Dear Christ Our King and Savior Family,
I recall being told frequently when I was a child that time speeds up the older...I mean...the more life experience we have behind us.
This is true. Very true.
Somehow or another, this year is rolling like a snowball down a steep hill, gaining momentum and speed, hurtling us all toward Christmas and the start of a brand new year.
Wasn't just last weekend Independence Day? It certainly still feels like summer outside, so how can we possibly be in our last weekend before OCTOBER?
What gives me great consolation is that this time of year is full of some of my favorite saints.
October starts with St. Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower" as she was called, a young French Carmelite nun whose simple path to spirituality earned her the title of Doctor of the Church.
Then you have the Guardian Angels, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Faustina, who received the apparitions of the Divine Mercy, Pope St. John XXIII, St. Theresa of Avila, the great mystic and reformer, St. Luke the Gospel Writer, the North American Martyrs St. Isaac Jogues and St. John deBrebuf, rounding out the month with Pope St. John Paul II. And that's not even half of them! I only listed here the more well-known saints. We are truly surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses (see Hebrews chapter 12)!
A quick note on St. Francis, who we celebrate October 4. Everyone knows him to be "a lover of animals," and indeed he was. But I encourage us all not to sentimentalize him as the spiritual founder of an ancient Green Peace or PETA. Far from it. Francis was a life-of-the-party 13th century frat boy. He was frequently in trouble with his parents, and when he had a radical conversion experience after being in prison, he wanted to give his life totally to God. He cast aside his substantial inheritance (his father was a wealthy cloth merchant), took on a beggars robe, and retreated to the mountains to find God. The Gospel became like a fire in his heart...he had to preach! He wanted everyone to know Jesus Christ and the mercy that the Father offers us through Him.
The whole "Francis loves animals" idea comes from two moments in his life, which I encourage you to look up and read about. One is the taming of the Wolf of Gubbio and the other is the preaching to the birds. In the first case, St. Francis fearlessly approached a ravenous wolf known for killing entire herds of livestock and eating lone travelers and, by the Sign of the Cross, brought it into submission. The second story deals with a time when no one would listen when Francis was preaching so he went and preached to a handful of birds in a tree, and, as he preached the good news, hordes more joined in to "listen".
The point is, St. Francis' love for animals came from His love for God...he saw the Creator is every creature. It's easy to sentimentalize him as we think of garden statues and bird baths made in his image. But St. Francis, like all the saints, was radically in love with God through Jesus Christ, a passionate follower of the Lord...a disciple.
We are snowballing into Fall, and Advent and Christmas will be here before we know it. But we're rolling with some great saints. May they, who have lived the life of love and sacrifice after the pattern of Our Lord, inspire us to keep fighting the good fight.
Peace in Christ,
Fr. Michael
Parochial Administrator
