Tomorrow may be too late!

 

 Friday of the Twenty-first week in ordinary time (B)

Tomorrow may be too late! 

Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him! (Mt 25:1-13)

Beloved, an unknown author once said 'life...always gives us a choice but time...never waits for us to make it.' Igbo proverb has it that you look for a black goat while it is still day.

 Like the ten virgins, we know our aim is to join the bridegroom to the heavenly banquet, with the criterion that we should be ready, with our lives shinning brightly in Faith, Hope and Charity. Be wise, take initiative NOW to preserve that oil, bcus the time is uncertain. God help us!

Good morning and have a blessed weekend.

-Gerald Nwogueze, OFM Cap.

St. MONICA, the mother of St Augustine.

She was born in 332. After a childhood of singular innocence and piety, she was given in marriage to Patritius, a pagan. She at once devoted herself to his conversion, praying for him always, and winning his reverence and love by the holiness of her life and her affectionate forbearance. She was rewarded by seeing him baptized a year before his death. When her son Augustine went astray in faith and manners her prayers and tears were incessant. She was once very urgent with a learned bishop that he would talk to her son in order to bring him to a better mind, but he declined, despairing of success with one at once so able and so headstrong. However, on witnessing her prayers and tears, he told her to be of good courage; for it might not be that the child of those tears should perish. By going to Italy, Augustine could for a time free himself from his mother’s importunities; but he could not escape from her prayers, which encompassed him like the providence of God. She followed him to Italy, where he came under the influence of Saint Ambrose, and there by, his marvellous conversion, her sorrow was turned into joy. At Ostia, on their homeward journey, as Augustine and his mother sat at a window conversing of the life of the blessed, she turned to him and said, “Son, there is nothing now I care for in this life. What I shall now do or why I am here, I know not. The one reason I had for wishing to linger in this life a little longer was that I might see you a Catholic Christian before I died. This has God granted me superabundantly in seeing you reject earthly happiness to become His servant. What am I to do here?” A few days afterwards she had an attack of fever, and died in the year 387.

St. Joan of the cross

 

Born in 1666, in Anjou, France, Joan worked in the family business—a small shop near a religious shrine—from an early age. After her parents’ death she took over the shop. She quickly became known for her greediness and insensitivity to the beggars who often came seeking help.

That was until she was touched by the strange woman who claimed she was on intimate terms with the deity. Joan, who had always been devout, even scrupulous, became a new person. She began caring for needy children. Then the poor, elderly, and sick came to her. Over time, she closed the family business so she could devote herself fully to good works and penance.

She went on to found what came to be known as the Congregation of Saint Anne of Providence. It was then she took the religious name of Joan of the Cross. By the time of her death in 1736 she had founded 12 religious houses, hospices, and schools. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 1982.

St. Stephen of Hungary, national hero and spiritual patron of Hungary and of bricklayers.

 

Born a pagan, he was baptized around the age of 10.

When he succeeded his father, Stephen adopted a policy of Christianization of the country for both political and religious reasons. 

and also requested that the pope confer the title of king upon him.

He abolished pagan customs with a certain amount of violence.

Reflection on the saint of the day

God’s gift of holiness is a Christlike love of God and humanity. Love must sometimes bear a stern countenance for the sake of ultimate good. Christ attacked hypocrites among the Pharisees, but died forgiving them. Paul excommunicated the incestuous man at Corinth “that his spirit may be saved.” Some Christians fought the Crusades with noble zeal, in spite of the unworthy motives of others.

Today, after senseless wars, and with a deeper understanding of the complex nature of human motives, we shrink from any use of violence—physical or “silent.” This wholesome development continues as people debate whether it is possible for a Christian to be an absolute pacifist or whether evil must sometimes be repelled by force.

-Franciscan Media

St. Pontian, Pope and St. Hippolytus, Priest, martyrs. (Patron of Bibbiena, Italy; horses; prison guards; prison officers; prison workers)

PONTIAN was ordained bishop of Rome in 231. In 235 he was banished to Sardinia by the Emperor Maximinus, along with the priest HIPPOLYTUS. There he resigned from his office and later died. His body was buried in the cemetery of Saint Callistus, while the body of Hippolytus was buried in a cemetery along the Via Tiburtina. The Roman Church sanctioned devotion to both martyrs at the beginning of the fourth century.

Hippolytus, Martyr of Rome, with Concordia and other companions, he is a controversial figure who censured Pope St. Callistus I. Hippolytus was slain in Sardinia where he had been exiled for being elected as an antipope, the first in the history of the Church. He was reconciled to the Church before his martyrdom. His writings were important, including A Refutation of All Heresies, Song of Songs, and The Apostolic Tradition. 

SAINT JOHN VIANNEY, patron of priests, known as the “Curé of Ars”.

  

Saint John Mary Vianney, born during the days of the French Revolution, was ordained a priest in 1815. Three years later he was made parish priest of Ars, a remote French hamlet, where his reputation as a confessor and director of souls made him known throughout the Christian world. His life was one of extreme mortification.

Accustomed to the most severe austerities, beleaguered by swarms of penitents, and besieged by the devil, this great mystic manifested a imperturbable patience. He was a wonderworker loved by the crowds, but he retained a childlike simplicity, and he remains to this day the living image of the priest after the heart of Christ.

He heard confessions of people from all over the world for the sixteen hours each day. His life was filled with works of charity and love. It is recorded that even the staunchest of sinners were converted at his mere word. He died August 4, 1859, and was canonized May 31, 1925.