VIRTUE FOR OCTOBER-
OBEDIENCE

Obedience is the virtue that grants one the willingness to submit to lawful authority. When one obeys, one is "hearing" (from the Latin audire -to hear) and one is accepting the authority. Christ, Himself, is our model, as He subjected His life to His Father's authority.



"By his loving obedience to the Father, 'unto death, even death on a cross' (Phil 2:8), Jesus fulfills the atoning mission (cf. Isa 53:10) of the suffering servant, who will 'make many righteous; and he shall bear their iniquities'(Isa 53:11; cf. Rom 5:19). " CCC 623


We realize that we must practice the virtue of obedience in the natural order: in the family milieu as children subject to our parents, in the educational environment as students subject to teachers, in the business world as employees subject to employers, and in the civil society as citizens subject to legitimate laws and leaders. In the spiritual order we owe obedience as members of Christ's Mystical Body to His Vicar on earth, our bishops, and our priests. Religious also owe obedience to their superiors.


We are provided with the Decalogue, Holy Scriptures, and Tradition as foundations for our observance of obedience.


"Indirectly, obedience also imposes obligations on those who hold authority to direct and command others. There is a right use of authority and a wrong use; it can be neglected or abused to the detriment of subjects. Therefore, every form of obedience involves obligations on the part of those in command." by Rev. Donald F. Miller, C.SS.R.



SAINT FOR THE MONTH-
ST. MARIA FAUSTINA
Apostle of Divine Mercy

1905 -1938
Feast Day: October 5 

Helena Kowalska  was born  on August 25, 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland to humble and devout parents. She exemplified the virtue of obedience from her childhood and throughout her life as a Sister in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.

"From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience, and also her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of nine she made her first Holy Communion living this moment very profoundly in her awareness of the presence of the Divine Guest within her soul."  (1)  In her teen years, she truly desired to become a religious but was obedient to her parents who did not approve.  Maria attended school for 3 years and at 16 years worked  as a housekeeper. 

After a vision of the Suffering Christ, she did enter the convent at age 20 and took the name Sister Mary Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament.  Sister Faustina lived a quiet and obedient life at several convents in Poland where she served as a cook, a gardner, and porter. Her unobtrusive life exteriorly "hid a deeply mystical inner life."  (2) 

"Externally nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected and at the same time very natural, serene and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbor. Although her life was apparently insignificant, monotonous and dull, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God."  (3) 

The Lord called her to be His Secretary. Here again she was obedient to Jesus and to her confessors who instructed her to record her visions, revelations, and the words of the Lord.  She wrote in her 700 page Divine Mercy in My Soul  (Diary 1693) that the Lord had called her to be his Secretary for His "most profound mystery."  (4)

"The Lord Jesus chose Sr. Mary Faustina as the Apostle and "Secretary" of His Mercy, so that she could tell the world about His great message. In the Old Covenant — He said to her —I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing it to My Merciful Heart (Diary 1588). (5)  

"The mission of Sister Mary Faustina consists in 3 tasks:

– reminding the world of the truth of our faith revealed in the Holy Scripture about the merciful love of God toward every human being.

– Entreating God's mercy for the whole world and particularly for sinners, among others through the practice of new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by the Lord Jesus, such as: the veneration of the image of the Divine Mercy with the inscription: Jesus, I Trust in You, the feast of the Divine Mercy celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter, chaplet to the Divine Mercy and prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3 p.m.). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to the above forms of devotion, provided one entrusted one's life to God and practiced active love of one's neighbor.

– The third task in Sr. Mary Faustina's mission consists in initiating the apostolic movement of the Divine Mercy which undertakes the task of proclaiming and entreating God's mercy for the world and strives for Christian perfection, following the precepts laid down by the Blessed Sr. Mary Faustina. The precepts in question require the faithful to display an attitude of child-like trust in God which expresses itself in fulfilling His will, as well as in the attitude of mercy toward one's neighbors. Today, this movement within the Church involves millions of people throughout the world; it comprises religious congregations, lay institutes, religious, brotherhoods, associations, various communities of apostles of the Divine Mercy, as well as individual people who take up the tasks which the Lord Jesus communicated to them through Sr. Mary Faustina." (6)

Sister Mary Faustina suffered from tuberculosis and from  innumerable sufferings which she accepted as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners.  She died in Krakow at the 33 years on October 5, 1938 with a reputation for spiritual maturity and a mystical union with God. The reputation of the holiness of her life grew as did the cult to the Divine Mercy and the graces she obtained from God through her intercession.On April 18, 1993 our Holy Father John Paul II raised Sister Faustina to the glory of the altars.  (7)

WORDS AND WRITINGS OF ST. FAUSTINA

As Jesus told St. Faustina:


My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners…[I]t is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. (Diary, 367)  (8)

As St. Faustina instructs us:

"Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God."  (Diary 1107)  (9) 
ASPIRATION OF THE MONTH

Jesus, I trust in You!
All for Thee, most Sacred Heart of Jesus. (300 days indulgence)

PRAYER FOR THE MONTH

O Jesus, eternal Truth, our Life, I call upon You and I beg your mercy for poor sinners.
O sweetest Heart of my Lord, full of pity and unfathomable mercy, I plead with you for poor sinners.
O Most Sacred Heart, Fount of Mercy from which gush forth rays of inconceivable graces upon the entire human race, I beg of You light for poor sinners.
O Jesus, be mindful of Your own bitter passion and do not permit the loss of souls redeemed at so dear a price of Your most precious Blood. 

St. Maria Faustina  (10)

SCRIPTURE OF THE MONTH

"It is not those who say to me, 'Lord, Lord' who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven." (Mt.7:21)

END NOTES

1. www.marianland.com/saintfaustina.html
2. Ordinary People and Extraordinary Works  - Group 6, Card 65
3. www.marianland.com/saintfaustina.html
4. Ordinary People, op cit.
5. www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20000430_faustina_en.html
6. op cit.
7. www.marianland.com    op cit.
8. www.divinemercy.org
9. op cit.
10.Ordinary People, op cit.