Dear John, Peace and good to you! This is the second day of our 125k match campaign, which will run through Easter of next year. We have 159 days left! The money for this match will go toward helping Franciscan Media (FM) pivot into its new identity of being faithfully Catholic, authentically Franciscan. Click here to make a donation today! More information about this will be shared in future e-newsletters and on our social media channels and website. In our Saint of the Day, we see that St. Josaphat thought it was important to align the Ruthenian Orthodox Church with the Roman Catholic Church, and he was martyred because of it. St. Francis also thought that the reform of society happens best in and through the Church, which is why he sought permission from Pope Innocent III to preach and live in religious community. Franciscan Media is changing to make a more concerted effort to support the Catholic Church’s mission of evangelization. By reorganizing our current resources (and creating new ones) around this focus, we hope to lead people to Christ, through Mary, in the manner of Sts. Francis and Clare. But this can’t happen without your support! If you would like to speak to me directly to find out more about this campaign and how to become a major supporter, please contact me at mhalbach@franciscanmedia.org. |
Deacon Matthew Halbach, PhD
President & Publisher, Franciscan Media
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Saint of the Day for November 12: Josaphat (c. 1580 – November 12, 1623) Listen to Saint Josaphat’s Story Here In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. John Kunsevich—who took the name Josaphat in religious life—was to dedicate his life, and die for the same cause. Born in what is now Ukraine, he went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic. At a relatively young age, upon becoming both bishop of Vitebsk and archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union. But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland. Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled. The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop’s home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome. Josaphat’s death brought a movement toward Catholicism and unity, but the controversy continued, and the dissidents, too, had their martyr. After the partition of Poland, the Russians forced most Ruthenians to join the Russian Orthodox Church. In 1964, newspaper photos of Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. Reflection The seeds of separation were sown in the fourth century when the Roman Empire was divided into East and West. The actual split came over customs such as using unleavened bread, Saturday fasting, and celibacy. No doubt the political involvement of religious leaders on both sides was a large factor, and doctrinal disagreement was present. But no reason was enough to justify the present tragic division in Christendom, which is 64 percent Roman Catholic, 13 percent Eastern—mostly Orthodox—Churches, and 23 percent Protestant, and this when the 71 percent of the world that is not Christian should be experiencing unity and Christ-like charity from Christians
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Are you looking for a simple way to have a more meaningful Advent season with your family, youth group, or friends? Look no further! Join author, Susan Hines-Brigger, and mom, Patty Crawford, on this daily Advent journey. |
Give Thanks for the Emptiness I walked last night down past the houses until there was only a wildlife refuge, dunes on the left, empty beach on the right. It was not really “empty.” So what is “empty”—that hunger within? We think there is nothing there. But what if we’re full of sea grasses and long-legged birds trotting in the gifts of the sea, being fed, trusting in the bounty of the foam sizzling, hissing as the wave recedes? What if the empty place within is a place we would actually sacrifice to travel to? A place where houses, lamplight, people recede as well? What if you kept contentedly, even joyfully, walking into that space of what could be called desolate, solitary, uninhabited? If you let this place inside show its ecosphere? Its air and light, its vastness? If you let that spaciousness inside, which you have so long feared, reveal how many miles it actually is? You were always so afraid of the emptiness taking you over, taking you down. But now, no longer troubled by it, it can show you its beauty, so big you cannot see where it leads, nor where it ends. You can never give enough thanks for the emptiness; it surrounds you so fully. Now, no longer denying it, it turns itself inside out. You’re hungry, running, free, alive. You’re airborne. —from the book Gather the Fragments: My Year of Finding God’s Love
by Maureen O’Brien |
Deliberate Affirmations Reflect We all know how the thrill of a new car, piece of clothing or any purchase can wear off. Psychologists call that natural human response “habituation”: we can get used to even the best gift, finest friend, or most supportive relative. We can offset that tendency by deliberately affirming another person’s goodness in specific ways. Pray Good and gracious God,
help me focus
on your gifts,
not my flaws or failures.
Thank you
for your presence
in each hour,
your joys
in each day. Amen. Act Compliment another person today, naming some small treasure you’ve always admired: a knack for sewing, a gift for gardening, a robust voice or buoyant sense of humor. Today’s Pause+Pray was written by Kathy Coffey. Learn more here! |
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