From Season to Season

The one who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. —2 Corinthians 9:10 As we celebrate the Season of Lent—the Church’s “springtime”—it seems only fair that among the holy women and men we remember in these reflections is a saint who is honored as one of the patron saints of gardeners: Saint Serenus. Born to a Greek family in the third century, Serenus (who is widely known as Saint Cerneuf in France) became a hermit, living on produce he grew in his hermitage garden in Syrmium (Sremska Mitrovica in modern-day Croatia). When a persecution of Christians erupted, Serenus went into hiding for several months. He eventually returned to his hermitage and garden and it seems to have been widely known that he was a Christian. The most popular account of his life tells us that he was an exceptionally attractive man and a hard worker. He was respected and admired by everyone who came into contac...

In his Rule , Saint Benedict observes that "the life of a monk ought to a continuous Lent" (from chapter 49 ). Those words might strike some as harsh, but why is that? Is it because we too quickly associate Lent with ash-smudged foreheads, "giving up" things we generally enjoy, fishy Fridays, and lots talk about guilt and sin? The insight that we can gain from Saint Benedict's perspective is that the spirit of Lent is something that should permeate our lives every day of the year. And, by saying that, I don't mean the doom-and-gloom that too many associate with this season. Instead, Saint Benedict was saying that our Lenten emphasis on ongoing conversion and covenant is something we should carry with us each day, because conversion and covenant are at the heart of our commitment to follow Christ. This can only make sense for us today if we try to remember that Lent was originally a 3-day time of fasting and prayer for those who would be baptized at East...

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weaknesses; For we do not know how to pray as we ought, But the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressive groanings. —Romans 8:26 After the excitement of Valentine’s Day and celebrations of Carnival , the sobriety of Ash Wednesday can be quite a jolting beginning to our Lenten prayer and good works. Unfortunately, many of us miss out on irreplaceable opportunities for growth and enrichment because we focus too much of our attention on the “thou shalt nots” of Lent and overlook the fact that Lent is really intended to be a spiritual springtime. By thinking only of Lenten penances, we fail to see how our self-denial should be balanced with good works of prayer and charity. As we make our final preparations for Ash Wednesday and the season of Lent, the Seven Founders of the Servite Order (who are honored with a common commemoration on February 17) offer a fitting example of what our prayer, charity, and conversion might be as we celebr...

Almost immediately after Pope Francis announced his intention to canonize Blessed Junipero Serra—the priest who founded a number of missions in modern-day California in the early 18 th century—a veritable firestorm of criticism began. One of the most recent voices to weigh in is Ricardo Lara, a California state senator who wants to remove Serra’s statue from the U.S. Capital’s National Statuary Hall , citing that the Franciscan Friar was "too controversial."  The statue of Bl. Junipero Serra in National Statuary Hall. President Obama’s recent comments about the Crusades at the National Prayer Breakfast , the ongoing debate about Serra, and even the celebration of Saints Cyril and Methodius (along with the Saint Valentines... yes, Valentines ) on February 14 have led me to reflect on how we view the saints and what they should and could mean for us. In a recent editorial on this theme in America Magazine , Fr. James Martin, S.J., wrote: Canonization does n...

It isn’t by chance that the Church celebrates World Day of the Sick on February 11 each year. Pope Saint John Paul II established this day of prayer and reflection in 1992 to encourage prayer for those who suffer from illness and for their caregivers. He himself had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease only a year before and it is very likely that his own experience contributed to his decision to create this day of prayer. In his Message for this year’s World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis reflected: Wisdom of the heart means going forth from ourselves towards our brothers and sisters. Occasionally our world forgets the special value of time spent at the bedside of the sick, since we are in such a rush; caught up as we are in the frenzy of doing, of producing, we forget to give ourselves freely, taking care of others, being responsible for others… For this reason, I would like once again to stress “the absolute priority of ‘going forth from ourselves toward our brother...

Part of the genius of Saint Benedict of Nursia's  Rule for Monasteries  was his emphasis on a balance of work and prayer. Saint Benedict, who founded twelve monasteries in Italy in the sixth century, brought together the wisdom of generations of monks before him, but re-shaped those these teachings in the light of his own understanding of the human psyche. This is part of the reason the way of life he established is still lived by tens of thousands of Benedictine and Cistercian monks, nuns, and sisters today.  In his Rule, Benedict urges his monks to spend dedicated amounts of time each day working to support the monastery: “Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore, the brothers should have specified periods for manual labor as well as for prayerful reading” (48:1). In another place, he wrote, “When they live by the labor of their hands, as our holy fathers did, then they are truly monks” (48:8).    Saint Benedict understood that work w...

People will come from the east and west and from the north and the south and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last. —Luke 13:20-30 What little we know about Saint Cornelius comes from chapters 10 and 11 of the Acts of the Apostles . However, his brief story marks an important shift in the life of the Early Church: through his encounter with Cornelius, Saint Peter was convinced that the Gospel message must be taken to the Gentiles. In Acts , Saint Luke tells us that Cornelius was the commander of a cohort of Roman soldiers and that he was “devout and God-fearing along with his whole household” (10:2). Luke continues by pointing out that Cornelius was generous in giving alms to the Jewish people and that he was a man devoted to God. These are important details, especially when we remember that the Jewish people were subjects of the Roman Empire. One afternoon, Cornelius received a...

Each year the Scripture passages selected for the brief span of Ordinary Time that begins after the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord focus on the theme of discipleship. It's as if the Church is saying, "We've celebrated the Incarnation and everything has changed. Now, let's spend time really understanding Who it is that has come among us." And so, we heard stories about disciples being called, wonders and signs being performed, and accounts of healings and exorcisms, all aimed at helping us understand who Jesus really is. In the Gospel proclaimed on the Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, we hear Mark's very brief account of Jesus casting an unclean spirit out of a man. But if we really pay attention to the way the story is told, we see that the point isn't the exorcism, but more about Jesus the teacher and especially about the source of his authority. In his book, Fully Human, Fully Divine: An Interactive Christology Father Michael Casey, O.C.S.O., wri...