Lent is often referred to as the season of the desert.  We have been taught this  because Jesus goes out into the desert for 40 days, in preparation for  his ministry, and the 40 days of Lent reflect that.  When we think of a desert, we usually think of a dry, barren landscape.  But yet, Lent  it is not necessarily a season of the desert, for Lent is not meant to be dry and barren.  Lent is meant to be more of a season of preparation, even a season of purgation of what needs changed within us.  In the First Letter from Peter in today’s readings,  () Peter speaks about a cleansing and renewal through baptism and believing in Jesus will lead us closer to God.  He refers back to what occurred between Noah and God after the Great Flood; where God established a new covenant with humanity.  This new covenant that God speaks of refers to the coming of His son Jesus Christ, without actually specifically mentioning Jesus.

In writing about the devastation of the flood, the author of Genesis tells us the flood was a forty day and forty night event, one which also brought about a cleansing of the wickedness taking place on the earth.  This cleansing brought about renewal for humanity to move forward with God in a closer relationship.  The cleansing was a preparation for that relationship with God.

According to the Gospel of Mark, we learn that, when God put the fulfillment of the new covenant into place, Jesus did not just jump right into his ministry.  Jesus had to prepare himself for his life of ministry; this preparation was his time spent in the desert for forty days.  He then was ready to preach the fulfillment through preaching the gospel.

So as was stated earlier, the season of Lent is a time of cleansing and preparation for us.  It is a time of examination of things that we need to change within us to bring us closer to God.  We do not sit for forty days, and do nothing while waiting for Easter.  Lent is not a time when merely do find something to give up so we can say we gave something up, but rather a time when we recognize what we need to do grow in our relationship with God.  It is our job to understand that God did his part to establish the new covenant, with us, and in return do our part through doing something to cleanse what needs cleansed.  To become closer to God, what are YOU going to do the remainder of this Lent, a season of preparation?

Born in Catania, Sicily; died 1486; cultus approved 1825. Born of wealthy and pious parents, Bernard was given a good education. In spite of this good training, he spent a careless youth. Only after he was badly injured in a duel was he brought back to his senses. His long convalescence gave him plenty of time to think, and once he was able to go out of the house, he went to the Dominican convent of Catania and begged to be admitted to the order.

Bernard, as a religious, was the exact opposite of what he had been as a young man. Now he made no effort to obtain the things he had valued all his life, but spent his time in prayer, solitude, and continual penance. There is little recorded of his life, except that he kept the rule meticulously, and that he was particularly kind to sinners in the confessional. Apparently, he did not attain fame as a preacher, but was content to spend his time in the work of the confessional and the private direction of souls.

One legend pictures Bernard as having great power over birds and animals. When he walked outside in the gardens, praying, the birds would flutter down around him, singing; but as soon as he went into ecstasy, they kept still, for fear they would disturb him. Once, the porter was sent to Bernard’s room to call him, and saw a bright light shining under the door. Peeking through the keyhole, he saw a beautiful child shining with light and holding a book, from which Bernard was reading. He hurried to get the prior to see the marvel.

Bernard had the gift of prophecy, which he used on several occasions to try warning people to amend their lives. He prophesied his own death. Fifteen years after his death, he appeared to the prior, telling his to transfer his remains to the Rosary chapel. During this translation, a man was cured of paralysis by touching the relics (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born: Catania, Sicily (year unknown)

Died: 1486

Canonized: Leo XII confirmed cultus in 1825

Men prayed for strength to resist Jordan’s burning eloquence, and mothers hid their sons when Master Jordan came to town. Students and masters warned each other of the fatal magnetism of his sermons. The sweetness of his character and the holiness of his life shone through his most casual words in a flame that drew youth irresistibly to the ideal to which he had dedicated his own life. In his 16 years of preaching, Jordan is said to have drawn more than a thousand novices to the Dominican Order, among whom were two future popes, two canonized saints (e.g., Albert the Great), numerous beati, and countless intellectual lights of his dazzling century.

Of Jordan’s childhood, nothing is known, except that he was born of a noble family. He was drawn to the order in 1220 by the preaching of Blessed Reginald, the beloved son of Dominic, brought back from death by Dominic’s and Our Lady’s prayers. Jordan was at that time about 30, a student at the University of Paris, and his reputation for sanctity had preceded him into the order.

He had worn the habit for only two months when he was sent to Bologna as a delegate to the first general chapter of the order. The following year he was elected provincial of Lombardy, Italy, and on the death of Saint Dominic, succeeded him as master general.

The Order of Preachers was only six years old when Jordan became master general. He carried out the yet untried plans of Dominic, who had hurried off to heaven when many of his dreams were just beginning to open out into realization, and still more vistas beckoned beyond. Under him the new order advanced apace, spreading throughout Germany and into Denmark. Jordan will always be remembered for his work in increasing the manpower of the order, but his contribution to its quality should never be forgotten.

He added four new provinces to the eight already in existence; he twice obtained for the order a chair at the University of Paris and helped found the University of Toulouse; and he established the first general house of studies of the order. He was a spiritual guide to many, including Blessed Diana d’Andalo; and somewhere in his busy lifetime he found time to write a number of books, including a life of Saint Dominic.

Jordan was regarded as a menace by the professors of universities where he recruited novices. He emptied classrooms of their most talented students, stole their most noted professors. Young men by the hundreds besieged the order for admittance. Some were mere children, some famous lawyers and teachers, and some were the wealthy young bearers of the most famous names in Christendom. One and all, they were drawn to a life of perfection by this man who preached so well, and who practiced what he preached with such evident relish.

All the old writers speak of the kindness and personal charm of Jordan. He had the ability to console the troubled and to inspire the despondent with new hope. At one time, a discouraged student was busily saying the Office of the Dead when Master Jordan sat down beside him and began alternating verses with him. When he came to the end of Psalm 26, Jordan said the verse with emphasis: “Oh, wait for the Lord!” Wherewith the sorrows of the young man departed. Another student was rid of troubled thoughts by the mere imposition of Jordan’s hands. To bring peace to the brothers who were being annoyed by the devil, Jordan established the beautiful custom of singing the Salve Regina after Compline each night.

Jordan was shipwrecked and drowned when returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born: 1190 at Padberg Castle, diocese of Paderborn, Westphalia, old Saxony; rumoured to have been born in Palestine while his parents were on a pilgrimage, and named after the River Jordan, but this is apparently aprochryphal

Died: Drowned 1237 in a shipwreck off the coast of Syria while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Beatified: 1825 (cultus confirmed) by Pope Leo XII

Canonized: University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Engineering

Today is the Memorial Day of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who was born in 1190 and died in 1237. This Dominican was Master General of the Order when it was only six years old, succeeding Dominic upon his death. It was said that men prayed for strength to resist Jordan’s burning eloquence, and mothers hid their sons when Master Jordan came to town. Students and masters warned each other of the fatal magnetism of his sermons. The sweetness of his character and the holiness of his life shone through his most casual words in a flame that drew youth irresistibly to the ideal to which he had dedicated his own life. In his 16 years of preaching, Jordan is said to have drawn more than a thousand novices to the Dominican Order, among whom were two future popes, two canonized saints, numerous beati, and countless intellectual lights of his dazzling century.

He drew people to him. He healed the sick and distressed. He spread the Word. He was magnetic.

In today’s first reading from Leviticus, we learn how the ancient Isrealites treated lepers…and other outcasts…driving them away, branding them, and therefore, they thought, keeping themselves safe.

Then in the Gospel, we witness Jesus stretching out his hand to touch a leper and make him clean. Jesus often touches outcasts, the sick, the sinners. Interestingly, we then see Jesus choosing to remain outside of towns, staying in deserted places, just as lepers were forced to do under the Levitical code, because the crowds drawn to him were too large.

Under the old Law, certain people and groups were forced out of society. Under the Law that Jesus “fulfilled,” he places himself in the same category as the outcasts, lepers, sinners.

But his law is love, and his message is peace, as we hear in the carol “O Holy Night.”

How are we to reconcile these conflicting messages? They are reconciled in the second reading from First Corinthians:

Brothers and sisters, Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.
Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God,just as I try to please everyone in every way,
not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.  Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

And that is how Blessed Jordan of Saxony finds his place among the words of Good News spread by Jesus and the Apostles. He is truly an imitator of Christ, as was Paul; he is truly a magnet as was Our Lord.

Simply by demonstrating that he loved the Lord our God with his whole heart, his whole soul, and his whole strength, and that he loved his neighbor as himself, he drew hundreds, thousands to Jesus, and to the new Order of Preachers. He went outside the walls, where he found the halt, the lame, the distressed, and he gave them peace.

Lord, help us to imitate Christ by going outside the walls. Help us to see the Lord in everyone we meet, the low and the high, the humble and the proud. And help us to do as Blessed Jordan did: draw others to a life of perfection

 

Born of a noble Neapolitan family, Nicholas was named for the great wonder-worker who had once lived in the kingdom. At 8 he was already practicing austerities. He would not eat meat, even on feast days, because he had been favored by a vision of a young man of great majesty who told him to prepare for a lifetime of mortifications in an order that kept perpetual abstinence.

Sent to Bologna for his studies, he met Saint Dominic and was won by him to the new order. He was the companion of Saint Dominic on several of the founder’s journeys to Italy, and warmed his heart at the very source of the new fire which was to mean resurrection to so many souls.

Saint Nicholas of Bari had been noted for his astounding miracles, and his young namesake began following in his footsteps while yet a novice. When on a journey with several companions, he met a woman with a withered arm. Making the Sign of the Cross over her, he cured her of the affliction.

At one time, as he entered his native Bari, he found a woman weeping beside the body of her child, who had been drowned in a well. He asked the woman the name of the child, and being told it was Andrew, he replied, “After this, it’s Nicholas. Nicholas, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, arise!” The little one revived, alive and well. The child of his sister Colette, mute from birth, brought her famous uncle a basket of bread. “Who sent the bread, child?” Nicholas asked her. “My mother,” she replied, and from then on she was cured.

As provincial of the Roman province, Nicholas was wise, prudent, and kind. He established priories in Perugia in 1233 and Trani in 1254. He received many novices and did much of his work among the young religious. Once he was called to the assistance of a novice who had been deceived by the devil and would not go to confession. He showed the young man the true state of his soul and undid the work of the evil one.

Nicholas earned great fame as a preacher. On one occasion, when he was preaching in the cathedral of Brescia, two irreverent young men began disturbing the congregation and soon made such a commotion that Nicholas could not make himself heard. Nicholas left the cathedral to a neighboring hill and there called to the birds to come to listen to him. Like the birds in the similar story of Saint Francis, flocks of feathered creatures fluttered down at his feet and listened attentively while he preached. At the end of the sermon they flew away singing.

After a lifetime of preaching and miracles, Nicholas, forewarned of is death by a visit from a brother who had been dead many years, went happily to receive the reward of the faithful. Miracles continued to occur at his tomb and through his intercession. Among these was the miracle by which life was given to a baby born dead. His parents had promised to name the baby Nicholas if the favor were granted, and to their great joy their child lived (Benedictines, Dorcy).

Born: Giovinazzo near Bari, Naples (year unknown)

Died: died in Perugia, Italy, in 1255

Beatified: Leo XII confirmed his cult in 1828

Representation: In art, Saint Nicholas is presented as a Dominican with a birch and a book (Roeder). He is venerated in Giovinazzo and Perugia, Italy (Roeder).

Candlemas is more commonly known as The Presentation of the Lord in the Temple, which is a Feast in the Church occurring on February 2nd. The blessing of candles occurs on thid date which along with ashes and palms are the three most popular principal blessings the church offers. Candlemas also signifies the end of the 40 days of the Christmas season.    Some Catholic households will celebrate this day by lighting candles. After a prayer by the father and the appropriate response by the family, a young girl portraying Mary will carry a doll dressed in swaddling clothes representing Christ and will present him to another child dressed as Simeon for his inspection and blessing.

The Feast not only celebrates the presentation of Jesus, but ALSO signifies the purity of the Blessed Virgin. The root of the celebration is from Judaism, where in Mosaic Law, a mother had to purify herself by going to the Temple and receive a blessing by the priest forty days after birth.   The term Candlemas itself refers to the blessing performed on that day, in which a priest lights and blesses beeswax candles. These candles are then given to other clergy and laity while singing and in procession within the church. The whole significance of this event is to bring the Light of Christ in the world.

On Candlemas night, many people place lighted candles in the windows of their homes. Like in some other Christian festivals, Candlemas draws some of its elements from paganism. In pre-christian times, it was the festival of light. This ancient festival marked the midpoint of winter, half way between Winter solstice and the spring equinox. Some people lit candles to scare away spirits on dark winter nights. Some people believed that Candlemas predicted the weather for the rest of the winter.

In medieval times, Candlemas Day was traditionally the time that any remaining Christmas decorations were to be removed, lest some evil befall the household. The poet Robert Herrick (1591–1674) wrote:

CEREMONY UPON CANDLEMAS EVE

Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the bays and misletoe ;
Down with the holly, ivy, all,
Wherewith ye dress’d the Christmas Hall :
That so the superstitious find
No one least branch there left behind :
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected, there (maids, trust to me)
So many goblins you shall see.

As the candles we use in our churches stand as a symbol of the Light of Christ, and since Jesus is to be the “Light of the World”, Luke tells us (Luke 2:22-40), that so Mary and Joseph took Jesus to Jerusalem because every firstborn child was to be dedicated to the Lord. They also went to sacrifice a pair of doves or two young pigeons, showing that Mary and Joseph were poor. Once in the temple, Jesus was purified by the prayer of Simeon, in the presence of Anna the prophetess. Simeon, upon seeing the Messiah, gave thanks to the Lord, singing a hymn now called the Nunc Dimitis:

“Lord, now you let your servant go in peace,
your word has been fulfilled:
My own eyes have seen the salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of every people:
a light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.”

So isn’t this the perfect day to mark the passage of time from the revels of Christmas to the reflections of the Lenten Season? Can we not also present ourselves to our Lord as newly born into his spiritual graces, cleansed of our earthly pleasures, and preparing to imitate the Prophetess Anna in our prayer and fasting before the Glorious Season of Eastertime?  On this day as we celebrate the Light of Christ, we must ask you, in what ways does Christ shine forth from you?  How do your actions, your words, reflect the Light of Christ’s love and salvation?

 

 

Catherine Mancini was born in Pisa in 1355, of noble parentage, and from infancy began enjoying the miraculous favors with which her life was filled. At the age of three, she was warned by some heavenly agency that the porch on which she had been placed by a nurse was unsafe. Her cries attracted the nurse’s attention, and they had barely left the porch when it collapsed. When she was five, she beheld in an ecstasy the dungeon of a place in Pisa in which Peter Gambacorta, one of the leading citizens, was being tortured. At Catherine’s prayer, the rope broke and the man was released. Our Lady told the little girl to say prayers every day for this man, because he would one day be her benefactor.

Catherine would have much preferred the religious life to marriage, but she obeyed her parents and was married at the age of twelve. Widowed at sixteen, she was compelled to marry again. Of her seven children, only one survived the death of her second husband, and Catherine learned through a vision that this child, too, would soon be taken from her.  Thus she found herself, at the age of twenty five, twice widowed and bereft of all her children. Refusing a third marriage, she devoted herself to prayers and works of charity.

She soon worked out for herself a severe schedule of prayers and good works, fasting and mortifications. She tended the sick and the poor, bringing them into her own home and regarding them as Our Lord Himself. She gave her goods to the poor and labored for them with her own hands. Our Lord was pleased to show her that He approved of her works by appearing to her in the guise of a poor young man, sick, and in need of both food and medicine. She carefully dressed his wounds, and she was rewarded by the revelation that it was in reality her redeemer whom she had served.

St. Catherine of Siena visited Pisa at about this time, and the two saintly women were drawn together into a holy friendship. As they prayed together in the Dominican church one day, they were surrounded by a bright cloud, out of which flew a white dove. They conversed joyfully on spiritual matters, and were mutually strengthened by the meeting.

On the advice of St. Catherine of Siena, Catherine (Mary Mancini) retired to an enclosed convent of the Second Order. In religion, she was given the name Mary, by which she is usually known. She embraced the religious life in all its primitive austerity, and, with Blessed Clare Gambarcota and a few other members of the convent, she founded a new and much more austere house, which had been built by Peter Gambacorta. Our Lady’s prophecy of his benefactions was thus fulfilled.

Blessed Mary was favored with many visions and was in almost constant prayer. She became prioress of the house on the death of her friend Blessed Clare Gambacorta, and ruled it with justice and holiness until her death.

She died in 1431 and was beatified by Pius IX in 1855.