Dear Friends,
This is Veterans Day weekend – an occasion to remind ourselves of the importance to honor all those who have risked life, limb and mind for our country. We bring all of these heroes and heroines in prayer to God at all the Masses this weekend. We also thank and pray for all the law enforcement officials who live and work tirelessly to keep us safe.
At our 10 am Mass today we honor St. Martin De Porres who is the patron of our Parish St. Martin De Porres Society. Martin was born in Lima, Peru. At fifteen he began his long relationship with the Dominican Order and later took his vows as a brother. His painful childhood taught him compassion and generosity. As a Dominican he doctored Lima’s sick. While surgery was primitive in his day, he had a vast knowledge of herbal medicines. In addition to his free services as a doctor, he distributed thousands of dollars worth of food and clothing to the poor each week. He founded an orphanage for abandoned children and staffed it with the best teachers, nurses and guardians he could hire. On the hills near Lima, he planted fruit orchards for the poor. He is also remembered for his love of animals. Pope John XXIII remarked at Martin’s canonization on May 6, 1962, that Martin excused the faults of others and forgave the bitterest injuries. He tried with all his might to redeem the guilty; lovingly comforting the sick and providing food, clothing and medicine for the poor.
This week there are a number of interesting saints In the liturgical calendar:
St. Martin of Tours (Monday), St. Josaphat (Tuesday), St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Wednesday), St. Albert the Great (Friday), and St. Margaret of Scotland & St. Gertrude (Saturday). Among these, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini – the first US citizen to be canonized – is of special importance to us. Many of us may have visited the Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan and seen her partially incorrupt body under glass.
Earlier this year, the movie ‘Cabrini’ was in theaters nationwide. For those of us who watched, it was a beautiful experience to know more about her life and legacy. Born in 1850, Cabrini nearly drowned as a child, her lungs were damaged, and she was rejected by several religious orders on the basis of ill health. Ultimately, she founded her own Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and added Xavier to her name, after the Jesuit saint Francis Xavier. Since her early childhood in Italy, Frances had wanted to be a missionary in China but, at the urging of Pope Leo XIII, Frances went west instead of east. She traveled with six sisters to New York City to work with the thousands of Italian immigrants living there.
She found disappointment and difficulties with every step. When she arrived in New York, the house intended to be her first orphanage in the United States was not available. The archbishop advised her to return to Italy. But Frances, truly a valiant woman, departed from the archbishop’s residence all the more determined to establish that orphanage. And she did. In 35 years, Frances Xavier Cabrini founded 67 institutions dedicated to caring for the poor, the abandoned, the uneducated and the sick. She was canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII.
This daring woman’s determination to follow God’s will in her life with such dedication and compassion for the sick and poor is truly remarkable and inspirational.
Your brother in Christ,
Fr. Abraham Orapankal