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Jesus’ invitation! Today, as we celebrate the Feast of St Catherine of Siena, the patron saint of Europe, let us remember Jesus’ invitation to us all: ‘Come to me, all of you, and learn from me.’ This invitation also comes with a promise: ‘I will strengthen you, and you will find rest for your souls.’ We are all called to holiness, but it is those who respond to Jesus’ invitation in their daily lives and through their faithfulness, as St Catherine of Siena did, who become saints. 

Biblical scholars call this fragment of the Gospel a meteor that fell from heaven because it reveals the Sonship of Jesus Christ and His relationship with His Father. The core and essence of the Gospel that John preached is that God is the Father of Jesus, and in Jesus, we are all one. Some even claim that the lightning comes from Him.

Jesus shows us his Father and glorifies him for hiding these things from the wise and intelligent and for revealing them to the humble. This passage is about understanding the mystery of the Kingdom of God, which was revealed to the humble and simple. The Pharisees and scribes lack this understanding because they are convinced of their self-sufficiency and reject Jesus’s teachings.

Do you realize that each Eucharist, daily family prayer, confession, and reception of the Blessed Sacrament is a response to Jesus’s invitation? How would you evaluate your meetings? Are you satisfied with them? Can Jesus, who constantly invites you, always be satisfied with them? Ask yourself and Jesus about those daily meetings now. Perhaps you will also hear Him offer to help you make them more creative and fruitful.

CURRICULUM VITAE

He was born in Montfort, a village in Brittany. He became a priest in Paris. He taught people about the path to holiness and to Jesus through Mary. Pope Clement XI appointed him as the Apostolic Missionary of France. He played a key role in establishing the Congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom and founded a male religious community that would later become known as the Montfort Society of Mary. Following a demanding ministry, he passed away at the age of 43.

His Marian writings contain prophecies about the end times of the Church.

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ANNOUNCER OF THE SAFE PATH TO JESUS

He was born on January 31, 1673, in western France, where he was baptized in Montfort, 20 km east of Rennes. His father was a notary, temperamental and violent. After about two years, their family moved a few kilometers away to their farm, Bois-Marquer, belonging to the municipality of Iffendic. Louis was the second of 18 siblings, eight of whom died early.

From the age of 11, Louis was at the Jesuit college of St. Thomas Becket in Rennes, where 2,000 young men studied. There, he became friends with Claude Poullart, later founder of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit, and with Jean Baptiste Blain. In Rennes, Louis also had an uncle who was a priest, and he became his confidant. The Grignion family also moved to Rennes two years later.

Louis was intelligent, diligent, artistic, somewhat shy, and deeply religious. That was how his professors saw him. While praying in the church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, he decided to become a priest. After eight years of study in Rennes, another eight years of theology awaited him in Paris.

He said goodbye to his family and saw the crossing of the Cesson bridge as a symbolic entry into a new life, which he wanted to live in complete dependence on God’s Providence. He expressed his conviction of a loving Father by giving his luggage to the first beggar, all his money to people experiencing poverty, and reportedly exchanging clothes with another beggar. These were his first joyful steps in a consistent life according to the Gospel. He experienced happiness in trusting in God’s Providence and begged for food and shelter along the way. He felt his freedom in complete surrender to God’s Love, Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ.

In Paris, he was housed with poor seminarians and attended lectures. He only entered the St. Sulpice Seminary after two years. The professors there recognized his talents and good qualities. His “weakness” was his love for people of low income and his desire to serve those on the fringes of society. He identified with the most neglected. He worked as a librarian at St. Sulpice and was an avid reader of books on Marian devotion. He greatly broadened his horizons by studying the spiritual writings of important figures, including the Church Fathers. He knew the Bible very well and used it a lot. He longed to be a missionary to the poor, whether in France or abroad. He decided to proclaim the good news of God’s love to the outcasts of human society, that Jesus loves them, and that Mary’s maternal care. His desire was for Jesus and his Mother to be loved by as many people as possible.

At the age of 27, he celebrated his primogeniture in the church of St. Sulpice on June 5, 1700. His further priestly ministry, like his studies, lasted only 16 years. He initially worked among missionary groups and served in the almshouse in Poitiers and in the General Hospital in Paris.

He wondered whether God was calling him to a mission elsewhere, and in 1706, he went to seek advice from Pope Clement XI. Noting the extraordinary gifts God had given Louis, the Pope rejected his offer of a distant mission. Instead, he appointed him an apostolic missionary and sent him back to his homeland, then overrun by Jansenism, to restore the Church there.

Louis de Montfort returned on foot to Poitiers and, in the power of the Spirit, preached the Gospel and taught about the baptismal consecration of the Eternal and Incarnate Wisdom, Jesus Christ, Son of the Virgin Mary. In Poitiers, he also began to found, with Marie Louise Trichet, the female religious congregation of the Daughters of Wisdom. He made the blind woman superior.

Although influenced by the Jesuits and the Sulpicians, he entered the Third Order of St. Dominic in 1710. He organized two hundred missions and retreats in the western region of France. Some admired him, others rejected him. His lifestyle was considered undignified. He carried a Bible, a breviary, and notebooks in a bag over his shoulder. In some dioceses, the episcopal consistories did not even allow him to preach. When it was said that Louis de Montfort had many enemies, he replied that he knew no one but those who flattered him and spoke well of him, and that his best friends were those who caused him great crosses. It was probably not an isolated incident that he gently picked up a dying, dirty, sick beggar on the street, as in Dinan, and carried him to the nearest religious house, calling to the doorman: “Open to Jesus Christ!”

His sermons were filled with his own experiences of God’s love and Mary’s maternal care, and they brought thousands of souls to faith. He recommended daily Holy Communion and Marian devotion. He taught the path he himself had taken: “Through Mary to Jesus”. He taught that the more our soul is devoted to Mary, the more it also surrenders itself to Jesus Christ. He pointed out that in such a form of piety, one can see the perfect renewal of baptismal promises and commitments. In it, the believer surrenders himself to the Virgin Mary, so that through her he may belong completely to Christ. To the Virgin Mary because she was the most suitable way that Jesus himself chose to unite himself to us, and for him to receive us into himself. And Jesus is our goal. Through him and with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, who is called the Spouse of Mary, we encounter the Father. Mary thus introduces us to the Trinitarian mystery. As the Holy Father John Paul II, who belonged entirely to Mary, said: “No intervention of Mary in the renewal of Christians takes place in competition with Christ, but comes from him and is at his service. I understood that I could not exclude the Mother of the Lord from my life without disregarding the will of the Triune God. The entire Christocentric and Marian spirituality taught by L. Montfort comes from the Trinity and is directed towards it.”

With this teaching, Louis de Montfort successfully fought against Jansenism, which even the higher clergy had absorbed. His successes unleashed a storm of hell against him, and he overcame all adversities with patience, meekness, and humility, unafraid of public opinion. During the mission at Pontchateau, with the help of thousands of people, he built a hill and erected a Calvary on it to make it a place of pilgrimage. Before it was consecrated, the bishop ordered it to be demolished. Louis de Montfort replied to the thousands awaiting the consecration of Calvary: “We hoped to have a Calvary here, but let us build it in our hearts! There the Cross of Christ will stand better than in any other place.”

In 1713, he founded a second congregation, the “Missionaries of the Society of Mary”, a priestly society known as the Montfort Missionaries, which, after his death, became the “Montfort Society of Mary” (SMM). This society spread throughout the world. In 1715, he founded the “Teaching Order of the Brothers of St. Gabriel” to teach catechism to people with low incomes. Some mention is made of the care of the sick.

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from the Dutch city of Nijmegen. He studied at the University of Cologne and, on May 15, 1543, entered the Jesuit order in Mainz. In 1546, he became a priest. He participated in the Council of Trent, worked in Messina, Sicily; took his vows in 1549, and obtained a doctorate in theology and was then sent to Germany, where for thirty years he worked to revive and strengthen the Catholic faith in the face of Protestantism. In 1556, he became provincial of the Jesuits and brought the brothers of the order to Prague. In addition to Germany and our homeland, he also worked in Austria and Switzerland, where he died at the age of 76.

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IN PEACE, LOVE, AND PERSEVERANCE

He was born on May 8, 1521, in Nijmegen in the Duchy of Geldern (in present-day Holland), then part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation. His father was the local mayor. He lost his mother early on, and his father devotionremarried. He then had 8 more children, among them Theodoric, who later followed Peter into the order.

Peter is said to have longed for the priesthood since childhood, although his father’s plans were different. While studying at the University of Cologne, he visited the monks of the Charterhouse of St. Barbara and other religious men who combined Dutch humanism with German mysticism and devoted themselves to a spirituality called devotio moderna – modern piety, which was about spiritual renewal.

In 1540, Peter obtained the title of Master of Liberal Arts and then, while studying theology, he also devoted himself to scientific work, from which he published two volumes concerning the church fathers Cyril of Alexandria and Leo the Great. At that time, he met Peter Favre (d. 1 August) and held 30-day retreats under his devotion, and on 8 May 1543, he entered the Society of Jesus in Mainz.

When Archbishop Hermann began to lean towards Protestantism in Cologne, he became the spokesman for those who wanted to remain faithful to the church, and in 1545, he met Emperor Charles V three times and spoke to him about the seriousness of the situation.

He was ordained a priest on June 12, 1546, and by 1562 he had become known as a preacher in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Bohemia.

From February to June 1547, as theologian to the Bishop of Augsburg, Cardinal Otto Truchsess, he attended the Council of Trent, where he collaborated with Diego Lainez and Alfonso Salmerón. The cardinal selected him at the Diet of Worms, where they both met with Emperor Charles V.

Peter Canisius was then called to Rome by the founder of the order, Ignatius of Loyola (b. 31 July). There he completed his formation and in the spring of 1548 was sent to the seminarians in Messina, Sicily, to teach them rhetoric, Latin and Italian. From Messina he was recalled to Rome, where on 7 September 1549 he took solemn religious vows and received a blessing from Pope Paul III. Then on 4 October he received a doctorate in theology in Bologna and was sent to Germany, where he worked for thirty years to revive and restore the Catholic faith.

Canisius’ spirituality recalls his ascetic life and loving devotion not only to Jesus, with whom he experienced a deep personal friendship, but also to the Virgin Mary, with whose help he carried out his apostolic mission. At the very beginning of his life, already in Rome on September 4, three days before his vows, he had, according to his spiritual diary, a vision of the Divine Heart. He wrote: “Then it was as if your most sacred body opened its heart to me – it seemed to me that I was looking directly into it – and you commanded me to drink from this spring, because you, my Savior, never cease to invite me to draw from your springs the water of my salvation.” He also recounts a vision in which the Savior gave him a garment sewn from three parts, which are peace, love and perseverance—the virtues necessary for the apostolate that Peter was sent to carry out in Germany.

His activity in German territory began in the Duchy of Bavaria. In 1556 he was appointed provincial of the order, under whose jurisdiction Austria, Bohemia, Poland, and Switzerland also belonged. He founded Jesuit colleges that helped implement reforms according to the Council of Trent. He opened the Clementinum in Prague and brought 12 Jesuits to an abandoned monastery. Protestants showed their hatred towards him by throwing stones at his services and calling him a “dog”, after Kanijs (from the Latin “canisius”).

His successful work did the most to preserve Catholicism in southern Germany, and his most widely distributed work was the three Catechisms, which he wrote around 1556-57. In the first, he explained basic theological concepts to students, in the second, he presented the basics of religious education for young people, and in the third, he wrote for high school and university students. He used the question-and-answer format briefly and very clearly. With the Catechism, which was published 200 times during his lifetime and was published until the end of the 20th century, he shaped the faith of the people.

He also prepared the publication of prayer books in various languages, texts of homilies and biographies of Swiss saints. In Worms in 1557, he participated in discussions with Protestant representatives. He always faithfully adhered to every dogmatic truth and at the same time showed respect for every person. As he sent a message to Rome, he recognized that the majority of Germans had converted to Protestantism through no fault of their own and distinguished between conscious apostasy from the faith and its innocent loss. He wrote three volumes to refute Protestantism: On the Incarnate Word, On the Virgin Mary, and On the Papacy.

He was offered the rank of Bishop of Vienna three times and always refused it. In 1558 he served as papal nuncio to Poland. The following year, in 1565, he attended two provincial assemblies in Augsburg. At the final session of the Council of Trent in 1562, he spoke on the question of communion under both kinds and on the Index of Forbidden Books.

From 1580, he preached and wrote in Freiburg, Switzerland, where he also died at the age of 76.

He was beatified in 1864 by Pius IX and declared the second apostle of Germany by Pope Leo XIII in 1897. In 1925, Pope Pius XI canonized him and declared him a Doctor of the Church.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

It is easy to make a long-term resolution, but difficult to persevere in it. For our relationship with all others to whom we are to communicate the faith, it is necessary to be full of peace, love, and perseverance. To clothe ourselves with these virtues means to become accustomed to and to come closer to the image of Christ, the second apostle of Germany.

O God, who strengthened Saint Peter Canisius to defend the Catholic faith with love and wisdom, through his intercession, grant to those who seek you the joy of finding you and to those who believe in you perseverance in faith. We ask this through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, world without end. Amen.

 

Saint Mark was a close collaborator of Saint Peter in Rome. In fact, he helped Peter so much that, in one of his letters, the Apostle refers to Mark as his son (cf. 1 Pet 5:13). Mark accompanied Peter on his preaching tours and, at the request of the Romans, wrote his Gospel based on Peter’s sermons. Peter himself, upon hearing it, authorized it to be read in the church.

In his Gospel, Mark omits some of Jesus’s great sayings. Instead, he vividly describes the moments he spent with the disciples. He pauses to describe the atmosphere of the places they visit, contemplates the Lord’s gestures and recounts the Apostles’ spontaneous reactions. In short, he enables us to appreciate the charm of Christ’s character, which attracted the Twelve and the first Christians.

During the early years of his priestly ministry, Saint Josemaría gave away copies of the Gospel as gifts. He explained that, like Saint Mark, we need to keep the life of Jesus “in our heads and hearts, so that at any moment, even without a book and with our eyes closed, we can contemplate his life as if in a film”. The first Gospel is written with such detail that it is easy for us to enter into Jesus’ earthly journey. With the help of our imagination, we can relive some of the scenes from his life and gradually develop the same feelings and thoughts as Christ (cf. Phil 2:5).

Mark, Paul’s friend… 

Before he lived in Rome, Saint Mark was one of the earliest Christians in Jerusalem. He was the cousin of Barnabas, who invited him to preach the Gospel. They both set out with Paul on his first apostolic journey (cf. Acts 13:5–13), but not everything went as they had hoped. Upon arriving in Cyprus, Mark realised that he could not continue and returned to Jerusalem. This must have caused Paul to feel resentful; when they planned a second journey and Barnabas wanted Mark to accompany them again, Paul objected. The group therefore split up, with Paul and Barnabas going their separate ways.

Years later, when Mark found himself in Rome, he met Paul again, and we see them collaborating in the proclamation of the Gospel. realizedn. When he had to leave, Paul wrote to Timothy: ‘Take Mark with you, for he is useful to me in the ministry’ (2 Timothy 4:11). The problems they had experienced in Cyprus were forgotten. Paul and Mark were friends, working together on the most important thing: spreading the good news about Christ.

In our daily lives, it is normal to have certain conflicts with those around us, as Paul did with Mark and with his companions in bringing Christ to people. These conflicts may arise due to different approaches to a problem, certain difficult-to-understand character traits, or many other reasons. Fatigue itself can accentuate these frictions. However, what matters is not these differences, which will always exist, but our ability to recognize this diversity as a source of richness. In this way, we can value the people around us like Paul did, recognizing that what unites us is greater than what divides us. As Saint Josemaría said: ‘You must also constantly practice the fraternity that is above all natural sympathies or antipathies, loving one another as true brothers and sisters, with the care and understanding that are characteristic of those who form a well-united family.’

Leaving the safety of the shore…

Saint Mark concludes his narrative with Jesus’ call to the apostles to spread his word: ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’ (Mark 16:15). Not only did the evangelist accept this command, he also tried to put it into practice. recognizinget off on other adventures, leaving his homeland behind.

‘Life is strengthened by giving and weakened by isolation and comfort.’ Indeed, it is those who make the most of life’s possibilities who leave a certain shore and allow themselves to be inspired by the mission of communicating life to others”.⁴ Saint Mark had the same experience. Initially, he felt disoriented, moving away from the peace and reality he knew, but he was ultimately able to venture beyond the safety of the shore and share the joy of life with Jesus throughout the world. Through his gospel, he also helped later generations of Christians to know the Lord more closely.

CURRICULUM VITAE

He came from Sigmaringen in Swabia, which is now part of Germany. Studying law in Freiburg under the name Marek Roy, he then practiced law. In 1612, he became a priest and took the name Fidel when he joined the Capuchin order. Representing the newly formed Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, he combatted the heresies spreading in southern Germany and Switzerland. He was eventually arrested and murdered by heretics because he refused to renounce the Catholic faith.

THE LOYALTY OF THE ADVOCATE OF THE POOR

He was born in early October 1578 in Sigmaringen on the Danube in southwest Germany. He was given the Christian name Mark. He had four siblings. His father, Jan Roy, was a mayor and judge, but apparently died when Marek was still young. His mother’s name was Jenovéfa, and she is said to have cared for the orphans with a guardian.

Mark, as the most gifted, was sent to Freiburg, where in 1601 he obtained a doctorate in philosophy. He then continued his studies of civil and ecclesiastical law, which he interrupted in 1604 and traveled with young German nobles through France, Spain, and Italy as their leader until about 1610. After returning, he completed his studies with a doctorate on May 16, 1611, and then served as a lawyer and court councilor in Ensisheimcombatedlsace. Unlike his colleagues, he uncompromisingly defended the rights of those who needed it, he stood up for the poor in the first place and was therefore called the lawyer of the poor. Once his fellow lawyer said to him, “Doctor, I beg you not to be too fair. Just deviate a little from your principles, and you will make a great profit from it.” Perhaps this was the last straw that caused a change of profession—embarking on a spiritual path.

He decided to enter the Capuchin order, but first, in the quadrant, he longed for priestly ordination. He had completed some of his studies earlier, completed the rest, and became a priest at the end of September 1612. A few days later, on October 4, he entered the Capuchin novitiate in Freiburg, Germany. There, with the religious habit, he also received the new name Fidel (Latin Fidelis), expressing fidelity to the faith, and on that occasion the quadrian reminded him of the words from the Book of Revelation: “Be faithful until death, and I will bestow upon you the crown of life” (Rev. 2:10). And those words became his motto.

After the novitiate, which ended in 1613, he received further theological education in Constance and Frauenfeld. In 1617, he preached in Altsdorf and then for about five years held the position of quadrian, superior in several Capuchin monasteries. He also raised the moral level of the faithful with his sermons. He was a sought-after confessor, counselor, and if necessary, even in his habit, he went to court to help the poor enforce their rights. He himself led a very simple life with frequent fasts and other self-denials. He lived faithfully to the Virgin Mary, because walking with her meant for him also the path of faithfulness to Christ, to whom she directs everyone. Spirituality on his spiritual life were published in print under the title Spiritual Exercises (Exercitia spirituality). In later editions, the title was changed to spirituality of Seraphim Piety.

In addition to Alsace, Fidel also worked in Switzerland and Vorarlberg. From the end of 1621 on, he worked in the Rhaetian mission, whose task was to prevent the spread of Calvinism and strengthen the Catholic faith in eastern Switzerland. The Roman commission (later congregation) for the propagation of the faith appointed him superior of the mission on 19 April 1622. However, this appointment was towards the end of his life. He signed his text as Brother Fidelis, soon to be buried.

His last assignment was in Seewies at a time when religious hostility, especially among the Calvinists, fueled by political disputes, often led to bloody riots. Fidelis was therefore offered an armed escort for his missionary journey to Seewies, which he refused. His brother John then asked him what they would do if they were attacked. He replied, “What else but martyrs of God? We would gladly undergo death for God.” In his sermon, he then emphasized and explained the words: “One God, one faith, one baptism.” At that, one of the Calvinists began to shoot at him. Fidelis was not hit and quickly went outside because he did not want the murderer to desecrate the church. He walked towards the neighboring village but was stopped by the Calvinists, who wanted him to convert to their faith. He replied to them, “Dear brothers, I have not come to you to accept a distorted faith but to preach to you the true faith.” After these words, they attacked him with swords and a spiked club and murdered him.

He became the first martyr of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. He was declared a saint by Benedict XIV in 1746.