The love of the saints

FATHER GEORGE W. RUTLER

No generation has had more saints to intercede for them than ours has.

Last week, Pope Benedict XVI raised three new ones to the altars. Saint Guido Maria Conforti, bishop of Ravenna and Parma, though plagued by ill health, founded the Xaverian Missionaries for the conversion of non-Christians; he died in 1931. Saint Luigi Guanella, who died in 1915, founded three religious orders specially devoted to the care of the sick and dying. Saint Bonifacia Rodríguez Castro, who entered heaven in 1905, founded an order whose special dedication is to women who are poor or unemployed.

The good works these saints did were outward manifestations of the two commandments which our Lord declared to be the bedrock of all moral laws: love of God and love of one another (cf. Matthew 22:34-40).

Jesus cited those two commandments, from Deuteronomy and Leviticus, in response to the Pharisees who were testing Him. He had already confounded the Sadducees, who had tried to trick Him with cynical questionings. Sadducees and Pharisees live in every generation. The Sadducees were materialistic skeptics who did not believe in what they could not immediately comprehend, such as eternal life, rather like the Modernists of recent times. The Pharisees accepted supernatural mysteries such as angels and the resurrection of the dead, but were arrogant about their faith, quite like anyone smugly pious enough to pose as more Catholic than the Pope.

Jesus disturbed both parties by digging into the bedrock of holiness that is the love of God made tangible in the way we behave with our fellow humans. The superficial contradiction of that is solipsism, or self absorption, neglecting God and neighbor. In the Greek myth, Narcissus was so in love with his own reflection that he rejected the voice of the woodland nymph Echo, who loved him. Saints do not live in isolation, and so the voice of God does not bounce off them.

In September, Pope Benedict told the German federal parliament that society is in danger of taking on a "bunker" mentality, isolated in a windowless world, whose light and atmosphere are artificial. Such is the fate of the solipsist. Last week was the feast of Saint John of Capistrano, who was anything but a solipsist. He used his brains and energy to relieve the siege of Belgrade in 1456 and helped to save our civilization. His love of God was not an abstraction. At the time of the battle, Pope Callixtus III ordered that church bells be rung at noon, and noonday bells have rung ever since. On All Saints' Day, the bells recall the divine love that Christ brought to earth and made tangible: "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked upon and touched with our hands…" (1 John 1:1).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Father George William Rutler. "The love of the saints." From the Pastor (October 30, 2011).

Reprinted with permission of Father George W. Rutler.

1 posted on 10/31/2011 6:21:30 PM PDT by Salvation

To: Religion Moderator

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2 posted on 10/31/2011 6:22:13 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

To: nickcarraway; NYer; ELS; Pyro7480; livius; ArrogantBustard; Catholicguy; RobbyS; marshmallow; ...

Catholic Ping!

Post your favorite saint’s name, picture or quote!

3 posted on 10/31/2011 6:24:36 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

4 posted on 10/31/2011 6:26:09 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

Sts. Rita and Monica who are the patron saints of wives.

5 posted on 10/31/2011 6:48:56 PM PDT by yldstrk (My heroes have always been cowboys)

“If one desires the end, one must take the means.” St Therese of Lisieux.

6 posted on 10/31/2011 6:59:58 PM PDT by BlackVeil

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.
St. Francis of Assisi

7 posted on 10/31/2011 7:11:32 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

Jesus Christ said, "This is my Body." You say, "No. It is not His Body!" Who am I to believe? I prefer to believe Jesus Christ.

-- St. Dominic Barberi

8 posted on 10/31/2011 7:13:33 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

Dominic Guzman. He wept and pleaded for sinners.

9 posted on 10/31/2011 7:19:33 PM PDT by Mad Dawg (Jesus, I trust in you.)

A good reminder that we must all show the love of Christ to others.

10 posted on 10/31/2011 7:20:46 PM PDT by Ciexyz

St. Andre Bessette of Montreal.

11 posted on 10/31/2011 7:46:03 PM PDT by Ciexyz

Posting more than one:

St. Bernadette of Lourdes
St. Joseph, father of Jesus
St. Michael the Archangel

I could probably come up with more. Great question!

12 posted on 10/31/2011 10:07:10 PM PDT by TenthAmendmentChampion (I have a job; therefore I am in the 1%.)

Here’s another interesting article about the saints:
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2011/11/o-saints-teach-us-what-you-know

13 posted on 11/01/2011 6:08:36 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure your dog likes you.)

St. Michael the Archangel

14 posted on 11/01/2011 6:16:44 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

My favorite is St Anne.

I am often reminded of this and it always brings a chuckle when I read it from Mother Angelica; she calls it, "The Patron Saint of the Grouchy."

Did you ever see a statue of a grouchy saint? I saw one once. It was the most gorgeous statue I ever saw. It was Padre Pio, who was a grouch, you know. Now, everybody excuses the poor guy and says, "Well, he had the stigmata and he was suffering." Come off it. He was a grouch; he was a typical Italian grouch - which I can relate to! So I bought that statue in New Orleans a few years ago. He has the most beautiful, grumpy look on his face. See, that's my kind of saint. I want a saint who struggles like I do. There's no such thing as perfection. There is only the struggle for holiness.

15 posted on 11/01/2011 6:21:03 AM PDT by Gerish (Feed your faith and your doubts will starve to death.)

St. Clare of Assisi, because I long to be free of all the Stuff
St. Helena, Empress of Rome, because her son turned out so well
St. Martha
St. Juan Diego

16 posted on 11/01/2011 6:35:03 AM PDT by Tax-chick (I'm sure your dog likes you.)

Some wonderful saints here.

17 posted on 11/01/2011 3:46:15 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)

Mine is and has always been Saint Bernadette. Her humility and humbleness draw you to her.

Favorite quotes.

Q.was she beautiful?

Oh! Oh! Yes indeed! And even more than that!”

“so lovely that, when you have seen her once, you would willingly die to see her again!”

“How do you know if it’s really the Blessed Virgin who appeared to you, that it’s not an illusion, a trick of the devil?”

Oh, no! I threw some holy water at her and the apparition made the sign of the cross. She told me. “I am the Immaculate Conception.” and said the rosary with me.

18 posted on 11/02/2011 9:36:50 AM PDT by mardi59 (Time to turn off the tv so I don't break it..)

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