Our Spiritual Advisor for October
De Colores! My Sisters and Brothers in Christ.
Have you ever considered the difference between the secular calendar versus the Church’s Calendar? The two calendars are vastly different because the secular calendar centers our lives around it. We use the secular calendar to help organize our lives. It helps us make and keep appointments and know where we are to be on a specific day and time.
I often wonder how aware people are of the Church’s calendar. Do you ever give much thought to where we are in the life of the Church at any given time? We know the major seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, and Easter. We know of the Major celebrations of Ash Wednesday, the Ascension of the Lord, Pentecost Sunday, and the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (corpus Christi). The Church calendar starts with the first Sunday of Advent on December third this year and ends with the Thirty-fourth week of Ordinary time. Are we aware of the different feast day of Mary, the Saints, and the Angels we celebrate yearly? The Church invites us to celebrate these special people for who they were and what they did. I encourage you to read and learn more about these people of faith in October.
During the Sundays of October, we celebrate the Twenty-Sixth through the Thirtieth Sundays of Ordinary time. Do you know that I write a short daily reflection on the Gospel daily on Facebook?
On October Second, we celebrate the Holy Guardian Angels. Our faith teaches us to believe that each of us has an angel to help guide us through life. Do you know your special messenger from God?
October Fourth, the Church remembers St. Francis of Assisi, celebrate St. Faustina Kowalska, a Polish Religious Sister known as the messenger of Divine Mercy. Also on this day, I observe a Redemptorist, Bless Francis Xavier Seelos, a priest who served throughout the United States and died in New Orleans in 1867.
On October Sixth, the Church celebrates St. Bruno, a priest who founded the Carthusian Order in Germany. In North America, we celebrate Blessed Marie Rose Durocher, a Canadian religious sister who founded the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary to educate children in Canada. She is also known as a patron for those who are sick. On many Saturdays, we celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On October seventh, we remember Our Lady of the Rosary.
On October Ninth, we have St. Denis and Companions who became martyrs for the faith. St. Denis was a bishop in Paris, France, in the third century; also, on the Ninth of October, St. John Leonardi, and Italian Priest and Patron of Pharmacists.
On October Eleventh, we remember St. John XXIII, the first pope I remember in my lifetime, who initiated the Second Vatican Council that brought many changes to our Church.
Another Pope we celebrate on October Fourteenth is St. Callistus, a martyr who emphasized God’s mercy in his ministry.
October Sixteenth is a special day for me as a Redemptorist Brother where the Church remember St. Gerard Majella, the patron of mothers and their unborn children. Also, on that day, the Church remembers St. Hedwig, a Religious Sister who died in 1243, and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, a French nun whose visions of Christ helped to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Seventeenth of October, the Church celebrates Sat. Ignatius of Antioch, Bishop and Martyr; on the Eighteenth, St. Luke Evangelist is celebrated.
On October Nineteenth, in North America, the Church celebrates Saints John de Brebeuf and Isaac Jogues, companions and Martyrs. These men were members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). the first missionaries to the North American Indians.
On October Twentieth, the Church celebrates St. Paul of the Cross, who founded the Passionist Congregation.
October Twenty-Third, the Church celebrates St. John of Capistrano, a Franciscan Priest in the 15th century and leader of an army that liberated Belgrade from the Turkish invasion.
October Twenty-Fourth, the Church remembers St. Anthony Mary Claret, Bishop of Santiago, Cuba and founder of the Claretians.
Saturday, October Twenty-Eighth, the Church celebrates the Apostles Simon and Jude. There are so many beautiful things we can learn this month. Let us also continue to remember the women working and living their Cursillo weekend on the weekend of October 12-15.
Brother Daniel Hall, CSSR