Saint for the Day

• October 12.—St. Wilfrid, Bishop

  

  “A QUICK walker, expert at all good works, with never a sour face”—such was the great St. Wilfrid, whose glory it was to secure the happy links which bound England to Rome. He was born about the year 634, and was trained by the Celtic monks at Lindisfarne in the peculiar rites and usages of the British Church. Yet even as a boy Wilfrid longed for perfect conformity in discipline, as in doctrine, with the Holy See, and at the first chance set off himself for Rome. On his return he founded at Ripon a strictly Roman monastery, under the rule of St. Benedict. In the year 664 he was elected Bishop of Lindisfarne, and five years later was transferred to the see of York. He had to combat the passions of wicked kings, the cowardice of worldly prelates, the errors of holy men. He was twice exiled and once imprisoned; yet the battle which he fought was won. He swept away the abuses of many years and a too national system, and substituted instead a vigorous Catholic discipline, modelled and dependent on Rome. He died October 12, 709, and at his death was heard the sweet melody of the angels conducting his soul to Christ.

  Reflection.—To look towards Rome is an instinct planted in us for the preservation of the Faith. Trust in the Vicar of Christ necessarily results from the reign of His love in our hearts.

Sunday Sermon

• Good Example ~ Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

  

  ” And himself believed, and his whole house.” — St. John iv. 53

  I wish to say a few words this morning, dear brethren, on the force of example. St. Paul tells us in the Epistle to the Romans that ” none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself ‘ ‘ ; and, again, that we are “members one of another.” That is to say, we all influence the conduct of others and determine the course of their lives far more than we perhaps imagine. This is especially true in regard to parents and children. Bad parents, as a rule, have bad children, and good parents good children. How striking an example of the former is the inherited tendency to drink so often seen in those whose fathers and mothers were drunkards before them! Such children may have lost their parents very young and been brought up away from all temptation, but the tendency is there ; there is in them a secret yearning after stimulants, and the first occasion awakes this sleeping appetite, and they end in the great majority of cases by becoming in their turn the abject slaves of strong drink. You remember how, in the fable, the father-crab was so worried that his children would not walk straight along the sands, but persisted in scuttling along sideways. When he reproved them for so doing, they replied: “Well, father, show us how to walk straight yourself and we will all dutifully follow.” So, my brethren, if you wish your children to walk in the straight path of piety and virtue, first see to it that your footsteps are directed in that path. Lead the way yourselves, and then there will be little doubt that your children will follow you. Do you, Christian father, wish your sons to turn out well, to keep away from the saloons, to avoid oaths and foul language ? Then set the example by avoiding those things yourself. Do you, Christian mother, wish your daughters to be gentle, modest, sweet, self-respecting girls? Then set the example ! Do not be a gossip and a gadabout yourself. Do you, Christian parents, wish your children to reverence God’s sanctuary, to be devout attendants at Holy Mass on Sundays, to be scrupulous in their fulfilment of every religious duty? Then set the example. Do you want your boys and girls to set a guard on their tongues, refrain from wrangling and snapping and scolding and quarreling with each other? Then set the example. Lead the way, that they may follow. Guard your tongues; be gentle and forbearing, husbands and wives, with each other; and your children will be quick to see and profit by and imitate such a beautiful model. We hear a good deal nowadays about “heredity.” Well, there is heredity in religion as well as in other things. If parents are good, devout, reverent Catholics, attentive to their duties, peaceable and considerate of one another at home, regular in their reception of the Sacraments, punctual and unfailing in their presence at Mass and the other services in church, living in charity and good-will with their neighbors, never forgetting to commend themselves and their households to God in morning and evening prayer — then their children will grow up like them, just, upright, God-fearing, dutiful, and pure. This is the sort of “hereditary religion” that we want; the goodness and piety of every family in this parish descending to their children and to their children’s children; broadening and deepening like a fertilizing river, bringing blessing and prosperity to everything it touches. What an encouragement to all parents to lead good lives! In this way your example never dies ; it goes on and on, and is reproduced in your descendants. When the ruler in to-day’s Gospel believed, it brought belief to his whole house. So it was in the case of Zacchseus. May your faith and good works bring blessing and salvation to yourselves and your children from generation to generation!

  

  Five-minute Sermons for Low Masses on All Sundays of the Year By the Priests of the Congregation of St. Paul, 1893