R.S.A Kandy

25/02/2023

25/02/2023

first Sunday of Lent
reflection by Rev.Bro.Jobins RCJ ( vice-Secretary of RSA)

26/11/2019

Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest.
1491–1556.
July 31—Memorial.

Patron Saint of soldiers, retreats, and the Basque country
A soldier reads his way to holiness and founds a mighty company.
Like so many other male saints, today’s saint began his adult life as a knight and soldier. In the service of a local noble, he learned the male sins that armies and royal courts excel in teaching: gambling, fighting, treachery, and womanizing. When courageously defending a fortress in Pamplona, Spain, Ignatius was hit by a cannonball. One leg was shattered and the other badly damaged. A long and painful recovery ensued. During this convalescence, he consciously decided to exchange his service from an earthly to a divine Lord. Yet Ignatius’ initial conversion developed, over time, into something far more subtle. As he moved toward the Priesthood, Ignatius engaged in profound reflection on the nature of Christian self-awareness, on prayer, and on what it meant to be radically committed to Christ and the Church.
For all of his worldliness and martial experience, Ignatius’ conversion started, ironically, with books. To counter the endless boredom of his recovery, he began to read about Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Dominic, and other saints. He wondered if he could be like them. And then he wondered, a minute later, if he could court and marry a beautiful woman he desired. And then he was carried away thinking about new military expeditions. And on and on his mind wandered, as most minds do. But then came a spiritual breakthrough. Ignatius reflected on reflection and thought about his thoughts. He plumbed his own depths, in the tradition of Saint Augustine, and analyzed the “shelf life” and quality of his emotions and mental experiences long after they had passed. He observed that reading the lives of the saints and thinking about earthly adventures were both pleasurable. But as time passed, reflection on holy things did not dissipate, while thoughts of earthly pleasures did. Saint Ignatius’ astute spiritual self-reflections spurred him to change the entire trajectory of his life. He wanted permanent happiness. He wanted joy. He repented of his past sins and decided to walk the way of the saints.
Saint Ignatius documented his spiritual progress, eventually publishing his insights in his classic, the Spiritual Exercises. Other saints and mystics had previously written sophisticated reflections on the normal objects of Catholic devotion. But Ignatius focused on the subject of prayer—the human person—as well as on the object of prayer—God. The mystery of God was equaled by the mystery of man. Ignatius was an innovator in describing the psychological process of praying, in advocating for a systematic examination of conscience, and in encouraging a planned method of introducing into the imagination specific biblical scenes or other objects of Christian faith for reflection. The Spiritual Exercises taught the Christian to profit from himself.
Saint Ignatius had an eventful life of wide travel, study, and apostolic activity after his conversion. His high ideals and creative leadership drew throngs of impressive followers. He chose a military name for his new order—the Company of Jesus. By the time of his death, this Company was widespread and continued its meteoric growth long after his passing to become the preeminent Catholic Order of men in the world. It is not too much to say that the Jesuits saved Europe from Protestantism, evangelized entire countries by themselves, educated the higher classes of many nations for centuries, and taught a Catholic humanism of the highest caliber. “One man and God make an army,” a saint once said. Ignatius supplied the soldiers, and God did the rest.
Saint Ignatius, may your method and example of prayer, mortification, and study inspire all modern apostles to make Christ the destination and the path, the end and the means, the way, the truth, and the life.
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26/11/2019

St. Silvestro
Silvestro Guzzolini was born to the nobles Gislerio Guzzolini and Bianca in Osimo.

Guzzolini was sent in 1197 to learn jurisprudence in the college at Bologna (for law) and the college in Padua but felt called to the ecclesiastical state (finding no satisfaction in his studies and deeming them too secular) and abandoned his studies in law for theological and scriptural studies. On his return home in 1208 it is said that his father – angered at his change of purpose – refused to speak to him for one decade. Guzzolini accepted a position as a canon at Osimo (after the diocesan bishop ordained him in 1217) and devoted himself to pastoral work with such zeal as to arouse hostilities from his bishop whom he had rebuked with respect for the scandals that the prelate's irregular life had caused.
The prelate threatened to strip him of his position but the canon decided to leave the world upon seeing the co**se of one who had once been noted for their looks while presiding over a funeral. He retired to a desert place far from Osimo in 1227 and lived there in strict poverty until the owner of the land – the nobleman Corrado – recognized him and offered him a better site for his hermitage. The dampness drove him from that place and he established himself next at Grotta Fucile where he later built a convent for his future religious order. In this place his penances were most severe for he lived on raw herbs and water and slept on the bare ground.Disciples flocked to him seeking his direction and it became vital for him to choose a Rule. His fame worried Pope Gregory IX in 1228 and he decided to send the Dominican friars Riccardo and Bonaparte to him to invite him into their order but he refused. Legend suggests that the various founders appeared to him in a vision each begging him to adopt his Rule. Guzzolini chose for his followers that of Saint Benedict of Nursia in 1231 (after having a vision of the saint) and built his first convent on Montefano near Fabriano after first removing the remains of a pagan temple.
On 27 June 1248 he obtained from Pope Innocent IV a papal bull confirming his order as being canonical and before his death founded eleven monasteries after this approval. He died on 26 November 1267 due to a severe fever; Doctor Andrea embalmed him and the room was filled with a sweet fragrance when he removed Guzzolini's bowels. His remains were later disinterred and placed in a shrine still present at the church of Monte Fano.
The account of his miracles and the growth of his "cultus" (or longstanding veneration) can be found in Bolzonetti. Pope Clement IV beatified Guzzolini and Pope Clement VIII later canonized him in 1598. Pope Leo XIII included his Mass and office in the General Roman Calendar in 1890 with the rank of Double (third-class feast in the 1960 reform of Pope John XXIII) therefore reducing to the status of a commemoration that of Pope Peter I of Alexandria who shared that date. In 1970 that celebration was removed and relegated to the local calendar since it was not a feast of universal importance.
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26/11/2019

Bishop CHARLES JOSEPH EUGENE DE MAZENOD
He was born in Aix-en-Provence, France, on August 1, 1782, into a family of the lesser nobility. When Eugene was just eight years old, his family fled France during the turmoil of the French Revolution.
Leaving their possessions behind, the Mazenod family began an exile which lasted eleven years. As political refugees, they journeyed through a succession of cities in Italy. Eugene studied briefly at the College of Nobles in Turin, but a move to Venice meant the end of his formal schooling. A Jesuit priest, Fr. Bartolo Zinelli, living nearby, undertook to educate the young French emigre. He gave him an education with a lasting sense of God. The De Mazenods moved to Naples, and finally to Palermo where, thanks to the kindness of the Duke and Duchess of Cannizzaro, Eugene had his first taste of living as a noble.
In 1802, Eugene was able to return to his homeland. France was different from the world he left. He sank into depression, seeing little real future for himself. At the same time, he was deeply affected by the disastrous situation of the French Church, which had been decimated by the Revolution.
A call to the priesthood began to manifest itself. Eugene entered the seminary of St. Sulpice in Paris, and, on December 21, 1811, he was ordained a priest in Amiens. Returning to Aix-en-Provence, he did not take on a normal parish assignment, but began to exercise his priesthood caring for the truly spiritually needy: prisoners, the youth, servants, country villagers. Beginning in 1816, he sought out other equally zealous priests who were prepared to step outside the old, even outmoded, structures. Eugene and his men preached in Provencal, the language of the common people, not in “educated” French. From village to village they went, instructing at the level of the people’s understanding and spending hours in the confessional. In between these parish missions, the group joined in an intense community life of prayer, study and fellowship.
In the beginning they called themselves “Missionaries of Provence”. On February 17, 1826, Pope Leo XII approved the new Congregation, as “Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate”. Together with their growing apostolic endeavors: preaching, youth work, care of shrines, prison chaplaincy, confessors, direction of seminaries, Eugene insisted on a deep spiritual formation and a close community life.
From 1823 on, Eugene was Vicar General of the Diocese of Marseilles. In 1832, he was named auxiliary bishop. Five years later, he was appointed to the See of Marseilles as its Bishop, while he continued to be the Superior General of the growing Oblate Congregation. His men ventured to England, Ireland, Canada, the United States, Sri Lanka and South Africa. They opened up previously uncharted lands, established new dioceses, and, in a multitude of ways, they “left nothing undared that the Kingdom of Christ might be advanced”.
As a bishop Eugene was an outstanding pastor of the Church of Marseilles: Ensuring good seminary training for his priests, establishing new parishes, building the city’s cathedral and the spectacular Shrine of Notre Dame de la Garde above the city, encouraging his priests to lives of holiness, introducing many Religious Congregations to work in the diocese.
Eugene de Mazenod died May 21, 1861, at the age of 79. As he lay dying he left his Oblates a final testament, “Among yourselves-charity, charity, charity: in the world-zeal for souls.”
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26/11/2019

St. Francis of Assisi
1182 – 1226
October 4 –Memorial

Patron Saint of animals, ecology & merchants. Co-patron of Italy
A merchant’s son of eccentric sensibilities goes radical
Though originally baptized by his mother as Giovanni (John) in honor of Saint John the Baptist, today’s saint was renamed Francesco, or “Frenchy,” by his father Pietro de Bernardone after Pietro returned home from trading in France. Pietro loved France, and his son’s romantic, troubadour spirit likely flowed from that same cultural source. Francesco grew up in a middle-class home that engaged in the sale of fine cloth. Francis was a skilled merchant in the family business, but he enjoyed spending money more than earning it. He was a man about town, a leader among his friends, and well liked for his concern for others. He was also a failed knight. When he was twenty, Francis joined a civic-minded Assisi militia in a battle against a neighboring city. When the militia was routed, Francis was spared death and instead held for ransom due to his fine livery. He was held prisoner in a rank dungeon for a year before the ransom was paid. He returned to Assisi a more reflective man. Subsequent military service for the Papal States ended abruptly when Francis heard a voice tell him, “Follow the master rather than the man.” He sold his expensive armor and horse, returned home, and began to spend hours in prayer.
Shortly after this turning point, Francis met a l***r on the outskirts of Assisi. He initially recoiled, but then dismounted, gave the man some money, and kissed his putrid hand. This was the start of his frequent visits to l***r houses and hospitals. When Francis heard a voice from the cross say to him, “Francis, go and repair my church, which as you can see is in ruins,” he sold a large amount of cloth and his father’s horse at a neighboring market town. Coming back to Assisi, he donated the proceeds to a priest at the church of San Damiano on the outskirts of Assisi. Francis’ father was irate. His son had sold cloth from the family store, and a horse, and had then given away money that was not his. This was stealing, and Francis was put in prison. A dramatic scene then unfolds between Francis and his father in a church square, in the presence of Bishop Guido of Assisi and his court. Pietro demands the return of his money. The Bishop supports him and says the Church cannot accept stolen money. Francis returns the coins. But then Francis goes further. Piece by piece, he removes his clothing until he is naked before everyone’s eyes. He then says, “From now on I will not say ‘My Father, Pietro Bernardone’ but ‘Our Father, who art in heaven.’” There is not a single reference in any contemporary Franciscan document to Pietro after this dramatic incident. Francis was now cut off, disinherited, and on his own.
Francis eventually begins to wear a rough smock which he ties around his waist with a cord. He lives alone in absolute poverty, prays, helps the sick, rebuilds nearby run-down chapels, and preaches and begs in Assisi. Men begin to follow his lead, and the first fire of the worldwide Franciscan order ignites. The “Lesser Brothers of Assisi” is recognized by the Pope, Francis is ordained a deacon, and the Order’s explosive growth can only be called miraculous. Saint Francis is the first great founder of a religious order since Saint Benedict in the 500s. By sheer allure of personality, holiness, and vision, not intellect or organizational skill, he imparted a mysteriously powerful charism to his followers. He was ardent in his love for the Holy Eucharist and insisted that churches be well kept in honor of the Lord’s physical presence. Francis died in his forty-fourth year and was canonized just two years later, in 1228. Saint Francis may be the most well-known person of the second millennium. A measure of his massive impact can be gauged by observing that it is not uncommon for Saint Francis to be seen as the ideal of Christian virtue and poverty, even over and above the religion’s very founder.
Saint Francis of Assisi, you held the Holy Eucharist in such holy reverence you dared not be ordained a priest. Your love of the Word of God complimented your love of His creation. Help all Christians to have your same balance of love for God, the Sacraments, and all God’s creation.
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26/11/2019

Saint Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Bishop and Doctor

1696 – 1787
August 1—Memorial
Patron Saint of moral theologians and confessors
A lawyer becomes holy

Today’s saint was given the gift of a comprehensive education by his parents from a young age. He finished his university studies with degrees in civil and canon law when he was just sixteen years old. After practicing law for eight years, and declining a marriage arranged by his father, the noble, highly educated, and intelligent Alphonsus made a mistake. A bad mistake. He overlooked a simple matter of fact in a legal proceeding and lost an important case for his client. Alphonsus was crushed by the embarrassment. He had never made such a galling, avoidable, public error before. But this one mistake would redound to the great benefit of the Church. Alphonsus decided to abandon the practice of law and his lust for vanity, wealth, and earthly glory. Shortly afterward, he heard an inner voice speak to him, on two separate occasions, while visiting the deathly ill at a hospital: “Leave the world and give yourself to me.” This was the turning point. Alphonsus made a dramatic gesture. He went to a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary, placed his sword on the altar, and petitioned acceptance to a local religious Order.
He was ordained a priest in 1726 and traveled throughout the region of Naples as a missionary, becoming well known as a lion in the pulpit and a lamb in the confessional. In 1732, after forming various friendships with local clergy and convents of nuns, he founded the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. The rest of Alphonsus’ long life was spent building up this Order. Like so many nascent Orders, it struggled with internal divisions over its identity, matters of authority, and its specific mission in the Church. These struggles caused our saint no end of spiritual torment, especially after a deep division resulted from an act of forgery and betrayal by one of Alphonsus’ closest priest collaborators.
Saint Alphonsus took a personal vow to never waste a moment of time. It showed. He did everything, and he did it well. Amidst all of his duties as a founder and priest, he stole an hour hour here and an hour there to write a page or two, to dictate a few lines, or to take rough notes on a train of thought that had just crossed his mind. Over time, these stolen hours accumulated, and Alphonsus composed volume after volume on theology and devotion. He became particularly well known as a moral theologian. In that sensitive field of study he acquired just the right balance. He was clear on the Church’s teachings and demanding of its faithful but was not overly rigorous. His razor-thin moral distinctions clarified correct behavior on contentious topics but may seem belabored and overly detailed from a post-modern perspective. Alphonsus was personally scrupulous but aware of it. He never imposed his finely tuned conscience on the morally deaf. A Pontifical University in Rome dedicated to moral theology was founded by the Redemptorists and is named the Alphonsianum in his honor.
Saint Alphonsus was made a bishop, over his objections, when he was sixty-six years old. He brought his typical energy and zeal to his diocesan responsibilities, demanding his priests celebrate Mass with true devotion or not at all. He maintained contact with every class of society as a bishop, no matter how downtrodden, poor, or forgotten a group was. His works on the Blessed Sacrament, the Virgin Mary, and Prayer became widely read. His reflections on the Stations of the Cross are still used in many parishes over two hundred years after his death. Alphonsus was also a talented musician and composed the music and words for a beloved Italian Christmas carol. After a long and holy life, he died at the age of ninety-one, an image of the Virgin Mary resting in his hands.
Saint Alphonsus, may your life of spiritual suffering, writing, dedication to the truth, and apostolic energy provide sufficient witness for all priests and religious to do half as much as you did, laboring without cease for the good of the Church and the world.
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26/11/2019

Saint Peter Julian Eymard, Priest
1811–1868
August 2—Optional Memorial
Apostle of the Holy Eucharist

The Eucharist was the pearl that shone in his eyes
The great artist Auguste Rodin, who sculpted “The Thinker” and other world famous pieces, met today’s saint in 1862 and joined his Congregation as a lay brother. Rodin was despondent over the death of his sister and wanted to abandon art and dedicate his life to God. Saint Peter Julian Eymard burned like a bonfire for God, but this was one vocation his flames would not consume. Father Eymard could see Rodin’s prodigious talent in an evocative bust Rodin sculpted of the future saint while he was a religious brother. Eymard told Rodin to return to the world to pursue his artistic calling. So while Father Eymard was as apostolic and demanding as any saint, he was also just as wise as any saint. Not every man who felt a vocation truly had one. It was for the superior to discern the validity of the calling. Father Eymard knew this well from personal experience. He had lived at least three priesthoods inside of his one priesthood: as a diocesan priest in a parish, as a religious priest in the Marist Order, and as the founder of the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament.
There was never a time when Peter Julian Eymard did not love Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. At the age of five, he disappeared from home one day. His siblings went in search and found him standing right next to the tabernacle in their local church. When they asked him what he was doing there, little Peter responded, “I am here listening to Jesus.” His father did not want Peter to be a priest but a blacksmith. He relented a bit over time and then died prematurely, removing all opposition. Peter was ordained a diocesan priest in 1834 and served in a parish. But he felt a slightly different call within his call and began to seek admission to the Society of Mary, or Marists. His diocesan bishop was reluctant to let Father Peter go. The bishop relented in 1839, writing to the Marist superior that “I have given sufficient proof of my high esteem for the Society of Mary in giving it such a priest.”
Father Peter’s personal energy, apostolic zeal, and prayerfulness led to his being named a Marist Provincial. He traveled throughout France and became acquainted with nocturnal and perpetual adoration societies. He became expert at preaching about the Eucharist and at directing lay Eucharistic societies. During a Corpus Christi procession in 1845 he had a mystical experience while carrying the Blessed Sacrament. His attraction to the Eucharist became so personal and so intense that he resolved “to preach nothing but Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ Eucharistic” from then on. Discussions with his superiors about orienting the Marist’s more toward a Eucharistic identity were frustrated. It was not their primary charism. On January 21, 1851, at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fourviere overlooking Lyon, Father Eymard received the inspiration to found a new Order dedicated exclusively to the Blessed Sacrament. This third call within his one priestly call would consume the rest of his life.
In 1857 the Society of the Blessed Sacrament was formally established in Paris. One year later, the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament for nuns would be founded. Father Peter and his few companions did not limit their Eucharistic dedication to piety and prayer. They prepared children to receive First Holy Communion, reached out to lapsed Catholics, and promoted frequent reception of Holy Communion for all Catholics. The normal struggles of every young Congregation bedeviled Father Eymard: extreme poverty, atrocious lodgings, lack of vocations, and problems of growth.
Rodin’s bust captures the essence of Father Eymard better than any photo. Eymard’s mass of hair is out of control, communicating his passionate eccentricity. His gaze is penetrating. He knows the mysteries of God and other secrets of the soul. His thin face, straight nose, and protruding cheekbones say he is a mortified ascetic. And buried in his vest, just over his heart, is a scroll. Only a few words of it can be read. It is a fragment of Emyard’s prayer: “O Sacrament Most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine.” His love of the Eucharist pulsated in sync with his heart, every moment of every day of his fifty-seven years. Our saint is buried in his Congregation’s chapel in Paris. He was canonized in 1962 and in 1995 his Optional Memorial was finally included in the Church’s universal sanctoral calendar.
Saint Peter Julian Eymard, your ardent love of the Blessed Sacrament consumed your thoughts, words, preaching, and life. May such a healthy devotion mark all of our lives. May we satisfy Christ’s thirst for our presence by not making Him wait too long between our visits.
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26/11/2019

Father Louis-Marie Paren

Voluntas Dei Institute is a Secular Institute founded in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada in July 2nd 1958 by Rev. Father Louis-Marie Parent, OMI. It is being approved as a secular institute of pontifical right in 1987. It has priests, celibate laymen, married couples and spiritually affiliated persons as its members who attempt to attain Christian perfection through the practice of poverty, chastity, and obedience and to carry out the work of the Church while “living in and of the world,” attending privately to their business or professional duties. They do not live in a community like religious, but they participate in teams. They strive for personal holiness by living the charism and 5-5-5 spirituality in the midst of the world as salt, light and leaven in the dough on the basis of the Gospel message and social justice.
In 1945 Fr.Louis Marie Parent (OMI) was working in Canada under, Rt. Rev. Henry Routhier Bishop of Quebec. When Pope Pious XII gave a legal approval to a life of secular consecration, Fr. Louis Marie Parent already had a plan in his mind to start a secular institute for the unmarried woman. Thus in 1952, he founded a secular institute for woman called the “Oblate Missionaries Of Mary Immaculate”
Later on, he also wanted to organize the priests, unmarried men and married couples to live a life of secular consecration as members of one family. Thus he founded a secular institute called “Institute Voluntas Dei” (IVDei) in Canada. Very soon the people from the various walks of life found to be attracted towards the institute and became its members. Within seven years of its foundation, the institute has been recognized and accepted by the local bishop, thus on July 2nd 1965, the Diocese of Quebec officially accepted the Institute. On July 21st 1987, it attained the status of Secular Institute of Pontifical Right.

26/11/2019

Saint Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop

1807 – 1870
October 24 – Optional Memorial
Patron Saint of textile merchants, weavers, the Catholic press, and vocational educators

A tireless priest founds an Order, becomes a bishop, and moves mountains.Today’s saint was a finely tuned, high-octane engine of evangelization. Anthony Claret was from Catalonia, the region around Barcelona, Spain. He studied for the priesthood in Rome, was ordained in 1835, and then returned to Spain to spend ten years giving missions. In 1849 he founded the Congregation of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, more commonly known as the Claretians in honor of their founder. The Order was particularly focused on publishing works of devotion and piety, books offering spiritual advice, and numerous pamphlets of basic catechesis. The Claretians filled a need and, as publishers, enjoyed enormous success. They published millions and millions of books and pamphlets. And all of this was spearheaded by Anthony, who not only generated doctrinal content but who also mastered the technical details of printing, learned the business side of the industry, and edited the published works himself.
In 1851, when Anthony was appointed the Archbishop of Santiago Cuba, the full array of his talents were put on display. He added the name of “Mary” to his baptismal name at his episcopal consecration and began a remarkably fruitful seven years as Archbishop. He traveled incessantly throughout his territory, restored the seminary, established hospitals and dozens of new parishes, and personally visited the sick and dying. He was ever present and provocative in his pastoral outreach, so much so that attempts were made on his life by the apathetic offended by his success. He was severely injured by one of these attempts but survived. Bishop Anthony was a true man of action. Creative ideas on how to spread the Gospel flowed constantly from his mind. Every tribulation and hardship was, for him, just an invitation to deeper commitment. It was nothing for Anthony to expend all of his energy one day and to wake up and do the same the next day. He was replenished by exhausting himself.
In 1857 he resigned as Archbishop when he was recalled to Spain to become the personal chaplain to the Queen. This more sedentary life was a cross for Anthony, who was a born missionary. But he continued to dedicate himself to apostolic activity as much as his court obligations allowed. At the Royal Monastery outside of Madrid where he was assigned, he set up a science library, a school for music and languages, a museum of natural history, and a fraternity composed of cultural leaders and intellectuals that grew to national prominence. Anthony was such a robust motor of evangelization and cultural advancement that he earned powerful enemies who feared his success. They eventually drove him from Spain to France, where he died in 1870.
Like so many saints, Anthony Mary Claret was a double or triple threat. He was so multi-faceted, so skilled in so many diverse fields that it is hard to believe that one man accomplished so much. He worked well and he worked quickly. Also like many other saints, behind Anthony’s labors was a regimented life of prayer, daily Mass, the rosary, fasting, spiritual reading, self discipline and moral strictness. He was perpetually in the presence of God, and in his later years experienced spiritual ecstasies and performed miraculous healings. This incredible man of action and prayer was canonized in 1950.
Saint Anthony Mary Claret, you outdid all your peers in dedication to Christ, Mary and the Church. We pray that you intercede in heaven to give all bishops the graces and the skills to lead their flocks in prayer, education and devotion as you did.
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26/11/2019

Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest, 1481–1537
February 8—Optional Memorial
Patron Saint of orphans and abandoned children

He was forever grateful after surviving an encounter with death
In the year 1202, a wealthy young Italian man joined the cavalry of his town’s militia. The inexperienced soldiers went into battle against a neighboring town’s larger force and were obliterated. Most of the retreating soldiers were run through with lances and left for dead in the mud. But at least one was spared. He was an aristocrat wearing fine clothes and new, expensive armor. He was worth taking hostage for ransom. The captive suffered in a dark, miserable prison for a full year before his father made the payment for his release. He returned to his hometown a changed man. That town was Assisi. That man was Francis.
Today’s saint, Jerome Emiliani, endured much the same. He was a soldier in the city state of Venice and was appointed the commander of a fortress. In a battle against a league of city states, the fortress fell and Jerome was imprisoned. A heavy chain was wrapped around his neck, hands, and feet, and fastened to a huge chunk of marble in an underground prison. He was forgotten, alone, and treated like an animal in the gloom of a dungeon. This was the pivot point. He repented of his godless life. He prayed. He dedicated himself to the Madonna. And then, somehow, he escaped, chains in hand, and fled to a nearby city. He walked through the doors of the local church and headed to the front to fulfill a fresh vow. He slowly approached a much venerated Virgin and placed his chains on the altar before her. He knelt, bowed his head, and prayed. His life was about to begin again.
Some pivot points can turn a life’s straight line into a right angle. Other lives change slowly, bending like an arc over a long span of years. The deprivations endured by Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Jerome Emiliani occurred suddenly. These men were comfortable, had money, and were supported by family and friends. Then, shockingly, they were naked, alone, and chained. Saint Jerome could have despaired in his imprisonment. Many people do. He could have rejected God, understood his sufferings as a sign of God’s disfavor, become bitter, and given up. Instead, he persevered. His imprisonment was a purification. He gave his suffering purpose. Once free, he was like a man born anew, grateful that the heavy prison chains no longer weighed down his body to the floor.
Once he started sprinting away from that prison fortress, it was like Saint Jerome never stopped running. He studied, was ordained a priest, and traveled throughout Northern Italy founding orphanages, hospitals, and homes for abandoned children, fallen women, and outcasts of all kinds. Exercising his priestly ministry in a Europe newly split by Protestant heresies, Jerome also wrote perhaps the first question-and-answer catechism in order to inculcate Catholic doctrine in his charges. Like so many saints, he seemed to be everywhere at once, caring for everyone except himself. While tending to the sick, he became infected and died in 1537, a martyr to generosity. He was, naturally, the kind of man who attracted followers. They eventually formed into a religious Congregation and received ecclesiastical approbation in 1540. Saint Jerome was canonized in 1767 and named the Patron Saint of orphans and abandoned children in 1928.
His life hinged on one pivot. It is a lesson. Emotional, physical, or psychological suffering, when conquered or controlled, can be a prelude to intense gratitude and generosity. No one walks down the street more free than a former hostage. No one enjoys a warm, comfortable bed like someone who once slept on asphalt. No one gulps a breath of fresh morning air quite like someone who has just heard from the doctor that the cancer is gone. Saint Jerome never lost the wonder and gratitude that filled his heart at the moment of his liberation. All was new. All was young. The world was his. And he would place all his power and energy in God’s service because he was a survivor.
Saint Jerome Emiliani, you overcame confinement to live a fruitful life dedicated to God and man. Help all who are confined in any way—physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually, or psychologically—to overcome whatever binds them and to live a life without bitterness.
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