Saint Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr

Where did Jesus say the Kingdom of God is?

Ioann was a merchant’s apprentice in the city of Vilnius, and a good one. His boss wanted him to marry his daughter and take over the business. But Ioann had loved prayer since he was a little boy; he had learned Old Church Slavonic just to sing the Church’s chants. In 1604 he walked away from the business and into the Monastery of the Holy Trinity, took the name Josaphat, and lived a life of fasting and prayer so strict that people came from far away for his advice.

Was St. Josaphat a Roman Catholic?

Make the Sign of the Cross the Eastern way once (right shoulder first) and say the Jesus Prayer together three times.

A family’s way of celebrating the Mass and Sacraments, handed down for hundreds of years. The Catholic Church has the Roman Rite, which most of us know, and many Eastern rites, all equally Catholic and all under the Pope.

Watch ye therefore, because you know not the day nor the hour.

If Eastern Catholics do everything differently, how can it be the same Church?

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. You prayed that we would all be one. Bring the East and the West together, and keep our family one in you. St. Josaphat, pray for us. Amen.

Once when the children were playing together by the well, making clay birds and animals, Jesus, making some little sparrows, bade them fly away. Immediately they rose into the air, and, after circling over the children’s heads for some time, flew away into the distance until they vanished from sight.

To be a peacemaker implies that we have already in some fashion seen God. Turmoil is ours. Peace is God’s. It appears both in the Old and the New Testament as God’s favorite light to diffuse and gift to bestow. Shalom! Peace be to you! It is also a very favorite cry of our times. Unfortunately, one might say that it is a favorite war cry. How many veins have stood out on how many heads in the name of “peace”! Sometimes it seems to be spelled out in vitriol. And then, again, it can be and often enough is the shibboleth of the lethargic: “Peace! Peace!” Each to his own. Let every man go his own way, by which seems to be particularly meant that he should keep out of mine.

Tomorrow, November 13, is St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized, and it is immigrant story night: dig out family photos, a globe or map, and any story of how your family came to this country; ask a grandparent tonight if you can. Friday is a day of penance, so plan a meatless dinner and decide what to offer it for. Saturday, November 14, has Confession in the plan: check the parish Confession times.