your Most Precious Blood,
the sinners of the world who are now in their agony,
and who will die today.
Heart of Jesus,
once in agony,
have mercy on the dying.
Amen.
Making Our Way Home
This is a short but somewhat confusing Gospel, wherein Jesus seems to casually dismiss his own family, even his own mother! “Who is my mother? …. Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Was he disregarding the closeness of Mary, his own mother? Was he just speaking in hyperbole to get everyone’s attention? Did he just want everyone to feel like a big, happy family?
None of those. The “key” to understanding is found in the Alleluia antiphon: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him and we will come to him.” These words are taken from John 14, one of the most fully packed chapters in the Gospels; Chapters 14-17 are known as the Farewell Discourse given by Jesus at the Last Supper. In that discourse, Jesus expresses over and over again the unity of love between the Father and the Son, in the Spirit; he expresses several times the mutual indwelling of God and each baptized person who remains in the state of grace.
He goes to prepare a place for us, “that where I am you may be also” (Jn 14: 3). And where is Jesus going? To the Father, to the Bosom of the Father: “I am in the Father and the Father in me” (Jn 14:10). That’s where we are created to be also: in the very heart of the Father, as His true children, in Christ.
And how do we get there? By lovingly keeping the commandments: “He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him…If a man loves me he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (Jn 14:21,23). “Our home.” God’s dwelling is with us; with us, God is home. And we are at home with God!
Toward the end of this long discourse (well worth reading over and over again!), just before they all leave for Gethsemane, Jesus addresses the Father directly, with some of the most profound words of Scripture, asking that “all may be one; even as thou, Father, are in me and I in thee, that they also may be in us… (Jn 17:20). God in man, and man in God, as ONE.
Jesus’ deepest desire is that we are all united as true members of his Body, that we all may enjoy the infinite and perfect love of the Father, as the Son has for all eternity! Jesus’ deepest desire is that we enter into the very exchange of love of the Trinity, where Jesus IS, as true children of the Father!
If we keep Jesus’ command of love, we remain near as his “brother, and sister, and mother.”
Kathryn Mulderink, MA, is married to Robert, Station Manager for Holy Family Radio. Together they have seven children (including newly ordained Father Rob and seminarian Luke ;-), and two grandchildren. She is a Secular Discalced Carmelite and has published five books and many articles. Over the last 25 years, she has worked as a teacher, headmistress, catechist, Pastoral Associate, and DRE. Currently, she serves the Church as a writer and voice talent for Catholic Radio, by publishing and speaking, and by collaborating with the diocesan Office of Catechesis, various parishes, and other ministries to lead others to encounter Christ and engage their faith. Her website is https://www.kathryntherese.com/.
St. Lawrence of Brindisi: Saint of the Day for Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Caesare de Rossi was born at Brandisi, kingdom of Naples, on July 22nd. He was educated by the conventual Franciscans there and by his uncle at St. Mark’s in Venice. When sixteen, he joined the Capuchins at Verona, taking the name Lawrence. He pursued his higher studies in theology, philosophy, the bible, Greek, Hebrew, and several other languages at the University of Padua. He was ordained and began to preach with great effect in Northern Italy. He became definitor general of his Order in Rome …
A Student’s Prayer (by St. Thomas Aquinas): Prayer of the Day for Tuesday, July 21, 2020
Come, Holy Spirit, Divine Creator,
true source of light and fountain of wisdom!
Pour forth your brilliance upon my dense intellect,
dissipate the darkness which covers me,
that of sin and of ignorance.
Grant me a penetrating mind to understand,
a retentive memory,
method and ease in learning,
the lucidity to comprehend,
and abundant grace in expressing myself.
Guide the beginning of my work,
direct its progress,
and bring it to successful completion.
This I ask through …
Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 Mi 6:1-4, 6-8
Hear what the LORD says:
Arise, present your plea before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, O mountains, the plea of the LORD,
pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the LORD has a plea against his people,
and he enters into trial with Israel.
O my people, what have I done to you,
or how have I wearied you? Answer me!
For I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
from the place of slavery I released you;
and I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
With what shall I come before the LORD,
and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my first-born for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
You have been told, O man, what is good,
and what the LORD requires of you:
Only to do the right and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
Responsorial Psalm 50:5-6, 8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23
R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Gather my faithful ones before me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
And the heavens proclaim his justice;
for God himself is the judge.
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”
R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.
Alleluia Ps 95:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 12:38-42
Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
He said to them in reply,
“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and there is something greater than Solomon here.”
For the readings of the Optional Memorial of Saint Apollinaris, please go here.
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Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition, Copyright © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine; Psalm refrain © 1968, 1981, 1997, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. All rights reserved. Neither this work nor any part of it may be reproduced, distributed, performed or displayed in any medium, including electronic or digital, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Signs and Wonders
Have you ever thought about how many processes are involved just to bring us one simple breath or a heartbeat? This is commonplace knowledge for a med student and beyond the realm of most of us, but very few sit and reflect on what is actually involved. What about the mathematics of the distance between the earth and the sun and how a single degree off could send us spiraling into a fiery abyss? Again, common knowledge to an astrophysicist and above our limited reason without study, but how many truly sit and ponder and reflect on this?
Ok, maybe those are huge examples. How about the process that goes into a hot cup of coffee? From someone growing the beans to shipping them, to grinding them, to roasting them, to finally making the cup. A seemingly simple action, but lots of work behind the scenes.
Such is our spiritual life sometimes. I don’t know about you but I grew up asking for signs. Asking for things that would be tangible that would show me Jesus and his love. Here in today’s Gospel, we hear the same cry and we hear Jesus’ quick response. “An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign.”
This kind of hits you in the face at first, but of course Jesus is not saying that there is evil in signs. In fact, he spent most of his time on earth performing miracles in order to show his power and love. What he is saying here is that an evil generation continues looking for a sign when we need to look no further than our very lives.
When was the last time God blessed you with his love? The simple answer is the last time you took a breath, but really stop and think about it for a second. When was the last tangible time that God blessed you? I think for many of us we are far too busy to see. We don’t slow down enough to notice the miracles happening right before us.
Let’s change this today. I challenge you and myself to pay attention to the Lord’s love and power. Make it a point to thank Jesus throughout the day as you see him working and know that he is with you. God Bless!
Tommy Shultz is Director of Evangelization for the North Allegan Catholic Collaborative and the founder of Rodzinka Ministries. In these roles, he is committed to bringing all those he meets into a deeper relationship with Christ. Tommy has a heart and a flair for inspiring people to live their faith every day. He has worked in various youth ministry, adult ministry, and diocesan roles. He has been a featured speaker at retreats and events across the country. His mission and drive have been especially inspired by St. John Paul II’s teachings. Tommy is blessed to be able to learn from the numerous parishes he visits and pass that experience on in his presentations. With a degree in Theology from Franciscan University, Tommy hopes to use his knowledge to help all people understand the beauty of The Faith.