Hello John,
Perhaps like me, lately you are feeling a little rushed, stressed, and overburdened. I feel many outside pressures and influences on my life. Each day, I am so grateful to receive Franciscan Mediaâs newsletter because I can take a moment to pause and remember who I amâa child of God. And for a moment, I enter a sacred space and feel Godâs loving embrace. Renewed through this experience, I can go forward and accomplish the dayâs work. Thank you for being a part of our Franciscan Media family. I pray that todayâs email brings you peace, joy, and an experience of Godâs love. If you are inspired, please consider supporting the friars through this important work with a gift to Franciscan Media at: https://www.franciscanmedia.org/newsletter. |
Christopher Meyer
Director of Development |
Saint of the Day for April 15: Caesar de Bus (February 3, 1544 â April 15, 1607)
Saint Caesar de Busâ Story Like so many of us, Caesar de Bus struggled with the decision about what to do with his life. After completing his Jesuit education he had difficulty settling between a military and a literary career. He wrote some plays but ultimately settled for life in the army and at court. For a time, life was going rather smoothly for the engaging, well-to-do young Frenchman. He was confident he had made the right choice. That was until he saw firsthand the realities of battle, including the Saint Bartholomewâs Day massacres of French Protestants in 1572. He fell seriously ill and found himself reviewing his priorities, including his spiritual life. By the time he had recovered, Caesar had resolved to become a priest. Following his ordination in 1582, he undertook special pastoral work: teaching the catechism to ordinary people living in neglected, rural, out-of-the-way places. His efforts were badly needed and well received. Working with his cousin, Caesar developed a program of family catechesis. The goalâto ward off heresy among the peopleâmet the approval of local bishops. Out of these efforts grew a new religious congregation: the Fathers of Christian Doctrine. One of Caesarâs works, Instructions for the Family on the Four Parts of the Roman Catechism, was published 60 years after his death. He was beatified in 1975 and canonized in 2022. Reflection âFamily catechesisâ is a familiar term in parish life today. Grounded in the certainty that children learn their faith first from their parents, programs that deepen parental involvement in religious education multiply everywhere. There were no such programs in Caesarâs day until he saw a need and created them. Other needs abound in our parishes, and itâs up to us to respond by finding ways to fill them or by joining in already established efforts. |
Walk without Fear Fear is crippling. It has prevented me from doing so many things. I once heard a friend adamantly say, âI refuse to walk in fear!â Wow, how I admired that statement! What if I could do that? Not just say it? Walk without fear. I have a sense that Francis learned how to do that, to become that person. It is a grace I have yet to be givenâor to receive. I fear at times that I have populated my world with thinly clothed memories of life. Absent of real people. My saintsâ pictures and Sacred Hearts decorate my room. Would that they would spring to life and speak as the San Damiano cross did. âfrom the book Godâs Love Song: The Vision of Francis and Clare
by Murray Bodo, OFM, and Susan Saint Sing |
"Our culture presents men with the illusion of making decisions, but it effectively castrates them from charting actual new directions beyond and outside of the rat race. Men hardly ever have a chance to make decisions that make a real difference in their own lives or in the world around them, except in a minor diversionary way. They have to play the game, or they wonât be rewarded." âFrom Wild Man to Wise Man |
Praising God Reflect Why is praise such an important part of prayer? Again and again in Scripture, we are told of the need to praise Godâbut why? Do you think God needs our praise? Or is something else going on? What if the praise we offer God is really for us? A reminder that we are not the center of the universe, that there is something more. A reminder to look up, and to look beyond the surface of daily life. Prayer Heavenly Father,
Creator of all things, on the sixth day,
when you were finished making the
universe and everything that lives within it,
you praised your own creation.
I ask you, Lord, to open my lips and let praise pour forth,
that I may become more like you. Act Make a list of three things for which you are grateful. It could be your home, your job, your family, your health, or a special friend. Next, choose something (or someone) from your list and write down one thing that makes that person or that thing special to you. It could be a friendâs smile, sunlight on the leaves, the first sip of coffee on a cold winter morning, or the shade of an oak tree on a warm afternoon. Name it. Lastly, thank God for it, because gratitude is the beginning of praise. Today's Pause+Pray was written by Herman Sutter. Learn more here! |
This newsletter is not free to produce! Please consider making a donation to help us in our efforts to share God's love in the spirit of St. Francis. |
|
