Novena to Blessed Solanus Casey-Day 9

Day 9 — Feast of Blessed Solanus — The Potter and the Clay

Throughout this Novena we have learned about the lives of the many saints whose feasts led up to this day, as well as the faith and holiness of Fr. Solanus Casey.  Today let us consider these themes together in the light of the first reading.  The themes from the past 8 days:

• Recognizing Jesus in others;
• The blessings of marriage and family-life;
• Conversion of heart leading to unity, peace, and joy;
• Suffering well with Jesus; giving our trials in every moment;
• Living in gratitude and thanking God ahead of time;
• Noticing little blessings that grow our lives in Christ;
• Simple faith that encourages others;
• Giving hospitality to others and listening to Jesus in them.

All of these themes were manifest in the life of Blessed Solanus.  He was like the potter in the first reading today, and he allowed the grace of Jesus Christ to flow through his actions and words into other people. 

“This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Rise up, be off to the potter’s house; there I will give you my message. I went down to the potter’s house and there he was, working at the wheel. Whenever the object of clay which he was making turned out badly in his hand, he tried again, making of the clay another object of whatever sort he pleased. Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I not do to you, house of Israel, as this potter has done? says the LORD. Indeed, like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, house of Israel” (Jer 18:1-6).

Fr. Solanus did the work of God day-by-day, greeting people, feeding them, listening to them, and interceding for them.  Were all his prayers answered right away?  No, but God, the true Potter, continued to work the clay to form it according to His will.  This is how prayer works.  Saint Paul says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). God will take every part of our lives and make it into something good. There is nothing that He cannot use for our good.

We are the clay, but we can also be the potter!  The families that we grow up in are the trinitarian image of God’s love that continually form us, pick us up when things are going badly, and start anew.  The saints we meet in our everyday lives are God’s forming hands that encourage us and pray for us.  (Blessed are we to have even one of these saints of God in our lives!).  Just as God showed Jeremiah what He can do through the example of a potter, God shows us what He can do through everyday saints like Blessed Solanus.  We are called to be imitators!

Today, on his feast day, let us ask Blessed Solanus to intercede for our Church, that we will be the image of the most loving and merciful Jesus to our families and to our world.  Let us pray that as the potter, in the image of the divine Potter, we will be patient and gentle;  and that as the clay we will receive with joy and gratitude the blessings the Potter gives.  Amen.  Alleluia!

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You.  I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your will, bless us with the Canonization of

Father Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your will,

to hear my prayer for…(your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Novena to Blessed Solanus Casey-Day 8

Day 8 — Saint Martha, patroness of Christian hospitality, invites us to open the doors of our hearts to a life of warm and gracious hospitality, especially in times that can be too self-centered, exaggerating the need for privacy.

“Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak.” (Lk 10:38-39).

The passage from Luke is the optional Gospel for today’s feast of Saint Martha; it is fitting for the petition for today.  The Scriptures do not say if Jesus knew Martha and Mary yet, but it was clear that He was not only welcomed by a woman, but sat at table in the home of the two sisters.  Something radical is going on: in this instance openness to Jesus requires letting go of social norms.  In fact, openness to Jesus will require letting go of something.  In return, Jesus gives Himself, life-giving water through His words.  There is a communion established when we listen to Jesus. There is a continuous giving and receiving through our listening and hearing. Martha welcomed and provided the food to eat.  Jesus spoke. Mary listened.

This form of gracious hospitality was not foreign to Blessed Solanus.  As the Porter of the Capuchin Monastery, he welcomed, fed, and listened to all who knocked on the door.  He saw Jesus in everyone and treated them as Martha and Mary treated Jesus in the Gospel.  There are two stories that illustrate his hospitality charism, as well as his extraordinary faith.  One day during the Great Depression the soup kitchen had run out of bread.  Fr. Solanus was greeting the 200 souls still in line.  He prayed an Our Father, and soon a baker’s truck pulled up to deliver bread and all were fed.  In another story, Fr. Solanus was suffering from a cold, yet he continued his ministry of listening and counseling. Fr. Solanus said (and I paraphrase), “Jesus stopped to comfort the weeping women while carrying His cross; this is the least I can do.”

Indeed, today it is difficult for us to practice this kind of radical hospitality.  Let us pray today for the grace to see Jesus in everyone we meet, to listen to His (their) stories, and to give them what they need.

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You.  I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your will, bless us with the Canonization of

Father Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your will,

to hear my prayer for…(your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Just for fun, listen to the Queen of Soul tell the story of Jesus, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus!

Aretha Franklin sings the story of the Rising of Lazarus (Mary, Don’t You Weep; Martha, Don’t You Moan)

Novena to Blessed Solanus Casey-Day 7

Day 7 —  July 28, 2020 — Blessed Maria Teresa Kowalska, Capuchin Poor Clare martyred by Nazis in a concentration camp, 1941: in contrast to her time and ours, invites us to open wide the doors of our hearts to welcome in and appreciate brothers/sisters of different races, religions, cultures.

“We wait for peace, to no avail; for a time of healing, but terror comes instead. We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness, the guilt of our fathers; that we have sinned against you. For your name’s sake spurn us not, disgrace not the throne of your glory; remember your covenant with us, and break it not” (Jer 14:19c-21).

Today we receive a harsh-sounding word from the prophet Jeremiah.  It is spoken as calamity comes upon Judah.  Jeremiah had warned them that the consequences of their injustice, their false worship, and their indifference to the blessings of God would be very grave.  Seeing this in the light of the Gospel for today: the seeds that God had sown in Judah had not been cared for, and the weeds were taking over.  Jeremiah was living in the midst of this tribulation and he offered, on behalf of his people, a prayer of repentance; a prayer for mercy.

Blessed Maria Teresa Kowalska (b. 1902) did the same as she suffered and died from sickness in a Nazi concentration camp in Dzialdowo, Poland.  She endured the calamity of the Nazi invasion of Poland with grace. As a young girl she lived a “pious and exemplary life,” receiving full initiation into the Catholic faith at the age of eighteen.  On the contrary, her father was a devout atheist.  Moved by his socialist ideals, he decided to emigrate with the family to the Soviet Union in 1922. Maria Teresa, on the other hand, entered a Poor Clare Monastery in Poland.  Her diary tells stories of her choosing “the difficult, enclosed life of the Capuchin Poor Clares in order to serve God and to offer herself in expiation for the sins of her family that had allied itself with communism.” After many years in the monastery, on 2 April 1941, she and 35 nuns were take to Dzialdowo. She died there on 25 July 1941. Sister Maria Teresa Kowalska offered her life for the sins of her family, and for the grace of release for her Sisters in the concentration camp.  God heard her prayers.  The Sisters were released on 7 August, 1941.

The great faith and confidence in the Lord of Blessed Solanus also won countless answers to prayer.  While Maria Teresa’s personal suffering reaped the graces of freedom for her sisters, the mission of Blessed Solanus was to accompany others in their suffering, truly living the exhortation of St. Paul to “bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:8). Fr. Solanus would accompany people in their darkest situations. His prayers bore the fruit of radical conversions, miraculous healings, and countless favors from God. Through his charism of intercessory prayer and his expectant faith that would always “thank God ahead of time,” God planted new seeds of faith into His suffering faithful.

Today let us pray for the charisms of intercessory prayer and encouragement, that through simple faith we as individuals and communities can open the doors of our hearts to the suffering of others, especially those who are from different races and cultures.

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You.  I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your will, bless us with the Canonization of

Father Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your will,

to hear my prayer for…(your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Novena to Blessed Solanus Casey-Day 6

Day 6 —  July 27, 2020 — Blessed Mary Magdalene Martinengo (Capuchin Poor Clare) She invites us to open the door of our heart to discover God’s presence in the midst of our ordinary, unspectacular lives.

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches’” (Mt 13:31-32).

It may seem like the thoughts we think or the things we do at any particular moment don’t mean very much.  Jesus tells us differently.  The smallest of the seeds grows into a giant bush and supports the livelihood of the birds of the sky.  The Lord said to us in the Sunday readings not so long ago, that the word “that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is 55:11).  The seeds of the Word of God within us will bloom into holy lives that love and nurture our neighbor, building His Kingdom through us.

Blessed Mary Magdalene Martinengo was an example of this phenomenon of God’s simple Word bearing fruit one hundred fold.  She was a Capuchin nun with great mystical gifts founded in her total availability to the will of God in serving others.  One scholar claimed that she “became dish-washer, kitchen hand, porter, gardener, baker, sweeper, wardrobe keeper, laundress, wool weaver, shoe maker, cellarer, seamstress, chancellor or secretary, embroiderer, sacristy assistant, and without ever having the task of nurse, she nevertheless spontaneously undertook the lowliest and most burdensome of services.”  What may seem like a monotonous life bloomed into beatification by Pope Leo XIII in 1900.

Blessed Solanus Casey lived with a similar simplicity.  He struggled with his studies and was ordained as a “priest simplex,” and therefore did not have the faculties to hear confessions or to preach.  His humble response to this disappointment was to give one of the greatest gifts to others that one can give — a listening ear.  His ministry of mercy was nourished by a deep love for Jesus, which he shared with everyone he met, and in every moment.

Today let us pray to notice the little blessings and to be grateful for them, knowing that they are building our lives in Christ.

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You.  I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your will, bless us with the Canonization of

Father Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your will,

to hear my prayer for…(your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”

Novena to Blessed Solanus Casey-Day 2

Day 2 — The Memorial of Saint Brigid of Sweden: we are invited to open the doors of our hearts (especially during times of upheaval and uncertainty) to the holiness of marriage and family life.

“How precious is your mercy, O God! The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings. They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house; from your delightful stream you give them to drink” (Ps 36:2-3).

The family is the fundamental unit of society and is a refuge for children “in the shadow of [the Lord’s] wings.”  There is no societal institution that can support, nurture, and educate children like one in which the mother and the father are unified through marriage, and live in harmony. In the Gospel today Jesus speaks of “knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven” that is freely given to His disciples.  The family is the first school of discipleship.  Indeed, family life provides the “prime gifts” of which the psalm speaks, and in which the material and spiritual needs of persons are best met.  The family is meant to image the Blessed Trinity in its love and unity, and be God’s light of truth to the world.

St. Bridget of Sweden (c. 1303-1373), whose memorial we celebrate today, lived her married life serving as lady-in-waiting to the queen in the court of the Swedish king Magnus II. She was the mother of eight children.  She received mystical visions that compelled her to serve the sick, often with her children in tow.  She did her best to be a holy influence on the king and his court, eventually encouraging him to give her not only what she needed to care for the poor and sick, but also to found a monastery for men and women.  She is a true example of a disciple, formed and nurtured through family life, who then brought the healing love of Jesus to the world.

Blessed Solanus was formed and nurtured as a disciple in the domestic Church as the sixth of 16 children born to Irish immigrant parents in Big River, Wisconsin.  He had nine brothers and six sisters!  Fr. Solanus once recalled his father’s exhortation to him and his brothers, “Prayer, boys, prayer!”  His mother taught him to pray the Rosary, and this became his favorite daily devotion. Several of his siblings also entered religious life.  The Casey household was a school of divine love, and was a springboard that propelled Solanus to continually live in the presence of God and serve as a powerful witness of Jesus’ love for all.

Today let us pray for a renewal of marriage and family life, and for all those who are suffering difficulties in their marriages and families — that God’s healing love is poured out upon them in abundance!

Prayer for the Canonization of Father Solanus Casey

O God, I adore You.  I give myself to You.

May I be the person You want me to be,

and may Your will be done in my life today.

I thank You for the gifts You gave Father Solanus.

If it is Your will, bless us with the Canonization of

Father Solanus so that others may imitate

and carry on his love for all the poor and suffering of our world.

As he joyfully accepted Your divine plans,

I ask You, according to Your will,

to hear my prayer for…(your intention)

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

“Blessed be God in all His designs.”