Memorial of Bl Candelaria of St Joseph

"She was born Susana Paz Castillo-Ramírez in 1863. She enthusiastically welcomed the call of God to holiness, and since her youth, stood out in practicing living and effective charity, with which she cared for, consoled and healed the sick and wounded that strife had left on the streets of her birth city. Encouraged by Father Sixto Sosa, later bishop of Cumana, she consecrated herself to the service of the sick of San Antonio Hospital, founded in 1903.

Later, she began the foundation of a new religious congregation, dedicated to serving the poor. The congregation was definitively established in 1910 with the name "Congregation of the Sisters of the Poor of Altagracia de Orituco." Afterward, the congregation was affiliated to the Carmelite Order, and was called the Third Order of Regular Carmelites. Today they are known as the Venezuelan Carmelite Sisters or Carmelites of Mother Candelaria.

With great tenacity and enthusiasm, in spite of the economic straits of the congregation, and the general scarcity of resources, Mother Candelaria performed a widespread, attentive labour to those wounded by wars and the poorest sick people, showing a great trust in Divine Providence, and an intense love for the most needy.

Because of her ardent love for God and her generous and selfless surrender to the poor, under the direction of the bishops and in the company of the religious of her congregation, this new Venezuelan blessed is today an example of virtues, standing out among them, her living and intense faith in Jesus Christ, our only saviour; her union with and love for the Church, particularly the Venezuelan bishops, and her lively charity for the poorest.

The beatification of Mother Candelaria of St. Joseph took place on April 27, 2008, in Caracas, Venezuela."

-- Biography from the OCarm Generalate webpage.

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"We should offer everything to glorify God who sends us sorrows because He loves us. We should remember the most sacred Passion of our good God, and when He makes us similar to Him [semejantes: cf "in His image"], this should animate us to suffer even more. The pains that we suffer in this life are symbols of the eternal life."

-- From the letters of Bl Candelaria of St Joseph

translated by ocdsister

Sorrow for sin is consoling

"Sorrow for sin is consoling. But the fretting of soul that arises because we have not come up to our own expectations is not true sorrow for sin. Sorrow for sin arises from a conviction that we have not come up to God’s expectations. Remorse is indeed painful, but remorse is merely the clamor of conscience scolding the soul for its failures; it may lead to sorrow for the past, or the rebuke may be silenced by the new and repeated excesses.

But true sorrow for sin is consoling. Pride may chafe us, because we are not as good as we thought we were; right reason may torture us, because we have acted through passion and wrong reason. Sorrow for sin, however, is humble and is submissive and obedient to right reason. Penitence is healing of the contrite in heart."

-- How to love as Jesus loves: unlocking the treasures of Christ’s Sacred Heart by Fr Francis P Donnelly, SJ

A divine darkness covers the soul so well prepared for pure contemplation

"May the Holy Spirit be served in granting his aid, and whatever is said here be for the glory of the same God.

This Lord says, that in the beginning when God made the heaven and the earth there was darkness over the abysses, and the spirit of the Lord walked over the waters. When his Divine Majesty wants to grant favor to a soul, He makes it remain in nothing and empty of all, remaining so broken-down and lost from itself as if it weren't , that it may truly receive his divine spirit, having completely gotten rid of all affections and appetites, conquered and beaten all passions, erased from itself all the images and forms that could disturb it. Being as it were a flat and smooth board, without a smudge, and without anything that in itself that would remove or disturb the new paint for which it is disposed, then, to this soul so well prepared, a divine darkness covers its deep abysses of its capacity, in the immensity of God; because this is a pure contemplation in which the soul receives communication from God himself in its very substance. And because the immensity of light of this divine being of God excels so much at the sight of the soul, this divine light becomes for it darkness in terms of what it can receive from him; that the blinder it is and He with immensity in himself is brighter, the darker it seems; and the more it receives from him (the greater the brightness that it receives from him), that greater clarity leaves it blinder in terms of itself and its natural operations."

-- Transformación del alma en Dios, 1 by Cecilia del Nacimiento, ocd
translated by ocdsister

Feel bold confidence of becoming a great saint

“Then I received a grace which I have always looked upon as one of the greatest in my life because at that age I wasn’t receiving the lights I’m now receiving when I am flooded with them. I considered that I was born for glory… After seven years in religious life, I still am weak and imperfect. I always feel, however, the same bold confidence of becoming a great saint because I don’t count on my own merits since I have none, but I trust in Him who is Virtue and Holiness. God alone, content with my weak efforts, will raise me to Himself and make me a saint, clothing me in His infinite merits.”

-- Story of a Soul by St Thérèse of Lisieux

Memorial of Bl Archangela Girlani

"Archangela was born at Trino in Monferrato in an undetermined year of the second half of the XV century, and in Baptism received the name of Eleanor. She soon manifested her intention of becoming a religious, and for that purpose was placed on trial in a monastery near her own city. But here the nearness of her family was not to her liking. In 1477, after having overcome parental objections, she was clothed in the Carmelite habit at Parma, in the recently erected monastery of the Mantuan Congregation; and shortly after her profession she was elected prioress of this monastery. When a new foundation was to be made in the city of Mantua, Archangela was transferred there, and on Feb. 18, 1492; the monastery of St. Mary of Paradise was inaugurated under her direction. But her direction lasted only about three years, for she died on Jan. 25, 1495.

Buried at first in the common grave, a little later her body was exhumed and placed in a casket in the choir. At the suppression of the monastery in 1782 at the command of Joseph II, the body was transferred to Trino, to the convent of the Carmelite nuns, where it remained, however, for only twenty years. For in 1802, when this monastery was also suppressed, the body was brought into the church of the Hospital of St. Lawrence, where it still rests. Her cult from time immemorial was approved on Oct. 1, 1864. Her feast is celebrated in the Carmelite Order on Jan. 29."
 
-- Biography by Fr Louis Saggi, OCarm

Memorial of St Thomas Aquinas

"St. Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church, patron of all universities and of students. His feast day is January 28th. He was born toward the end of the year 1226. He was the son of Landulph, Count of Aquino, who, when St. Thomas was five years old, placed him under the care of the Benedictines of Monte Casino. His teachers were surprised at the progress he made, for he surpassed all his fellow pupils in learning as well as in the practice of virtue.

When he became of age to choose his state of life, St. Thomas renounced the things of this world and resolved to enter the Order of St. Dominic in spite of the opposition of his family. In 1243, at the age of seventeen, he joined the Dominicans of Naples. Some members of his family resorted to all manner of means over a two year period to break his constancy. They even went so far as to send an impure woman to tempt him. But all their efforts were in vain and St. Thomas persevered in his vocation. As a reward for his fidelity, God conferred upon him the gift of perfect chastity, which has merited for him the title of the "Angelic Doctor".

After making his profession at Naples, he studied at Cologne under the celebrated St. Albert the Great. Here he was nicknamed the "dumb ox" because of his silent ways and huge size, but he was really a brilliant student. At the age of twenty-two, he was appointed to teach in the same city. At the same time, he also began to publish his first works. After four years he was sent to Paris. The saint was then a priest. At the age of thirty-one, he received his doctorate.

At Paris he was honored with the friendship of the King, St. Louis, with whom he frequently dined. In 1261, Urban IV called him to Rome where he was appointed to teach, but he positively declined to accept any ecclesiastical dignity. St. Thomas not only wrote (his writings filled twenty hefty tomes characterized by brilliance of thought and lucidity of language), but he preached often and with greatest fruit. Clement IV offered him the archbishopric of Naples which he also refused. He left the great monument of his learning, the "Summa Theologica", unfinished, for on his way to the second Council of Lyons, ordered there by Gregory X, he fell sick and died at the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova in 1274.

St. Thomas was one of the greatest and most influential theologians of all time. He was canonized in 1323 and declared Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius V."

-- Biography from Catholic Online

** Those following the 1962 Liturgical Calendar observe St Thomas Aquinas on 7 March, the actual day of his death. The ordinary calendar observes his memorial today, when the translation of his relics to Toulouse occurred in 1369.


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"Why did the Son of God have to suffer for us? There was a great need, and it can be considered in a twofold way: in the first place, as a remedy for sin, and secondly, as an example of how to act. 

   It is a remedy, for, in the face of all the evils which we incur on account of our sins, we have found relief through the passion of Christ. Yet, it is no less an example, for the passion of Christ completely suffices to fashion our lives. Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.

   If you seek the example of love: Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends. Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.

   If you seek patience, you will find no better example than the cross. Great patience occurs in two ways: either when one patiently suffers much, or when one suffers things which one is able to avoid and yet does not avoid. Christ endured much on the cross, and did so patiently, because when he suffered he did not threaten; he was led like a sheep to the slaughter and he did not open his mouth. Therefore Christ's patience on the cross was great. In patience let us run for the prize set before us, looking upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith who, for the joy set before him, bore his cross and despised the shame.

   If you seek an example of humility, look upon the crucified one, for God wished to be judged by Pontius Pilate and to die.

   If you seek an example of obedience, follow him who became obedient to the Father even unto death. For just as by the disobedience of one man, namely, Adam, many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one man, many were made righteous.

   If you seek an example of despising earthly things, follow him who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in who are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Upon the cross he was stripped, mocked, spat upon, struck, crowned with thorns, and given only vinegar and gall to drink.

   Do not be attached, therefore, to clothing and riches, because they divided my garments among themselves. Nor to honors, for he experienced harsh words and scourgings. Nor to greatness of rank, for weaving a crown of thorns they placed it on my head. Nor to anything delightful, for in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."

-- From a conference by St Thomas Aquinas

Memorial of St Henry de Ossó y Cervello

"Henry was born at Vinebre, Catalonia, Spain, on the 16th October 1840 and was ordained priest on 21st September 1867. He was an apostle to young people in teaching them about their faith and inspired various movements for the teaching of the Gospel. As a spiritual director he was fascinated by St. Teresa of Jesus, the great teacher in the ways of prayer and Daughter of the Church. (She is better known in the English-speaking world as St. Teresa of Avila.) In the light of her teaching, he founded the Company of St. Teresa (1876) dedicated to educating women in the school of the Gospel and following the example of St. Teresa. He gave himself to preaching and the apostolate through the printing press. He underwent many severe trials and sufferings. He died at Gilet, Valencia, Spain, on the 27th of January, 1896. He was canonized on 16th July, 1993, in Madrid, by Pope John Paul II."

-- From the Carmelite Proper Offices

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"This is our main endeavor: to think, to feel, to love as Christ Jesus, to act and to speak as He—in a word, to conform our whole life to Christ's. No one can be saved unless they are formed in the image of Christ. To conform our life to Christ's, we need, above all, to study His life, know it, and meditate upon it, not only in its outward appearance, but by immersing ourselves in the thoughts, feelings, hopes, and dreams of Jesus Christ so as to do everything in union with Him. In His goodness, Jesus Himself invites us, both in word and in action, to do this. For example, if we do not know the sentiments of His heart so as to put them into practice, how can we learn from His gentleness and humility? Or how can we come into His presence each time we act in order to imitate Him? Christ lived, ate, slept, spoke, kept silent, walked, worked, sweat, got tired, rested, was hungry, thirsty and poor; in a word, He suffered and died for us and for our salvation. Why is it, then, that we cannot make or imagine Jesus as real and down to earth, but only in theory and as the ideal, which is the reason we do not love and imitate Him in everything, as we must? Jesus is our brother, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, bone of our bones. This is who our Jesus is, true God and true Man, alive, personal, and intimate. He let Himself be seen; He lived and spoke with us. For our salvation, being the eternal Word of God, He descended from heaven, became flesh, suffered, died, rose, ascended into heaven, and remained among us until the end of time to be our companion, our consolation, and our food in the Blessed Sacrament.

Eternal life, then, our only happiness in time and eternity, consists in knowing Jesus more intimately. How happy will be the person who learns this lesson and lives it daily. What an inspiring thought! I will live, sleep, speak, listen, work, suffer—I will do everything, I will suffer everything in union with Jesus, with the same divine intention and sentiments that Jesus had and with which He suffered, which is what Jesus wants of me. Whoever does this—and all of us are called to do it—will live in this life the life of the world to come and will be transformed into Jesus, able to say with St. Paul: I live—no longer I—but Christ lives in me."

-- From the writings of St Henry de Ossó