Reflecting on the Saints

As we have observed in previous weeks, the Church commemorates very few saints and celebrates only a relatively few major feast days in the late winter / early spring when the season of Lent is generally celebrated.  Indeed, outside of Sunday, this week the Church celebrates only one special feast day: March 23rd - THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT (1st Scrutiny for Catechumens)   March 25th - THE ANNUNCIATION OF THE LORD - Solemnity Thus one’s choice for a reflection for this week is quite easy:  I’m going to be writing about the Annunciation of the Lord . Further, the reason why the Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord falls at this time ought not to be hard to understand: If the Church has chosen to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of the Lord on December 25th, Jesus’ conception would have occurred nine months before, hence the purely mathematical reason for why we celebrate the   Annunciation of the Lord on March 25th. There are however fascinating invitations for ...

Of the various commemorations celebrated this week: March 16 -- SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT March 17 -- St. Patrick, Bishop March 18 -- St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Bishop and Doctor of the Church March 19 -- St. Joseph - Spouse of the B.V. Mary Though not a bit Irish, I’ve chosen to write about St. Patrick .  And I do so because I’ve truly come to love him for his example of both faith and capacity to forgive.. The future St. Patrick was born probably in the late 300s A.D. in then Roman Britain.  By his autobiographical Confession of St. Patrick , his father, named Calpurnius, was a Senator, Tax Collector for an unspecified town or region in Britain and a Deacon in Church.  His grandfather Potitus, had been a Priest ( StP Conf #1 ) (note that the practice of priestly celibacy only became the rule in the Western, Catholic Church, in the 8th-9th-10th centuries A.D.  I mention St. Patrick’s grandfather here not to argue any position on the matter, but simply to underline that th...

There is only one saint normally commemorated during this week: March 9th – St. Frances of Rome whose commemoration  is actually suppressed this year because it falls on the First Sunday of Lent . It is almost certainly not an accident that there are far fewer saints remembered by the Church during Lent , as this season is the most intensely reflective season of the Catholic Liturgical Year.  It is a time to focus on strengthening our relationship with God through Jesus in preparation for the celebration of Holy Week / Easter That said, one needs to add that though this week may seem like a “Saint Desert” in the Liturgical Calendar, the paucity of Saints is not a consistent characteristic of the Season of Lent as we will be celebrating soon enough three very important feast days – St. Patrick (on March 17th ), St. Joseph (on March 19th) and the Annunciation (to Mary) of the Lord (on March 25th ).   Still, we’re given a time to reflect on purpose of the Season of Len...

Of the various saints and liturgical celebrations scheduled for this week: Mar 3rd  – Saint Katharine Drexel, Virgin Mar 4th – Saint Casimir Mar 5th – Ash Wednesday Mar 7th – Saints Perpetua and Felicity, Martyrs Mar 8th – Saint John of God, Religious I’ve chosen to write about St. Katharine Mary Drexel . Born in 1858 in Philadelphia to a wealthy if devout family, her father Francis Anthony Drexel was a financier who helped finance both the 1848 Mexican-American War and soon afterwards the California Goldrush .  She grew up on a 90 acre estate in the Torresdale section of Philadelphia .   However, despite the spectacularly upper-class background, her family experienced both tragedy – Katharine’s mother died five weeks after Katharine’s birth – and had a long standing religious tradition – Katharine’s aunt was mother superior at a nearby convent.   Then Fr. James O’Conner, pastor of the local Catholic community in Philadelphia appeared to have a signific...