Saturday 13 November 2021
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
on Saturday of week 32 in Ordinary Time
Spiritual Reading
Your Second Reading from the Office of Readings:
Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in a stained-glass window at the saint’s shrine chapel in New York City. (CNS photo).
A homily by Pope Pius XII
A humble woman who lived a virtuous life
Inspired by the grace of God, we join the saints in honouring the holy virgin Frances Xavier Cabrini. She was a humble woman who became outstanding not because she was famous, or rich or powerful, but because she lived a virtuous life. From the tender years of her youth, she kept her innocence as white as a lily and preserved it carefully with the thorns of penitence; as the years progressed, she was moved by a certain instinct and a supernatural zeal to dedicate her whole life to the service and greater glory of God.
She welcomed delinquent youths into safe homes and taught them to live upright and holy lives. She consoled those who were in prison and recalled to them the hope of eternal life. She encouraged prisoners to reform themselves and to live honest lives.
She comforted the sick and the infirm in the hospitals and diligently cared for them. She extended a friendly and helping hand especially to immigrants and offered them necessary shelter and relief, for having left their homeland behind, they were wandering about in a foreign land with no place to turn for help. Because of their condition she saw that they were in danger of deserting the practice of Christian virtues and their Catholic faith.
Where did she acquire all that strength and the inexhaustible energy by which she was able to perform so many good works and to surmount so many difficulties involving material things, travel and men?
Undoubtedly she accomplished all this through the faith which was always so vibrant and alive in her heart; through the divine love which burned within her; and, finally, through constant prayer by which she was so closely united with God from whom she humbly asked and obtained whatever her human weakness could not obtain.
In the face of the endless cares and anxieties of life, she never let anything turn her aside from striving and aiming to please God and to work for his glory for which nothing, aided by God’s grace, seemed too laborious, or difficult, or beyond human strength.
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The ferial reading for today:
Saturday of week 32 in Ordinary Time
A sermon of the second century
Let us seek righteousness so that in the end we are saved
Let us therefore find ourselves among those who give thanks, those who have served God, and not among the wicked who are judged. Although I myself am a sinner in all things, and still ensnared by the devil, I aim for righteousness and hope to get close to it in the end; for I fear the judgement that is to come.
So, brothers and sisters, after we have heard the words of the God of truth, I read you this exhortation. I hope to turn your souls’ full attention to what has been written, so that you bring salvation not only to yourselves but to me as I read the word of God to you. I beg for this reward: that you should do penance wholeheartedly and thus bring salvation and life on yourselves. If we do this then we shall be able to show an example to all the young who want to turn their lives towards the love and goodness of God. And if someone sees our folly and tries to turn us from evil to righteousness, let us not be angry or indignant; for often when we do evil we do not pay attention to the fact – either from inner duplicity or from lack of faith – and our minds are clouded by our worthless desires.
Therefore let us be righteous so that in the end we may be saved. Blessed are those who obey these precepts: even if they suffer evil in this world for a short while, they will reap a harvest of eternal life. Let the good man not be saddened if he suffers present troubles: a blessed time awaits him, when he will be raised to life and will rejoice with his fathers through an untroubled eternity.
We should not be perturbed if we see the wicked living in comfort while the servants of God suffer want. Brothers and sisters, let us be firm in faith: in this life we are suffering trials that come from the living God, so that we may wear crowns in the next life. None of the righteous receive the fruits of their goodness instantly, but all have to wait for them. If it were otherwise, if God gave quick rewards for righteousness, then it would not be piety that drove us to good acts but a simple matter of business. We would see virtue not as a good thing but as a profitable thing. For this reason the judgement of God shakes a spirit that is not filled with righteousness and loads chains upon it.
To the one invisible God, the Father of truth, who sent us our saviour as the founder of our immortality and showed us the truth through him and the way to eternal life – to God be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
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In other parts of the world and other calendars:
Blessed Maria Teresa Scrilli, Virgin
From the writings of Mother Maria Teresa Scrilli
Oh, what a good guide it is to take joy in Him, to toil for Him and then return to rest in Him
The feeling of the Divine Presence had become, as I have said, constant; in prayer, books were of no use to me, nor could I express it: it was a most sweet union (if I am not in error, of peaceful prayer: I say this, giving it the name of union, believing it to be such, according to my limited knowledge), as I said, it was a most sweet union, from which I was unable to detach myself, or to express it better, I could not resign myself to its cessation, were I not convinced that this was to leave God, for God; I mean, to leave God in the contemplation of Magdalene, to find Him once again in my duties, the work of Martha; as if both were one and the same, and that it would be wrong not to be entirely devoted to both: that He is pleased, that we cease our admiration of Him in order to toil for Him, and then find repose in Him once more. Oh what a good guide in this (as in all other things) is pure love of You! And how easy it is, for it to become mixed with love of ourselves! I mean, our satisfaction, which although spiritual, I do not believe to be good; I never did, and have found confirmation in some of what I have read, I believe it was in the writings of the Holy Mother Teresa, but as I said before reading them, I was already of this opinion. It is great, the misery I see, and I have experienced this: either we seek to be devout and spiritual in our own way, or we are not at all; small minds easily fall into the first error, and great minds (not big ones) into the second misfortune. Oh, my God! A wicked thing is pride, terrible even, as it corrupts and diverts that most beautiful gift of man, intellect, from its true purpose. Oh, if only it were used for that for which You gave it to us… oh, what happiness! And why do people not understand, that this (intellect, I mean) is a gift from You? Ah! Our happiness is wasted on vanities and fallacies, and we may never understand why it is not given to us, or why it is taken from others, by premature death. Oh blindness… oh blindness! To lose ourselves in the human sciences, when they are of no use in the immortal aim: and that which must come to an end can certainly not be called immortal.
Oh, my Spouse, oh, my Spouse: how painful is this awareness, to one who loves You so! I mean, understanding how knowledge of You is disregarded by men… as if every other thing were more necessary than this. Oh, what confusion of human minds! That in our times the best (those who seek to be true Christians) approve so many things, and practise so many more, with the justification that they are duties of convenience, customs of the times, which as time passes evolve and change.
Oh you… woeful civilisation, if religion is gradually extinguished in the heart of man! Oh Spouse, oh Spouse, and who will follow You, out there in the midst of the wide world?
If there are those who do not do so out of malice; those who restrain themselves out of human respect; there are others who do not, out of ignorance… I mean, because they were raised in ignorance, due to their status and poverty: it is not the latter, but the former, who seek and are dazzled by the vain sciences of the world, and disregard knowledge of Godly things: ah! He truly has nowhere to lay his head: all around are the briers and thorns of vanity; and I fear, that even that which appears to be virtue is not true and lasting piety; let us eschew riches to avoid temptation, let us not long for honours or wealth, but instead take joy in following God.
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