Saint for the Day

• June 22—St. Paulinus of Nola

  

  PAULINUS was of a family which boasted of a long line of senators, prefects, and consuls. He was educated with great care, and his genius and eloquence, in prose and verse, were the admiration of St. Jerome and St. Augustine. He had more than doubled his wealth by marriage, and was one of the foremost men of his time. Though he was the chosen friend of Saints, and had a great devotion to St. Felix of Nola, he was still only a catechumen, trying to serve two masters. But God drew him to Himself along the way of sorrows and trials. He received baptism, withdrew into Spain to be alone, and then, in consort with his holy wife, sold all their vast estates in various parts of the empire, distributing their proceeds so prudently that St. Jerome says East and West were filled with his alms. He was then ordained priest, and retired to Nola in Campania. There he rebuilt the Church of St. Felix with great magnificence, and served it night and day, living a life of extreme abstinence and toil. In 409 he was chosen bishop, and for more than thirty years so ruled as to be conspicuous in an age blessed with many great and wise bishops. St. Gregory the Great tells us that when the Vandals of Africa had made a descent on Campania, Paulinus spent all he had in relieving the distress of his people and redeeming them from slavery. At last there came a poor widow; her only son had been carried off by the son-in-law of the Vandal king. “Such as I have I give thee,” said the Saint to her; “we will go to Africa, and I will give myself for your son.” Having overborne her resistance, they went, and Paulinus was accepted in place of the widow’s son, and employed as gardener. After a time the king found out, by divine interposition, that his son-in-law’s slave was the great Bishop of Nola. He at once set him free, granting him also the freedom of all the townsmen of Nola who were in slavery. One who knew him well says he was meek as Moses, priest like as Aaron, innocent as Samuel, tender as David, wise as Solomon, apostolic as Peter, loving as John, cautious as Thomas, keen-sighted as Stephen, fervent as Apollos. He died in 431. Reflection.—”Go to Campania,” writes St. Augustine; “there study Paulinus, that choice servant of God. With what generosity, with what still greater humility, he has flung from him the burden of this world’s grandeurs to take on him the yoke of Christ, and in His service how serene and unobtrusive his life!”

  Taken from the “Pictorial Lives of the Saints: with Reflections for Every Day in the Year”

  

Sunday Sermon

• 4th Sunday after Pentecost ~ “From henceforth thou shall catch men.” Luke 5

  

  “From henceforth thou shall catch men.”–Luke 5
  
  

  Today’s Gospel reminds not only the servants of the sanctuary of the duty to exercise religious zeal, but also every truly loyal child of the Church. The words: “From henceforth thou shalt catch men, are addressed through the commandment of brotherly love to every one who, enlightened by faith, knows that there is but one name, but one Church, in which and through which we can be saved.
  
  This commandment and this knowledge obliges every child of the Church to do all that lies in his power that every person may attain to the knowledge of this only true Church, and to strive that those who are children of the same, may live according to the dictates of their faith. Unfortunate, indeed, is the lot of those who, with the light of the true faith shining down on them, walk not in the ways of truth and virtue. For, the divine graces which they, as children of the Church, received, but misused, become millstones, that will drag them into the abyss of perdition, and the greater these graces were, the deeper down will they be dragged.
  
  It may, perhaps, be asked: How can any Christian, even though he be not a priest, save souls, catch men for the kingdom of God? What net is at hand for every one to fish for souls. Mary, Mother, teach us, thy children, to take care of others, that, being thine, we may all serve God, fulfill His holy will, and enter into His kingdom! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
  
  “At Thy word, Master, I will let down the net,” said St. Peter, hoping that his fishing would prove successful, and every child of the Catholic Church may say this with him. The question now is, of what must the net consist, in order that the fishing be possible or successful? I will point out, today, the threads of which this net is knitted.
  
  The first condition necessary to cause others to acknowledge the truth and divinity of faith, or to make them live in accordance with the dictates of faith, is our own example. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your works and praise your Father who is in heaven,” Christ Himself exhorts us.
  
  One might quote, in reference to this, the words of the ancient Roman poet, who says: “If thou wishest me to grieve, thou must first weep thyself.” Thus also: If thou wilt that I shall lead a Catholic life, then live thou like a Catholic, and prove the divinity of thy faith by thy life distinguished by its virtues from that of all other people.
  
  We read in the life of the seraphic St. Francis, that he, one day, invited one of the lay brothers to go cut with him. “Come, we will preach,” said he. They went through the whole city in their poor habits, with their eyes cast down in deep meditation, and returned thus to the monastery. When they arrived there, the lay brother said, with much astonishment, to the saint: “Father, didst thou not say we were going out to preach?” “Yes,” replied the saint, “and we have done it. Behold, the people who saw us in our poor habits knew that, formerly, we lived in the world and were wealthy, that we left all for the love of God; this sight was a powerful sermon to tear their hearts from attachment to the goods and riches of this world.”
  
  Would to God that every father and mother, every youth and maiden, lived the holy life our faith demands of the children of the Church! Thus the first Christians lived, and their virtuous life attracted the attention of the heathens. These first admired the lives of the Christians, then examined their creed, became convinced and converted.
  
  Oh, how many irreligious and unbelieving men in our day, especially here in America, and to a greater or less degree everywhere, would do the same, if all children of the Church lived as holy faith teaches them to live! If all the Catholics here in America lived a holy life in accordance with their duty as children of the Church all America would soon be Catholic. And among Catholics themselves, how many souls would be saved! how the net would be filled with human souls, if, in every family, man, wife and children sanctified each other by word and example!
  
  But, on the other hand, how much evil is done in a family by the bad example of one single person! Beside neglecting prayer himself, cursing and blaspheming instead, he prevents the other members of the family from praying with devotion, and also gives them occasion for impatience and anger. The same may be said of negligence in hearing Holy Mass, in receiving the Sacraments, in attending divine service generally. His example only too often even prevents the conversion to the Church of the irreligious and unbelieving.” Such a sinner resembles a sword-fish, that destroys the net.
  
  The second condition, the second thread for the apostolic fishing-net, useful likewise for laymen, is called instruction, instruction in matters of faith; not to be satisfied with learning the Catechism only so far as to be admitted to Holy Communion, but to be instructed, each and every one, as thoroughly as, according to Holy Writ and the sermons of the holy fathers, the first Christians were.
  
  How very deficient are the children of the Church in this regard! And yet how easily might the defect be supplied, and everyone be sufficiently instructed, since the press, many schools, books of instruction, and controversial writings, offer numberless opportunities for information! It is the duty of parents to introduce them into their families.
  
  The effect of this care on the part of parents would be that the growing generation, and people of maturer years, too, would not only remain firm in their faith, but would be able to instruct others, and give an account of every article of the faith.
  
  The third thread of the apostolic fishing-net, is the care to make those professing another faith acquainted with these instructive books. In every Catholic would place a book of this kind into the hands of an unbeliever or follower of a false creed, our holy religion would be better known, and man brought into the bosom of the Church.
  
  But Catholics are very negligent in this matter, while Protestants give it all their attention. Seductive pamphlets, and books against the Catholic faith, are distributed by the hundred thousand; millions of dollars are spent on their publication, and they are offered to everyone who cares to read! Unfortunately, in this regard, also, is verified the assurance and lament of our Lord : “The children of darkness are wiser in their generation than the children of light.”
  
  Finally, the last thread of the apostolic fishing-net is prayer, to which we must resort that God’s arm may second our endeavors, for to lay the foundation of faith and effect a conversion is the work of divine grace; and the means God gave us to obtain grace is “prayer.”
  
  The greatest inducement to cast out our net in the name of the Lord, in spite of discouragements and difficulties, is the remembrance of the terrible account we must render if any soul has, through our negligence, gone to eternal perdition. Woe to us, if this be the case! Therefore, let us cast out our net to catch souls, that we may secure our own salvation! Amen!

  

  ~ by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1877