The Day For Green!

St. Patrick's Day is a fun day to eat corn beef and cabbage and dance to folk music, but what a lot of people don't know is that this day is more then pots of gold being guarded by leprechauns and dressing all in green. St. Patrick's Day is actually a feast day for a person that actually lived. Patrick was born in the 5th century to Roman-British parents. As a teenager he was kidnapped by pirates and sold as a slave in Ireland to held herd and tend the sheep. Patrick was able to escape when he was twenty years old and returned home, after which he entered the seminary. After being ordained a priest he returned to the land of his captivity to show the druid oppressed people the truth. St. Patrick is the Patron Saint of Ireland.

If you would like to learn more about Saint Patrick, click here.

Hope you all have a fun, green-filled day! 

Weekly Saint Report - #2

St. John the Baptist

Saint John the Baptist was the son of faithful Jews, Zachariah, a priest, and Elizabeth, who was barren. According to the Gospel of St. Luke, the birth of John was announced by the angel Gabriel who visited Zachariah while he was performing priestly functions in the temple of Jerusalem. When Zachariah denied the angel’s proclamations, he was struck speechless at his un-belief in the power of God.

Not long after his wife, Elizabeth, announced she was with child. When Elizabeth was six months pregnant her young cousin Mary traveled from the neighboring town of Nazareth to help her during the remainder of the pregnancy. Mary had also been visited by the angel Gabriel who said that she also would have a child, who be be called the Messiah. When Elizabeth ran up to greet her cousin, the child in her womb leapt for joy for he had felt the presence of the Son of God in Mary’s womb.

When Zachariah and Elizabeth's baby was born, Zachariah regained his speech on the occasion when they named their baby, John.

Not much is known about the childhood of Saint John but we do now that when he was a young man, he disappeared into the desert to live a life of extreme fasting and prayer. Throughout the years he began to prophesy the coming of the Messiah; the Son of God. He drew many followers to himself through his teachings and converted many, baptizing thousands at the Jordan river.

It was at the Jordan river where Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, came to him and asked to be baptized. Recognizing Jesus as the Messiah he had been preaching about, John refuses saying, “It is not I who should baptize You... but You who should baptize me!” But Jesus persuaded John to baptize him, symbolizing Christ’s humanity. After John baptizes Jesus, the sky opens up and a dove alights on Jesus’ head while a voice says, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”

As Jesus leaves the Jordan, John introduces him to his disciples as the “Lamb of God.”

In another gospel account John is imprisoned for denouncing King Herod’s incestuous marriage to Herodias (who was not only his brother Phillip’s wife but also Herod’s niece) in violation of Old Testament Law. When Herdoias’ daughter Salome dances in front of Herod, he asks her what favor she desires in return. At the request of Herodias, Salome asks for the head of John the Baptist. St. John is then killed in approximately 28-36 CE, and his head is delivered to the princess on a gold platter.

St. John the Baptist was canonized during the Pre-Congregation of the Catholic Church. He is the patron of converts as well as many different cities and countries around the world.

If you would like to learn more about St. John, click here.

Weekly Saint Report - #1

So, I said last week that I'd be posting my weekly saint report I have to do for school every Friday. Well, its Friday people so here is my first report. Enjoy!

St. Joseph of Nazareth

Saint Joseph was born in approximately 90 BC to Jewish parents in the line of King David. He was a carpenter by trade and a very holy man. 

Later in life he became betrothed to the young virgin Mary, who was also from the line of Kind David. Not long after the betrothal, Mary told Joseph that she was with child. Since they were not yet living in the same house, Joseph knew the child was not his. At that time, it was considered a grave sin if an unmarried woman was found pregnant. The punishment for this crime was to be taken outside of the city walls and stoned to death.

Joseph was a compassionate man, and not wanting Mary to be killed, he decided to quietly break off the engagement. Before he did however, the angel Gabriel visited him in a dream. He told Joseph of Mary’s miraculous conception and that the child in her womb was the son of God - the prophesied Messiah. The angel also told Joseph that he was to be Mary’s husband and protect and provide for her and the Son of God. The angel also said that the baby’s name was to be Jesus. Joseph followed the advice of the angel.

A few months laster, a census was ordered by Caesar Augustus, so every man had to return to his home town to register. Taking Mary, who was nine months pregnant with Jesus, Joseph traveled to Bethlehem to follow the order of the Emperor. While in Bethlehem, they could find no room at the inns and were forced to stay in a stable where Jesus was born. They were visited by shepherds who said that an angel had appeared to them proclaiming the birth of the Messiah. Likewise, Magi from the East came to visit the holy family, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh for the king.

While still in Bethlehem Joseph was visited by the archangel Gabriel again, who came to warn him; King Herod, after hearing of the birth of a new king, ordered the death of all Jewish male children age two and under to be murdered. He did this in jealousy to protect his throne. Heeding the angel’s advice once again, Joseph took Mary and Jesus and fled to Egypt where they lived in hiding for a few years.

After Herod’s death, Joseph returned to Nazareth with his family. During the rest of his life he provided for and took care of his young wife and Jesus in Nazareth, remaining a very holy and devout Jew. Finally, Joseph passed away quietly in their small home on July 20, AD.  

St. Joseph is the patron of the universal church. He is also the patron against doubt and hesitation, fighting communism, and a happy death. St. Joseph was never formally canonized until centuries after his death. Like most early saints, he was declared a saint by popular consensus by the early Christians. He was officially declared a saint in the 12th century.

Learn more about St. Joseph here.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's day everybody!!! Today is the day of love when we celebrate the love between husband and wife, brother and sister, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, friends and cousins, and all of the above! :-)

Do you know where Valentine's day comes from? Or how the exchanging of cards came to be? No? Well I'll be happy to tell you!

Valentine's Day--believe it or not--is actually the feast day of St. Valentine (or Valentinus, which means worthy, strong or powerful). He was a Catholic priest and martyr during the Christian persecutions under Claudius II in the two hundreds. He was convicted of treason because of his faith in 2070 and for marrying Christian couples. When refusing to deny Christ, he was beaten with clubs and when that didn't kill him he was beheaded on February 14. 

The exchanging of cards began with a legend involving St. Valentine. While in prison, awaiting his execution, he healed the blind daughter of his jailer. And during that time he developed an fatherly relationship with the little girl. When he left to endure his martyrdom, he left a little farewell note for her signed, "From your Valentine." And that's when the giving of cards began!

Pretty cool hu?

If you want to learn more about St. Valentine, click here.

So Valentine's Day isn't really about being all lovey dovey and giving kisses and chocolate to your crush, but celebrating the love  itself. For love isn't just physical and emotional... the true meaning of love is wanting the best for the other person.

xoxo,
~Ty

PS - Stay tuned in for next week because I'm planning on doing a book review on my favorite teen thriller series!

St. Maximilian Kolbe - a Leonardo Defilippis live drama

Hello all!

Welcome to my second blog post!
About two weeks ago I went to a play at my church - a play about the life of St. Maximilian Kolbe. You may have heard of him, he was a martyr during World War II at a concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. Now, before I ramble about how amazing the play was I'll just take a moment to tell you a little about him first:

Born in Poland in 1894, the son of poor, devout Catholics, Raymond Kolbe experienced many interior trials as a seminarian, but he was sustained by a vision of the Blessed Mother who offered him a crown of purity and a crown for martyrdom. He asked for both. 

Plagued by chronic weakened, the young priest - who took the name, Maximilian - went on to form a group of friars called "The Knights of the Immaculate," dedicated to restoring the world to Christ through Mary. Its magazine reached a circulation of one million by 1939, and played a role in preparing the people of Europe spiritually for the coming holocaust of World War II. Maximilian saw the Holy Mother of God as God's agent in confounding darkness which was gathering in opposition to the Church and indeed, covering the whole world. 

In 1941, he was arrested by Gestapo and sent to the infamous Auschwitz death camp where he was forced into slave labor and tortured. It was there that he voluntarily stepped forward to offer his life up for another prisoner, a young married man who was condemned to death. He was executed by lethal injection on August 14th, the eve of the Feast of the Assumption. 

Forty-one years after that heroic act, he was canonized a saint by Blessed Pope John Paul II. St. Maximilian Kolbe is the Patron Saint of, drug addicts, families, imprisoned people, journalists, political prisoners, prisoners, and the pro-life movement.

If you would like to know more about St. Maximilian, click here.

And if you want, here's a trailer of the live drama, performed by the amazing Leonardo Defilippis.  

This guy was mind blowing! It was only him against a big screen backdrop that flashed pictures and World War II clips. He played the characters of: St. Maximilian, a fellow friar who narrated, the devil, a Nazi officer, and the executioner. He switched roles while the lights went out to trade scenes by putting a pair of glasses on for Kolbe, taking them off as the narrator, flinging a red cape over his frier cleric as the devil, and turning the cape inside out (it was grey with Nazi symbols on the collar) for the Nazi officer. And then he had enough time to change into a huge black cloak for the executioner.

He was amazing! It took me a little while to figure out it was only the one guy playing all the characters. His facial expressions, his voice, the way he carried himself all changed so dramatically for each character that it didn't seem cheep!

Some scenes were pretty funny, like when his mom came to visit and Leonardo was taking to thin air (and kissing the "cheek" of thin air :-P). Her voice was recorded and played with the pictures on the screen.

Anyway, it was an amazing show. Look it up at St. Luke Productions to see where it is playing next. Or you can contact them and schedule an event. I know going to see the show is free, but I don't know if its free to schedule one near you or not. (I think it is).

Next year St. Luke Productions is going to be doing a live drama on the Divine Mercy (St. Faustina Kawalska).

Well, I think I'm done (for now).
If you have any questions about the play or about St. Maximilian, feel free to ask in the comments.

TTFN (ta ta for now!)
~Ty