January 24 – Saint Francis de Sales

I am unable to take you on a pilgrimage today.  Being in the midst of exams, going fuori Roma is not a possibility at the moment. More unfortunate still is the fact that the relics of Saint Francis de Sales were lost in the French Revolution.  So, we’re going to celebrate Saint Francis de Sales today staycation style right here in Rome.

This saint has quite a lot to teach us.  As we celebrate him I refer you all to exploring his writing, which he chalks full of quotable wisdom.  A few books you can start your search with are, Introduction to the Devout Life, The Catholic Controversy, or Finding God’s Will for You.

Saint Francis lived in the 16 and 17th centuries and left several significant influences on society.  He actively confronted protestantism with the Church teaching, and advocated commitment to living the Faith in the midst of common life.  Saint Francis de Sales is a doctor of the Church, and indeed his writing makes evident his great capacity to teach the Faith.

Here are a few gems of Francis de Sales wisdom that may inspire you to discover our celebrated saint a bit further:

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Half an hour’s meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy.  Then a full hour is needed.

Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!

December 7 – St. Ambrose

Site 14: Milan, Italy

Happy feast day of Saint Ambrose! I bring you to his tomb with great honor. Saint Ambrose is a Church Father, a title that distinguishes him among the doctors of the Church as being among the four trail blazers of the Church that lived in the first few centuries after Christ.

What I wish to transmit to you most about Saint Ambrose is God’s demonstration of working the impossible through him. Ambrose ran from his election to the bishopric thinking himself incapable–he was a layman governing in Milan and wasn’t even baptized let alone ordained to the priesthood.

He received baptism and holy orders all at once and assumed God’s call to a seemingly impossible ministry.

Pray to Saint Ambrose and don’t be held back from all the greatness God calls you to assume.

St. Ambrose, pray for us!

November 23 – Pope St. Clement I

Today takes us back to the early years of the Church; to the first century after Christ’s own life, during which He instituted and entrusted the Church to us under the leadership of His successors. Saint Clement is the fourth of these successors.

Saint Clement was a Roman who knew Saint Peter directly. It was Saint Peter in fact, who ordained Clement to the priesthood.

The fresco above his relics offers a unique perspective on Christ’s humanity for this very fact. In the fresco Saint Clement lifts the Church to the Lord with Saint Peter sitting to Christ’s left. For Saint Peter (and Paul often too) to be next to Christ in the depiction of a saint is common, since the saint is part of the community–the Church founded on Saint Peter–which carries on the faith. In this particular fresco depicting Saint Clement’s contribution to the Church, Saint Peter, though standing in his typical position, is not a distant figure from the life of Clement, but is Clement’s contemporary. Saint Peter, who walked with Christ, too walked with the further successor, Saint Clement.

Visiting Saint Clement’s relics today is especially representative of the Church history he connects us to.  The basilica here in Rome where Saint Clement’s relics lie, is rooted in

first-century origins.  The original structure was of a pagan religion built in a.d. 67.  That structure is now the third layer of ruins below the ground of the present basilica.

The epochs of history that cover the first layer of ruins are that of the fourth and twelfth centuries, when a basilica dedicated to Pope Saint Clement was built and rebuilt.

You find this treasure of history in Rome just down the street from the Colosseum.