Monday of the First Week of Advent

Mass Propers for Monday of the First Week of Advent:
Entrance Antiphon, Cf. Jer 31:10; Is 35:4:

Hear the word of the Lord, O nations; declare it to the distant lands: Behold, our Savior will come; you need no longer fear.

Gospel Verse, Cf. Ps 80:4:

Come and save us, Lord our God; let your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

Communion Antiphon, Cf. Ps 106 (105):4-5; Is 38:3:

Come, O Lord, visit us in peace, that we may rejoice before you with a blameless heart.

Advent is the time for renewal or repentance for the coming of Christ. “Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one’s life, with hope in God’s mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart)” (CCC, 1431). Today’s Gospel (Matthew 8:5-11) of the Centurion and his servant illustrates both the invitation for all, from both East and West, to come to Christ. The Centurion gives us words for our heart for trust and mercy in his grace, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof: only say the word and my servant will be healed.”

The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. James of the Marches (1391-1476). St. James became a doctor of canon and civil law, and then decided to live austerely as a Franciscan friar. St. James studied theology with Saint John of Capistrano. He became a popular preacher, traveling all over Italy and through 13 Central and Eastern European countries converting an estimated 250,000. He is considered one of the fathers of the modern day pawn shop.

     Jesse Tree, Day 2 ~ Adam and Eve
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St. James of the Marches
The small town of Montebrandone, on the eastern coast of Italy, called the March of Ancona, gave birth to this Saint in the year 1391. While still young he was sent to the University of Perugia, where his progress in learning soon qualified him to be chosen preceptor to the children of a young gentleman of Perugia. He went with him to Florence, to aid in the administration of a juridical office the nobleman had obtained there; but realizing that he was about to be engulfed in the whirlpool of worldly excesses in which he found himself, Saint James applied himself to prayer and recollection, and thought of entering the Carthusian Order.

When traveling one day near Assisi, however, he went into the Church of the Portiuncula to pray, and moved by the fervor of the holy men who there served God and by the example of their blessed founder Saint Francis, he determined to petition in that very place for the habit of the Order. He was then twenty-one years of age; he received the habit near Assisi, at the convent of Our Lady of the Angels. He began his spiritual war against the world, the flesh and the devil in prayer and silence in his cell, joining extraordinary fasts and vigils to his assiduous prayer. He fell ill with a number of different illnesses which for thirty years he endured with heroic patience, without ever exempting himself from saying Holy Mass or assisting at the offices in common. For forty years he never passed a day without taking the discipline.

When, through the response of the Mother of Heaven to his prayers, he became able to preach, he carried out that ministry with such great fervor and power that he never failed to touch the most hardened hearts and produce truly miraculous conversions. He joined Saint John of Capistrano to preach a crusade against the Turks, who had become masters of Constantinople and were terrorizing Western Europe. At Buda he effected the miraculous cessation of a furious sedition by simply showing the crucifix to the people; the rebels themselves took him upon their shoulders and carried him through the streets of the city. At Prague he brought back to God many who had fallen into error, and when a magician wanted to dispute with him, he rendered him mute and thus obliged him to retire in confusion. He traveled through the northern Provinces, into Germany, Dalmatia, Hungary, Poland, Norway and Denmark and many other places; he went without any provisions other than his confidence in God. If he found no aid or was without lodging he rejoiced in his union with Lady Poverty, to whom he was joined by his religious profession.

When he was called back to Italy to labor against a heresy, he acquired new persecutors who attempted in several ways, including ambushes, poison, calumny and the arousing of seditions against him, to do away with him. But God delivered him each time from the most adroitly conceived artifices. When chosen as Archbishop of Milan, he fled, and could not be prevailed on to accept the office. He brought about several miracles at Venice and at other places, often by the simple Holy Name of Jesus written on a paper. He raised from dangerous illness the Duke of Calabria and the King of Naples. The Saint died in the Franciscan convent of the Holy Trinity near Naples, to which city the Holy Father had sent him at the prayer of its King, Ferdinand. The date was the 28th of November of the year 1476; he was ninety years old, and had spent seventy of those years in religion.

—Excerpted from Les Petits Bollandistes: Vies des Saints, by Msgr. Paul Guérin (Bloud et Barral: Paris, 1882), Vol. 13; Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on Butler’s Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).

Patronage: Monteprandone, Italy; Naples, Italy

Often Represented As: priest holding in his right hand a chalice from which a snake is escaping;
chalice and serpent; Franciscan holding a chalice and a veil; Franciscan with a staff, castanets at his girdle, pointing to IHS (from CatholicSaints.info)

Highlights and Things To Do:

• St. James is considered one of the “fathers of the modern pawnshop!…To combat extremely high interest rates, James established montes pietatis—literally, mountains of charity—nonprofit credit.” organizations that lent money on pawned objects at very low rates. (from Franciscan Media.
• St. James lived a very austere life. He was a skinny man who dressed in a tattered habit. He fasted every day until his health began to fail. The pope ordered him to eat as a public service, and St. Bernardine of Siena told him to moderate his penances. We can’t think to possibly take up the same practices, but his approach in loving God and giving of his whole self is an inspiring example.
• The Order of Friars Minor are known as the “Observants,” usually called Franciscan friars. Their official name: “Friars Minor” with the abbreviation OFM. The Franciscan saints John of Capistrano, Albert of Sarteano, and Bernardine of Siena, and James Marche are considered the “four pillars” of the Friars Minor. All four of these saints were well-known for their preaching.
• St. James Marche’s relics have been preserved in Saints Maria La Nova in Naples.

MASS READINGS

November 28, 2022 (Readings on USCCB website)

COLLECT PRAYER

Monday of the First Week of Advent: Keep us alert, we pray, O Lord our God, as we await the advent of Christ your Son, so that, when he comes and knocks, he may find us watchful in prayer and exultant in his praise. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/liturgicalyear/calendar/day.cfm?date=2022-11-28&

Daily Meditation: Matthew 8:5-11

In no one in Israel have I found such faith. (Matthew 8:10)

The Roman centurion in today’s Gospel reading was a practical man. He had heard about Jesus’ miracles and healings, so he knew where to go when his servant was ill. He even trusted that Jesus didn’t have to be physically present in order to heal his servant. And so Jesus not only healed from a distance, but praised the centurion for his faith (Matthew 8:10).

Why was this Gentile man able to see so clearly the power and authority of Jesus when many of Israel’s religious leaders did not? Perhaps it was because he came to Jesus with no misconceptions or assumptions. He saw and he believed. He didn’t think, “But this man is breaking the Sabbath” or “But he eats with tax collectors and prostitutes.” He didn’t have expectations that biased him against the reality of what he had seen and heard.

We believe in Jesus’ power and authority to heal, but sometimes our own misconceptions can act as obstacles as well. For example, we might think that miraculous healings don’t happen today or that only the prayers of saints can heal people. Or we might think that God won’t answer us when we pray for healing. Maybe we don’t ask for healing because we have become so resigned to the situation that we think nothing will ever change.

If any of this describes you, try to follow the example of this Roman centurion. Tell yourself, “I believe that Jesus heals, and so I will ask for this healing,” or “Through my baptism, Jesus has given me a share in his authority to heal, so I can pray with this person who is suffering.” Then, after you pray, you can surrender the outcome to the Lord. You have acted in faith, and that’s all Jesus is asking of you.

God wants to heal and wants to use us as instruments to heal other people. It’s that simple. So let’s clear away any misconceptions or assumptions that tempt us to question that reality. Keep believing and keep praying, and the Lord will praise your faith, just as he did for this Roman centurion.

“Jesus, I believe that you can heal. Help me to be ready and willing to pray for healing whenever I see a need.”

Isaiah 4:2-6
Psalm 122:1-9