Today we begin a New Year in our lives. Traditionally it is a time to make resolutions for the coming year. I am going to do this, this, this and this. I’m going to get rid of this, this, this and this. And on and on it goes every year. We have the whole coming year planned out and it is indeed going to be a saintly year for me. My, how I am going to change. How many times have we done this or thought in this way? And yet we know, we just know, that in two weeks time we’ll be right back to being the old me. All the new resolutions have been broken a dozen times and rationalized out of sight and off we go for another year of the same old same old and frustration at our failing efforts to change.
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On this Monday before the Feast of the Epiphany, the Church celebrates the Memorials of two Saints, Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzen. Basil was born in Cappdocia c. 330 and Gregory was born in the same place c. 325. Basil died in 379 and Gregory in 389. They were not related except by their great friendship, and this friendship is the main reason for celebrating their Feast days on the same day, January 2.
Both of them studied together in Athens, both led a monastic life for a time, both were ordained to the Bishopric. Personality wise, they were totally different – Basil was an extrovert, a leader, an organizer and legislator. Gregory, on the other hand, was a poet and contemplative, a thinker. Both of them worked hard for the success of the early Church with their preaching, helping the poor, and fighting heresy. More can be read about their lives online.
St. Basil and St. Gregory, pray for us.
Fr. Howard
Tuesday, Jan. 3, John 1: 29-34
The Most Holy Name of Jesus
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The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus has been a part of the Liturgical calendar since the end of the 15th century. Since then it has been celebrated at many different times throughout the year. One of the greatest promoters of this devotion was St. Bernardine of Siena (feast day, May 20), a Franciscan priest who lived from 1380 to 1444. The Holy Name of Jesus means Yahweh is Salvation and was promoted by Bernardine through the inscription of the monogram of the Holy Name, IHS: an abbreviation of the Greek name for Jesus, and the addition of the name of Jesus in the Hail Mary.
Our Gospel passage for today from St. John tells us, in the words of John the Baptist, that Jesus came to take away our sins. John then goes on to testify that Jesus is the Son of God. Indeed Jesus is worthy of our praise and worship.
On this Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, let us join together praying the words of St. Paul to the Philippians 2: 10-11: “At the name of Jesus every knee must bend, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; every tongue should proclaim to the glory of God the Father: Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Fr. Howard
Wednesday, Jan. 4, John 1:35-42
Memorial of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Religious
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Elizabeth Seton is the first native born American to be canonized a Saint by the Catholic Church. Born in 1774 in New York City, she was baptized in the Episcopal Church and remained an Episcopalian until her conversion to the Catholic Faith in 1805. In 1794 she married William Seton and they had 5 children. While on a trip to Italy around 1804, William died unexpectedly. Elizabeth then joined the Catholic Faith and in 1808 established the first Catholic School in Baltimore. She and two other young women began plans for a Sisterhood and in 1809 she was professed. From this time on she was called Mother Seton. Their Rule was based on one written by St. Francis de Paul. By 1818 the Sisters built two orphanages and another school. Mother Seton contracted tuberculosis and died in 1821 at the age of 46. She was canonized on September 14, 1975.
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us.
Fr. Howard
Thursday Jan. 5, John 1:43-51
Memorial of St. John Neumann, Bishop
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Today the Church honors St. John Neumann, a Redemptorist priest, born in Bohemia, but an American Saint. He was looking forward to his ordination to the priesthood in 1835 when all of a sudden the Bishop there decided there would be no more ordinations for a while because there were already too many priests and they didn’t need any more!
John, to get around this block to his being ordained, contacted some Bishops in America to see if they would ordain him. Finally the Bishop in New York agreed to ordain him. In New York, after his ordination, he became one of 36 priests for 200,000 people. John went on to labor in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and in 1852 he was made Bishop of Philadelphia. There he worked hard serving the people of the Diocese and the immigrants. He died on Jan. 5, 1860, and was canonized a saint in 1977.
St. John Neumann, pray for us.
Fr. Howard
Friday before Epiphany
Jan. 6, Mark 1: 7-11
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In our Gospel selected to be read today, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In other Gospels about the same topic, we see John wondering about this and he says to Jesus: “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” This Gospel points out something about Jesus that Francis of Assisi understood so well: his profound humility
The mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus, the Son of God and the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, takes on the nature and the weaknesses of a human being. In case you haven’t thought that much about it, it is quite a step down from the divinity to humanity. In fact, it is an infinite step down. Paul wrote about this to the Philippians: “Who (Christ) though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”
St. Mark’s Gospel for today shows us the humility of Jesus, a virtue that all of us must imitate if we are to be followers of Jesus. Humility, deflating ourselves, letting the air of pride out of our sails, is one of the requirements of discipleship. We read in the Scriptures that the one who is least among us is the one who is the greatest. A real paradox and one that the world finds difficult to accept: Humble yourself, deflate yourself, and then you will be great. Humility is the basis for prayer and for all spirituality. Once, when asked to name the four Cardinal Virtues, St. Bernard responded: Humility, Humility, Humility and Humility. His answer was correct.
Strange as it may seem, then, it is humbling ourselves (not in becoming no. 1) that we find true joy. There is a story told of Francis and his buddy, Brother Leo, walking along a road when Francis asks Leo, “Do you know what is perfect joy?” Leo had probably heard the story before, but Francis tells it again anyway. It is a story of them arriving at a Friary on a chilly, damp winter night. They have been walking most of the day and are wet and muddy and chilled to the bone. All they want is to get someplace warm for a while. They knock on the door of a Friary and ask to come in. The porter does not know them and refuses to let them in. Instead he insults them, beats them with a stick, knocks them down in the snow and slams the door in their faces. It is then that Francis says to Brother Leo, “Brother Leo, this is perfect joy.”
Obviously, we, too, are to humble ourselves. Let go and let God. Stop being in control of everything. Humility tells us to turn our lives and wills over to God, to surrender to him.
This idea comes from the 3rd Step of the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. We must discover that we are not God and that we can’t do everything in our lives alone. One of the best things that ever happened to me was discovering I couldn’t do it alone and didn’t have to try. I discovered I need God to be a part of my life and he is only too willing to be such. The more I rely on God, the more happiness, joy and peace I have in my life. Our Lord humbled himself for us. Let us humble ourselves for him and each other.
Fr. Howard
Saturday before Epiphany
Jan. 6, John 2: 1-11
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There was a wedding at Cana in Galilee,
and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
the mother of Jesus said to him,
"They have no wine."
And Jesus said to her,
"Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come."
His mother said to the servers,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
"Fill the jars with water."
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
"raw some out now and take it to the headwaiter."
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
without knowing where it came from
(although the servers who had drawn the water knew),
the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
"veryone serves good wine first,
and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
but you have kept the good wine until now."
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs at Cana in Galilee
and so revealed his glory,
and his disciples began to believe in him.
