Saint Martin de Porres, Religious

Who ended up at the big dinner in the story?

Twelve-year-old St. Martin was alone in the barber-surgeon’s shop when men burst in carrying a friend with a gash in his head. They wanted the doctor, not the mixed-race boy sweeping the floor. But there was no one else, so St. Martin washed and bandaged the wound, and the man walked home. Nobody expected much of him, and he quietly did what needed doing.

Why did people make fun of St. Martin?

St. Martin in his Dominican habit holding a broom, with a dog, a cat, and a mouse sharing a dish at his feet. Color his tunic white and his cloak and hood black, the broom brown, and give the animals their real colors.

Have each child do one chore in secret before bed and say one Hail Mary for someone who has been unkind to them.

Loving God more than anything, and loving every other person because God made them. It is an act of love you do, not just a feeling: feeding, helping, forgiving.

Blessed are the clean of heart: they shall see God.

Did the mice really listen to St. Martin?

Jesus, you invited the poor to your feast. Help us bring in the people nobody invites. St. Martin de Porres, you swept floors and fed the hungry and loved the people who mocked you. Teach us to serve in secret. Amen.

Martin’s reputation for holiness and miracles spread quickly in the friary and throughout the city of Lima. Consequently, many people sought him out, and thanks to his prayers, many miracles occurred, especially cures from ailment. Martin never took credit for them; instead, he gave glory to God and attributed any cures to medicines that were prescribed. People also came to Martin for advice. As a humble soul, he did not wish to be consulted. He knew it was safer that God or someone with more intelligence be consulted. He also had a holy distrust of himself. What if he gave someone the wrong advice? His nothingness was always before him. Unlike the prideful man who longs to be sought after for his wisdom and easily feels hurt when others do not seek his opinion, Martin relished being overlooked. He preferred sweeping the convent floors or cutting his brothers’ hair to being sought out for spiritual counsel.

Have no fear that you will lose your prayers, indulgences and satisfactory works by giving them to the Holy Souls, but, rather, rest assured that by so doing you will become rich in grace and merits in this life and in sublime glory in Paradise. Rest satisfied also that the intrinsic merit of this work of suffrage remains always with you, being of its nature inalienable; only the portion that gives atonement goes to the Holy Souls. Giving up, then, this portion of our works to the Holy Souls, which some do by means of the Heroic Act, we do nothing less than convert every act of satisfaction into merit, and be assured that in the scales of God one degree of grace and merit is of more value than all the works of atonement we may apply to the Holy Souls.

Tomorrow is St. Charles Borromeo: set out the family catechism (a Baltimore Catechism, the YouCat, or the Catechism of the Catholic Church) and a notecard and stamp for a thank you to your parish priest. The cemetery visit for the Holy Souls indulgence is still open through Sunday, November 8. Saturday, November 7, starts the family almsgiving jar for Advent: find an empty jar this week.