Don Bosco was visiting a wealthy family in Turin. They showed him their home and then their three sons. The mother pointed with pride to each of them, saying: ‘This one is studying medicine—he’ll be a doctor.’ This one has technical talent. He will undoubtedly become an engineer.’ When the youngest child stopped speaking, Don Bosco said that he would undoubtedly become a priest. The mother was shocked and replied, ‘He would rather die.’ Don Bosco was saddened. Some time later, the boy died. His death was not a punishment from God, but a warning that we do not control our fate; it is God who directs everything.

Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up. He entered the synagogue, opened the book, and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” All eyes focused on him. Jesus’ final words were, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled.” The time has been fulfilled. Since the birth of Jesus divided history into the time before and after him, he has been here among us continuously in the Holy Church. Have we ever considered what we should leave behind and what we should adopt so that we, too, can say of ourselves that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us? He chooses men for this proclamation who will announce the gospel and call people to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He is the one who keeps calling; he wants the basic proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God to be spread.

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), the Indian Prime Minister, sent her children to study at Oxford University in England. Journalists reproached her, saying that even in India, there were already schools on par with English ones, that she was not patriotic enough, and that she was not serving the interests of India. She replied, “I want our people to understand the English mentality well so they can bring new ideas to raise India’s level.” Those who live in their environment will better assimilate its elements and transfer them to other cultures. Christ comes from the life of God, from the love of the Father for this world, and brings a new culture, a different life. Through Christ, we can be in the love of the Father. He will help us identify our mission among people, so we can say, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” and help those with whom we live feel it too.

 If someone were to ask you what you found fascinating about today’s reading, it probably wouldn’t be this sentence. You could emphasize how Jesus rescued the apostles by appearing on the water and calming the storm. After all, he magnificently demonstrated his power and certainly dispelled the apostles’ doubts. Miracles naturally attract our attention. But at least as important is the fact that Jesus prayed. This means that although he had a divine nature, he consciously submitted to his Father. Mark writes that Jesus got up early in the morning and prayed in a “deserted place” (Mark 1:35). He always carefully followed his Father’s will and his plan for our salvation. 

And what about us? But Jesus needed to pray; how much more do we need to be in contact with God! If we don’t pray at all, the first problem we encounter will derail us. If we rarely pray, we will give up too easily and fail to listen to the Lord. But if we follow Jesus’ example, regularly withdrawing into silence and seeking God’s presence, we will likely achieve results similar to his. Even if we don’t witness miracles and our problems persist, we can find peace in knowing that Jesus is alongside us, calming the turmoil in our hearts and fortifying our faith. 

Occasionally, God’s glory is revealed in times of crisis or urgency; other times, we encounter the Lord when life is going smoothly, and everything is as calm as the still surface of a lake. Both of these experiences are precious and rewarding, but wisdom teaches us not to put off seeking the Lord until an emergency. It is best to seek him every day. God wants you to become a proclaimer of his truth and love. You don’t have to walk on water to help someone else accept Christ into their life, but you definitely have to pray!

CURRICULUM VITAE

He was born in Spain near Barcelona. He soon became a philosophy teacher. Furthermore, he studied law in Italy and became a public defender for people on low incomes. The bishop of his birthplace persuaded him to return and made him a canon of the Barcelona Cathedral. He was a renowned preacher, confessor, and scholar. At around 46, he entered the Dominican Order. He was the Superior General of the Order from 1238 to 1240. He reorganized the Order’s statutes. At the behest of Pope Gregory IX., he prepared for publication the regulations of church law, which he compiled into a collection called the Decretals. His writings resulted in the “Summa of Cases for the Correct and Useful Administration of the Sacraments of Penance.” In the 1770s, he also founded Hebrew schools. In Catalonia, he then devoted himself to missionary work, established dialogue with Muslims, and lived a pious penitential life for about a hundred years.

CV FOR MEDITATION

ON A COAT OVER THE SEA

His birth name is associated with the castle of his ancestors in Pena fort in Catalonia, the capital of which is Barcelona. There, he successfully studied at the cathedral school, where he also worked as a chorister. At the age of 20, he became a philosophy teacher, and for 9 years, he instilled in his students the principles of true Christian wisdom and was an example of a life of faith. Then, in 1205, he decided to continue his studies in Bononia (today’s Bologna), Italy. After obtaining his doctorate, he lectured on church law as a public teacher. People with low incomes used to have an excellent defender in court.

During his journey from Rome, the Bishop of Barcelona, ​​Berengar, persuaded him to return to his homeland, and after his ordination, made him a canon, later a provost and vicar general. At around 46, he entered the Dominican order, which was only approved in 1216. He stood out as a renowned preacher, confessor, and excellent counselor. As general of the order, he was entrusted, among other things, with writing theological writings. After consultations with Peter Nolasco and King James I of Aragon, who chose him as their confessor, all three, on the advice of the Virgin Mary, decided to ransom Christian prisoners from the captivity of the Muslim Moors. For this purpose, the Order of Mercedarians was founded, whose religious rules were written by Raymond and confirmed by Pope Gregory IX. Peter Nolasco became the first general superior of this merciful order.

Pope Gregory IX summoned Raymond to Rome in 1230 to make him his confessor, advisor, and domestic chaplain. It is known that Gregory IX once received from him a penance to care for people in poverty and to provide them with assistance. This was the moment Raymond saw that a group of poor people had come to the papal palace and received nothing. The pope then diligently ensured that the poor were cared for.

At the behest of the Pope, Raymond compiled the canons of church law into a collection of five volumes known as the Decretals. These became the primary source of legal doctrine and the basis of the code of church law.

Around the beginning of 1235, the Pope offered Raymond the Archbishopric of Tarragona in Spain, but he humbly declined the position, preferring to remain a humble monk. Due to his exhaustion from an active life, doctors advised him to leave Rome. Gregory IX was reluctant to grant him permission. Raymond was joyfully welcomed in his birthplace, where he began working to foster the flourishing of his order. After the tragic death of the order’s general, Jordan of Saxony, he was elected the new general of the Dominican order, the third since its foundation. He reorganized the order’s statutes and demonstrated himself to be an experienced, careful, and kind father when he visited the order’s individual communities. He also published a manual for confessors, “Summa casuum.” After two years, when he was about 70 years old, for health reasons, he resigned the rank he had received out of obedience to continue living as a simple brother, dedicating himself to missionary work for the conversion of Muslims and Jews. Therefore, he established schools in several monasteries where Arabic and Hebrew were taught. From there, capable missionaries emerged.

Raymond was not demonstrating his superiority; rather, his actions were a manifestation of God’s power and an emphasis on the validity of God’s law, which he held dear. It was a sign that it is easier to cross the sea on a mere cloak than to willfully remain in sin while trying to secure one’s salvation.

As the Lord Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed … nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20) We should consider Raymond’s behavior more normal than the king’s. Of course, we should consider the Word of God as the norm for us. For those who think sin is normal in life, the norm is the opposite. It is very dangerous to succumb to illusions that shape the conscience, according to King James’s rules on his way to Mallorca. Not everyone will receive the grace of the experience that Raymond’s actions in this story provoked.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

For one, the resolution may be a daily prayer of faith to strengthen trust; for another, conversion, beginning with the path of correct formation of conscience. For another person, the resolution may involve rejecting a tendency towards a sinful relationship.

This saint’s example inspires us to resist the influence of worldly opinions and instead seek guidance from the Spirit of God. With his help, Raymond established relationships in all his activities, studied, remained humble, and experienced relationships with the Virgin Mary, the poor, the suffering, and sinners whom he led to conversion.

“Merciful God, you filled Saint Raymond with great love for sinners and captives; through his intercession, free us from the slavery of sin, that we may freely do what pleases you. We ask this through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.

Holiday: January 5th

* March 28, 1811, Prachatice, Czech Republic
† January 5, 1860, Philadelphia, USA

Meaning of the name: modest (lat.)

John Nepomuk Neumann

John Nepomuk Neumann was born on March 28, 1811, in Prachatice in the Bohemian Forest. His father, Filip Neumann, came from Obernburg in Bavaria and became a stocking master in Prachatice. He married the daughter of a Prague saddler master: Anežka Lepšá. Ján was their third child, and three more were born after him. On the day of his birth, he was baptized in the church of St. James the Elder and was named after the Czech patron saint, John of Nepomuk.

As he himself mentions in his diary, both of his parents were deeply religious. His mother often took him to church for various devotions; he ministered almost daily. Despite this, he did not initially contemplate the priesthood; it seemed too noble to him. He began to consider it much later. After finishing elementary school in Prachatice, he went to České Budějovice to the Piarist grammar school, where he diligently studied Latin and Greek. However, he also had to take private Czech lessons because German was spoken more at home.

After graduating from high school, he hesitated between medicine in Prague and the seminary in České Budějovice. He was drawn more to medicine because he was genuinely interested in natural sciences, and, in addition, only 20 of almost 100 applicants were accepted to the seminary. However, his mother persuaded him to apply to the seminary anyway. So Ján submitted both applications and, to his surprise, was accepted to the seminary in České Budějovice.

Due to limited circumstances, he had to study externally, but he achieved excellent results. Sometime during his theological studies, he came across letters from the “Annale Leopoldinae,” a magazine about American missions, which shaped his future vocation. He felt very clearly that his Lord was also calling him to missions. After reading the letters of a Yugoslav missionary in North America, he decided that after his ordination, he would go there. To prepare himself linguistically, he moved to Prague, but strangely enough, he could not find an English teacher there either. He did not give up and began learning English and Spanish privately from factory workers.

After completing his theology studies, however, he faced another obstacle, almost unimaginable from today’s perspective: he was refused ordination due to the surplus of priests. Since there was no longer any place to place priests, the bishop was allowed to ordain only those theologians who had been promised a position as private chaplains in a noble family. However, Ján did not have any such protection. In his need, he turned to his friend, the priest of Budějovice, Fr. Dichtl. Through an acquaintance from the Strasbourg seminary, he contacted the ordinary in Philadelphia, Bishop Francis Kenrick, who was still laboriously seeking a priest to work with emigrants in North America. However, as a condition for paying for the trip, he demanded that the candidate have a recommendation from his bishop, which Ján did not have either. Finally, a hopeful path opened up: Bishop Jean Dubois of New York wrote a letter requesting that priests be sent to work with the growing minority of German immigrants.

Finally! John left Prachatice on February 8, 1836, deliberately without saying goodbye. In Budějovice, he sent his parents a note explaining that he did not want to bother them unnecessarily. Let it be their consolation that he was going where the Lord was sending him. He completed a rather exhausting journey by ship across the ocean and landed in New York at the beginning of June, ragged and penniless. Still, with determination, he went from American diocese to diocese, asking for a missionary position. “I will ask for permission to work for the souls who are most abandoned, whether they are Germans or Indians. And if no one accepts me, I will withdraw into solitude, where I will repent for my sins and the sins of others.”

But he did not have to search long. He soon found St. Patrick’s Cathedral, where Bishop Jean Dubois warmly welcomed him. John had imagined he would spend several months preparing for his future work and for receiving the sacrament of the priesthood, but the bishop misled him—there was no time for long preparations. In the same month, on June 25, 1836, John of Nepomuk was ordained a priest at the age of twenty-five. He was immediately assigned to work in a vast area around Buffalo, near Niagara Falls. On his way to his new place of work, the young novice priest stopped in the town of Rochester, where he met Father Prost, the superior of the American Redemptorists (Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer). A deep friendship developed between them.

He courageously took on his first parish. In June, he celebrated the first mass in the village of Williamsville, in a church without a roof and windows. He himself came from rough circumstances, but the harsh living conditions of his parishioners deeply affected him. In those days, there were many scattered emigrant settlements, consisting mainly of German families, but also of French, Irish, and Czech families. Dense forests, swamps, and rivers separated the individual settlements, and there were no proper roads. He served spiritually and took care of the immigrants’ practical needs. He thought a lot about children and their education, founding and helping to build schools, first in Williamsville and Lancaster and later in the North Bush settlement, where he moved in 1838. There, he also first met and befriended the Indians, calling them “the poor children of nature.”

During his constant, arduous, and lonely journey from one settlement to another, he felt an ever-increasing need for a support system, a kind of spiritual family. The community-based work of the Redemptorist missionaries attracted him. Finally, in 1840, he wrote a letter to Father Prost, in which he confided his secret desire to join the Redemptorists. He was accepted with pleasure. He entered the novitiate in Pittsburgh and completed it in Baltimore at the monastery of St. James, where he also took his vows on January 16, 1842. Together with him, his brother Václav, who had come from Bohemia to help him, entered the congregation as a lay brother.

In Baltimore, John participated in the parish’s pastoral care and also helped organize the construction of the new basilica of St. Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorist congregation. After only two years, however, he was elected superior of the religious house in Pittsburgh, and from 1847 to 1849, he led the entire American Redemptorist mission. But his mission in America did not end there. Divine Providence had an even more challenging task in store for him.

In 1851, he returned to Baltimore as the superior of the monastery of St. James. In addition to administering the parish, he devoted himself to writing and publishing the “Katholische Kirchenzeitung”. He also took care of the nuns, whom he himself invited to lead new elementary schools, orphanages, and hospitals. At that time, he was caught by the unexpected election of the new bishop of Philadelphia – he was to become it himself! John did not want this, and, to tell the truth, even the Catholics of Philadelphia were not enthusiastic: John of Nepomuk seemed to them not very representative for such an office. He was of short stature – he measured only 160 cm. He did not suffer from dressing; moreover, he was a foreigner and spoke English with a strange accent. Archbishop Kenrick, however, insisted on his election.

John of Nepomuk was ordained a bishop on March 28, 1852, coincidentally on his 41st birthday. This happened in the Baltimore Basilica of St. Alphonsus, in the construction of which he himself had participated years earlier. He chose the words of the well-known prayer as his motto: “Sufferings of Christ, strengthen me!” Even in his new office, he devoted himself primarily to ordinary people, tirelessly visiting all the parishes entrusted to him. During each visitation, he organized spiritual renewal, but he also founded hospitals, orphanages, and schools, and invited new religious communities to the diocese to take care of these institutions. He built 80 churches and more than 100 parish schools. He is therefore rightly considered the founder of American Catholic education. He also made outstanding efforts to mitigate manifestations of racism. He advocated elevating liturgical celebration and reformed the local seminary. For the needs of his pastoral ministry, he himself wrote the Small and Large Catholic Catechisms, which later saw twenty-one editions. Wherever he went, he strove to renew spiritual life and to restore unity with the Bishop of Rome.

In the autumn of 1854, he traveled to Rome to personally participate in the solemn declaration of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Until the very day of the declaration (December 8), he lived as a regular Redemptorist in a Roman monastery, visiting pilgrimage sites in the area on foot and performing works of penance. He also met Pope Pius IX at a personal audience. After the declaration, he set off on his first visit to Bohemia in the 19th century! First, at the end of December, he visited his sister Jana in Prague, the superior of the Borromean monastery. He intended to arrive in Prachatice in secret, but people heard about his arrival, and his sleigh was greeted from afar by the ringing of bells, gunfire, and music. Everyone gathered in the streets, kneeling to receive the famous native’s blessing. In his home, his father welcomed him and hugged him; his mother was no longer alive at that time. He stayed in Prachatice for only a few days in February 1855. At the end of March, he resumed all his duties in Philadelphia.

His life’s journey ended very suddenly – on January 5, 1860, when he was returning from the post office, at the age of 49. It was a cardiac arrest. Archbishop Kenrick said of his death, “He could not die otherwise than on the road. He was always in motion. Every hour, every moment of his life, his soul was directed towards the Lord God.” He was buried in the Redemptorist Church of St. Peter in Philadelphia.

The beatification process began in 1897, and on October 13, 1963, it was declared part of the Second Vatican Council. Pope Paul VI solemnly canonized him on January 19, 1977. Commemorators consider it a miracle that some priests and religious figures from Bohemia were able to attend his canonization in Rome, given that the communists ruled Bohemia and it was the year of Charter 77.

Prachatice native Ján Nepomuk Neumann paradoxically became the first American saint. He not only preached unity, but also acted as if he himself embodied a bridge between different worlds: the son of a German and a Czech woman served several white nations, Indians, and blacks in America. May he obtain for us such a broad and open heart, which we so need in this time of merging cultures and worlds, but also a truly missionary spirit, the Spirit of Christ.