Holy Spirit Interactive Kids: A Saint a Day

St. Francis of Paola

Feast Day: April 02
Born: 1416 :: Died: 1507

St. Francis was born in the tiny village of Paola, Italy. His parents were poor but humble and holy. They prayed to St. Francis of Assisi for a son and when he was born, they named him Francis. The boy went to a school taught by the Franciscan priests.

When he was fifteen, he went on a pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi. Then with his parents' permission, he went to live in a cave as a hermit and spend his life for God alone.

Before he was twenty years old he began to attract followers and other young men joined him. When his followers became too many, St. Francis left his cave and with permission from the Church started a new religious order, setting rules for them to follow.

The people of Paola built a church and monastery for him and his followers. He called his new order the "Franciscan Order of Minim Friars." "Minims" means "the least of all."

Everyone loved St. Francis. He prayed for them and worked many miracles. He was a prophet and could read minds. He told his followers that they must be kind and humble, and do much penance. He himself was the best example of the virtues he preached.

Once someone visited the saint and insulted him to his face. When the man was finished, Francis did something unusual. He quietly picked up some hot coals from the fireplace and closed his hands tightly around them. But he was not burned at all. "Come, warm yourself," he said to his accuser kindly. "You are shivering because you need a little charity." At such a miracle, the visitor changed his mind about Francis. From then on, he admired him greatly.

Another time, St. Francis wanted to sail across the Straits of Messina to Sicily, but the boatman refused to take him. Francis laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff to make a sail, and sailed across with his friends.

King Louis XI of France had not lived a very good life. Pipe Sixtus IV requested Francis to minister to the king when he was dying and King Louis eagerly welcomed Francis. Just the thought of dying made the king terrified. He wanted Francis to work a miracle to cure him. Instead, the saint gently helped the frightened man to prepare well to die a holy death.

The king had a change of heart, accepted God's will and died quietly in the arms of Francis. Before he died, Francis helped restore peace between France and Spain by convincing King Louis to return some land which was the cause of the trouble. He also helped restore peace between France and Brittany by advising a marriage between the two ruling families.

St. Francis lived a long life praising and loving God. He died on Good Friday in 1507, at the age of ninety-one.

Easter: April 2nd

Easter Monday

MASS READINGS

April 02, 2018 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

O God, who give constant increase to your Church by new offspring, grant that your servants may hold fast in their lives to the Sacrament they have received in faith. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Easter Soup with Leftover Lamb

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Old Calendar: Easter Monday

The Lord has risen from the dead, as he foretold. Let there be happiness and rejoicing for he is our King forever, alleluia. According to Moses and the prophets Christ was to suffer all "these things and so to enter into His glory". And what was this "glory" which Christ merited by His sufferings and death? It was His resurrection, His ascension into heaven, His sitting at the right hand of the Father, the homage of all the nations. It was especially the glorification of His body which only a few days ago hung mangled and lifeless on the cross.

Today is the feast of St. Francis of Paola which is superseded by the Easter Week Liturgy.

Stational Church

Meditation
"In those days: Peter standing up in the midst of the people, said: You know the word that hath been published through all Judea: for it began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached, Jesus of Nazareth: how God anointed Him with the Holy Ghost, and with power, who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. And we are witnesses of all things that He did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed hanging Him upon a tree. Him God raised up the third day, and gave Him to be made manifest, not to all the people, but to witnesses preordained by God, even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose again from the dead. And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was appointed by God to be judge of the living and of the dead. To Him all the prophets give testimony, that through His name all receive remission of sins who believe in Him." — Acts 10

St. Peter spoke these words to Cornelius, the centurion, and to the household and friends of this gentile, who had called them together to receive the Apostle whom God had sent to him. He had come to prepare them for Baptism, and thus make them the first-fruits of the gentile world, for up to this time the Gospel had been preached only to the Jews. Let us take notice how it is St. Peter, and not any other of the Apostles, who throws open to us gentiles the door of the Church, which Christ has built upon him as upon the impregnable rock.

This passage from the Acts of the Apostles is an appropriate Lesson for this day, whose Station is in the basilica of St Peter: it is read near the confession of the great Apostle. Let us observe, too, the method used by the Apostle in the conversion of Cornelius and the other gentiles. He begins by speaking to them concerning Jesus. He tells them of the miracles He wrought; then, having related how He died the ignominious death of the Cross, He insists on the fact of the Resurrection as the sure guarantee of His being truly God. He then instructs them on the mission of the Apostles, whose testimony must be received—a testimony which carries persuasion with it, seeing it was most disinterested, and availed them nothing save persecution. He, therefore, that believes in the Son of God made Flesh, who went about doing good, working all kinds of miracles; who died upon the Cross, rose again from the dead, and entrusted to certain men, chosen by Himself, the mission of continuing on earth the ministry he had begun—he that confesses all this, is worthy to receive, by holy Baptism, the remission of his sins. Such is the happy lot of Cornelius and his companions.

Excerpted from The Church's Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.

At Rome, the Station for today is at the basilica of St. Peter. On Saturday, the catechumens received the Sacrament of regeneration in the Lateran basilica of our Savior; yesterday, they celebrated the Resurrection in the magnificent church of St. Mary; it is just that they should come, on this third day, to pay their grateful devotions to Peter, on whom Christ has built his whole Church.