St Nick Visits

Today, we had a special visitor to Sacred Heart Preschool.  St. Nicholas (Fr. Dave), stopped by to deliver some treats and tell our preschoolers the story of St. Nicholas. It was a fun surprise!

The Feast of St. Columbkille

Today is the Feast Day of St. Columbkille. While his feast isn't on the US liturgical calendar, it is in Ireland and Scotland.

He was born in December of 521 and died on June 9, 597. He was born into a royal family and was sometimes known as St. Columba or Columb Cille which means "Dove of the Church." He entered religious life as a youth and started a number of monasteries in Ireland before bringing the faith to Scotland. He is considered second only to St. Patrick among Irish Saints and is the Patron Saint of Scotland. He is the patron saint of bookbinders, poets and navigators as well.

The following was taken from the Derry Diocesan Organizing Committee for the Columban Centenary Celebration 1997:

Columbkille was a man of outstanding gentleness and empathy. He was a kindly individual with a practical concern for people. He helped the unfortunate: interesting himself in the plight of a hostage; rehabilitating a reformed robber; curing a nun with a broken hip; assisting a woman in the pangs of child-birth with his prayers; providing destitute men with means of feeding themselves; and even at his death approached comforting others rather than seeking to be comforted. He had a profound sense of the worth of human beings and of the contribution they were making to society.

Above all, Columbkille was a man of prayer. Coming from a princely background with a commanding and practical personality he was bound to make an impact on his generation. His real greatness was that he was able to combine the advantages given him by temperament and birth with the ambition of sainthood.

St. Thérèse

Blessed Mother Teresa and St. John Paul II were widely admired in their lifetime. In contrast, St. Therese of  Lisieux (whose Feast is today) was known by few people when she died at age 24 of tuberculosis. Due to her autobiography, she became a very popular saint.

Susan Szalewski wrote about some of her philosophy on our blog last year.

Riddle of the Day

Riddle: What saint was cannonized before he died?

Answer: It was the saint with the feast day today: St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Inigo de Loyola was born in 1491 in Azpeitia in northern Spain. At the age of 30 in 1521 he was an officer defending the fortress of the town of Pamplona against the French, who claimed the territory as their own. The Spaniards were outnumbered and the commander wanted to surrender, but Ignatius convinced him to fight on for the honor of Spain, if not for victory. During the battle a cannon ball struck Ignatius, [Get it – “cannonized”] wounding one leg and breaking the other. Because they admired his courage, the French soldiers carried him back to recuperate at his home, the castle of Loyola, rather than to prison.

His leg was set but didn’t heal, so it was broken again and reset, all without anesthesia. Ignatius grew worse and was told by the doctors that he should prepare for death. On the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29), he took an unexpected turn for the better. The leg healed.

During the long weeks of recuperation, he was extremely bored and asked for some romance novels to pass the time. There were none in the castle of Loyola, but there was a copy of the life of Christ and a book on the saints. Desperate, Ignatius began to read them. The more he read, the more he considered the exploits of the saints worth imitating. At the same time he continued to have daydreams of fame and glory, along with fantasies of winning the love of a noble lady of the court. He noticed, however, that after reading and thinking of the saints and Christ he was at peace and satisfied. Yet when he finished his long daydreams of his noble lady, he would feel restless and unsatisfied. Not only was this experience the beginning of his conversion, it was also the beginning of spiritual discernment, or discernment of spirits, which is associated with Ignatius and described in his Spiritual Exercises.

He went not only went on to become a priest, but he is the founder of the Jesuits. Today is his Feast Day.

Feast of St Benedict

The Feast of Sts Peter and Paul

From Pope Francis' homily today, on the Feast of St. Peter and Paul:

I wonder, dear brother bishops, are we afraid? What are we afraid of? And if we are afraid, what forms of refuge do we seek, in our pastoral life, to find security? Do we look for support from those who wield worldly power? Or do we let ourselves be deceived by the pride which seeks gratification and recognition, thinking that these will offer us security? Dear brother bishops, where do we find our security?

The witness of the Apostle Peter reminds us that our true refuge is trust in God. Trust in God banishes all fear and sets us free from every form of slavery and all worldly temptation. Today the Bishop of Rome and other bishops, particularly the metropolitans who have received the pallium, feel challenged by the example of Saint Peter to assess to what extent each of us puts his trust in the Lord.

You can read the full homily here.

The Mural of St Columbkille

Today, on the Feast of St. Columbkille, it seems appropriate to finally tell the story of the mural in the Education Center.

Last July the hall looked very different.

A layer of paint prepared the wall for the mural.

Then artist David Reiser got to work.

Mr. Reiser got some help from

 his three children on the project.

He also got some help form Fr. Vogel on 

the wording and the style of the letters.

During the school year, Fr Vogel brought all of the classes to the mural and explained the significance.

To the left is Ireland, St. Columbkille's homeland. To the right is the Island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. Here St. Columbkille and his twelve companions built the first of many monasteries as they brought the faith to Scotland. On the right you can see a dove as "Columbkille" literally means "Dove of the Church" in Gaelic. On the left, you can see the small boat carrying Columbkille and his companions to Scotland.

In the center is the Latin spelling of St. Columbkille as our saint composes one of his song.

If you haven't seen the mural yet, stop by the Education Center sometime for a look.

While it was a blessing to have this mural in the building for almost a year, it isn't quite complete. Mr. Reiser should be back this summer to finish it. So look for the minor addition in the fall.

Alessandro Serenelli

Although Alessandro was only 19 years old, he had become addicted to pornography. Wanting to live out his fantasies he attempted to molest an 11 year old girl. As she yelled out, "No Alessandro, it is a sin..." he became enraged and stabbed her 14 times. Although she made it to a hospital and received Communion as Viaticum, she died.

Alessandro was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Although he was aware that Maria, the girl, had forgiven him on her deathbed (even saying she wanted to be in heaven with him) he did not feel remorse. Then he had a dream -- which was surprising in and of itself because Alessandro did not typically dream.

In this vivid dream, the prison walls and bars fells away as his cell became a sunlit garden. full of flowers. He was surprised to see a peasant girl dressed in white since they wear dark colors. Then he realized it was Maria. She was walking among the flowers, smiling and not as all fearful. He wanted to leave but couldn't. Maria picked white lilies and handed them to him saying, "Alessandro, take them!"

One by one he accpted the 14 lilies. As he took them, each lily transformed into a flaming light. There was one lily for each of the times he had stabbed her. Then Maria smilingly said, "Alessandro, as I have promised, your soul shall someday reach me in heaven."

The dream changed him. For the first time he understood the light of God's grace and mercy. From that time on, he looked to reform his life.

Because of his good behavior, he got out of prison after 27 years. For a time he wandered as a farmhand, but them he became a brother in a Capuchin monastery.

Finally, 31 years after the trial, he went to visit Assunta Goretti, Maria's mother. Begging Assunta's forgiveness, she placed her hands on his head, caressed his face and gently said, "Alessandro, Marietta forgave you, Christ has forgiven you, and why should I not also forgive. I forgive you, of course, my son! Why have I not seen you sooner?"

The next morning Assunta, with head held high and tears falling, took Alessandro by the hand and led him to Mass. Side by side they took communion. From that day on he was welcomed into the Goetti family as "Uncle Alessandro."

Assunta and Alessandro were also side by side when St. Maria Goretti was cannonized.

Feast of St. Columbkille

Our parish patron saint, St. Columbkille, is not well known outside of Ireland and Scotland, yet he is one of the three great saints of Ireland and was the first missionary to Scotland. Born in 521 in Donegal, Ireland to a family connected to kings and princes, Columb was a man gifted with incredible talents. He wrote poetry and music, established churches and monasteries, preached the gospel and painted manuscripts. St. Adamnan, his biographer wrote of him: "He had the face of an angel; he was of an excellent nature, polished in speech, holy in deed, great in counsel . . . loving unto all." He is personally described as "A man well-formed, with powerful frame; his skin was white, his face broad and fair and radiant, lit up with large, gray, luminous eyes.”

From an early age Columb seemed destined for the priesthood, his family sent him off to study under the future St. Finnian and at Clonard Abbey he surrendered his princely claims, became a monk and was ordained. He spent the next 15 years preaching and teaching in Ireland. As was the custom in those days, he combined study and prayer with manual labor. By his own natural gifts as well as by the good fortune of his birth, he soon gained ascendancy as a monk of unusual distinction. By the time he was 25, he had founded no less than 27 Irish monasteries, including those at Derry, Durrow, and Kells, as well as some 40 churches. His work for the Church gained him the addition of “kille” to his name. Columb means “dove” in Gaelic and kille is “church”, so he came to be known as the “church’s dove”. Columb lived, with every ounce of his energy, the commission of Jesus to “go and make disciples.”

There is a famous tale about Columbkille that stands as one of the first copyright cases on record: Columbkille was so anxious to have a copy of Finnian’s Psalter that he shut himself up at night in the church that contained it and secretly transcribed it by hand. He was discovered by a monk who watched him through the keyhole and reported it to his superior. Bibles and prayer books were so scarce in those days that Abbot Finnian claimed the copy, refusing to allow it to leave the monastery. Columbkille refused to surrender it until he was obliged to do so, under protest, on Finnian's appeal to King Diarmaid, who said, "To every cow its calf," meaning to every book its copy.

While historically a bit unclear, an unfortunate period followed, during which, owing to Columbkille's protection of a refugee and his impassioned denunciation of an injustice by King Diarmaid, war broke out between the clans of Ireland, and Columbkille became an exile of his own accord. Filled with remorse on account of those who had been slain in battle and condemned by many of his own friends, he experienced a change of heart and an irresistible call to preach to those who had not heard the gospel. In 563, at the age of 42, he left Ireland with 12 companions and landed on an island now known as Iona. Here on this desolate rock, only three miles long and two miles wide, in the northern sea off the southwest corner of Mull, Scotland, he began his work; and, Iona became a center of Christian learning. It became the heart of Celtic Christianity and a potent factor in the conversion of the Picts, Scots, and Northern English. Monks from the monasteries established by Columbkille would later travel to mainland Europe and Christianize the Frank and Germanic tribes.

There are many miracles and incredible events recorded by St. Adamnan in his biography of St. Columbkille and they make for interesting reading. If you wish to believe it, he is one of the first people to encounter the Loch Ness monster. His memory remains a potent force in Celtic lands and his poetry and songs are still sung:

“Alone with none but Thee, my God,
I journey on my way;
what need I fear when Thou art near,
O King of night and day?"

The above inormation is on our parish website. There are also links there to the five bulletin letters Fr. Damian wrote about St. Columbkille.

St. Philip

One of the saints we celebrate today is one of the apostles, St. Philip. Philip was born in a tiny village of the Holy Land, called Bethsaida, birthplace of St. Peter and St. Andrew. When the disciples drew lots to find which part of the world they would go to preach, St. Philip drew the continent of Asia, also called Asia Minor. He was aided in his holy duties by his sister Miriam and the Apostle Bartholomew.

In Phrygia in western Asia Minor, the threesome came to Ophiorhyme; that is, “Serpent’s Town,” so-called because the inhabitants worshiped serpents and a viper called Echidna. Images of the viper and serpents filled the town, including the serpent temple with its statue of Echidna.

St. Philip approached the creature and placed his hand on it, causing the snake to die immediately. He then converted the thousands of cult members to Christianity. This greatly upset the pagan leaders. Because of this, St. Philip, his sister Miriam and St. Bartholomew were condemned to die on the cross. When the crosses were raised with the three nailed to them, the sky darkened and the earth rumbled. The pagans immediately tried to appease God by removing the three from their crosses. Miriam and St. Bartholomew lived, but St. Philip died on November 14, his last breath praising the Lord.


Italian professor Francesco D’Andria has announced the apparent discovery of the tomb of St. Philip, one of Jesus Christ’s apostles, at the ancient city of Hierapolis in the Aegean province of Denizli. Professor D’Andria has been leading archeological excavations at the ancient city for 32 years.

Profesor D'Andria said, "Until recently, we thought the grave of St. Philip was on Martyrs’ Hill, but we discovered no traces of him in the geophysical research conducted in that area. A month ago, we discovered the remnants of an unknown church, 40 meters away from the St. Philip Church on Martyrs’ Hill. And in that church we discovered the grave of St. Philip.

“St. Philip is considered a martyr. In fact, the church built in his name on the Martyrs’ Hill is, for this reason, also called Martyrion, despite the fact there were no traces of the grave of St. Philip. As we were cleaning out the new church we discovered a month ago, we finally found the grave. With close examination, we determined that the grave had been moved from its previous location in the St. Philip Church to this new church in the fifth century, during the Byzantine era. We are extremely happy and proud to have discovered the grave of a saint whose name appears in the bible – this surely is an important discovery for religious tourism, archaeology and Christendom."

St. Philip, pray for us.

St Joseph the Worker

Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker in 1955. But the relationship between Joseph and workers has a longer history.

To keep Jesus from being removed from ordinary human life, the Church has proudly emphasized that Jesus was a carpenter, trained by Joseph in that vocation. Humanity is like God not only in thinking and loving, but also in creating. Whether we make a table or a cathedral, we are called to bear fruit with our hands and mind, ultimately for the building up of the Body of Christ.

“The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it” (Genesis 2:15). The Father created all and asked humanity to continue the work of creation. We find our dignity in our work, in raising a family, in participating in the life of the Father’s creation. Joseph the Worker was able to help participate in the deepest mystery of creation. Pius XII emphasized this when he said, “The spirit flows to you and to all men from the heart of the God-man, Savior of the world, but certainly, no worker was ever more completely and profoundly penetrated by it than the foster father of Jesus, who lived with Him in closest intimacy and community of family life and work. Thus, if you wish to be close to Christ, we again today repeat, ‘Go to Joseph’” (see Genesis 41:44).