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BIOGRAPHY

After entering the monastery, he longed to become a missionary among the pagans. He became a spreader of the true faith among the Germanic peoples. He founded monasteries, centers of Christian learning and faith. Furthermore, he succeeded because he combined his knowledge with deep piety, love for souls, obedience, and devotion to the papal chair. He also became legate for Germany and metropolitan of Cologne. When he was about to administer the sacrament of confirmation in the territory of North Holland, he was put to death with 52 companions by a crowd of armed pagans.

BIOGRAPHY FOR MEDITATION

GREAT APOSTLE OF GERMANY

He was born around 675 in Kirkton, located near Exeter in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in what is now the south of England. Wilfrid was baptized. In his youth, he loved solitude and was raised according to his wishes in the Benedictine monastery in Exeter. He spent 13 years in it and then transferred to a monastery in Nursling, Southampton shire, where he adopted the habit of a Benedictine after taking vows. He began studying divinity at the same time and focused on science until age 40. Likewise, he mastered Latin and excelled in poetic art as well. For a time, he ran a convent school. He compiled a grammar textbook and a poetry manual. He did not receive the sacrament of the priesthood until about the age of 30. Furthermore, he became zealous in the pulpit and in the confessional.

Three loves stood out in his life—the characteristics of the Benedictines: the love of writing, missionary activity, and the Roman successor of St. Petra.

According to some reports, Pope Gregory II gave the name Boniface. In 716, after forty, he went with three companions to the European mainland in pagan Friesland to preach the gospel. He came to the Germanic tribe in what is now Holland and northwestern Germany. The Franks ruled over the Frisians there, who rebelled against them, and in such a situation, missionary activity seemed impossible.

Wilfrid returned to Nursling and was elected abbot. However, he soon renounced his rank, demanding Stephen’s appointment from the Bishop of Winchester and his permission to go to Rome. He longed for the Pope’s blessing to evangelize the Germans. Gregory II left him with him for about a year, and in mid-May 719, he commissioned him to proclaim the Gospel among the Germans, giving him the name of the martyr Boniface.

Boniface came to the Frisians via Thuringia and with the native Wilford (pam. 7. 11.) and was quite successful. Then Boniface was sent by the Pope to Hesse in the Middle Rhineland. He saw that obtaining the ruling circles and installing a bishop was necessary there. He therefore turned to the Pope, who invited him to Rome to consecrate him as bishop for the Germanic regions in the territory of present-day Germany. It happened on the 30th. 11. 722. The Pope also gave Boniface letters of recommendation for the critical Frankish butler Charles Mertel and the Thuringian and Saxon princes. With the help of Anglo-Saxon clergy, Boniface then began to establish monasteries as strongholds of Christianity. He also went to Hesse again, where many Christians turned to superstition, witchcraft, and offering sacrifices to idols.

The villagers of Fritzlar, near Geismar, had a massive oak tree dedicated to the thunder lord Thor as their front deity. Boniface decided to cut and cut it. The people waited in horror to see what would happen, and when Thor proved powerless towards Boniface, the people went over to the side of Boniface. He still built the chapel of St. Petra. Then, in Thuringia, he solved the problems of priests’ insufficient education and shortcomings in faith. He founded two monasteries for youth education. In 725, he begged for more priests and expanded the number of his associates.

Pope Gregory III in 732 appointed Boniface as archbishop, with the authority to consecrate other bishops. Six years later, Boniface visited Rome for the third time, and before returning to the mission, the Pope appointed him as his legate for a wide missionary area. His task also included reforming the Frankish clergy and building church organizations in Bavaria, Hesse, and Thuringia. This was needed because the local feudal lords wanted to install their people in church ranks. Charles Mertel was only partially in favor of him and did not want to understand the church organization subject to Rome. It was not until after 741, when his sons took over, that the situation managed to change, and in 743 the church synods began to be convened, which prepared the ecclesiastical restoration of the Frankish Empire. Establishing an ecclesiastical metropolis in Cologne was decided, and Boniface became the first metropolitan. In 744, an important monastery was founded in Fulda, later responsible for continuing Boniface’s work. In 747, Carlo man, ruling in the eastern regions, gave up his rule in favor of his brother Pippin the Short, who then ruled the entire Frankish Empire and is said to have behaved with restraint towards Boniface. So far, the eighties have come close to this, and he has handed over the archbishopric to Lull. However, missionary zeal did not leave him, so he visited the first regions of his activity. At Dokkum, he prepared confirmation and was ambushed by a group of fanatical pagans who murdered not only him, but also killed the entire group of his 52 companions.

The Christians transported him to Utrecht in what is now the Netherlands, where they buried him in the cathedral there. However, Abbot Storm eventually transferred his remains to the monastery in Fulda.

RESOLUTION, PRAYER

I will ask for blessings from others around me today and get used to blessing at least my loved ones.

God, You strengthened Saint Bishop Boniface to proclaim the truths of the gospel and did not hesitate to seal your faith with your blood; through his intercession, help us keep the faith we have accepted, and live by it too. Through Your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, He lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit throughout all ages. 

After falling into sin, man realized that he was naked. A naked man is a man without a weapon. This is a person who has no protection. This is a person who has no dignity. The slaves were naked. However, God did not abandon man and began caring for him. God made a leather garment for Adam and his wife and clothed them. Let’s note one more thing, which is associated with original sin. That is, original sin does not have an eternal duration. God prevented man. To access the tree of life. God expelled man from paradise. He prevents a person from immortalizing death. The tree of life was prepared for man. But man has let the poison of death into his life. The moment he tasted the tree of life, he would have fallen away from God permanently and would have risen to the level of Satan. That is why God did not allow man to eat from the tree of life. Expulsion from paradise is a sign of love. God saves man, because a man far from God’s love would be able to destroy everything. Let go of the irresponsible fool to the atomic bomb. He will destroy the whole world. Sin began with man’s failure to accept his dependence on God. He did not accept what he had prepared for him. He chose himself instead of God. Turning away from God is a sin. By sin a man gains nothing, but he loses everything.

„What? What Spirit?“ The disciples Paul met in Ephesus did not know that there was any Holy Spirit, nor that Jesus was the Messiah. But when Paul preached the good news to them and prayed with them, their eyes were opened, and they saw the spiritual gifts that belonged to them through Christ from that moment on. The Ephesian disciples knew that the Holy Spirit had descended on them„ because they could prophesy and speak in the languages that God had given them, “compare. Acts 19, 6). Such manifestations were a clear sign of the presence of the Spirit in the early Church (see 1 Cor 12, 4-11); even today, some believers experience these charismatic gifts. But although the gift of prophesying and speaking in tongues are among the more visible signs of the Holy Spirit, the Scriptures also mention other gifts of the Spirit that we can experience (see Isa 11, 2-3): 

• when you ask for guidance in prayer and some wise thought comes to mind, that too is the gift of the Holy Spirit; • when you find yourself tempted to do or say something reckless, but then you think of praying first Hail Mary, thanks to which you can finally resist it – know that it was advice from the Holy Spirit; • when you desire recognition for your performance, the fear of the Lord will remind you that all your gifts and talents come from God; • when you are confused about some moral question of the teaching of the Church and come across a book that will make you understand the matter better, the Spirit grants you reason and knowledge; • when you are already at the end of your strength, but still persevere in faith, that fills you with the Spirit of strength; • when you experience restlessness, but during the Holy Mass you suddenly feel that God loves you, the Spirit gives you piety. Pentecost is approaching.

So let’s ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with his gifts so we can serve him and his mysterious body even better. Don’t be afraid to beg boldly and expectantly. Remember that God „ does not give His Spirit according to measure“ (compare Jn 3, 34) – so he doesn’t just give it a little, as if for rationing. You may need strength or wisdom during this period of your life. Perhaps you would like to experience one of his charisms. Whatever it is, don’t be shy to beg. God always wants to give you more than you want to get from him.

Come, Holy Spirit! Abound and increase your gifts in me.

Each of us in the spiritual life encounters our limitations and an inner inability to live with God. A person who does not know spiritual things finds it discouraging and humbling. Some people start with God and then leave Him. Some people lose their heads at obstacles and do not know how to proceed. Living with God is not difficult from a certain point of view. It is a response of love.

On the other hand, it is tough because we are incapable of that love. To understand the difficulties in our life with God, we must focus on the beginning of our being with God. The Holy Scriptures say that at the beginning of human history, there was sin, which God did not create and which, along with death, came into the world through the envy of the devil. God, when he created man limited, took on himself an enormous risk that one would abuse this free will. The essence of man is that God made him, that he is bounded, and this limitation is expressed by the fact that man came out of the earth. Man was made from clay. That is, dust that has been mixed with water. Water is a symbol of the spirit. When God created man. God breathed into the nostrils of man the breath of life. The Holy Spirit is from the essence. Man lives by the  Holy Spirit more than the whole creation. Even though the power of the Holy Spirit holds the entire creation. Thus, the Holy Spirit dwells personally only in man. Man carries a certain ambivalence. On the 1st side, the limited man is a creature; on the 2nd, it has an unbounded, indeterminate spirit. We all know this tension well. Especially after the fall into original sin, we all feel this double law St. Paul wrote within us. On the 1st side, the law of the flesh pulls me to the ground. On the 2nd side, the law of the spirit that draws it to God. God created man by giving Himself a call to live with God because God gave him a share in his life. God gave man his own life, which was man’s greatest gift. God gives man a space in which he can live. We call this space home. 1. A man called it paradise. From the beginning, God took care of man because He knew that a person needs an environment in which to live. It is touching to see how the father’s dream, the growth of God, is projected there. God cares for his creatures from the very beginning. The space in which a person lives is limited in a certain way. Sacred Scripture expresses this by mentioning the tree of knowledge. You can’t eat from the tree of knowledge. This is unlike when a mother tells her child, You can’t go to the pantry and there’s still jam. God said If you eat from this tree, you will die..  It’s a kind of guide on how to live. What is the essence of the Tree of Knowledge? We can guess. Through knowledge, man tries to influence. Knowledge is power. And all those esoteric teachings have their root here too. You know desire, but not in God’s way. Know to influence, to grab, to rape. Then it is related to the fact that the tree of knowledge was a tree of knowledge of good and evil—a snake, the devil, who eventually seduces a person. But you will not die. You will be like a god. You will know good and evil. Man does not want to ask God what good and evil are. Man does not want to accept the boundaries set by God. Man does not want to live depending on God. This is the root of original sin. Man wants to determine what is good for him and what is evil. Who will speak to my life? I will decide what’s best for me. Look at how much of the population follows this motto. These people say, we have our minds. It is about accepting dependence on God. From the very beginning, a person’s life is connected with obedience. This obedience is not what we sometimes exercise between superior and subordinate, or between father and son. And I told you, and we won’t talk about it. Biblical obedience is dependence on God. A person accepts that he is not able to live on his own. Obedience is tremendous freedom for life. When Paul speaks in his letter to the Romans about hereditary guilt, he mentions that Adam was guilty of his disobedience. Jesus saved us by his obedience and put the opposite point against Adam. From the very beginning, the devil is the one who disobeys. Who has stood up against God and will not serve? Man allows himself to be carried away, not to serve. That is why Jesus came, who says, not my will, but your Father’s. Jesus is ministry incarnate. To man’s disobedience came the answer of Jesus. Sin is a consequence of the fact that man has allowed himself to be seduced by the devil. And he allowed himself to be led by the resistance to God. The story of original sin has a few more moments. When talking to a snake, a woman lets a certain distrust of God into her heart.  It’s already a mistake that a person has started to argue with the devil. Demons are not discussed; demons are opposed. Man is expected to take a clear and uncompromising stand against the devil. Includes when talking to a snake, a woman reveals. God forbade you to eat from all the trees when the devil spoke. The woman seems to be defending God. Not all of them, only from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The women misinterpreted the divine conclusion. The boundaries set by God moved even further. God did not speak about touching the tree. The law must have its limits. A person who determines what is and is not allowed to him exposes himself to danger. Not able to withstand this inner pressure, a person will eventually sin.  If parents forbid their children from doing more than necessary. Eventually, the children rebel. Eva concluded that God would not give us what we need. As God had robbed us of something. Some people feel that way. If I’m a believer, I’m deprived of something. Eva does not notice the snake during the conversation with the snake and begins to lie. The serpent-devil deforms the image of God. Man begins to look at God differently. Here we see the root of sin. We will begin to criticize what seemed good to us until this time. Many, especially young people, refuse to believe in God. Because they have a distorted image of God. Sin is what distorts our image of God and sets us against God. A woman’s conversation with the devil distorted the image of god.

God is the one who has been speaking since the beginning. In the beginning, the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The Letter to the Hebrews says: God spoke to our ancestors in many ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son. But what good is it if people do not hear? God acts and wants to intervene not only in the lives of individuals but also in the lives of all mankind. What good is it when people do not see God’s actions? God loves. He created the whole world out of love, called each of us to love, and constantly pours out his love on this world through his Spirit. The proof of his love is his own Son, whom he gave to us. But people do not feel this. God is still alive and present, but people do not perceive him. This deafness, blindness, and dullness, which are signs of unbelief, are fundamental causes of the crisis of faith. It is impossible to lead a spiritual life when I do not perceive God. It is impossible to live with God when I do not experience His love or know anything about God. When I do not encounter God, God is distant from my life. That is why a particular search is so important in our lives. That is why Jesus said that whoever seeks will find, and whoever knocks will be opened. Searching is part of human nature. Even though man seeks, the truth remains that God seeks man. But we are so hidden and self-absorbed that we do not perceive God’s interest in us. That is why man must seek for himself, to open himself to new realities, not to close himself off. We need to discover God and finally begin to perceive Him. God did not abandon the world after He created it. He is Emmanuel. God is with us. God is with every human being. He is present in our lives, but man does not perceive God. It is difficult to speak of a spiritual life unless a man feels God is at work. Spiritual life begins where each of our actions expresses our relationship with God. Just as a person must open his eyes to see, so must we open our hearts to see God. Just as a small child cannot see or hear after birth, but its senses must awaken, so too must the senses of our soul awaken for us to begin to perceive the divine, God hidden in creation and ultimately hidden in our hearts. Let us learn to understand the signs that God gives us. Signs are different. The most significant sign is Jesus himself. A person who has discovered Christ discovers the love of the Father through Christ. And there are various events through which God intervenes in our lives. He does not do this violently. He respects the freedom of each of us. Without freedom, there is no love. Many people ask, “Why doesn’t God intervene?” It is precisely because He respects human freedom. We need to learn to perceive the signs of God’s love. There comes a moment when a person opens his eyes and realizes that he cannot be himself. Because we humans are primarily focused on material things, fleeting things, and ourselves, we do not perceive God. Sometimes God leads us to Himself through poverty. Poverty can be material or spiritual. When we lack something, we often appreciate it more and establish different values. However, it is also about the poverty of ideas, desires, and feelings. Through all this, we realize the necessity of God. Poverty leads to dependence on God. The tragedy at the beginning was that people thought they could live without God. But without God, man can only die. We must know that to exist at all, we need God; to be able to do anything, to be able to love, to have relationships, we need God. It is just a matter of when we realize this.When people are in need or in poverty, they begin to perceive God better. God is with us even in our wealth, but we do not perceive Him when we do not need Him. He is with us not only in sickness, but also when we are healthy. But when we are healthy, we do not remember Him. That is why it is so important that each of us must experience a moment of hardship and helplessness. So that the moments of self-confidence that we feel diminish in our lives, and the moments in which God is present increase. So that we may become people who are always aware of God, so that, in other words, we may learn to live in the presence of the living God. Without the awareness that God is with me, that He permeates every moment of my life, it is impossible to live spiritually. Living with God is spiritual life. One should realize that everything is a gift from God. God comes to us through the circumstances of our lives. A person who learns to perceive that life is a gift, relationships are a gift, friendship is a gift, nature is a gift, and food is a gift. Everything is grace. Then one understands the important truth that we are here to receive gifts. God created us so that He could shower us with His gifts and give us His love, Himself. When a person is open to God’s gift, then God gives. The more a person experiences God’s presence, the more he realizes all God has done for him. A desire to live for God arises in the heart of man. Each of us is called to something different. A person is called not only to perceive God’s love, but also to respond to it. To be always close to God and discover God as He is. And whoever has discovered God cannot help but love Him. A desire grows in him to live for Him. Such a person allows himself to be guided by God. This increases the desire in a person not only to give something to God but also to belong to God and give himself to God when the time comes when God says, “Come home.” And you will say, “Finally, I am going.” This is the death that is life for a Christian. For a person to understand their mission in life, it is necessary to perceive God, to learn to live in God’s presence, to learn to love. May God open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our minds to understand the signs of love, so that we may truly live with Him, in Him, and for Him, because otherwise our whole life is just an illusion.

An adult can acknowledge authority, which has some shortcomings. He can admit that parents are not perfect and still respect them. The father is not the strongest and best he has been in a long time, yet I respect him. He is someone whose opinion I take seriously, I have respect for. One has to go through a period of defiance into a period of being able to make decisions. These are all prerequisites for a spiritual life. God has called us to be co-workers with the living God. Even God cannot solve everything for us. God wants us to make choices, to choose. To go from good to better. But making choices is not easy. Many people are so indecisive that they end up like the donkey who had two haystacks in front of him and didn’t know which one to choose, and ended up starving to death. A person who cannot make up his mind will never accomplish anything. He does not risk the step of choice that one must take, even at the cost of making a mistake and having to correct it. A grown man must act. He cannot leave all decision-making to other people. It is related to this that I decide this way, and the other person decides differently. We learn to respect each other, that we are going a different way, yet all those ways can lead to God. What is important is how I go, how God leads me. It is not so much important how the whole nation goes. I must know what God wants from me. People often yield to the majority’s opinion, which manifests human immaturity. If all goes, so will I. I won’t. As adults, we are to live with the living God.