Saint for the Day

• May 12 – St. Epiphanius, Archbishop
  St. Epiphanius was born about the year 310, in Palestine.  In his youth he began the study of the Holy Scriptures, embraced a monastic life, and went into Egypt to perfect himself in the exercises of that state, in the deserts of that country.  He returned to Palestine about the year 333, and built a monastery near the place of his birth.  His labors in the exercise of virtue seemed to some to surpass his strength; but his apology always was: “God gives not the kingdom of heaven but on condition that we labor; and all we can do bears no proportion to such a crown.”  To his corporal austerities he added an indefatigable supplication to prayer and study.  Most books then in vogue passed through his hands; and he improved himself very much in learning by his travels into many parts. Although the skilful director of many others, St. Epiphanius took the great St. Hilarion as his master in a spiritual life, and enjoyed the happiness of his direction and intimate acquaintance from the year 333 to 356.  The reputation of his virtue made St. Epiphanius known to distant countries; and about the year 367, he was chosen Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus.  But he still wore the monastic habit, and continued to govern his monastery in Palestine, which he visited from time to time.  He sometimes relaxed his austerities in favor of hospitality, preferring charity to abstinence.  No one surpassed him in tenderness and charity to the poor.  The veneration which all men had for his sanctity, exempted him from the persecution of the Arian emperor Valens.  In 376, he undertook a journey to Antioch in the hope of converting Vitalis, the Apollinarist bishop; and in 382, he accompanied St. Paulinus from that city to Rome where they lodged at the house of St. Paula; our Saint in return entertained her afterward ten days in Cyprus in 385.  The very name of an error in faith, or the shadow of danger of evil, affrighted him, and the Saint fell into some mistakes on certain occasions, which proceeded from zeal and simplicity.  He was on his way back to Salamis, after a short absence, when he died in 403, having been bishop thirty-six years. Reflection—“In this is charity: not as though we had loved God, but because He hath first loved us.”

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Everyday in the year

  

Sunday Sermon

• What is it to be a Mother – Father Michael Muller

  
  What is it to be a Mother? 
  

  Mothers are destined, by God, to bring up children for heaven. This is their grand mission. What a happiness, what an honor for a mother to give angels to heaven!Would to God she only knew the real dignity and importance of her mission, and comprehended the qualifications in the moral and religious order that best prepare her for the duties of her sublime calling! What mission can be more sublime, more sacred, what mission can be more meritorious before God than that of giving to the young child the primary lessons of religion? There is indeed nothing more honorable, nothing more meritorious, nothing which conducts to higher perfection, than to instruct children in their religious duties. This instruction of children is a royal, apostolic, angelic, and divine function. Royal, because the office of a king is to protect his people from danger. Apostolic, because our Lord commissioned apostles to instruct the nations, and, as St. Jerome says, thus made them the saviours of men. Angelic, because the angelical spirits in heaven enlighten, purify, and perfect each other according to their spheres, and their earthly mission is to labor without ceasing for the salvation of man. St. Peter Chrysologus calls those who instruct others in the way of salvation, “the substitutes of angels.” Indeed this mission of mothers is divine; they are called to carry on the very work of God Himself. Everything that Almighty God has done from the creation of the world, and which He will continue to do to the end, has been, and will be, for the salvation of mankind. For this He sent His Son from heaven, who enlightened the world by His doctrine, and who still continues to instruct His people by His chosen disciples. Those mothers, then, who direct their children in the paths to heaven, who allure them from vice, who form them to virtue, may fitly be termed apostles, angels, and saviours. Oh! what glory awaits those mothers who perform the office of angels, and even of God Himself, in laboring for the salvation of the souls of their children. If this employment is honorable for mothers, it is also not less meritorious for them. What is the religious instruction of children, but conferring on a class of our race, the weakest and most helpless, with inconceivable labor and fatigue, the greatest of all blessings? For while the physical development of the child advances with age, it is not so with the mental; for religious instruction only can develop the noble faculties of the soul. The soul of a child, so to speak, would continue to live enshrouded in Pagan darkness, if the mother did not impart and infuse the light of truth. All the gold in the world is but dross in comparison with true religious knowledge. Our Saviour says: “Whosoever shall give to drink to one of these little ones, even a cup of cold water, shall not lose his reward.”–(Matt. x. 42.) May we not infer that those mothers who bestow upon children the treasures of divine knowledge will receive an exceedingly great reward? If God denounces so severely those who scandalize little children: “But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he there drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt, xviii. 6), what recompense will mothers not receive who instruct and sanctify them? Mothers who give their efforts and means to this object, choose the surest way to appease the anger of God, and to insure their own salvation. They choose the best means of attaining a high degree of perfection. Almighty God gives to each one the graces proper to his vocation. Mothers, therefore, who are devoted to the religious instruction of their children, must rest assured that God will give them extraordinary graces to arrive at perfection. “Whoever,” says our Lord, “shall receive one such little child in My name, receiveth Me.”–(Matt, xviii. 5.) Whosoever, then, believes that our Saviour will not allow Himself to be surpassed in liberality, must also believe that He will bestow His choicest blessings on those mothers who instruct their children in the knowledge of God and the love of virtue. What obligations have not the “angels” of children “who always see the face of the Father Who is in heaven” (Matt, xviii. 10), to pray for these mothers–their dear colleagues and charitable substitutes, who perform their office and hold their place on earth. The children will pray for their mothers, and God can refuse nothing to the prayers of children, and their supplications will ascend with the prayers of the angels. Do you desire, O Christian mother, to be saved? Do you wish to acquire great treasures in heaven, and to attain great perfection in this life?–Employ yourself diligently in the religious instruction of your children. Do you wish to gain the love of our Lord, and to deserve His protection?–Teach your children to fear and love God; you cannot do anything more pleasing to His Divine Heart. It is related in the Gospel that mothers brought to Him little children, that He might touch them. And the disciples rebuked them that brought them. And when Jesus saw it, He was much displeased, and said to them: “Suffer little children to come to me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God: and embracing them, and laying His hands on them, He blessed them.” If Jesus was displeased with those who prevented little children from coming to Him, what love and tenderness will He not have for those mothers by whose means they come to Him? Oh! how consoled will they not be in their last hour, when they shall see the souls of those whom they prepared for heaven, accompanied by their good angels, surrounding their bed of death, forming, as it were, a guard to protect them from the snares and assaults of the enemy! 

  This is a happiness which those mothers may confidently expect who labor assiduously to give their children a good religious education. Ah! would to God, I say once more, that mothers would understand their sublime mission on earth!

  Excerpt taken from Public School Education by Father Muller

   

• Fifth Sunday after Easter

  

  Amen, amen I say to you,
  if you ask the Father anything in my name,
  He will give it you.
  —St. John xvi. 23.

  These are the words of Christ, taken from the Gospel of to-day; we cannot doubt them for a moment. They are the words of him who is the infallible Truth, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.

  And yet how seldom do we act as if we really believed them! How seldom do you, my brethren, ask anything of the Father in the name of Christ with real confidence that you will receive what you ask for.

  Many people say prayers, but few really pray. That is, many say over certain forms of prayer which they know by heart or read out of their prayer-books; many even feel bound to say some particular set of prayers every day, for the scapular which they wear, or for some other reason; but if you should ask them what they are praying for, what particular thing they wish to obtain from God when they say these prayers, few would be able to tell you, unless, indeed, they happened to be making a novena for some special object.

  So, I say, it does not seem as if we Christians believed what our Lord tells us in these words. For surely, if we did, almost all our prayers would be petitions for some particular thing which we wanted, instead of mere devotional exercises. And why? Because we are always in want of something, and we must certainly believe that Almighty God has the power to give us what we want; should we not, then, be always praying for what we want, did we fully believe that he has the will to give it to us?

  Is it, then, really true that God will give us all good things which we ask in prayer? Yes, it certainly is; that is exactly the meaning of these words of Christ. All good things, I say; for it is only good things which we can ask in his name. And if God would give us bad things which we should ask for, our Saviour’s promise would be a curse, not a blessing as it really is.

  No; God will not answer bad prayers—that is, prayers for what is bad. People sometimes make such prayers and expect him to answer them. They pray for vengeance on those who have injured them; they pray that others may suffer as much as they have made them suffer, and the like. Or they pray for something which seems to them good, but really is not so—that they may get rich, for instance, when riches will only be an occasion of sin to them. The prayer seems to them good, but it is not; perhaps even those prayers for vengeance may seem so. But God knows better, and will not, as he says in the Gospel of to-morrow, give us a stone when we ask for what seems to be bread. If anything, he will give better, instead of worse, than what we ask.

  But really most things that Christians would think of praying for are not bad; but you do not pray for them, because you think that if they are good for you, you will get them, if you try, whether you pray or not. Now, that is the great mistake which our Lord wishes to correct. When he says, “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you,” that means, also, that if you do not ask he will not, or at least not in such abundance.

  Try, then, to bring this truth home to yourselves and make it practical: that if you want anything the way to get it is to ask it from God, not forgetting, of course, to work for it as well as to pray; for no one prays in earnest who does not do that. And the way not to get it is not to ask for it.

  Pray, then, for what you want; and of course, before praying, find out what you do want. You want, for instance, to be kept from sin; but what sin? What is the one you are most inclined to? Examine your conscience and find out. Then your prayer will really mean something, especially if it be accompanied by good and strong resolutions against your besetting vices.

  If you know what you want, and pray for it in Christ’s name and in earnest, using all other means to get it, it shall, if it be good, be yours. That is the lesson of our Lord’s words in the Gospel of to-day.

  

  Five Minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year 
  Volume 1
  Imprimatur 1879