Mission Basilica San Buenaventura

Mission Basilica San Buenaventura Mission Basilica San Buenaventura: Ninth and last California Mission founded by Saint Junipero Serra. Masses / Misas
Daily - 7:30A.M. Except Monday - 9:00 A.M.
(790)

The beautiful Mission, named the first canonical parish in Southern California by Bishop Francisco Diego y Moreno in 1843, continues to serve as an active Catholic parish within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The Mission grounds include Holy Cross School (PreK - 8th Grade), a museum and gift shop. The Church and Mission Garden are open to visitors daily from 6:30 AM to 5:30 PM. during the school

year
Saturday / Sábado - 5:30 P.M. Vigil, 7:30 P.M. Vigilia (Español)
Sunday / Domingo - 7:30 A.M., 9:00 A.M., 10:30 A.M (Español), 12:15 P.M.,
Holy Days/ Días Santos - 7:30 A.M., 12:00 Noon, 6:00 P.M English, 7:30 P.M. Spanish
First Friday / Viernes Primeros - 7:30 A.M., 7:30 P.M. (Español)
Eucharistic Adoration
Adoración Eucarística
Serra Chapel / Capilla Junípero Serra
Monday 6:00 A.M.- Thursday 6:00 A.M. de Lunes 6:00 A.M. a Jueves 6:00 A.M. Confession / Confesiones
Fridays/ Viernes 5 P.M. Saturdays/Sábado 4 P.M.-
Baptisms/ Bautismos
By Appointment Only
Hacer Cita Un Mes Antes

Marriage / Matrimonios
By Appointment Six Months in Advance
Por Cita Seis Meses Antes de la Boda

Quinceañeras
By Appointment Only
Por Cita Solamente

Parish Center Office Hours:
Horario Oficina del Centro
Parroquial:
Monday-Friday/ Lunes a Viernes
8:30 A.M.-4:30 P.M. See the Website for History and more information:

http://www.sanbuenaventuramission.org/

September 9th is the Memorial of Saint Peter Claver (1580-1654), Priest. St. Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit missionar...
09/09/2026

September 9th is the Memorial of Saint Peter Claver (1580-1654), Priest.

St. Peter Claver was a Spanish Jesuit missionary to Colombia who served 40 years as "a slave of the slaves for ever," personally baptizing 300,000 people. His heroic love and self-sacrifice for the African slaves is unparalleled in the history of the Church.

Peter was born to a devout and prosperous farming family in the village of Verdú about 54 miles from Barcelona, Spain. Colonial slavery had begun 70 years prior by King Ferdinand of Spain, so he was accustomed to the concept of the life of a slave. Later when he studied at the University of Barcelona he wrote in his diary which he kept throughout his life: "I must dedicate myself to the service of God until death, on the understanding that I am like a slave, wholly occupied in the service of his master and in the endeavor to please and content him in all and in every way with his whole soul, body, and mind."

Completing his studies, Peter entered the Society of Jesus at the age of 20. After his formation in the community he was sent to study philosophy at Palma, Mallorca where he came to know a simple Jesuit lay brother who served as the doorkeeper of the college, Alphonsus Rodriguez, known for his holiness and gift of prophecy. He was eighty years old and Peter only twenty-five but they became friends, sharing about the spiritual life. Although Peter spent only three years in Mallorca, these were the most formative years of his interior life in which he incorporated Alphonsus' program of the spiritual life into his own daily life. After prayer, Alphonsus received the insight that Peter was to spend his life in service in the Spanish colonies and urged him to go and save "millions of perishing souls."

Thus, Peter volunteered for the Spanish colonies and was sent to the country now known as Colombia. There while preparing for the priesthood he witnessed and was deeply disturbed by the harsh treatment and living conditions of the 10,000 black slaves who poured into the port yearly, crossing the Atlantic from West Africa, with an estimated one-third having died in transit.

Once ordained a priest, Father Peter joined Father Alonso de Sandoval, S.J. in ministering to the slaves transported to Cartagena, Colombia. Having labored for 40 years with the slaves, Fr. Alonso became Fr. Peter's mentor and inspiration. He had learned the customs of 40 different “races” and 15 different languages of the slaves, which he recorded in a book that Fr. Peter urged his religious superiors to have published to help missionaries relate to the slaves. Fr. Alonso ministered to the slaves by visiting them where they worked, but Fr. Peter Claver preferred to board the slave ship as it entered the port, where he entered cargo pit to treat and minister to the mistreated and terrified enslaved African survivors of the several-months voyage and the horrible conditions.

In addition to the slaves, Peter preached and ministered to sailors, traders, well-to-do members of society, visitors including Muslims and English Protestants, criminals preparing for ex*****on and the sick in the city's hospitals. He worked unceasingly for the abolition of the slave trade, while advocating with the masters to treat the slaves humanely.

Most of all St. Peter Claver labored for the salvation of the African slaves, as revealed in his own writings:

"This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions.... After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language."

In the last four years of his life being too ill to leave his room, St. Peter Claver lingered, largely forgotten and neglected, physically abused and starved by an ex-slave who had been hired by the Superior of the house to care for him. He never complained about his treatment, accepting it as a just punishment for his sins.

He died on 8 September 1654, at which time the people of the city upon hearing of his death, remembered all that St. Peter had done. They forced their way into his room and stripped it, taking whatever they could to possess relics of a man known to have been a "saint." Even the magistrates, who had previously considered St. Peter a nuisance for his persistent advocacy on behalf of the slaves, ordered a public funeral and buried him with pomp and ceremony at the expense of the state.

He was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1888, along with the holy Jesuit porter Alphonsus Rodriguez, who was his mentor in the spiritual life. In 1896 Pope Leo declared St. Peter Claver the patron of missions to all African peoples. His body is preserved and venerated in the Church of Saint Peter Claver in Cartagena, Colombia.

One of the parishes of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and in our Santa Barbara Region is named St. Peter Claver of Simi Valley, CA Visit their webpage: http://www.saintpeterclaver.org

Let us pray,

O God, who made Saint Peter Claver a slave of slaves and strengthened him with wonderful charity and patience as he came to their help, grant, through his intercession, that, seeking the things of Jesus Christ, we may love our neighbor in deeds and in truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Peter Claver, pray for us.

From a letter by Saint Peter Claver, priest
"To preach the Gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim pardon to captives"

Yesterday, May 30, 1627, on the feast of the Most Holy Trinity, numerous blacks, brought from the rivers of Africa, disembarked from a large ship. Carrying two baskets of oranges, lemons, sweet biscuits, and I know not what else, we hurried toward them. When we approached their quarters, we thought we were entering another Guinea. We had to force our way through the crowd until we reached the sick. Large numbers of the sick were lying on wet ground or rather in puddles of mud. To prevent excessive dampness, someone had thought of building up a mound with a mixture of tiles and broken pieces of bricks. This, then, was their couch, a very uncomfortable one not only for that reason, but especially because they were naked, without any clothing to protect them.

We laid aside our cloaks, therefore, and brought from a warehouse whatever was handy to build a platform. In that way we covered a space to which we at last transferred the sick, by forcing a passage through bands of slaves. Then we divided the sick into two groups: one group my companion approached with an interpreter, while I addressed the other group. There were two blacks, nearer death than life, already cold, whose pulse could scarcely be detected. With the help of a tile we pulled some live coals together and placed them in the middle near the dying men. Into this fire we tossed aromatics. Of these we had two wallets full, and we used them all up on this occasion. Then, using our own cloaks, for they had nothing of this sort, and to ask the owners for others would have been a waste of words, we provided for them a smoke treatment, by which they seemed to recover their warmth and the breath of life. The joy in their eyes as they looked at us was something to see.

This was how we spoke to them, not with words but with our hands and our actions. And in fact, convinced as they were that they had been brought here to be eaten, any other language would have proved utterly useless. Then we sat, or rather knelt, beside them and bathed their faces and bodies with w**e. We made every effort to encourage them with friendly gestures and displayed in their presence the emotions which somehow naturally tend to hearten the sick.

After this we began an elementary instruction about baptism, that is, the wonderful effects of the sacrament on body and soul. When by their answers to our questions they showed that they had sufficiently understood this, we went on to a more extensive instruction, namely, about the one God, who rewards and punishes each one according to his merit, and the rest. We asked them to make an act of contrition and to manifest their detestation of their sins. Finally, when they appeared sufficiently prepared, we declared to them the mysteries of the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Passion. Showing them Christ fastened to the cross, as he is depicted on the baptismal font on which streams of blood flow down from his wounds, we led them in reciting an act of contrition in their own language.

September 9th is the feast day of Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (c.516 – c.549), Abbot.Ciarán was from Connaught and foun...
09/09/2026

September 9th is the feast day of Saint Ciarán of Clonmacnoise (c.516 – c.549), Abbot.

Ciarán was from Connaught and founded a monastery at Clonmacnoise that became famous throughout Europe. The son of a carpenter or wheelwright, Ciarán, is often called “the younger” to distinguish him from Ciarán of Saighir, called Sean Chiarán, or Ciarán the Senior.

This Ciarán went to study under Finnian of Clonard, taking with him his favorite cow, which his family donated for his education. The monastery could profit from milk and butter, calves, meat or from the hide that would be turned into parchment. The skin of Ciarán’s cow was preserved in his memory and was noted for miracles – it had the reputation that every man who died resting on it would get eternal life. And later, the book written on this famous cow-skin, Leabhar nah Uidhre, became one of Ireland’s most important manuscripts. This is the book which preserves the lCiaranegend of the Táin Bó Cuailnge.

One tale relates that as a student, a young fox would take Ciarán’s writings to his master, until it was old enough to eat his satchel.

Ciarán went on to learn from Enda of Aran, where he was ordained priest, and later to Senan of Scattery Island.

He then made his own foundation with ten companions on the Shannon at Clonmacnoise, but died at the age of 33 while it was still being built.

Clonmacnoise later became one of the most influential monasteries in Europe. Alcuin of York (735-804), the most renowned of Saxon scholars who became an advisor at the court of Charlemagne, studied here under Colcu the wise in the eighth century. He wrote letters to him and sent presents from himself and the emperor. The monastery survived the Viking raids and the Norman wars up until 1552.

Clonmacnoise is still an impressive site and a place of pilgrimage, especially for the Catholic group, Youth 2000. Pope John Paul II stopped off here on his way to Galway during his visit to Ireland in 1979.
[Compilation from catholicireland.net & wikipedia.org]

St. Ciaran of Clonmacnoise, pray for us.

September 8th is the Feast of the Nativity (Birth) of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.The Catholic Church celebrates to...
09/08/2026

September 8th is the Feast of the Nativity (Birth) of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.

The Catholic Church celebrates today the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8th, which probably originated after the Catholic Church’s Council of Ephesus in 431 that established Mary's title of “Mother of God.” This date helped determine the date for December 8th, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, nine months earlier as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne.

The Gospels of the New Testament do not tell anything about the birth of the Virgin Mary because their attention is completely centered on the mystery of Christ Jesus and His salvific mission. Other so-called gospels written much later after the death of the last Apostle were evaluated by the Catholic Church and given the term "apocrypha," meaning they were useful but not divinely inspired and therefore not included in the New Testament. One such writing is the Protoevangelium (First Gospel) of James, which dates from around 145 AD and gives the account of Mary's birth. The writing reflects an oral tradition that existed about Blessed Virgin Mary, which it incorporated, such as the names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna. This account relates that Joachim and Anna were beyond the years of child-bearing, but prayed and fasted that God would grant their desire for a child. They received the promise of a child that will be a part of God's plan of salvation for the world and thus, stresses the special presence of God in Mary's life from the beginning. (See more at: http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0847.htm )

St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, described the birth of Mary as a significant cosmic and historic event to the birth of Jesus Christ, connecting it with Jesus' saving work: "She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed."

The Catholic Church in the case of all the Saints commemorates their feast day on the day of their death to earthly life and their return to the Lord and the reward of Heavenly life. Only in the cases of St. John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary does the Church celebrate the day of their earthly birth. The reason for this is the singular mission that John and Mary had in the history of Salvation and their direct relationship with the coming of the Savior of the world.

Mary's birth lies at the meeting of the Old and the New Testaments, bringing to an end the stage of expectation and promises and inaugurating the new times of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ. Mary, identified as the Daughter of Sion as the ideal personification of Israel and the last and most worthy representative of the People of the Old Covenant yet at the same time she is the hope of the whole world: "With her the exalted Daughter of Sion, and after a long expectation of the promise, the times are fulfilled and the new Economy established, when the Son of God took a human nature from her, that He might in the mysteries of His flesh free man from sin." (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, 55) Thus, the birth of Mary is ordained for her mission as mother of the Savior and her existence is indissolubly connected with that of Christ. God's mysterious plan regarding the Incarnation of the Word embraces the Virgin who is His mother. In this way, the Birth of Mary is inserted at the very heart of the History of Salvation.
[Compilation from IBreviary, ewtn.com & catholicnewsagency.com]

Let us praise God our Almighty Father, who wished that Mary, His Son’s mother, be celebrated by each generation:

Impart to Your servants, we pray, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace, that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin may bring deeper peace for those for whom the birth of her Son was the dawning of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

O Mary, full of grace, intercede for us.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

From a discourse by Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop
"The old has passed away: all things are made new"

The fulfillment of the law is Christ himself, who does not so much lead us away from the letter as lift us up to its spirit. For the law’s consummation was this, that the very lawgiver accomplished his work and changed letter into spirit, summing everything up in himself and, though subject to the law, living by grace. He subordinated the law, yet harmoniously united grace with it, not confusing the distinctive characteristics of the one with the other, but effecting the transition in a way most fitting for God. He changed whatever was burdensome, servile and oppressive to what is light and liberating, so that we should be enslaved no longer under the elemental spirits of the world, as the Apostle says, nor held fast as bondservants under the letter of the law.

This is the highest, all-embracing benefit that Christ has bestowed on us. This is the revelation of the mystery, this is the emptying out of the divine nature, the union of God and man, and the deification of the manhood that was assumed. This radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us. The present festival, the birth of the Mother of God, is the prelude, while the final act is the fore-ordained union of the Word with flesh. Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages.

Justly, then, do we celebrate this mystery since it signifies for us a double grace. We are led toward the truth, and we are led away from our condition of slavery to the letter of the law. How can this be? Darkness yields before the coming of the light, and grace exchanges legalism for freedom. But midway between the two stands today’s mystery, at the frontier where types and symbols give way to reality, and the old is replaced by the new. Therefore, let all creation sing and dance and unite to make worthy contribution to the celebration of this day. Let there be one common festival for saints in heaven and men on earth. Let everything, mundane things and those above, join in festive celebration. Today this created world is raised to the dignity of a holy place for him who made all things. The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator.

On this Labor Day, as we rest and recreate, let us thank the Lord our God for the gift our labor in helping us to realiz...
09/07/2026

On this Labor Day, as we rest and recreate, let us thank the Lord our God for the gift our labor in helping us to realize our dignity as human persons and let us pray for the many throughout our country who lack employment or are underemployed.

Let us pray…

As the sun rises to bring in the new day:

We remember those who descend into the earth, their work begins in darkness, pulling from the earth, the resources we steward.

We remember those who work inside a building away from the light and brightness of the day.

We remember those who work outside in the harsh elements of our world, the bitter cold and sweltering heat of extremes.

We remember those who do not have a job to go to, who are struggling to meet the needs of their daily living expenses, for whom the day becomes long and arduous.

As the sun sets to bring in the evening of rest:

We remember those who work in the night.

We remember those who are trying to recover from their labor and toils of the day.

We remember those who participate in unsafe and dangerous work.

We pray for a renewed sense of dignity in their lives and in their work.

God, in your goodness, you have made a home for the worker. Make a place in our hearts for compassion to the men and women who labor tirelessly for basic necessities. Ensure a place for the men and women who are struggling to find work. Grant us your wisdom to greet and care for those who are unable to work due to illness or circumstances that prevent their participation. Be with the children who are not able to run and play, but instead must put in a hard day’s work to help their family afford to eat, to live. Be with us all, Christ Jesus, as we go about the busyness of our work. Hold us accountable not only for our actions, but most importantly to each of our neighbors. May we continue to work together to bring about your reign! We ask this in your holy name, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[From usccb.org]

September 7th is the feast day of Saint Clodoald, known as St. Cloud (522-560), Priest. Born in 522, Clodoald was the gr...
09/07/2026

September 7th is the feast day of Saint Clodoald, known as St. Cloud (522-560), Priest.

Born in 522, Clodoald was the grandson of the Frankish King Clovis I, whose conversion to orthodox Christianity – rather than the A***n heresy – made him the first Catholic ruler of present-day France.

After Clodoald's father Clodomir was killed in 524, he and his brothers Theudovald and Gunthar were raised by their grandmother Queen Clothilde, whom the Church now honors as St. Clothilde.

Clovis' kingdom had been divided equally among his four sons following his death in 511. In an effort to secure Clodomir's share of the territory after his death, two of Clodoald's uncles plotted to kill the three boys who were under the protection of the queen. While the uncles managed to kill Gunthar and Theudovald, Clodoald fled and was taken in by the archbishop Saint Remigius of Rheims,

Forced into seclusion by the plot against him, the young man became determined to renounce the power and wealth that had brought grief to his family. Placing himself in God's service, Clodoald lived in a small monastic cell where he pursued a life of asceticism and contemplative prayer. He gave his inheritance to the poor, and eventually became a disciple of the hermit St. Severinus near Paris.

No longer pursued by his uncles, Clodoald appeared before the bishop of Paris in 542. He formally received the monastic habit from the bishop, who cut off the long hair that had signified his Frankish royal origins. Clodoald eventually left Paris to live as a hermit in the forest for several years, growing closer to God in his contemplative vocation and studying Sacred Scripture extensively.

During these years, pilgrims began making their way to the hermitage, seeking his prayers which were known to work miracles. Though he had left Paris to live in anonymity and solitude, the hermit now sensed a need to return to the city, where he was ordained a priest in 551. His two murderous uncles are said to have repented of their deeds during the time of his ministry.

In 554 Clodoald returned to the monastic life, founding and leading a community of monks in the village of Nogent near Paris. There, he was known for his generosity toward the poor, and his attention to the work of religious instruction among the people. He died on Sept. 7, 560, at the age of 38.

Under the name of “St. Cloud,” Clodoald became the namesake of several cities and towns. These include the Parisian suburb of Saint-Cloud, and later St. Cloud, Minnesota, whose Catholic diocese has been placed under his patronage.
[From catholicnewsagency.com]

St. Cloud, pray for us.

September 7th is the feast day of Saint Regina (200-250), Virgin and Martyr. Regina was the daughter of a pagan aristocr...
09/07/2026

September 7th is the feast day of Saint Regina (200-250), Virgin and Martyr.

Regina was the daughter of a pagan aristocrat named Clement, in Alise, Burgundy. Her mother died in childbirth. Regina’s father placed her upbringing in the care of a Christian nurse attached to the family, who recognized her sanctity. The nurse secretly baptized her. Regina was driven from her family’s home because of her faith, and lived as a poor, prayerful shepherdess.

Regina lived with her nurse, worked in the fields by day, tending sheep, to help support the household. In the fields, Regina grew closer to the Lord, meditating and contemplating His love and mercy, and praying to better emulate the lives of the holy saints and martyrs.

At the age of fifteen, Regina caught the eye of the prefect of Gaul, Olybrius, a man of great importance. He became obsessed with the young woman, and was determined to take her as his bride. He delighted in her noble upbringing, but was deeply disturbed to find that she was practicing the Christian faith. At that time, Christians were being violently persecuted and killed, under the direction of the Emperor Decius. Olybrius attempted to persuade her to deny her faith, so as to not only save her from persecution, but to secure her as a wife. She declined, refusing to recant her faith, and professing it all the louder. In retaliation, Olybrius had her imprisoned.

Regina was chained to the walls of a dark prison cell by means of an iron belt that was bolted to the wall. There she was left while Olybrius participated in several military campaigns against invading barbarians, returning to his daily activities. After an absence of some time, he returned, hoping she may have changed her mind. On the contrary, her imprisonment had served to strengthen her resolve to live like the saints and martyrs, and maintain her chastity for the Lord. She refused to sacrifice to idols, and he angrily ordered her tortured. Regina courageously withstood whippings and scourging over the back of a wooden horse, raking with iron combs, burning with hot pincers and torches, and crucifixion. None of these could cause her to doubt the Lord or recant her faith, and as she continued to praise God. Lastly, she was beheaded, ending her life and her conversion of many witnesses present who observed a solitary dove hovering atop her head during her torture.

The relics of Saint Regina are enshrined in Flavigny Abbey, having been translated there in 864. Since that time, numerous miracles have been attributed to their presence, and frequent pilgrimages are made by the faithful to venerate them.

St. Regina is considered the patron saint against poverty, and patroness of shepherdesses and torture victims. Given the accounts of her martyrdom, in art, Saint Regina is portrayed as a maiden bound to a cross with torches applied to her sides, imprisoned with a dove appearing on a shining cross, scourged with rods, or in a boiling cauldron. She is venerated at Autun, France, and in southern Germany.
[From reginamag.com]

St. Regina, pray for us.

September 6th is the feast day of Blessed Claudio Granzotto (1900-1947), Holy Man.Born in Santa Lucia del Piave near Ven...
09/06/2026

September 6th is the feast day of Blessed Claudio Granzotto (1900-1947), Holy Man.

Born in Santa Lucia del Piave near Venice, Claudio was the youngest of nine children and was accustomed to hard work in the fields. At the age of nine, he lost his father. Six years later he was drafted into the Italian army, where he served more than three years.

His artistic abilities, especially in sculpture, led to studies at Venice’s Academy of Fine Arts, which awarded him a diploma with the highest marks in 1929. Even then he was especially interested in religious art. When Claudio entered the Friars Minor four years later in 1933, his parish priest wrote, "The Order is receiving not only an artist but a saint."

Claudio developed into such an excellent sculptor that his work still turns people toward God. No stranger to adversity, he met every obstacle courageously, reflecting the generosity, faith and joy that he learned from Francis of Assisi.

Prayer, charity to the poor and artistic work characterized his life, which was cut short by a brain tumor. He died on the feast of the Assumption in 1947 and was beatified in 1994.

In the beatification homily, Pope John Paul II said that Claudio made his sculpture "the privileged instrument" of his apostolate and evangelization. "His holiness was especially radiant in his acceptance of suffering and death in union with Christ’s Cross. Thus by consecrating himself totally to the Lord’s love, he became a model for religious, for artists in their search for God’s beauty and for the sick in his loving devotion to the Crucified"
[From americancatholic.org]

Blessed Claudio Granzotto, pray for us.

September 5th the Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Mother Teresa (1910-1997), Virgin. Mother Teresa was born Agn...
09/05/2026

September 5th the Church celebrates the feast day of Saint Mother Teresa (1910-1997), Virgin.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, the youngest of three children. She attended a youth group called Sodality, run by a Jesuit priest at her parish, and her involvement opened her to the call of service as a missionary nun.

She joined the Sisters of Loretto at age 17 and was sent to Calcutta where she taught at a high school. She contracted Tuberculosis and was sent to rest in Darjeeling. It was on the train to Darjeeling that she received her calling - what she called "an order" from God to leave the convent and work and live among the poor. At this point she did not know that she was to found an order of nuns, or even exactly where she was to serve. "I knew where I belonged, but I did not know how to get there," she said once, recalling the moment on the train.

Confirmation of the calling came when the Vatican granted her permission to leave the Sisters of Loretto and fulfill her calling under the Archbishop of Calcutta. She started working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. She was joined a year later by some of her former students and together they took in men, women, and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets and cared for them.

In 1950 the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta and in 1952 the government granted them a house from which to continue their service among Calcutta's forgotten.

The congregation very quickly grew from a single house for the dying and unwanted to nearly 500 around the world. Mother Teresa set up homes for AIDS sufferers, for prostitutes, for battered women, and orphanages for poor children.

She often said that the poorest of the poor were those who had no one to care for them and no one who knew them. And she often remarked with sadness and desolation of millions of souls in the developed world whose spiritual poverty and loneliness was such an immense cause of suffering.

She was a fierce defender of the unborn saying: "If you hear of some woman who does not want to keep her child and wants to have an abortion, try to persuade her to bring him to me. I will love that child, seeing in him the sign of God's love."

Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997 and was beatified only six years later, on October 19, 2003. On September 4, 2016, Mother Teresa of Calcutta was canonized.

Mother Teresa once said, "A sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves. The fruit of silence is prayer, the fruit of prayer is faith, the fruit of faith is love, the fruit of love is service, the fruit of service is peace." She also said, "give yourself fully to God. He will use you to accomplish great things on the condition that you believe much more in His love than in your own weakness."
[From catholicnewsagency.org]

Let us pray,

God, who called Saint Teresa, virgin to respond to the love of Your Son thirsting on the Cross with outstanding charity to the poorest of the poor, grant us, we beseech You, by her intercession, to minister to Christ in His suffering brothers.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Mother Teresa, pray for us.

"Whatsoever You Do..."
Speech of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the National Prayer Breakfast, Washington, DC, February 3, 1994

On the last day, Jesus will say to those on His right hand,

"Come, enter the Kingdom. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was sick and you visited me." Then Jesus will turn to those on His left hand and say, "Depart from me because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me drink, I was sick and you did not visit me." These will ask Him, "When did we see You hungry, or thirsty or sick and did not come to Your help?" And Jesus will answer them,

"Whatever you neglected to do unto one of the least of these, you neglected to do unto me!"

As we have gathered here to pray together, I think it will be beautiful if we begin with a prayer that expressed very well what Jesus wants us to do for the least. St. Francis of Assisi understood very well these words of Jesus and His life is very well expressed by a prayer. And this prayer, which we say every day after Holy Communion, always surprises me very much, because it is very fitting for each one of us. And I always wonder whether 800 years ago when St. Francis lived, they had the same difficulties that we have today. I think that some of you already have this prayer of peace - so we will pray it together.

Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. where there is hatred let me sow love, where there is injury let me sow pardon, where there is doubt let me sow faith, where there is despair let me give hope, where there is darkness let me give light, Where there is sadness let me give joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not try to be comforted but to comfort, not try to be understood but to understand, not try to be loved but to love. Because it is in giving that we receive, it is in forgiving that we are forgiven, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Let us thank God for the opportunity He has given us today to have come here to pray together. We have come here especially to pray for peace, joy and love. We are reminded that Jesus came to bring the good news to the poor. He had told us what that good news is when He said: "My peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you." He came not to give the peace of the world which is only that we don't bother each other. He came to give the peace of heart which comes from loving - from doing good to others.

And God loved the world so much that He gave His Son - it was a giving. God gave His Son to the Virgin Mary, and what did she do with Him? As soon as Jesus came into Mary's life, immediately she went in haste to give that good news. And as she came into the house of her cousin, Elizabeth, Scripture tells us that the unborn child - the child in the womb of Elizabeth - leapt with joy. While still in the womb of Mary, Jesus brought peace to John the Baptist who leapt for joy in the womb of Elizabeth.

And as if that were not enough, as if it were not enough that God the Son should become one of us and bring peace and joy while still in the womb of Mary, Jesus also died on the Cross to show that greater love. He died for you and for me, and for that l***r and for that man dying of hunger and that naked person lying in the street, not only of Calcutta, but of Africa, and everywhere. Our Sisters serve these poor people in 105 countries throughout the world. Jesus insisted that we love one another as He loves each one of us.

Jesus gave His life to love us and He tells us that we also have to give whatever it takes to do good to one another. And in the Gospel Jesus says very clearly: "Love as I have loved you." Jesus died on the Cross because that is what it took for Him to do good to us - to save us from our selfishness in sin. He gave up everything to do the Father's will to show us that we too must be willing to give up everything to do God's will - to love one another as He loves each of us. If we are not willing to give whatever it takes to do good to one another, sin is still in us. That is why we too must give to each other until it hurts.

It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor.

How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live?

And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.

It hurt Jesus to love us. We have been created in His image for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must "put on Christ" as Scripture tells us. And so, we have been created to love and to be loved, and God has become man to make it possible for us to love as He loved us. Jesus makes Himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and He says, "You did it to Me." On the last day He will say to those on His right, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to Me," and He will also say to those on His left, "Whatever you neglected to do for the least of these you neglected to do it for Me."

When He was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, "I thirst." Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst of everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.

I can never forget the experience I had in visiting a home where they kept all these old parents of sons and daughters who had just put them into an institution and forgotten them - maybe. I saw that in that home these old people had everything - good food, comfort- able place, television, everything, but everyone was looking toward the door. And I did not see a single one with a smile on the face. I turned to Sister and I asked: "Why do these people who have every comfort here, why are they all looking toward the door? Why are they not smiling?"

I am so used to seeing the smiles on our people, even the dying ones smile.

And Sister said: "This is the way it is nearly every day. They are expecting, they are hoping that a son or daughter will come to visit them. They are hurt because they are forgotten." And see, this neglect to love brings spiritual poverty. Maybe in our own family we have somebody who is feeling lonely, who is feeling sick, who is feeling worried. Are we there? Are we there to be with them, or do we merely put them in the care of others? Are we willing to give until it hurts in order to be with our families, or do we put our own interests first? These are the questions we must ask ourselves, especially as we begin this year of the family. We must remember that love begins at home and we must also remember that "the future of humanity passes through the family."

I was surprised in the West to see so many young boys and girls given to drugs. And I tried to find out why. Why is it like that, when those in the West have so many more things than those in the East? And the answer was: "Because there is no one in the family to receive them." Our children depend on us for everything - their health, their nutrition, their security, their coming to know and love God. For all of this, they look to us with trust, hope and expectation. But often father and mother are so busy they have no time for their children, or perhaps they are not even married or have given up on their marriage. So the children go to the streets and get involved in drugs or other things. We are talking of love of the child which is where love and peace must begin. These are the things that break peace.

But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because it is a war against the child, a direct killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself.

And if we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? How do we persuade a woman not to have an abortion? As always, we must persuade her with love and we remind ourselves that love means to be willing to give until it hurts. Jesus gave even His life to love us. So, the mother who is thinking of abortion, should be helped to love, that is, to give until it hurts her plans, or her free time, to respect the life of her child. The father of that child, whoever he is, must also give until it hurts.

By abortion, the mother does not learn to love, but kills even her own child to solve her problems.

And, by abortion, the father is told that he does not have to take any responsibility at all for the child he has brought into the world. That father is likely to put other women into the same trouble. So abortion just leads to more abortion.

Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.

Many people are very, very concerned with the children of India, with the children of Africa where quite a few die of hunger, and so on. Many people are also concerned about all the violence in this great country of the United States. These concerns are very good. But often these same people are not concerned with the millions who are being killed by the deliberate decision of their own mothers. And this is what is the greatest destroyer of peace today - abortion which brings people to such blindness.

And for this I appeal in India and I appeal everywhere - "Let us bring the child back." The child is God's gift to the family. Each child is created in the special image and likeness of God for greater things - to love and to be loved. In this year of the family we must bring the child back to the center of our care and concern. This is the only way that our world can survive because our children are the only hope for the future. As older people are called to God, only their children can take their places.

But what does God say to us? He says: "Even if a mother could forget her child, I will not forget you. I have carved you in the palm of my hand." We are carved in the palm of His hand; that unborn child has been carved in the hand of God from conception and is called by God to love and to be loved, not only now in this life, but forever. God can never forget us.

I will tell you something beautiful. We are fighting abortion by adoption - by care of the mother and adoption for her baby. We have saved thousands of lives. We have sent word to the clinics, to the hospitals and police stations: "Please don't destroy the child; we will take the child." So we always have someone tell the mothers in trouble: "Come, we will take care of you, we will get a home for your child." And we have a tremendous demand from couples who cannot have a child - but I never give a child to a couple who have done something not to have a child. Jesus said. "Anyone who receives a child in my name, receives me." By adopting a child, these couples receive Jesus but, by aborting a child, a couple refuses to receive Jesus.

Please don't kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child.

From our children's home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.

I know that couples have to plan their family and for that there is natural family planning.

The way to plan the family is natural family planning, not contraception.

In destroying the power of giving life, through contraception, a husband or wife is doing something to self. This turns the attention to self and so it destroys the gift of love in him or her. In loving, the husband and wife must turn the attention to each other as happens in natural family planning, and not to self, as happens in contraception. Once that living love is destroyed by contraception, abortion follows very easily.

I also know that there are great problems in the world - that many spouses do not love each other enough to practice natural family planning. We cannot solve all the problems in the world, but let us never bring in the worst problem of all, and that is to destroy love. And this is what happens when we tell people to practice contraception and abortion.

The poor are very great people. They can teach us so many beautiful things. Once one of them came to thank us for teaching her natural family planning and said: "You people who have practiced chastity, you are the best people to teach us natural family planning because it is nothing more than self-control out of love for each other." And what this poor person said is very true. These poor people maybe have nothing to eat, maybe they have not a home to live in, but they can still be great people when they are spiritually rich.

When I pick up a person from the street, hungry, I give him a plate of rice, a piece of bread. But a person who is shut out, who feels unwanted, unloved, terrified, the person who has been thrown out of society - that spiritual poverty is much harder to overcome. And abortion, which often follows from contraception, brings a people to be spiritually poor, and that is the worst poverty and the most difficult to overcome.

Those who are materially poor can be very wonderful people. One evening we went out and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the Sisters: "You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worse." So I did for her all that my love can do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face.

She took hold of my hand, as she said one word only: "thank you" - and she died.

I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: "What would I say if I were in her place?" And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said: "I am hungry, I am dying, I am cold, I am in pain," or something. But she gave me much more - she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face. Then there was the man we picked up from the drain, half eaten by worms and, after we had brought him to the home, he only said:

"I have lived like an animal in the street, but I am going to die as an angel, loved and cared for."

Then, after we had removed the worms from his body, all he said, with a big smile, was: "Sister, I am going home to God" -and he died. It was so wonderful to see the greatness of that man who could speak like that without blaming anybody, without comparing anything. Like an angel - this greatness of people who are spiritually rich even when they are materially poor. We are not social workers. We may be doing social work in the eyes of some people, but we must be contemplatives in the heart of the world. For we are touching the body of Christ and we are always in his presence.

You too must bring that presence of God into your family, for the family that prays together, stays together.

There is so much hatred, so much misery, and we with our prayer, with our sacrifice, are beginning at home. Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do, but how much love we put into what we do.

If we are contemplatives in the heart of the world with all its problems, these problems can never discourage us. We must always remember what God tells us in Scripture: "Even if a mother could forget the child in her womb - something impossible, but even if she could forget - I will never forget you."

And so here I am talking with you. I want you to find the poor here, right in your own home first. And begin love there. Be that good news to your own people first. And find out about your next door neighbors. Do you know who they are?

I had the most extraordinary experience of love of neighbor with a Hindu family. A gentleman came to our house and said: "Mother Teresa, there is a family who have not eaten for so long. Do something." So I took some rice and went there immediately. And I saw the children - their eyes shining with hunger. I don't know if you have ever seen hunger. But I have seen it very often. And the mother of the family took the rice I gave her and went out. When she came back, I asked her: "Where did you go? What did you do?" And she gave me a very simple answer: "They are hungry also." What struck me was that she knew - and who are they? A Muslim family - and she knew. I didn't bring any more rice that evening because I wanted them, Hindus and Muslims, to enjoy the joy of sharing.

But there were those children, radiating joy, sharing the joy and peace with their mother because she had the love to give until it hurts. And you see this is where love begins - at home in the family.

So, as the example of this family shows, God will never forget us and there is something you and I can always do. We can keep the joy of loving Jesus in our hearts, and share that joy with all we come in contact with.

Let us make that one point - that no child will be unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or killed and thrown away. And give until it hurts - with a smile.

Because I talk so much of giving with a smile, once a professor from the United States asked me: "Are you married?" And I said: "Yes, and I find it sometimes very difficult to smile at my spouse, Jesus, because He can be very demanding - sometimes." This is really something true.

And there is where love comes in - when it is demanding, and yet we can give it with joy.

One of the most demanding things for me is traveling everywhere - and with publicity. I have said to Jesus that if I don't go to heaven for anything else, I will be going to heaven for all the traveling with all the publicity, because it has purified me and sacrificed me and made me really ready to go to heaven.

If we remember that God loves us, and that we can love others as He loves us, then America can become a sign of peace for the world.

From here, a sign of care for the weakest of the weak - the unborn child - must go out to the world. If you become a burning light of justice and peace in the world, then really you will be true to what the founders of this country stood for. God bless you!
[From priestsforlife.org]

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