- 1 Timothy 1:17 -
Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor
and
glory for ever and ever. Amen.
______________________________________________________
You can rest today. You know the KING. He has it all under control. You
can
give him your "to-do" list. He holds all time in his hands. He is powerful
and over all things. Enjoy each moment. The KING is on the throne.
- Pearls From Heaven
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December 21st - St. Peter Canisius
(1520-1597)
This doctor of the church is often called the second Apostle of Germany.
Both Holland and Germany claim him as their son, for Nijmegen, where he
was
born, May 8th, 1521, though a Dutch town today, was at that time in the
ecclesiastical province of Cologne and had the rights of a German city.
His
father, a Catholic and nine times burgomaster (Mayor) of Nijmegen, sent
him
at the age of fifteen to the University of Cologne, where he met the
saintly
young priest, Nicolaus van Esch. It was he who drew Canisius into the
orbit
of the loyal Catholic party of Cologne, which had been formed in
opposition
to the archbishop, Hermann von Wied, who had secretly gone over to the
Lutherans. Canisius was chosen by the group to approach the emperor, and
the
deposition of the archbishop which followed averted a calamity from the
Catholic Rhineland. Shortly afterwards Peter Canisius met Blessed Peter
Faber, one of the first companions of St Ignatius, and made the Spiritual
Exercises under his direction. During this retreat he found the answer to
the question he had put to himself: how best could he serve God and assist
the stricken Catholic Church in Germany?
He was inspired to join the Society of Jesus, and, after his ordination in
1546, soon became known by his editions of works of St Cyril of Alexandria
and of St Leo the Great. In 1547 he attended the council of Trent as
procurator for the bishop of Augsburg, where he became still further
imbued
with the spirit of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. His obedience was
tested when he was sent by St Ignatius to teach rhetoric in the
comparative
obscurity of the new Jesuit college at Messina, but this interlude in his
public work for the church was but a brief one.
Recalled to Rome in 1549 to make his final profession, he was entrusted
with
what was to become his life's work: the mission to Germany. At the request
of the duke of Bavaria, Canisius was chosen with two other Jesuits to
profess theology in the University of Ingolstadt. Soon he was appointed
rector of the University, and then, through the intervention of King
Ferdinand of the Romans, he was sent to do the same kind of work in the
University of Vienna. His success was such that the king tried to have him
appointed to the archbishopric. Though he refused this dignity, he was
compelled to administer the diocese for the space of a year.
It was at this period, 1555, that he issued his famous Catechism, one of
his
greatest services to the Church. With its clear and popular exposition of
Catholic doctrine it met the need of the day, and was to counter the
devastating effect of Luther's Catechism. In its enlarged form it went
into
more than four hundred editions by the end of the seventeenth century and
was translated into fifteen languages.
From Vienna Canisius passed on to Bohemia, where the condition of the
church
was desperate. In the face of determined opposition he established a
college
at Prague which was to develop into a university. Named Provincial of
southern Germany in 1556, he established colleges for boys in six cities,
and set himself to the task of providing Germany with a supply of
well-trained priests. This he did by his work for the establishment of
seminaries, and by sending regular reinforcements of young men to be
trained
in Rome.
On his many journeys in Germany St Peter Canisius never ceased from
preaching the word of God. He often encountered apathy or hostility at
first, but as his zeal and learning were so manifest great crowds soon
thronged the churches to listen. For seven years he was official preacher
in
the cathedral of Augsburg, and is regarded in a special way as the apostle
of that city. Whenever he came across a country church deprived of its
pastor he would halt there to preach and to administer the sacraments. It
seemed impossible to exhaust him: 'If you have too much to do, with God's
help you will find time to do it all,' he said, when someone accused him
of
overworking himself.
Another form of his apostolate was letter writing, and the printed volumes
of his correspondence cover more than eight thousand pages. Like St
Bernard
of Clairvaux he used this means of comforting, rebuking and counseling all
ranks of society. As the needs of the church or the individual required,
he
wrote to pope and emperor, to bishops and princes, to ordinary priest and
laymen. Where letters would not suffice he brought to bear his great
powers
of personal influence. Thus at the conference between Catholics and
Protestants held at Worms in 1556, it was due to his influence that the
Catholics were able to present a united front and resist Protestant
invitations to compromise on points of principle. In Poland in 1558 he
checked an incipient threat to the traditional faith of the country; and
in
the same year, he earned the thanks of Pope Pius IV for his diplomatic
skill
in healing a breach between the pope and the emperor. This gift of dealing
with men led to his being entrusted in 1561 with the promulgation in
Germany
of the decrees of the council of Trent.
Shortly afterwards he was called on to answer the "Centuries of
Magdeburg".
This work, 'the first and worst of all Protestant church histories,' was a
large-scale attack on the Catholic Church, and its enormous distortions of
history would have required more than one man to produce an adequate
answer.
Yet Peter Canisius showed the way by his two works, "The History of John
the
Baptist", and "The Incomparable Virgin Mary".
From 1580 until his death in 1597 he labored and suffered much in
Switzerland. His last six years were spent in patient endurance and long
hours of prayer in the college of Fribourg, now that broken health had
made
further active work impossible. Soon after his death, December 21st, 1597,
his tomb began to be venerated, and numerous miracles were attributed to
his
intercession. He had the unique honor of being canonized and declared a
doctor of the church on the same day, June 21st, 1925.
Saint Quote:
If you have too much to do, with God's help you will find time to do it
all.
-Peter Canisius
Bible Quote:
He that speaketh of himself, seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh
the
glory of him that sent him, he is true, and there is no injustice in him.
(John 7:18)
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Prayer for Help
Lord Jesus, You see my extreme poverty and destitution,
You see my frail nature surrounded with so many crafty,
powerful enemies, both exterior and interior placed amid
many perils and countless evils both tem****al and spiritual,
from which only You, in Your great mercy, can rescue me.
For this reason, I call upon You, for You know that we
cannot obtain the least thing that is good, either for body or
soul, except from You, the Father of mercy and of
consolation, the source and giver of all good gifts. You know
that we cannot rid ourselves of the least thing that is evil,
unless You in Your clemency put it far from us.
Filled with hope and confidence in Your sweet Heart, I cry to
the Eternal Father: Behold O Father, I have within my heart
the sweet Heart of Your dear Son; I offer to You this Heart
not that it may accuse me, but plead for me, not cry for
vengeance, but for pardon. What can You refuse to this
Heart? Nothing assuredly, either to Him or to me, when I
ask for His sake. Deliver me, therefore I pray from all my
foes and the ills of this life. Help me in my necessities.
Grant me grace to end my life by a holy and happy death. -
Amen.
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