Saint Casimir Parish

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MINISTRY OF PRAISE
 

SEPTEMBER, 2018
 
St. Casimir Parish

 

Almighty God,
grant that with the help of St. Casimir’s intercession
we may serve you in holiness and justice.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE FOLLOWING INTENTIONS

  • That young people in Africa may have access to education and work in their own countries. (September Papal intention)

  • That “We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because, by your cross, you have redeemed the world!”

  • That many vocations to the priesthood and religious life will blossom in the Church, and that God will bless and guide the work of all vocation directors.

  • That those whose lives are dominated by prejudice, violence, or hatred be converted.

  • That those who conduct business will be honest, ethical, and upright stewards in the sight of God.

  • That God bless Father Bacevice and the Pastoral and Finance Councils in their efforts to secure the future of St. Casimir Parish.

  • That all parishioners recognize their responsibility to St. Casimir Parish’s future through financial support, commitment to parish activities, sharing ideas, and most importantly prayer.

  • That our parish community may grow in faith, hope, and love.

  • That God will bless the poor, the sick, the grieving, the lonely, the homeless, and the unemployed

  • That those who pray be validated in their belief of its power.

WHAT’S HAPPENING            AT ST. CASIMIR PARISH?

  • September 7th      First Friday Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, 8:00 – 9:00am in Church

  • September 8th      Pancake Breakfast

  • September 12th    Eucharistic Adoration, 6:00-7:00pm in Church

 
SAINT FOR AUGUST
 

SAINT ROBERT BELLARMINE

Bishop, Doctor
(1541-1621)

 September 17th

“Truly then the recompense is great for those who keep your commandments. The first and greatest commandment helps the man who obeys—not the God who commands. In addition, the other commandments of God perfect the man who obeys them. They provide him with what he needs. They instruct and enlighten him and make him good and blessed.”  (Saint Robert Bellarmine)

     Robert Bellarmine was born in Italy and was the third of ten children in a family where prayer and serving others were important. In 1560 he entered the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits. While he attended the Roman College, he was considered a brilliant student. He was the first Jesuit to become a professor at Louvain. His sermons and his defense of the faith were so powerful that people were attracted to him, and many were converted.

     Bellarmine was ordained a priest in 1570, at a time when study of Church history and the Fathers of the Church had been neglected. He devoted his energy to these two subjects and to Scripture in order to systemize Church doctrine against the heresies of the Protestant Reformers. He became rector at the Roman College in 1592 and provincial of Naples in 1594. By 1598 he was named a cardinal and in 1602 he became archbishop of Capua. He was called to Rome in 1605 to work in defense of the Church against the heresies of the day. He was an advisor to five popes and was involved in many controversies. One of the most famous involved the teachings of Galileo, the scientist, who was also a friend of Bellarmine.

      In the last years of his life St. Robert turned to spiritual matters, commenting often on the Scriptures and incorporating his reflections into his writings and preaching. He died on September 17, 1621. The process for his canonization was begun in 1627 but was delayed for political reasons, having to do with his writings, until 1930. In 1931 Pius XI declared St. Robert Bellarmine a doctor of the Church.
 

Source: IN HIS LIKENESS, Rev. Charles E. Yost; SAINTS AND FEAST DAYS, Loyola University Press;
SAINT OF THE DAY, Rev. Leonard Foley, O.F.M., Editor

 

THOUGHTS FROM THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Apart from the cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.

                                                                                                                                                          (St. Rose of Lima)

#618  The cross is the unique sacrifice of Christ, “the one mediator between God and man.” But because in his incarnate divine person he has in some way united himself to every man, “the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God in the paschal mystery” is offered to all men. He calls his disciples to “take up [their] cross and follow [him],” for “Christ also suffered for [us], leaving [us] an example so that [we] should follow in his steps.” In fact Jesus desires to associate with his redeeming sacrifice those who were to be its first beneficiaries. This is achieved supremely in the case of his mother, who was associated more intimately than any other person in the mystery of his redemptive suffering.

 

REFLECTION

 

Sharing in the Exaltation of the Cross

 

     A man who claims to be self-sufficient and not to need any other man’s help in hardship and suffering has no part in Christ. The pride which claims to be independent of human sympathy and practical help from others is un-Christian. We are here to help one another. We are here to help Christ in one another.

     We are here to help Christ blindly. We must know him by faith, not by vision. We must help him not only in those who seem to be Christlike, but more in those in whom Christ is hidden: in the most unlikely people, in those whom the world condemns. It is in them that Christ, indwelling man, suffers most; it is them that he cannot carry his cross today without the help of others. 

     Simon of Cyrene saw only three criminals (of whom Christ was one) on the way to die. He could not know until he had taken up that stranger’s cross, that in it was the secret of his own salvation.

     We must be ready to carry the burden of anyone whom we meet on our way and who clearly needs help, not only those who “deserve,” or seem to “deserve,” help. Everyone is our “business,” and Christ in everyone, potentially or actually, has a first claim that comes before all else.

     We are here on earth to help to carry the cross of Christ hidden in other human beings, and to help in whatever way we can. We may, like Simon, have literally a strong arm to give, we may help to do hard work; we may have material goods to give; we may have time, which we desperately want for ourselves but which we must sacrifice for Christ. We may have only suffering. Suffering is the most precious coin of all. Suffering of body, suffering of mind, laid down willingly for Christ, enables Christ to carry his redeeming cross through the world to the end of time.

     Suffering contains in itself all that Simon gave: our mind and body, frustration, and identification with someone else. That last is the germ of our own salvation, the way to transform the self-pity that is the danger in all suffering into the love of other people which reaches out a hand to Christ, and saves us.

by Caryll Houselander, (died 1954) British mystic, poet, and spiritual teacher
found in MAGNIFICAT, September, 2017, pp.182-183