Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,

As we have exited the month of September and enter into the month of October, we are surrounded by the glory of Heaven as we celebrate the multitude of the heavenly hosts.

This past week we celebrated the feasts and memorials of the Archangels (Sept. 29) and the Guardian Angels (Oct 2.). We also celebrate the memorials of several important saints: St. Jerome (Sept. 30), St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus (Oct. 1) and St. Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4). It is as if God is reminding us that we have a whole army of angels and saints praying for us and helping us in our pilgrimage to Heaven.
The feasts of the angels remind us that God has created a hierarchy of living beings. The angels are higher than us in that they are spiritual but not material beings. Since we have to have some way of understanding their existence, we portray them as beautiful beings looking like people with wings. This sometimes leads to the confusion that after our death, when we go to Heaven, we will be angels. That confusion deepens when we see movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, which is a story about a man who helps George Bailey and he thus earns his angel wings. Angels, however, are completely different beings than humans. We will never be angels; when we go to Heaven, we become saints. We call the angels Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel and Saint Raphael because they are in Heaven and that is what we call people in Heaven. The  angels are not people. Technically they are not saints. We give them the title of saints because they were directly involved in the salvation history of humanity.

The saints we celebrated this past week, and all the saints, are examples to us in how to live holy lives so that we ourselves may one day become saints. Saints exist in all times and all cultures. They are unique and show us that as different as the saints are from each other, there is one thing that they hold in common: all of them lived their lives centered on loving and serving God.

Saint Jerome was a scholar and a monk who lived a very austere life. He translated the Scripture from the ancient languages of Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into Latin, a language that the people could read and understand.

Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was a young French girl who lived in the 19th century. She entered a cloistered Carmelite convent at the tender age of fifteen. She spent the rest of her brief life as a nun in this community. She wrote a spiritual autobiography called the Story of a Soul. This work has had a profound effect on the spiritual life of the Church. This young nun who died of tuberculosis at age 24, is now a Doctor of the Church and one of the Church’s most beloved saints.

Saint Francis was a 13th century son of an ambitious merchant. Francis was a bit of a hedonist and social climber. While on a military expedition against a neighboring city state, Francis was captured and became disillusioned by the horrors of war. He underwent a spiritual conversion and received a commission from God to rebuild His Church. The life of Francis and the life of the Church were never the same. Now, over 800 years later, the Franciscan community continues the task entrusted to Saint Francis to rebuild God’s Church.

So all of this is for us a message of hope. All of Heaven is still at work for the sanctification of us all. We call on the angels and saints to assist us in our struggles here on Earth, that one day we will enjoy with them the fullness of Heaven!

O my most holy guardian angel, never forsake me until the last moment of my life,      that my soul may then be borne up on your wings to find my eternal peace among the elect.            ~Prayer of Saint Gertrude to her guardian angel.

Msgr. Cox
Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels, Raffaellino del Garbo  (1502) (l) St. Jerome (r) St. Bartholomew