Happy Feast Day! Excellent comments from Fr. Cantalamessa for the occasion. The "unknown saints" also exist: those who risked their lives for their brothers, the martyrs of justice and liberty, or of duty, the "lay saints," as someone has called them. Without knowing it, their robes have also been washed in the blood of the Lamb, if they have lived according to their consciences and if they have been concerned with the good of their brothers.Plus a reminder from Fr. Tim about how to get folks out of purgatory all week long.
Popery
Picking up the theme of what constitutes good "bishop-ing," here's the complete text of B16's comments on Ambrose from last week, and the Audience from this week, on St. Maximus of Turin.
Maximus preached of an intimate relationship between the duties of a Christian and those of a citizen. For him, to live a Christian life also meant taking on civic commitments. And on the other hand, the Christian who, "despite the fact that he could live on the fruits of his own labor, takes someone else's loot with the fierceness of beasts," or who "ambushes his neighbor, attempting day by day to claw at his neighbor's fence and take possession of his crops," isn't even similar to a fox who beheads chickens, but rather a wolf who preys on pigs (Sermon 41,4).To be honest, I don't understand that last distinction, but I think I get the picture. Interestingly, the word "taxes" doesn't appear in the address, although Zenit & others headlined it as: Good Christians pay taxes, says Pope. Talk about hearing things with a European ear! Do you get "pay your taxes" out of the call to live by the fruits of your own labor and not plunder the goods of others just because you can?
- The Pope had some nice comments when he attended a performance of Beethoven's 9th.
- He also addressed a group of Pharmacists, which apparently didn't go over so well with the usual suspects. No English text yet, sorry.
Their example gives witness to the fact that baptism commits Christians to participate boldly in the spread of the Kingdom of God, cooperating if necessary with the sacrifice of one's own life. Certainly not everyone is called to a bloody martyrdom. There is also an unbloody "martyrdom," which is no less significant, such as that of Celina Chludzinska Borzecka, wife, mother, widow and religious, beatified yesterday in Rome: It is the silent and heroic testimony of many Christians who live the Gospel without compromises, fulfilling their duty and dedicating themselves generously in service to the poor.And as that --the varieties of martyrdom-- brings us nicely back to our All Saints opening, we'll move on now to...
Potpourri:
In honor of today's feast, how about a look at our saints-in-the making in the news?
- Cardinal Arinze's 75th birthday.
- Vatican Sec. of State Cardinal Bertone thinks an Italian pro-homosexual ad is odd.
- Bishop Chaput apparently unsatisfied with the latest iteration of our Bishops' guide to Catholic Voting. (Does it say something that another iteration is thought necessary?)
- Archbishop Gregory undergoes surgery.
- Cardinal Hummes writes to catechists.
- Cardinal Pell and an important address to launch his new book, God & Caesar. The speech was about war and peace, but the excerpts are about religious liberty in secular nations.
- A very nice post about Cardinal Stafford's golden jubilee --and his support of Baltimore's new Archb.
