From Season to Season

John Amias and Robert Dalby were Yorkshire men who studied for the priesthood at the English College in Douai, France. John, a widower, was ordained in 1581 and traveled to England with Blessed Edmund Sykes that same year. He successfully ministered for seven or eight years before being arrested. Robert, who had formerly been a Protestant minister, was arrested as he landed in England in 1588. The two priests were tried and condemned together. Showing great joy and a spirit of prayerful resignation at their execution, Blessed John Amias and Robert Dalby were hanged, drawn, and quartered on March 16, 1589, and beatified in 1929. In today’s First Reading we hear about the faith of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, young men who refused to worship a false God set up by King Nebuchadnezzar. The king’s golden calf was a symbol of his own authority and by forcing the enslaved Jewish community to worship this idol, he was undermining their identity as God’s Chosen People. Bles...

Yesterday, September 13, the Church celebrated the beatification of Blessed Benedict Daswa. A husband, father, and teacher, he was martyred in 1990. He is the first South African to be honored in this way by the Church. Saint Jerome once wrote: “Martyrdom does not consist only in dying for one’s faith. Martyrdom also consists in serving God with one’s love and purity of heart every day of one’s life.” Blessed Benedict Daswa is one of those graced souls who lived this mystery in a particularly effective way in his own life. This was echoed by Pope Francis in his September 13 Angelus address in St. Peter’s Square: “[Blessed Benedict] always showed great consistency, courageously taking on Christian attitudes and refusing worldly and pagan habits. His testimony helps especially families to spread the truth and charity of Christ.” In many ways, Benedict Daswa is like any one of us. A man committed to his family and his vocation as a teacher and catechist, he made his Catholic faith...

For if to others, indeed, they seem punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself. —Wisdom 3:4-5 The Roman martyrs simply known as John and Paul are among those early Christian saints whose stories have been somewhat obscured by time and myth, but they are among the most beloved saints of the early Church. Their names are included in the Roman Canon (the “First Eucharistic Prayer”) of the Mass and the Litany of the Saints , as well as in the liturgies of many of the Eastern churches. Their memory is celebrated on June 26. According to the accounts of their lives that have been handed down to us, John and Paul were Christian brothers and both served as soldiers in the Roman Army under the emperor Constantine . The brothers were assigned to serve in the household of Constantine’s daughter, Constantia . She held them in high esteem and even named one of the...

Tomorrow, May 23, Cardinal Angelo Amato, the prefect of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, will beatify the martyr Oscar Romero. This highly anticipated event comes after decades of debate and discernment over the cause and meaning of Romero’s murder, which took place on March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass in the chapel of the La Divina Providenza hospital. The day before, he had called upon Salvadoran soldiers—as Christians—to stop carrying out the government’s oppressive and repressive violations and to obey God’s commands. Personally, I’m gratified by beatification and believe that Romero is an important model for the Church’s pastors. He embodies the vision of pastoral care, outreach, and solidarity with the poor that so many celebrate in Pope Francis. After all, Romero is the man who taught us that “There are many things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”     I think the greatest tribute that we can offer to Blessed Oscar Rome...

Through the law I died to the law, that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me; insofar as I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who has loved me and given himself up for me. – Galatians 2:19-20 When Saint Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, he was reaching out to a community of Christians that he had known personally, and he offers an impassioned appeal for them to live according to the message he had preached to them. At some point, new teachers had come to their community and they had attacked Paul’s character and teachings. In no uncertain terms, Paul defends his authority as an apostle and teacher and he reminds the Galatians that Christians live only by faith in Christ, who is the centerpiece of our faith. When Paul speaks of Christ, he is rejoicing in the love that he has received from Christ. In Saint Paul and the New Evangelization , Ronald Witherup notes, “This is the kind of expe...