Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 11-23-02, Optional, Clement, Columban, Miguel Agustin Pro

For your reading, reflection, faith-sharing, comments and discussion.

I had to take characters out of the title.

That should read:
St. Clement,
St. Columban,
Bl'd Miguel Agustin Pro

(Just dealing with the limits of earth! LOL!)

Alleluia Ping!

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Thought for the Day

If people would do for God what they do for the world, my dear people, what a great number of Christians would go to Heaven! But if you dear children, had to pass three or four hours praying in a Church, as you pass them at a dance or in a cabaret, how heavily the world would press upon you.

-- St John Vianney

The Word Among Us

Saturday, November 23, 2002

Meditation
Luke 20:27-40

Once, hearing a poor servant curse his master for having dispossessed him of everything he owned, Francis admonished him: “Brother, pardon your master for the love of God, and free your own soul; it is possible that he will restore to you whatever he has taken away. Otherwise, you have lost your goods and will lose your soul as well.” But the man answered that he would not forgive until his possessions had been returned. At this, Francis gave him his own cloak and begged him to forgive his master. The man’s heart was at once melted by this act of kindness, and he immediately forgave his master (Mirror of Perfection, 32).

“A soft answer turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1). By speaking gently and demonstrating godly kindness, Francis did exactly what Jesus did over and over again—and what we are called to do.

The Sadducees were upset with Jesus and wanted to get rid of him because he claimed to have greater authority than they did. Seeking some reason to bring a charge against him, they asked a trick question about the resurrection of the body (Luke 20:28-33). If Jesus answered in a way that made the resurrection look ridiculous, the Pharisees would protest. If the opposite, the Sadducees—who did not believe in immortality—would be offended. So however Jesus answered, he would incur the wrath of one of these two powerful political and religious factions in Jerusalem.

Rather than snapping back and scolding, Jesus graciously responded with words of hope describing the new life he came to offer. Pointing them to Exodus 3:6, he gave scriptural evidence for the resurrection. There, Yahweh revealed himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These patriarchs, who had died hundreds of years before Moses, were still alive in God. God is a living God of a living people, and so there must be a resurrection after death!

Jesus’ answer—and more importantly, his demeanor—silenced the Sadducees (Luke 20:40). Remaining in the peace of God, he answered graciously, patiently, and wisely, and there was nothing they could object to. May we too learn to hold ourselves in peace and to be as gentle as Jesus and St. Francis!

“Lord Jesus, may I radiate your goodness and kindness to everyone I meet today.”

Good morning

Good morning, everyone.

A thought to ponder:

As I go about my errands today may I ask myself, "Who needs to hear about the goodness of Jesus Christ and His Real Presence in the Catholic Church?

Will I stop and talk to them and invite them? [back to the Church]?

Morning, to you, (After) Your Sleep! LOL!

Have a wonderful day!

From: Revelation 11:4-12

The Death and Resurrection of the Two Witnesses (Continuation)

[4] These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand
before the Lord of the earth. [5] And if any one would harm them, fire
pours from their mouth and consumes their foes; if any one would harm
them, thus he is doomed to be killed. [6] They have power to shut the
sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and
they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite
the earth with every plague, as often as they desire. [7] And when
they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascends from the
bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and kill them,
[8] and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city
which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was
crucified. [9] For three days and a half men from the peoples and
tribes and tongues and nations gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to
let them be placed in a tomb, [10] and those who dwell on the earth
will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because
these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth.
[11] But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God
entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on
those who saw them. [12] Then they heard a loud voice from heaven
saying to them, "Come up hither!" And in the sight of their foes they
went up to heaven in a cloud.

Commentary:

3-6. The period of tribulation coincides with the length of time the
two witnesses prophesy. They call people to penance (symbolized by
their use of sackcloth). God protects them in a very special way; and
yet he does not spare them death or suffering; in the end, however,
they will be glorified in heaven. In the Apocalypse the identity of
the two witnesses is not given; they are referred to as "olive trees"
--the same language as used of Zerubbabel, a prince of the line of
David, and Joshua, the high priest (cf. Zech 3:3-14). But they are
assigned features of Elijah, who brought about a drought (cf. 1 Kings
17:1-3; 18:1), and Moses, who turned the Nile to blood (cf. Ex 7:14-
16). The enemies of Elijah and Moses were also devoured by fire from
heaven (cf. 2 Kings 1 :10; Num 16:35). However, because the two
witnesses testify to Jesus Christ and die martyrs, tradition
identifies them with St Peter and St Paul, who suffered martyrdom in
Rome, the city which the Book of Revelation later mentions
symbolically. Some early commentators (e.g. Ticonius and St Bede) saw
the two witnesses as standing for the Old and New Testaments; but this
interpretation has had little following. St Jerome ("Epist." 59) says
that they are Elijah and Enoch, and St Gregory the Great and others
give that interpretation ("Moralia", 9, 4).

What St John is doing is using a theme which occurs fairly frequently
in apocalyptic writings where Elijah and Enoch or other combinations
of prominent figures are portrayed as opponents of antichrist. His two
witnesses do have features of Elijah and Moses, both of whom bore
witness to Christ at the Transfiguration (cf. Mt 17:1-8 and par.).
However, the duration of the trial they undergo, and the entire context
of the passage, point rather to them standing for the prophetic witness
of the Church, symbolized by certain more outstanding witnesses, who
were present at the death of Christ, which took place in Jerusalem, and
who were also witnesses of his glorious resurrection. However, it is
the entire Church, right through the course of its history, that has
been given the prophetic role of calling men to repentance in the midst
of harassment and hostility: "The holy People of God shares also in
Christ's prophetic office: it spreads a broad and living witness to
him, especially by a life of faith and love and by offering to God a
sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips praising his name (cf. Heb 13:
15)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 12). "The Church announces the good
tidings of salvation [...] , so that all men may believe the one true
God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent and may be converted from their
ways, doing penance (cf. Jn 17:3; Lk 24:27; Acts 2:38)" (Vatican II,
"Sacrosanctum Concilium", 9).

7-10. The prophet Daniel used four beasts to symbolize the empires of
the world as enemies of the people of Israel. In the Apocalypse the
beast stands for the enemy of the Church and the enemy of God. Further on
it will develop this theme and link the beasts to the dragon or Satan (cf.
13:2), and describe their defeat by Christ, the Lamb of God (cf. 14:1;
19:19-21).

The symbol of the beast is brought forward in this passage to show that
there will be a point, or various points, before the End when the
forces of evil will apparently win victory. Martyrdom silences the
voices of the witnesses of Jesus Christ who preach repentance; many
will rejoice over this and even deride those whose words or actions
they find uncomfortable, despite the fact that when a Christian bears
witness to the salvation that comes from Jesus he is motivated purely
by love. "Since Jesus, the Son of God, showed his love by laying down
his life for us, no one has greater love than he who lays down his life
for him and for his brothers (cf. 1 Jn 3:16; Jn 15:13). Some Christians
have been called from the beginning, and will always be called, to give
this greatest testimony of love to all, especially to persecutors.
Martyrdom makes the disciple like his Master, who willingly accepted
death for the salvation of the world, and through it he is conformed to
Him by the shedding of blood. Therefore the Church considers it the
highest gift and supreme test of love. And while it is given to few,
all however must be prepared to confess Christ before men and to follow
him along the way of the cross amidst the persecutions which the Church
never lacks" ("Lumen Gentium", 42).

"The great city", whose name is not given, seems to be Jerusalem, which
in Isaiah 1:10 is called Sodom because it has turned its back on God.
However, when the writer tells us that it is "allegorically called
Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified" (v. 8), we may take
Jerusalem here to stand for any city or even any nation where
perversity holds sway (cf. Wis 19:14-17, which alludes to Sodom and
Egypt) and where Christians are persecuted and hunted down (cf. Acts
9:5). Thus, St Jerome ("Epist." 17) interpreted the names of Sodom and
Egypt as having a mystical or figurative meaning, referring to the
entire world seen as the city of the devil and of evildoers.

Further on, St John will identify the Rome of his time with this "great
city" (cf. 17:9).

Evil will triumph for only a limited period. Its reign is fixed to last
"three days and a half", to show its brevity and temporary character as
compared with the one thousand two hundred and sixty days (three years
and a half) for which the prophetic witness endures (cf. note on 11:
1-2).

11-13. Those who have given their lives to bear witness to Jesus will
also, through the power of the Holy Spirit, share in his resurrection
and ascension into heaven. The writer describes this by various
references to the Old Testament, references rich in meaning. The breath
of life which causes the witnesses to stand up, that is, to be
resurrected, reveals the power of the Spirit of God, which is also
described by the prophet Ezekiel in his vision of the dry bones which
become living warriors (cf. Ezek 37:1-14). The voice which calls them
up to heaven reminds us of what happened to Elijah at the end of his
life (cf. 2 Kings 2:11), and to certain other Old Testament saints like
Enoch (cf. Gen 5:24; Sir 44:16); according to certain Jewish traditions
(cf. Flavius Josephus, "Jewish Antiquities", IV, 8, 48), all of these
men were carried up into heaven at the end of their days on earth.

The exaltation of the witnesses is in sharp contrast with the
punishment meted out to their enemies, a punishment designed to move
men to conversion. The earthquake indicates that the chastisement is
sudden and unexpected; the number of those who die symbolizes a great
crowd (thousands) embracing all types (seven).

The prophecy of the two witnesses is a call to the Christian to bear
witness to Christ in the midst of persecution, even to the point of
martyrdom. It makes it quite clear that God does not abandon those who
boldly take his side. If the prophets of the Old Testament suffered
martyrdom, the same will happen in the new, only more so: the
messianic times have begun, persecution will grow in strength, but
the end of the world is approaching.

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

The Two Witnesses -- an interesting theme played up heavily in the "Left Behind" series.

Any discussion about the Two Witnesses today?

From: Luke 20:27-40

The Resurrection of the Dead

[27] There came to Him (Jesus) some Sadducees, those who say that there
is no resurrection, [28] and they asked Him a question saying,
"Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife
but no children, the man must take the wife and raise up children for
his brother. [29] Now there were seven brothers; the first took a
wife, and died without children; [30] and the second [31] and the third
took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. [32]
Afterward the woman also died. [33] In the resurrection, therefore,
whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife."

[34] And Jesus said to them, "The sons of this age marry and are given
in marriage; [35] but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that
age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given
in marriage, [36] for they cannot die any more, because they are equal
to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. [37]
But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about
the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob. [38] Now He is not God of the dead, but of
the living; for all live to Him." [39] And some of scribes answered,
"Teacher, You have spoken well." [40] For they no longer dared to ask
Him any question.

Commentary:

27-40. The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection of the body or
the immortality of the soul. They came along to ask Jesus a question
which is apparently unanswerable. According to the Levirate law (cf.
Deuteronomy 25:5ff), if a man died without issue, his brother was duty
bound to marry his widow to provide his brother with descendants. The
consequences of this law would seem to give rise to a ridiculous
situation at the resurrection of the dead.

Our Lord replies by reaffirming that there will be a resurrection; and
by explaining the properties of those who have risen again, the
Sadducees' argument simply evaporates. In this world people marry in
order to continue the species: that is the primary aim of marriage.
After the resurrection there will be no more marriage because people
will not die anymore.

Quoting Sacred Scripture (Exodus 3:2, 6) our Lord shows the grave
mistake the Sadducees make, and He argues: God is not the God of the
dead but of the living, that is to say, there exists a permanent
relationship between God and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who have been
dead for years. Therefore, although these just men have died as far as
their bodies are concerned, they are alive, truly alive, in God--their
souls are immortal--and they are awaiting the resurrection of their
bodies.

See also the notes on Matthew 22:23-33 and Mark 12:18-27.

[The note on Matthew 22:23-33 states:

23-33. The Sadducees argue against belief in the resurrection of the
dead on the basis of the Levirate law, a Jewish law which laid down
that when a married man died without issue, one of his brothers,
according to a fixed order, should marry his widow and the first son of
that union be given the dead man's name. By outlining an extreme cases
the Sadducees make the law and belief in resurrection look ridiculous.
In His reply, Jesus shows up the frivolity of their objections and
asserts the truth of the resurrection of the dead.]

[The note on Mark 12:18-27 states:

18-27. Before answering the difficulty proposed by the Sadducees, Jesus
wants to identify the source of the problem--man's tendency to confine
the greatness of God inside a human framework through excessive
reliance on reason, not giving due weight to divine Revelation and the
power of God. A person can have difficulty with the truths of faith;
this is not surprising, for these truths are above human reason. But
it is ridiculous to try to find contradictions in the revealed word of
God; this only leads away from any solution of difficulty and may make
it impossible to find one's way back to God. We need to approach
Sacred Scripture, and, in general, the things of God, with the humility
which faith demands. In the passage about the burning bush, which
Jesus quotes to the Sadducees, God says this to Moses: "Put off your
shoes from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground"
(Exodus 3:5).]

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Catholic Online Saints
Pope St. Clement I
d. 100? Feastday: November 23
Patron of Marble-Workers

Little is known of this apostolic father beyond a few facts. He was a disciple of S. Peter, and perhaps of S. Paul. It is thought that the Clement whom S. Paul praises as a faithful fellow- worker, whose name is written in the Book of Life [Philippians 4:3], was Clement, afterwards bishop of Rome. But there is great difficulty in admitting this supposition. It is certain that Clement, the idol of the Petrine party in the Primitive Church, about whom their myths and traditions circled lovingly, was quite removed in feeling from the Pauline party.

According to Tertullian, Clement succeeded S. Peter immediately in the episcopal government of the Church at Rome. But in the list of bishops given us by Irenaeus and Eusebius he occupies the third place after the apostle, that is, after Linus and Cletus (Anacletus). It is, however, probable that the Church at Rome had at first two successions, one Petrine, the other Pauline, but that they speedily merged into one; and this will account for the confusion in the lists of the first bishops of Rome. Clement probably was Petrine, and Cletus Pauline bishop, the former ruling the converted Jews, the latter the Gentile converts. We know nothing of the events of his pontificate, except that there was a schism at Corinth, which drew forth a letter from him which is preserved. S. Jerome and S. Irenaeus do not say that he died a martyr's death, but Rufinus and Zosimus give him the title of martyr; but this title by no means implies that he had died for the faith; it had anciently more extended signification than at present, and included all who had witnessed a good confession, and suffered in any way for their faith.

This is all that we know of S. Clement. But imagination has spun a web of romance about his person.

The Clementine Recognitions and Homilies are an early romance representing the disputation of S. Peter and Simon Magus; they have a story running through them to hold the long disquisitions together, of which S. Clement is the hero. It is, however, pure romance, with, perhaps, only this basis of truth in it, that Clement is represented as the devoted adherent and disciple of S. Peter. The Clementines are thoroughly anti-Pauline, as are also the Apostolic Constitutions, in which again S. Clement appears prominently.

The legend of the martyrdom of S. Clement relates that, in the reign of Trajan, when Mamertinus was prefect of the city, and Toractianus count of the offices, a sedition arose among the rabble of Rome against the Christians, and especially against Clement, bishop of Rome. Mamertinus interfered to put down the riot, and having arrested Clement, sent him to the emperor, who ordered his banishment to Pontus, where he was condemned to work in the marble quarries. He found many Christians among his fellow-convicts, and comforted and encouraged them. The only spring of drinking water was six miles off, and it was a great hardship to the convicts to have to fetch it all from such a distance. One day Clement saw a lamb scraping at the soil with one of its forefeet. He took it as a sign that water was there; dug, and found a spring.

As Clement succeeded in converting many pagans, he was sent to Aufidianus, the prefect, who ordered him to be drowned in the sea with an old anchor attached to his neck. His body was recovered by his disciple Phoebus. The relics of S. Clement were translated to Constantinople (860) by S. Cyril on his return from his mission to the Chazars, whilst engaged in the Chersonese on his Sclavonic translation of the Gospels. Some of the relics found their way to Rome, and were deposited in the church of San Clemente, where they are still reverently preserved. These consist of bones, some reddened earth, a broken vase containing some red matter, a little bottle similarly filled, and an inscription stating that these are the relics of the Holy Forty Martyrs of Scilita, and also of Flavius Clement.

In art S. Clement of Rome is represented as a Pope with an anchor at his side. [His death is placed at about 100 A.D.]

From The Lives of the Saints by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., published in 1914 in Edinburgh.

**According to Tertullian, Clement succeeded S. Peter immediately in the episcopal government of the Church at Rome.**

Tidbit of info for the day!

Catholic Online Saints
St. Columban
d. b: 559? d: 615
Feastday: November 23

Columban was a native of Leinster, and seems to have been of a respectable family. Of the precise date of his birth we are not informed. According to some accounts it was about 559, but according to others it was several years earlier. He received a good classical education, and resolved early to embrace an ascetic life. But the good looks and winning ways of the Irish girls were a snare to him. He tried to forget their bright eyes by toiling (desudavit) at grammar, rhetoric, and geometry, but found that at least syntax and the problems of Euclid were a less attractive study than pretty faces, and that the dry rules of rhetoric failed altogether before the winsome prattle of light- hearted maidens. He consulted an old woman who lived as a recluse. She warned him that if he wished to maintain his purpose of self-conquest he must fly to a region where girls are less beautiful and seductive than Ireland. "Save thyself, young man, and fly!" His resolution was formed; he decided on going away.

His mother attempted to deter him, prostrating herself on the threshold of the door; he stepped over her, left the province of Leinster, and placed himself under the tuition of the venerable Sinell, son of Oenach, abbot of Cluaininis in Lough Erne. Sinell made Columban compose a commentary on the Psalms whilst under his tuition. After awhile, Columban went to Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland (not the one in Wales), where he remained under the abbot Congall. But this first apprenticeship in the holy war was not enough. The adventurous temper of his race, the passion for pilgrimage and preaching, drew him beyond the seas. He heard incessantly the voice which had spoken to Abraham echoing in his ears, "Go out of thine own country, and from thy father's house, into a land that I shall show thee." The abbot in vain attempted to retain him. Columban, then thirty, left Bangor with twelve other monks, crossed Great Britain, and reached Gaul. He found the Catholic faith in existence there, but Christian virtue and ecclesiastical discipline ignored or outraged -- thanks to the fury of the wars and the negligence of the bishops. He devoted himself during several years to traversing the country, preaching the Gospel, and especially giving an example to all of the humility and charity which he taught. His little community accompanied him. If one of the members lapsed into vice, all the rest simultaneously, burning with charity, fell on him, and beat him back into the paths of virtue. Not a harsh word was uttered by one of them; they had all things in common.

Arriving, in the course of his apostolic wanderings, in Burgundy, he was received there by King Gontram, of all the grandsons of Clovis the one whose life appears to have been least blamable, and who had most sympathy with the monks. His eloquence delighted the king and his lords. Fearing that he would leave them, Gontram offered him the ancient Roman castle of Annegray, now in the commune of Faucogney (Haute Saone). He lived there the simplest life with his companions, on the bark of trees, the wild herbs, the bilberries in the firwoods, and whatever the neighbors would give, out of charity. Often he separated himself from his companions to plunge alone into the forest. There, in his long and close communion with bare and savage nature, every living creature obeyed his voice. The birds came to receive his caresses, and the squirrels descended from the tree-tops to hide themselves in the folds of his cowl. He expelled a bear from the cavern which became his cell; he took from another bear a dead stag, whose skin he used for shoes for the brethren. One day, while he wandered in the depths of the wood, bearing a volume of Holy Scripture on his shoulder, and meditating whether the ferocity o beasts was not better than the rage of men, he saw a dozen wolves surround him. He remained motionless, repeating the words, "Deus in adjutorium." The wolves smelt his garments, and passed on their way without molesting him. He pursued his [way], and a few steps further on heard the voices of a band of Swabian robbers who wasted the country. He did not see them; but he thanked God for having preserved him from the maw of the wolf and the less merciful hand of man.

At the end of some years the increasing number of his disciples obliged him to seek another residence, and by the help of Agnoald, a minister of the Frank king, whose wife was a Burgundian of high family, he obtained from Gontram the site of another strong castle, named Luxeuil, where there had been Roman baths, magnificently ornamented. On the ruins of this seat of luxury the monks founded their ascetic colonists, these eschewing water, planted themselves in the ancient baths.

Luxeuil was situated on the confines of Austrasia and Burgundy, at the foot of the Vosges. Disciples collected abundantly round the Irish colonizer. He could soon count several hundreds of them in the three monasteries which he had built in succession, and which he himself governed. The noble Franks and Burgundians, overawed by the sight of these great creations of work and prayer, brought their sons to him, lavished gifts upon him, and often came to ask him to cut their long hair, the sign of nobility and freedom, and admit them into the ranks of his army. Labor and prayer attained here, under the strong arm of Columban, to proportions up to that time unheard of. The multitude became so great that he could organize that perpetual service, called "Laus perennis" which already existed at Agaunum, on the other side of the Jura and Lake Leman, where, night and day, the voices of monks, "unwearied as those of angels," arose to celebrate the praises of God in unending song.

Rich and poor were equally bound to agricultural labor. The toil of the hands was the sovereign receipt for spiritual languor and bodily sickness. When he issued on one occasion from his cave in the depths of the forest, and came to Luxeuil, he found a large number of monks in bed with influenza colds. He made them get up and go to the barn and thrash out wheat. The violent exercise opened their pores and expelled the fever. A monk named Theudegisl cut his thumb whilst reaping, and wanted to knock off work. Columban removed the blood with a little saliva, convinced himself that the wound was not serious, and made the man finish the work.

An article of his rule ordained that the monk should go to rest so fatigued that he would be ready to fall asleep on his way to bed, and should rise before he had slept off his weariness. It was at the cost of this excessive and perpetual labor that the wilderness which had spread over the ruins of Roman civilization was restored to cultivation and life.

Twenty years passed thus, during which the reputation of Columban increased and extended afar. But his influence was not undisputed. He displeased one portion of the Gallo-Frank clergy by the intemperate zeal with which he attempted, in his epistles, to remind the bishops of their duties, ostensibly by his obstinate adherence to Celtic peculiarities of tonsure and costume, and of the observance of Easter.

At a period when the most trifling ecclesiastical peculiarities were ranked as heresies of magnitude, such a divergence from established custom could not fail to serve as the opportunity for his enemies, and to weaken and embarrass his success. The details of his struggle with the bishops of Gaul remain unknown; but the resolution he displayed may be understood by some passages of his letters to the council which met to examine his conduct with respect to the observance of Easter. This was the council, apparently, held at Sens in 601, attended by Betharius, bishop of Chartres. The council as summoned in consequence of letters written by Pope Gregory the Great to Brunehild, to Virgilius of Arles, and others, to urge the extirpation of simony. S. Columban was invited to it to explain his conduct, and abandon his eccentricities. He did not attend, but he wrote to the council a letter, in which he requested the bishops not only to consider the question of Easter, but also the canonical observances which they themselves were guilty of neglecting. "I am not the author of this difference; I have come into these parts a poor stranger, for the cause of the Savior Christ; I ask of your holinesses but a single favor, that you will permit me to live in silence in the depths of these forests, near the bones of seventeen brethren whom I have already seen die. I will pray of you with those who remain with me, as I have done these twelve years...If God guides you to expel me from the desert which I have sought, I will say with Jonah, 'Take me up and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm.' But before you throw me overboard, it is your duty to follow the example of sailors, and try first to reach the land; perhaps it may not be an excess of presumption if I suggest that many men follow the broad way, and that it is better to encourage those who follow the narrow way that leads to life than to throw stumbling blocks in their path."

Whatever was the result of this letter, or the decision of the council, S. Columban persevered in his paschal computation, and still annoyed the Gallican clergy by so doing. For the purpose of being protected from their attacks he had recourse to the then Pope, whether Sabinian or Boniface the third or fourth is uncertain, and sent him copies of his letters to Pope Gregory on the subject of Easter. He requested him to be allowed to follow the tradition of his forefathers, and said that he had no wish to disturb others in the observance of their customs.

A much more severe persecution awaited him, excited against him by the wicked queen-dowager Brunehild, the widow of Sigebert of Austrasia, and mother of Childebert, who became king of Burgundy and died in 596. Childebert left two sons, Theodebert, king of Austrasia, and Theodoric or Thierry, king of Burgundy, who succeeded him under the tutelage of their grandmother. Brunehild lived with Theodebert, until, at the request of the nobles of Austrasia, he banished her. Then she fled to Thierry, by whom she was kindly received. Gregory of Tours has praised the beauty, good manners, prudence, and affability of Brunehild, and Gregory the Great congratulated the Franks on having so good a queen. But Brunehild, in her thirst for rule, endeavored to divert her grandsons from political interests by leading them into the pursuit of sensual pleasures. From fear of having a rival in power and honor near the throne of Thierry, she opposed with all her might every attempt to replace the concubines she had given him by a legitimate queen, and when, finally, he determined on espousing a Visigothic princess, Brunehild, though herself the daughter of a Visigothic king, succeeded in disgusting her grandson with his bride, and made him repudiate her at the end of a year.

S. Desiderius, bishop of Vienne, who had advised the king to marry, was murdered by the ruffians whom Brunehild had laid in wait for him.

However, the young Thierry had religious instincts. He was rejoiced to possess in his kingdom so holy a man as Columban. He went often to visit him. Irish zeal took advantage of this to reprove him for his disorderly life, and to seek a lawful spouse, that the king might have a successor on his throne from an honorable queen, and not from a concubine. The young king promised amendment, but Brunehild easily turned him away from these good intentions. Columban having gone to visit her at Bourcheresse, she presented him the four sons of Thierry by his concubines. "What would these children with me?" he asked. "They are the sons of the king," answered the queen, "strengthen them with thy blessing." "No!" answered the abbot, "they shall not reign, for they are of bad origin." From that moment Brunehild swore war to the death against him. She despatched messengers with orders not to allow the monks to quit their monastery, and an injunction that others were not to give them hospitality, or offer them gifts. Columban went to Epoisses to see the king and appeal against this command. Thierry promised to remove the ban, and Columban returned to Luxeuil.

Theodoric continued his disorderly life, and Columban wrote him a severe letter, threatening to separate himself from communion with the king unless he set a better moral example. This highly incensed Thierry and Brunehild, and the bishops who were angry at the paschal usages of the saint fanned their wrath. Thierry went to Luxeuil, and reproached Columban for refusing to allow the queen-dowager to cross the threshold of the monastery. The abbot replied that he must defend the rule of his monastery. He threatened the king with divine vengeance if he interfered with him, and Thierry, as superstitious as he was licentious, was frightened and withdrew. Shortly after, Columban was taken to Besancon, and was required to remain there til he learned the king's pleasure. Columban, finding means of escape, returned to Luxeuil. Brunehild and Thierry, apprized of his return, sent soldiers to remove him. And this, his final departure, took place in the twentieth year from his arrival in the Vosges, A.D. 610. The king gave orders that the saint and the Irish monks who were banished with him should be sent back to their own land.

They were conducted across France to Nantes, where they were placed on board a vessel destined for Ireland. At the mouth of the river the ship encountered the bore, which carried it over the banks and left it astrand. The superstitious sailors attributed this misfortune to the presence of the monks in their vessel, and refused to put to sea with them as passengers. Columban and his disciples were therefore left behind, and they returned to Nantes, whence the abbot addressed a letter to his monks at Luxeuil, bidding them obey Attalus, the abbot appointed in his place, and should difficulties arise on account of the paschal question, to leave their monastery and come to him rather than accept the Roman computation. Columban then took refuge with Clothair II, son of Chilperic, king of Soissons and Neustria. This son of Fredegund, faithful to his mother's hatred for Brunehild and her family, gave a cordial reception to the victim of his enemy, and at his request provided him with an escort to Theodebert, king of Austrasia, through whose states he desired to pass on his way to Italy. On his road the Frank chiefs brought their children to receive his benediction. Theodebert, now at war with his brother Thierry, received Columban with great cordiality, and endeavored to persuade him to settle under his protection. But the saint would not be detained. He had spent sixty years of labor in the vain attempt to reform kings and nations who called themselves Christians, and now he resolved on turning to a new field of labor -- mission-work among the heathen. He accordingly embarked on the Rhine below Mainz, and ascending the Rhine and Lammat to the Lake of Zurich, remained for a while at Tuggen.

A strange tale is told of a huge vat of beer, offered to the God Woden, which burst at the mere breath of Columban. S. Gall, his companion, set the temples at Tuggen on fire, and threw the idols into the lake. The monks were compelled to fly; and Columban left the pagans of that district with a most unapostolic malediciton, devoting their whole race to temporal misery and eternal perdition. They retreated to Arbon, on the Lake of Constance; there they heard of a ruined Roman city at the head of the lake, named Brigantium (Bregentz). At Bregentz Columban found a ruined church dedicated to S. Aurelia, which he rebuilt. But the chief objects of worship in the re-paganized land were three statues of gilded brass. S. Gall broke the idols and threw them into the water....The apostles found the Suevi and Allemanns worshippers of Woden, and stubborn in their opposition to the Gospel.

During his sojourn at Bregentz, Columban went to see King Theodebert, who was still at war with his brother the king of Burgundy. Knowing by his visit to Thierry that the power of the latter was sufficient to overwhelm the Austrasian kingdom, he counselled Theodebert to abandon the unequal contest and take refuge in the cloister. His advice provoked an outburst of laughter. "Such a hating is unheard of," said the courtiers, "that Frank king should become a monk of his own free will." "Well," said the saint, "if he will not be a monk voluntarily, he will be made one by force." So saying he returned to Bregentz. The battle of Tolbiac ruined the hopes of Theodebert, who was forced to assume the monastic habit, and was shortly after put to death.

The whole of Austrasia had fallen by the defeat and death of Theodebert into the hands of Brunehild and Thierry, and the banks of the Upper Rhine, where their victim had found a refuge, had passed under their sway. It was no longer safe for Columban to remain there, and accompanied by a single disciple, Attalus, he crossed the Alps and sought refuge with Agilulf, king of the Lombards.

He arrived at Milan in 612, after having spent but one year at Bregentz. While at Milan, Columban wrote against the Arian heresy with which the Lombards were infected. The schism of the Three Chapters was still distracting the North of Italy, although the chapters had been condemned by the Council of Constantinople in 553. The bishops of Istria and Africa refused to acknowledge this condemnation, because they thought it threw discredit on the Council of Chalcedon. The Lombards sided with the Istrian prelates, and were therefore involved in their schism. Gregory the Great wisely let the matter drop -- it was a tempest about trifle; but Boniface IV, was not disposed to allow the question to sleep and expire. He stirred it up again, and Agilulf and his queen, Theodelinda, engaged Columban to write to the Pope in defense of the Three Chapters. Evidently little acquainted in his own person with the point at issue, Columban rushed into the controversy with his usual impetuosity. Whilst appealing in a series of extravagant and obscure apostrophes, to the indulgence of the Pope for "a foolish Scot," charged to write on account of a Lombard, a king of the Gentiles, he acquaints the Pontiff with the imputations brought against him and the chair of S. Peter, as fautors of heresy, and urges him to prove his orthodoxy by excommunicating his detractors. Pope Vigilius, he says, prevaricated; he was the cause of the whole scandal.

Rome he acknowledges as the head of all churches, saving only the prerogatives of Jerusalem. He warms the Pope not by his perversity to lose his high privileges and dignity. For power was his only so long as exercised aright -- the keys were only his to lock and unlock justly.

He tells Boniface that the Irish were orthodox believers, constantly adhering to the faith and apostolic tradition, which they had received from their forefathers, and that they never had among them heretics, Jews, or schismatics. "I confess that I lament over the bad reputation of the chair of S. Peter in this country. I speak to you not as a stranger, but as a disciple, as a friend, as a servant. I speak freely to our masters, to the pilots of the vessel of the Church, and I say to them, Watch! and despise not the humble advice of the stranger....Pardon me if swimming among the rocks, I have said words offensive to pious ears. The native liberty of my race has given me this boldness. With us it is not the person, it is the right, which prevails. The love of evangelical peace makes me say everything. We are bound to the chair of S. Peter; for, however great and glorious Rome may be, it is this chair which makes her great and glorious among us."

Agilulf bestowed on Columban the land of Bobbio, among the Apennines, between Genoa and Milan. Columban founded there a monastery. Despite his age, he shared in the builder's labor, and bent his old shoulders under beams of firwood, which he transported from the mountain slopes on which they were felled to the spot where his abbey rose. Bobbio was his last stage. Thierry died, Clothair II, who tortured to death the aged queen, and executed her two eldest grandsons, took his throne. Clothair, on becoming sole king of Austrasia, Burgundy, and Neustria, sent Eustace, abbot of Luxeuil, to Bobbio, to recall Columban to France. But the old abbot refused the call; he answered it in a letter full of advice.

He was now very aged. On the opposite bank of the Trebbia to his abbey of Bobbio, he had found a cavern in a rock. This he transformed into a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin. There he passed the remainder of his days in prayer, visiting his monastery only on Sundays and festivals, and there he died on November 21, 615, when over seventy-two years old. He was buried at Bobbio, and many miracles it is asserted, were performed at his tomb.

From The Lives of the Saints by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, M.A., published in 1914 in Edinburgh.

Irish Ping for St. Columban.

**A strange tale is told of a huge vat of beer, offered to the God Woden, which burst at the mere breath of Columban. S. Gall, his companion, set the temples at Tuggen on fire, and threw the idols into the lake. The monks were compelled to fly; and Columban left the pagans of that district with a most unapostolic malediciton, devoting their whole race to temporal misery and eternal perdition.**

I am sitting here chuckling at the picture this brings to my mind.

Catholic Online Saints
Blessed Miguel Pro
A Martyr for Our Times
Feastday: November 23

Born on January 13, 1891 in Guadalupe, Mexico, Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez was the eldest son of Miguel Pro and Josefa Juarez.

Miguelito, as his doting family called him, was, from an early age, intensely spiritual and equally intense in hi mischievousness, frequently exasperating his family with his humor and practical jokes. As a child, he had a daring precociouness that sometimes went too far, tossing him into near-death accidents and illnesses. On regaining consciousness after one of these episodes, young Miguel opened his eyes and blurted out to his frantic parents, "I want some cocol" (a colloquial term for his favorite sweet bread). "Cocol" became his nickname, which he would later adopt as a code name during this clandestine ministry.

Miguel was particularly close to his older sister and after she entered a cloistered convent, he came to recognize his own vocation to the priesthood. Although he was popular with the senoritas and had prospects of a lucrative career managing his father's thriving business concerns, Miguel renounced everything for Christ his King and entered the Jesuit novitiate in El Llano, Michoacan in 1911.

He studied in Mexico until 1914, when a tidal wave of anti-Catholicism crashed down upon Mexico, forcing the novitiate to disband and flee to the United States, where Miguel and his brother seminarians treked through Texas and New Mexico before arriving at the Jesuit house in Los Gatos, California.

In 1915, Miguel was sent to a seminary in Spain, where he remained until 1924, when he went to Belgium for his ordination to the priesthood in 1925. Miguel suffered from a severe stomach problem and after three operations, when his health did not improve, his superiors, in 1926, allowed him to return to Mexico in spite of the grave religious persecution in that country.

The churches were closed and priests went into hiding. Miguel spent the rest of his life in a secret ministry to the sturdy Mexican Catholics. In addition to fulfilling their spiritual needs, he also carried out the works of mercy by assisting the poor in Mexico City with their temporal needs. He adopted many interesting disguises in carrying out his secret mininstry. He would come in the middle of the night dressed as a beggar to baptize infants, bless marriages and celebrate Mass. He would appear in jail dressed as a police officer to bring Holy Viaticum to condemned Catholics. When going to fashionable neighboorhoods to procure for the poor, he would show up at the doorstep dressed as a fashionable businessmam with a fresh flower on his lapel. His many exploits could rival those of the most daring spies. In all that he did, however, Fr. Pro remained obedient to his superiors and was filled with the joy of serving Christ, his King.

Falsely accused in the bombing attempt on a former Mexican president, Miguel became a wanted man. Betrayed to the police, he was sentenced to death without the benefit of any legal process.

On the day of his execution, Fr. Pro forgave his executtioners, prayed, bravely refused the blindfold and died proclaiming, "Viva Cristo Rey", "Long live Christ the King!"

Information courtesy of ProVision and Brother Gerald Mueller.

**The churches were closed and priests went into hiding. Miguel spent the rest of his life in a secret ministry to the sturdy Mexican Catholics. In addition to fulfilling their spiritual needs, he also carried out the works of mercy by assisting the poor in Mexico City with their temporal needs. He adopted many interesting disguises in carrying out his secret mininstry. He would come in the middle of the night dressed as a beggar to baptize infants, bless marriages and celebrate Mass. He would appear in jail dressed as a police officer to bring Holy Viaticum to condemned Catholics. When going to fashionable neighboorhoods to procure for the poor, he would show up at the doorstep dressed as a fashionable businessmam with a fresh flower on his lapel. His many exploits could rival those of the most daring spies. In all that he did, however, Fr. Pro remained obedient to his superiors and was filled with the joy of serving Christ, his King.**

What a wonderful story!

**How is little Logan doing? I'll be remembering you and St. Edwards parish in my prayers this weekend...**

Logan is off the oxygen but still has the feeding tube. Breast milk fortified with some kind of additive formula.

And thank you for your prayers with the Parish Visioning. I am off to run some last minute errands. A CD and $10.00 in pennies! I'll have to take my book bag to carry that, huh? I'll share the story about it later.

God bless,
Salvation