Weekly Meditation

Pope Benedict's visit has inspired and renewed our sense of reasonable pride and simple gratitude for our Catholic faith. We have centuries of tradition, service, teaching the truths of the gospel, proclaiming God's love for us and our commitment to love and serve one another, especially the least and most vulnerable among us. This week the Liturgy offers us impressive examples of this tradition of truth, freedom, service, and commitment.

Today we remember two Catholic priests, St. Peter Chanel and St. Louis Mary de Montfort. Both served so many with compassion and sacrifice. St Peter was also a martyr as a missionary in the Pacific Islands. St Louis wrote his well-known book, True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin.

On Tuesday we celebrate the memorial of St. Catherine of Sienna, virgin and doctor of the church, who died in 1380. She was so instrumental in bringing about the conclusion of the Avignon papacy, sometimes known as the great western schism. She is also one the co-patronesses of Europe.

Wednesday is the memorial of St. Pius V who implemented the reforms of the Council of Trent and promulgated the Roman Catechism, the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary used until the Second Vatican Council.

Thursday (in most dioceses) we remember St. Joseph the Worker, honoring "that just man" whom God chose to be the foster father of Jesus and the spouse of Mary. (In some dioceses, Thursday will be celebrated as Ascension Thursday.)

Friday is the memorial of the great doctor of the Eastern Church, St. Athanasius, who died in 373 after spending 45 years as the Bishop of Alexandria. He was a champion at the Council of Nicea in 325. He was exiled five times for preaching the truth about the divinity of Jesus Christ.

And on Saturday we remember two of the Apostles Jesus chose to be committed to him and proclaim the gospel to the whole world. We remember Saints Philip and James.

And this is just one week! What a sense of gracious pride and deep gratitude for this wonderful gift of our Catholic faith. Each of us is called today to live that faith and to share it given the circumstances of our vocation and our contemporary world that ever calls for us to renew and strengthen our commitment as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ.