November 9 through November 15, 2025
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(November 9, 2025: Dedication of the Lateran Basilica)
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“You are God’s building...”
To construct a building is one thing, but to maintain it is another. Prudent builders/owners not only commit resources for the actual construction of whatever they build, but they will also earmark resources for the ongoing upkeep of the building.
In a letter to Madame de Chantal (February 11, 1607), Francis de Sales observed:
“It is not necessary to be always and at every moment attentive to all the virtues in order to practice them; that would twist and encumber your thoughts and feelings too much. Humility and charity are the master beams - all the others are attached to them. We need to only hold on to these two: one is at the very bottom and the other at the very top. The preservation of the whole building depends on two things: its foundation and its roof. We do not encounter much difficulty in practicing other virtues if we keep our heart bound to the practice of these two...” (LSD, pp. 148-149)
God – the Master Builder – has constructed each of us in his image and likeness. Celebrate the building-of-God that you are! Maintain the gift of your divinely built edifice with the spiritual foundation and roof most readily available for your good - humility and charity!
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(November 10, 2025: Leo the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church)
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“Love justice, you who judge the earth…”
In his dialogue Republic, Plato uses Socrates to argue for justice that covers both the just person and the just city state:
“Justice is a proper, harmonious relationship between the competing parts of a person or a city. Hence Plato's definition of justice is that justice is the having and doing of what is one's own. A just man is a man in just the right place, doing his best and giving the precise equivalent of what he has received. This applies both at the individual level and at the universal level.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice)
We probably don’t think about it very often, but each of us in our own way is called to judge. However, deliberately or unconsciously, the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and actions we form every day impacts the earth, even if it’s in our little corners of it. That said, our collective ways of judging – and treating – the earth add up over time.
The Book of Genesis reminds us that we are not only on the receiving end of Creation, but we are also cooperators in Creation – we have an active, ongoing role to play in Creation. In the Roman Missal we hear:
“You laid the foundations of the world and have arranged the changing of times and seasons;
you formed man in your own image and set humanity over the whole world in all its wonder,
to rule in your name over all you have made and forever praise you in your mighty works,
through Christ our Lord.”
Teddy Roosevelt is quoted as having once defined justice as ‘doing the best you can where you are with what you’ve got.’
How best can we apply those words in our attempt to do justice to the earth – and especially in our relationships with those sharing the earth with us – just today?
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(November 11, 2025: Martin of Tours, Bishop)
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“God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made them.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales observed:
“God has signified to us in so many ways and by so many means that he wills all of us to be saved that no one can be ignorant of this fact. For this purpose, he made us ‘in his own image and likeness’ by creation, and by the Incarnation he has made himself in our image and likeness.” (TLG, Book VIII, Chapter 4, p. 64)
In effect, Francis de Sales claimed that while it would have been enough for God to show us how deeply he loved us by creating us in his own image and likeness, God loves us so much that he went even further by choosing – in the person of his Son – to create himself in our image and likeness!
Francis de Sales claims, “No one can be ignorant of this fact.” Perhaps not ignorant, but how often do we really think about that? How much time will we spend reflecting upon “this fact” – that we are made in his image and likeness and that he is made in our image and likeness – just this day?
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(November 12, 2025: Josaphat, Bishop and Martyr)
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The Lord of all shows no partiality, because he himself made the great as well as the small, and he provides for all alike…”
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to the types of people that God invites to do great things in his name. Be they men or women, famous or obscure, wealthy or wanting, powerful or penniless, God uses people of all shapes and sizes and in all situations to be instruments of his will.
The life of Frances Xavier Cabrini is a great example of how one seemingly small person can do great things for God.
“St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.”
“One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.”
“Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death in Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute had houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.” (http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=278)
As great or as small as we may be, Jane de Chantal reminds us that “nothing is small in the service or God.”
How might we be of service to God and neighbor today?
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(November 13, 2024: Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin)
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“The Kingdom of God is among you…”
In today’s Gospel we hear: “Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, ‘The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ The Kingdom of God is among you.”
Jesus seems to be saying that the Kingdom of God isn’t about finding one a thing, place or location. In the context of the Gospel, the Kingdom of God is a person - in this case, the person of Jesus Christ.
In his Introduction to the Devout Life, Francis de Sales observed:
“God is in all things and in all places. There is no place or thing in this world in which God is not truly present. Just as wherever birds fly, they always encounter the air, so also wherever we go or wherever we are we find God present.”
He continued:
“God is not only in the place where you are but also in a most particular manner in your heart – in the very center of your spirit. Just as the soul is diffused throughout the entire body but resides in a special manner in the heart, so, too, God is present in all things but always resides in a special manner in our spirit.” (IDL, Part Two, Chapter 2, pp. 84-85)
So, where would you expect to find the Kingdom of God today? Try looking for it in the Body of Christ - look for it within yourself and look for it within others.
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(November 14, 2025: Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor)
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“From the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author is seen.”
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“I ask you to imagine on the one hand an artist engaged in painting a picture of our Savior’s birth. No doubt he will give the picture thousands of touches with his brush and take not only days but weeks and months to complete it with various people and other objects that he wishes to portray in it. On the other hand, let us look at a print maker. After he has placed a sheet of paper on the plate with the same mystery of the Incarnation engraved upon it, he gives it only a single stroke of the press, and in this one stroke he will complete the entire task. In an instant the printer will draw off a picture representing in a beautiful engraving all that has been imaged as described in sacred history. Although the printer has created it in but one single movement, his work likewise contains many great people and various other objects, each one clearly distinct in order, rank, place, distance and proportion. If one were not acquainted with the secret of the work, he or she would be greatly astonished to see so many varied effects from a single act.”
“In the same way, nature like a painter multiplies and diversifies its acts accordingly as it has various works in hand: it takes a long time to complete its great effects. But God, like a printer, has given existence to all the different creatures - which have been, or ever shall be – from one powerful stroke of his all-powerful will. From his idea, as from a well-cut plate, he draws his marvelous distinction of persons and other things that succeed one another in seasons, ages and times, each one in its order as they were destined to be.” (TLG, Book II, Chapter 2, Chapter 9, pp. 105-106)
What can we say about God based upon what we see in the greatness and beauty of creation? (1) Variety is the spice of life, and (2) all things, bright and beautiful take time.
How might we take some time just this day to consider the greatness and beauty of creation, to say nothing of the greatness and beauty of the God who created it?
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(November 15, 2025: Saturday, Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time)
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“Pay attention to what the dishonest judge says…”
And what did the unjust judge say? Essentially, he said this: “I will do justice to this woman just to get her off my back.”
Have you ever done something good simply to get someone else to stop bugging you? Have you ever done the right thing just to get someone else to go away? Have you ever done the just thing just to get someone else to shut up?
Let’s face it. Isn’t it true that sometimes we do the right thing for a less-than-admirable motive?
In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis de Sales wrote:
“Let us purify all our intentions as best we can. Since we can diffuse throughout all various acts to sacred motive of divine love, why should we not do so? On all occasions we will reject every kind of vicious motive, such as vainglory and self-interest, and consider all the good motives we can have for undertaking the act before us so as to choose the motive of holy love - which is the most excellent of all – and to flood it over all other motives, steeping them in the greatest motive of all....” (TLG, Book XI, Book 14, p. 237)
One might ask, “So, am I supposed to wait until my motives are totally pure before I attempt to do something right?” Lord knows that if that were the case, then the world would really be out of luck! In a perfect world we would always do what is good, righteous and just for only good, righteous and just reasons. But insofar as this is an imperfect world, we should not cease our attempts to do what is good for goodness sake; rather, we should acknowledge the need to purify our intentions even as we struggle to live our lives with other people in a reasonable, just and equitable manner.
May God give us the courage we need just this day to not only do the right thing but also to do the right thing for the right reason!
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