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Prot.
N. 451/00/L
October 5
BLESSED FRANCIS XAVIER SEELOS, PRIEST
Blessed Francis was born
in Fussen, Germany in 1819. He entered the diocesan
seminary upon completion of his studies in philosophy.
After coming to know the charism of the Congregation of
the Most Holy Redeemer, he decided to join it and to go
to North America. He entered the novitiate on April 20,
1843, and, after completing his theological studies, he
was ordained a priest on December 22, 1844. He began his
pastoral ministry in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as
assistant pastor of his confrere St. John Neumann, while
at the same time serving as Master of Novices and
dedicating himself to preaching. He became a full-time
itinerant missionary preacher, preaching in English and
German in a number of different states in North America.
He died in New Orleans, Louisiana, on October 4, 1867,
at the age of 48.
Office of Readings
Second Reading
From the Letters of Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos,
priest
Archives of the
Baltimore Province
Place nothing ahead of God's love
This desire to bring
a sacrifice to God again and again extends to everything
that I ever loved in this life, and upon which my heart
was set.
When I think of the beauties of nature, these do
not stir up longing and melancholy, but I am filled with
the greatest joy, because, since I am not giving God any
real and true gifts, I can give him imagined and
pretended ones. At the same time, in the overflowing of
my good fortune, I cannot at all get away from the
thought that in heaven God will give me those that, for
him, I have forsaken in the world, and for this I also
constantly pray.
And so, the novitiate and its completion, the
taking of vows, the life with confreres of the Order,
and above all, the insight to cherish these goods to the
best of my ability, so that there is nothing left for me
to desire, except to fulfill my duties better - these
were the first blessings of divine mercy.
Everything was completely against my nature. But
precisely the joyful acceptance of them, in God's
boundless grace, made so clear to me the mystery of
renunciation and patience in this world that I feel that
I am much too fortunate in the possession of my
religious confreres and all the spiritual and temporal
blessings that are bound together with it. And what is
still more, that God has exalted me so high as to
announce the Gospel to the poor, and to teach, and share
with them his treasures.
Every offering has value only insofar as one
snatches it away from one's own benefit and dedicates it
to God through this self-conquest. One loves and gives
precisely because one loves, and because one considers
what is given as a good, as a treasure. Love of
creatures must be subordinated to the love of God, whom
one is pledged to love above all things.
Time, in which we have found nothing to offer up
to God, is lost for eternity. If it is only the duties
of our vocation that we fulfill with dedication to the
will of God; if it is the sweat of our faces that, in
resignation, we wipe from our brow without murmuring; if
it is suffering, temptations, difficulties with our
fellowmen - everything we can present to God as an
offering and can, through them, become like Jesus his
Son. Where the sacrifice is great and manifold, there,
in the same proportion, is the hope of glory more deeply
and more securely grounded in the heart of him who makes
it.
Responsory Ps 119,
1-2; Mk 8, 34
R/. Blessed are they
whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord
* Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him
with all their heart
V/. Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross and follow me
* Blessed are they who observe his decrees, who seek him
with all their heart |
