THE MUSTARD SEED

The mustard seed is nature's version of "good gifts in small parcels".  It was the smallest seed used by Palestinian farmers, yet, conditions permitting, could produce a tree over ten feet tall.  The smallness, hiddenness and insignificance of the seed belied its power to produce fruit.  Yeast is also rather like this.  Although its presence is hidden, bread will not rise or bake correctly without it.  Jesus told these parables to teach us some very important lessons about the spiritual life.

The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast reflect truths displayed in the life of Jesus and the power of the gospel. Dr. James Allen Francis, in his poem "One Solitary Life", tells the story of Jesus.
He was born of peasant stock into poverty in an obscure Palestinian hamlet. He worked as a carpenter until he was thirty.  He lived the life of an itinerant preacher for three years.  He owned no home and never married.  He had no credentials, no university education.  He never travelled more than 200 miles from his home. When he was a young man the tide of public opinion turned against him.  His friends deserted him and one denied ever knowing him. He was turned over to his enemies, forced to endure the mockery of a trial, and eventually crucified between two thieves.  His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he owned on earth - his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down from the cross and laid in a borrowed grave.
Yet this hidden and apparently inconsequential life had become the very centrepiece of human history.  All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that were ever mobilized, all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the history of the world as much as this one solitary life.

 

 

There is a saying, "Never judge a book by its cover", and this story of "One Solitary Life" and the story of the mustard seed are surely all the evidence we need for why we must not judge others, no matter how they may present. There is no telling what lies within a person, what talent, what capacity.

 

Lord, teach me to be ever in awe of You, in awe of your power and your authority. Teach me not to judge, lest I be judged, but to seek out the good in others.

 

[Taken from "Bible Alive" July 2014]

 
 

ST VINCENT DE PAUL

St Vincent was born on 24th April 1581 in the village of Pouy in Gascony, France. He was ordained a priest at the early age of 20.
In 1605 on a voyage by sea from Marseilles, he was taken captive by Barbary pirates and carried off to Tunis, there Vincent was auctioned off as a slave and spent two years in bondage.

His first master was a fisherman, but Vincent was unsuitable for the work because of seasickness and was soon sold.  His next master was a physician and alchemist and inventor.  Vincent was fascinated by his work and was taught how to prepare and administer his master's remedies.  The fame of Vincent's master attracted the attention of Sultan Achmet the first who summoned him to Istanbul.  During the voyage the old man died and Vincent was sold once again.

Vincent's new master was a former priest and Franciscan from Nice named Guillaume Gautier.  He had converted to Islam in order to gain freedom from slavery and was living in the mountains with three wives.  The second wife [a Muslim by birth] was drawn to Vincent because of his great holiness and charity, and questioned him about his faith.  She became convinced that his faith was true and admonished her husband for renouncing his Christianity.  He became remorseful and decided to escape back to France with his slave Vincent. They had to wait 10 months but finally they secretly boarded a small boat and crossed the Mediterranean landing in Aigues-Mortes on the 28th June 1607.

This is just one adventure in the life of this great saint.  Charity was his main virtue it extended to all classes of persons from childhood to old age.
Though honoured by the great ones of the world, he remained deeply rooted in humility.
He founded the Congregation of Priests of the Missions [Lazarists] and, together with St Louise de Marillac, the Daughters of Charity.  These congregations together with the well-known society of St Vincent de Paul continue his charitable works today.
St Vincent de Paul died on the 27th September 1660.
St Vincent de Paul was canonized by pope Clement X11 in 1737.

GOD'S LOVE FOR US

......... This is a Sublime and heavenly state, reached only by those who in all things hear God ask them whether they love Him, and who feel that He so yearns for and desires our love that He seems as though He would die of longing.  Such souls realise that He created all things for this end and asks no other payment for them but love;   that He feeds on nothing but love, for the sake of which He forgives all sins, however great, and forgets them as though they had never been, solely to make those who were His enemies love Him without delay.  He begs them to accept His pardon and receive it, so that He may not remain unloved:

He never ceases granting favours that He may never cease to win the love which seems the only thing that can abate the infinite flame that continually burns within Him, so that He may, as it were, begin anew to love us, as though our love were holy water that heated the eternal furnace of His charity!

.....[Francisco de Osuna c 1492-1540]

 

THE FALL [MAN]

........ He lost Sanctifying grace, Supernaturally he was dead.  He lost the Preternatural gifts too.  He could now suffer, he had come under the natural law of death; worst of all he had lost integrity, the subordination of lower powers to higher, in the rejection of his own subordination to God.

From now on every element in him would be making for its own immediate and separate gratification:  the civil war within man had begun.....
God would remain the contact and Sanctifying grace would be in him once more.  But the man it was in  was a very different man.  The Preternatural gifts were not restored, so that integrity was not there....
every one of us is a civil war.
                                [Frank Sheed]

ST FRANCES OF ROME wife-mother 1384-1440

 

Frances was born in Rome in 1384 to a noble and wealthy couple, Paolo Bussa and Jacobella dei Roffredeschi.  When she was 11 years old she asked her parents to allow her to become a nun, only to be met by a point-blank refusal.  When she was barely thirteen she was married to Lorenzo Ponziano from a very wealthy family.   At first she found her new life very trying and one day Vannozza, her sister-in -law found her crying bitterly.  Frances told her of her frustrated hopes, and learnt to her surprise that her sister-in-law would also have preferred a life of retirement and prayer.

This was the beginning of a close friendship which lasted till death, and the two young wives strove together to live a perfect life under a common rule.

When Frances was very ill and close to death - soon after her marriage she had a vision of St Alexis, who told her God was giving her an important choice; "Did she want to recover or not"? She whispered "God's will is mine".  The saint then informed her that it was God's will that she should recover and work for His greater glory, and, after throwing his cloak over her he disappeared.  Her illness had disappeared also.
In 1400 Frances gave birth to her first son John Battista and Frances took on the full care of her little son herself.
In 1408 the troops of Ladislaus of Naples, the ally of the anti-pope had entered Rome, and a soldier of fortune, Count Troja, had been appointed governor. The Ponziano family had always supported the legitimate pope, and in one of the frequent conflicts Lorenzo was stabbed and carried home to Frances, to whose devoted nursing he owed his restoration to health.
A great plague swept across Italy it struck Rome and left Frances's second son dead.  In an effort to help alleviate some of the suffering Frances used all her money and sold her possessions to buy whatever the sick might need. When all was gone Frances and Vannozza went door-to-door begging.  Later Frances's daughter Agnes died and the saint opened a section of her home as a hospital.
Frances became more convinced that this way of life was so necessary for the world, that she requested and was giving permission to found a society of women bound by no vows, they simply offered themselves to God and the service of the poor.  Once the society was established, Frances chose not to live at the community residence, but rather at home with her husband.  She did this for seven years until he died.  So at the age of 52 she lived the life as a nun she had always wished.  Four years later she died.  Her last words were "The angel has finished his task - he beckons me to follow him"

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Hail and blessed be the hour and moment
when the Son of God was born
of the most pure virgin Mary
at midnight in Bethlehem
In piercing cold
In that hour vouchsafe
Oh My God to hear my prayer
and grant my petition
Amen

MARY MOTHER OF SORROWS

THE CONSOLER OF THE SUFFERING SOULS

" Now there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalen. When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he said to his mother:  Woman, behold thy son.  After that, he said to the disciple:  Behold thy mother.  And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own."
-  John 19:25-27

Our Lord promises great graces to those who are devoted to the sorrows of His Blessed Mother.
St Alphonsus tells us that it was revealed to St Elizabeth of Hungary that some years after the assumption of The Blessed Virgin into Heaven St John the beloved apostle wished to see her again.  This favour was granted him.  Mary appeared to him with our Divine Lord.  Then St John heard Mary asking of her Son some special graces for those who were devoted to her dolors.  Our Lord promised the four following graces
1.      Those who invoke the Heavenly Mother through her sorrows will obtain true sorrow for their sins before death.

2.      Our Saviour will protect them in their tribulations, especially at the hour of death.

3.      He will impress upon them the memory of His Passion, and will reward them for it in Heaven.

4.      He will commit such devout servants to the hands of Mary, that she may dispose of them     according to her pleasure, and obtain for them all the graces she desires. 

Dominica Clara of the Holy Cross who died in 1897, was often favoured with apparitions of the souls in purgatory.  One of these souls told the servant of God that she [the soul] owed her salvation solely to her devotion to the sorrows of Mary.  Her life had been so wicked that without a special grace from God she could not possibly have been saved, but Mary leaves nothing unrewarded that is done in her honour.
During life this person had felt a tender compassion for the Mother of Sorrows, and whenever she beheld an image representing the Dolorous Mother, she prayed the Hail Mary seven times in her honour.  She admitted, however, that often she had practiced this devotion more from custom than from interior devotion; for her pious mother had implanted it so deeply in her heart that, despite her wayward life, she had always remained faithful to it.  As a reward for this slight veneration, the Mother of God showed special maternal solicitude for her at the hour of death, recalling to her mind the image of her Seven Sorrows in so vivid a manner that in her last moments the penitent was seized with most profound contrition for her sinful life.  For this reason she obtained the remission of all her sins.
According to the information imparted by this soul, the sorrow she felt for her sins, through the intercession of the Mother of Sorrows, was so great that it expiated not only her sins but also a great part of the temporal punishment due to them. In addition to this incomparably great grace, the soul, while in purgatory, was consoled by frequent visits of the Mother of God, each of which mitigated her sufferings.  Her torments ceased entirely during the time the Blessed Virgin was personally present.
Thousands and thousands of souls, she asserted, who had not committed one twentieth as much evil as she, were eternally lost.  "Ah," she exclaimed, "how lively are my sentiments of gratitude when I consider what our dear Heavenly Mother did for me in the last moments of my life!  Had it not been for Mary, I too should have shared the fate of the reprobates.  for all eternity shall my tongue proclaim the love, the goodness, the solicitude of this sweet Virgin; unceasingly shall my voice glorify her with canticles of praise and thanksgiving". 

HOLY MOTHER! PIERCE ME THROUGH,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified;
Let me share with thee His pain,
Who for all my sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee, 
Mourning Him who mourned for me,
All the days that I may live.