This week, we liturgically celebrate some significant saints: St. Francis of Assisi on October 4, St. Faustina Kowalska on October 5, and St. Bruno on October 6.
We are most familiar with the story of Francis, one of the Church’s most beloved saints, the carefree youth, born in Italy in 1182, who experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ, embraced a radical poverty, and started the Franciscan movement, which transformed the medieval Church of his time.
Francis died on October 3, 1226. We may be less familiar with Ss. Faustina and Bruno.
St. Faustina
St. Faustina, born in Poland in 1905, was the third of 10 children in a poor but devout family.
She felt an early calling to the Religious Life, which reached its apex when she was 18 and at a dance in a park.
During the evening, she had a vision of Jesus, who asked her, “How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting me off?”
She immediately took a train to Warsaw, where she knew no one, and without asking her parents’ permission.
After many obstacles and difficulties, she took her vows as a sister and received the habit.
On the night of February 22, 1932, Jesus appeared to St. Faustina in her cell, wearing a white garment with red and white rays emanating from His Heart.
The Lord instructed her to have an image of His Divine Mercy painted and that the Second Sunday of Easter should be designated as Divine Mercy Sunday.
In many subsequent visions and conversations with Jesus, St. Faustina recorded in her diary the substance of what she learned from the Lord concerning His Divine Mercy.
Later published as a 700-page book, Divine Mercy in My Soul has spanned the globe, touching millions of the faithful with a deeper devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and His Mercy, and inspiring them to place their absolute trust in Christ and His infinite love.
St. Faustina died of tuberculosis at the age of 33 on October 5, 1938, less than a year before the outbreak of World War II.
Just a few miles from the site of Auschwitz, the Lord used a humble and hidden Nun to reveal the triumph of His merciful love.
St. Bruno
St. Bruno was born in Cologne in 1030, studied theology in France, was ordained a priest, founded a prestigious school for the study of philosophy and theology in Reims, where he served as a brilliant professor, and later as the chancellor of the diocese.
Refusing to become a bishop, Bruno settled in southeast France with six companions to live as hermits, dedicated to prayer, silence, and poverty.
Through this path of radical asceticism, he founded the Carthusians, one of the most austere and solitary Religious Orders in the Church. Bruno died on October 6, 1101.
Carthusian monks live in their simple cells, where they pray, study, work, eat, and sleep, alone with God.
Their only communal time is daily Mass, the chanting of the Divine Office, and several hours of recreation once a week.
Models for us
In each of this week’s saints, we perceive a deep interiority — a mystical life of prayerful union with God, a desire for solitude and hiddenness, a devotion to the Church and her sacraments, a longing for a radical holiness which emptied them of selfishness and ego.
Conversely, we also see their profound impact on the wider Church and the world.
The life and ideals of Francis of Assisi transformed the Church and society of his time, continuing to inspire millions of Christians who seek an authentic and joyful way to truly live the Gospel.
St. Faustina’s mystical experiences and writings concerning the Divine Mercy continue to form our understanding and experience of the tender love of God, poured forth in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Through his theological teaching, ecclesial service, and eremitical life of prayer, St. Bruno deeply influenced both the spiritual and intellectual life of the Church.
These saints model for us the need to live our Catholic faith, in both its interior and exterior aspects.
At the core of our Christian discipleship is our prayerful union with God, manifested through our participation in the sacraments, the study of Scripture, the practice of devotions, and daily prayer.
This inner life of the Holy Spirit within us is the core of our identity as children of God, the meaning of our lives, and the foretaste of our eternal salvation in Christ.
When we are faithful to the Lord in a deep pursuit of mystical union with Him, God will use us to teach, love, and inspire others to draw close to Christ and His saving Gospel.
In our values, speech, actions, and virtues, we give witness to the truth and charity of Jesus and the transforming power of faith.
Because of its rejection of God and spiritual reality, our culture today is debased, rootless; subject to ideology, manipulation, and the subjugation of the human person to sin, evil, and death.
What our society needs today more than anything else are saints, individuals who are so in love with Christ that they serve as sentinels of the dawn and servants of the Truth.
That is where you and I come in!