Faustina Kowalska, Apostle of the Divine Mercy

In the history of the Catholic Church, few twentieth century figures have had such a profound and universal impact as saint Faustina Kowalska. This Polish nun, Apostle of the Divine Mercy, canonized in the year 2000

He received his message directly from Jesus Christ through a series of mystical revelations. His confessor obliged him to write down all the revelations in what is known as the Diary of Divine Mercy.

The first years

Helena Kowalska was born in 1905 in the village of Głogowiec, Poland, into a poor and pious peasant family. From a very young age, she felt a strong inclination towards the spiritual life. At the age of seven, she already sensed in her soul the call to the consecrated life.

Her parents were initially opposed due to the family's precarious economic situation. During her adolescence, she worked as a servant to help her family and save for her dowry, a common requirement at the time for entering a convent.

Despite the difficulties, the call of God was insistent. At the age of 18, faced with the refusal of her parents, she decided to give herself to the vagaries of life in order to silence the call of Grace. Precisely with her sister Josephine, when everyone was enjoying themselves and having a good time, she was not capable, she suffered and felt great sadness.

This episode was decisive for her vocation. She had a vision of the suffering Jesus who asked her: "Helena, my daughter, how long will you make me suffer, how long will you deceive me? This moment marked a point of no return.

She abandoned everything and, following this divine impulse, went to Warsaw to look for a convent that would accept her. After being rejected by several congregations, she was finally admitted into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925, where she adopted the name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.

Imagen de Jesús de la Divina Misericordia de Santa Faustina Kowalsk

The mission of the Divine Mercy Secretariat

In 1928 she took her vows as a nun and lived very few years as such, since she died on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33, of which 13 years were spent in the convent. The life of Saint Faustina Kowalska like nun was apparently ordinary and simple. She performed with humility and diligence the simplest tasks: cook, gardener, doorkeeper, for she was warned that she would enter there as a lay sister and that, because of her low level of schooling, she might not reach higher levels in the order.

However, in the secret of her cell and of her heart, a mystical life of unprecedented depth was developing. Jesus appeared to her and entrusted her with a mission: to be the apostle and secretary of His Divine Mercy.

The core of her mission is found in her Diary, which her confessor obliged her to write with the simplicity of a person who barely received any academic training because of her extreme poverty. The manuscript of more than 600 pages meticulously recorded Jesus' words, visions and spiritual experiences.

In these revelations, Christ asked him to paint an image of Him as He appeared to him, with two rays emanating from His heart, one red and the other pale, symbolizing the blood and water shed on the Cross. Under the image was to be the inscription: "Jesus, I trust in You". Jesus told her that he wanted the image of the Divine Mercy to be "solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter; that Sunday will be the feast of mercy".

This image, known today as the Divine Mercy, is one of the most recognized Christian icons in the world. Jesus also taught Sister Faustina the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a prayer to implore mercy for the whole world, and asked her to establish the first Sunday after Easter as the Feast of Mercy.

This devotion was not a simple addition to popular piety, but an urgent reminder to a world mired in conflict and despair that God's greatest attribute is His infinite mercy.

A humble life

The service life humble of saint Faustina Kowalska was not limited to her prophetic mission. Her spirituality was deeply rooted in sacrifice and self-offering for the salvation of souls. She offered her sufferings, both physical-she suffered from tuberculosis for years-and spiritual, in union with the Passion of Christ. She understood that service to others and love of neighbor were the most authentic manifestation of devotion to Divine Mercy.

His obedience to his superiors and his spiritual director, Blessed Michael Sopoćko, was exemplary. Despite the doubts, misunderstandings and difficulties he encountered, even within his own congregation, he persevered with unwavering trust in the will of God. It was precisely his confessor, Sopoćko, who indicated to him that he should write a Diary with all the revelations that Jesus was making to him.

His life reflects how God chooses the humble to carry out his greatest works, demonstrating that holiness does not lie in doing extraordinary things, but in doing ordinary things with extraordinary love.

Faustina told Sopoćko about the Divine Mercy image, and in January 1934, he introduced her to the artist Eugene Kazimierowski, also a professor at the same university, where her confessor was teaching Pastoral Theology.

Divine Mercy

The Journal of saint Faustina Kowalska has been translated into dozens of languages and has guided countless people into a deeper relationship with God. Devotion to the Divine MercyThe company was decisively driven by St. John Paul II -who called her the great apostle of Mercy in our times, has spread throughout the Church. Today, its message resounds in a world wounded by division and sin, God's Mercy is the only refuge and the only hope.

On April 18, 1993, the Feast of Divine Mercy (second Sunday of Easter), John Paul II declared Sister Faustina Blessed in front of a crowd of Divine Mercy devotees in St. Peter's Square in Rome.

Maria Faustina Kowalska was canonized on April 30, 2000.The Holy Father presided over the canonization ceremony, the second Sunday of Easter, which the Catholic Church also calls Divine Mercy Sunday. The Holy Father presided over the canonization ceremony before a large crowd of devotees.

The life of this humble nun Polish teaches us that a service lifelived in faith and trust, can transform the world. St. Faustina reminds us that, no matter how great our weaknesses or sins, God's loving heart is always open to welcome us with his infinite mercy.

October 4, St. Francis of Assisi

The October 4the universal Church looks at the figure of St. Francis of Assisi. Known as the Francesco d'Assisinicknamed il poverello d'Assisi (the poor man of Assisi), his life is an invitation to rediscover the joy in simplicity and unconditional love for Christ through the poverty. He was noted for his love for others, his detachment and his eagerness to reform the Church. He would never forget the words he heard in a dream in Spoleto: "....¿Why do you persist in seeking the servant instead of the Lord?"

His life took a new direction, guided by the constant desire to know what the Lord might be calling him to. Prayer and contemplation in the silence of the lands of Umbria led him to embrace as brothers the lepers and vagabonds for whom he had always felt disgust and repulsion.

Giovanni Pietro Bernardone

Born Giovanni di Pietro Bernardone, he always had in his heart the desire to accomplish great undertakings; this is what at the age of twenty prompted him to leave, first to the war between Assisi and Perugia and then to the Crusades. Son of the rich cloth merchant Pietro di Bernardone, and of Pica, a lady of the Provençal nobility, he was born in 1182 and grew up in the comforts of family and worldly life. When he returned from the harsh experience of war, ill and agitated, he was unrecognizable to everyone. Something had deeply marked his mood, something different from the experience of the conflict.

Young Francis lived a life of opulence, dreaming of the glory of being a knight. However, God had other plans. After experiences as a prisoner of war and a serious illness, his restless soul began to search for a higher purpose. The turning point came at the hermitage of San Damiano, when, praying before a crucifix, he heard a voice saying to him: "Francis, go and repair my Church which, as you see, is in ruins". This call would mark the rest of his life and his vocation of service to the Church.

The embrace of poverty

St. Francis understood that call in a literal way at first, dedicating himself to physically repairing hermitages. However, he soon realized that the Lord was asking him for something much more profound: a spiritual renewal of the Church through example. To this end, he stripped himself of everything. In a public and dramatic act, he renounced his father's inheritance, stripped himself of his luxurious clothes and consecrated himself to God, embracing what he called his Lady Poverty, in front of Bishop Guido.

This was not a poverty miserable or sad, but a free choice. For St. Francis of Assisithe poverty was the most direct way to imitate Christ, who "though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor" (2 Cor 8:9). Possessing nothing, Francis became completely dependent on the Providence of God, finding immense joy in the little he had.

This attitude is a model for the Christian life and, in a particular way, for the priestly vocation, which demands a detached heart in order to serve God and souls without any attachment. The formation of priests continues to draw from this spirit of detachment.

With the most disadvantaged

His love for the poverty of Jesus led him to encounter Him in the most disadvantaged. The famous episode of the embrace of the leper symbolizes his total conversion: where before he felt repulsion, now he saw the suffering face of Christ. This love for the poor and the marginalized is a dimension of the service to the Church that every baptized person, and especially the priestis called to live.

San Francisco de Asís abraza con compasión a un hombre con lepra, superando su propia repulsión.
St. Francis embracing a leper, Oil on canvas, 217 x 274 cm. by Zacarías Joaquín González Velázquez y Tolosa ©Museo Nacional del Prado.

Rebuilder of the Church

The mission to repair the Church finally materialized in the founding of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans), a fraternity that lived the Gospel. sine glossathat is, without interpretations that would soften its radicalism.

Later, together with St. Clare, he also inspired the female branch of the Poor Clares. The example of Francis and his friars was a spiritual revival at a time when the Church was suffering in the midst of luxury and power struggles.

They demonstrated that true reform does not come from destructive criticism, but from personal holiness and obedience. A priestThe way to holiness, as tradition teaches us, can transform an entire parish. The road to that holiness is a constant struggle that lay and consecrated people must follow.

Love for Creation

St. Francis of Assisi is also remembered for his deep love for Creation. In his famous Canticle of the Creatures, he praises God through "brother sun", "sister moon" and "sister our mother earth".

He was not an ecologist in the modern sense, but a mystic who saw in every creature the imprint of the Creator. Everything spoke to him of God, from a bird to a wolf.

This theological vision of nature, which inspired the encyclical Laudato Si' of Pope Francis, invites us to care for the world as a gift received from God.

Example for priests

The life of St. Francis of Assisi culminated in the gift of the stigmata, the signs of Christ's Passion imprinted on her own body for two years, a visible sign of her complete identification with her Lord.

His legacy teaches us that true joy is not in having, but in being. He reminds us of the importance of humility and obedience to the Church, even as we yearn for her reform.

For each priest, St. Francis is a mirrora call to live a new life poverty to preach the Gospel with life more than with words, and to love every soul as a gift from God. As St. Josemaría Escrivá taught in his book Loving the Churchlove for the Church passes through humble service and total dedication.

Embracing the Cross

On the evening of October 3, 1226, when Sister Death came to visit him, he went out to meet Jesus with joy. He died on October 4, lying on the bare earth, faithful to his beloved poverty until the end.

Let us ask St. Francis of Assisi to intercede for us so that, like him, we may know how to strip ourselves of everything that separates us from God and joyfully embrace the daily cross, rebuilding the Church from the only place possible: our own heart.

October, month of the rosary

During the month of October we put special care in the recitation of the Holy Rosary. The October 7 we celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary. This powerful weapon, as St. Josemaría called it, bears many fruits of conversion and peace. "The Holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you will marvel at the result" (The Way, 558).

Contemplation of the mysteries of the life of Jesus, through the four parts of the Rosary, brings us closer to Our Lord and, through the intercession of Our Mother, to all those who need us. Always include in your petitions seminarians, diocesan priests and religious that they may be very holy.

This month, the Church invites us to take the Rosary beads and contemplate the mysteries of our faith with the best of guides: our Mother.

Origins of the Rosary

The recitation of the holy Rosary took a long time to take shape as we know it today. It was not devised at a specific moment in time, but was is the result of a long evolution. It all probably started in the tenth century. In the year 910, Saint Benedict founded the Cluniac Order. She attached great importance to communal choral prayer. He wanted his abbeys to be a foretaste of the heavenly Jerusalem, where saints and angels are continually singing praises to God and interceding for all human beings (cf. Rev 5:9; 14:3; 15:3).

It is estimated that the origin of the Rosary goes back to the birth of the Hail Mary in the 9th century, as a prayer to honor Mary, the Mother of God, and that the Rosary originated in the order of St. Benedict and spread through the action of the Dominicans.

The devotion to the Holy Rosary has deep roots in the history of the Church. The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, celebrated every October 7, was instituted by Pope St. Pius V to commemorate the victory of the Christian fleet at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. A victory directly attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, invoked through the massive recitation of the Rosary throughout Christendom.

In Lourdes, Fatima and many other apparitions of Our Mother. The Virgin Mary has always urged us to pray the Rosary uninterruptedly: for the conversion of sinners, for the end of evil in the world, etc.

But beyond its historical context, the Rosary is a school of prayer. It is not a simple repetition of Hail Marys, but a path of contemplation. At pray the RosaryWe can walk with Mary through the most significant moments of Jesus' life: the joyful, luminous, sorrowful and glorious mysteries. As St. Josemaría would say, the Rosary is "the prayer of the simple and the wise.

It is a constant dialogue, a "coming and going" of affections between a son and his mother, where we tell her our joys, sorrows and longings, while she takes us by the hand towards Jesus.

Guide for praying the Rosary

If you don't know how to do it, you can follow these steps to pray the Rosary to Our Mother the Virgin Mary.

The Rosary may begin with the recitation of the Station to the Blessed Sacrament concluded with Spiritual Communion.

From there, we make the sign of the cross (different from making the sign of the cross -santifixion- because there are three crosses on the forehead, the mouth and the chest).

Subsequently, the first of the five mysteries to be contemplated that day is announced. On Mondays and Saturdays, the joyful mysteries are contemplated; on Tuesdays and Fridays, the sorrowful mysteries; on Thursdays, the luminous mysteries; and on Wednesdays and Sundays, the glorious mysteries. 

Each mystery is composed of an Our Father, ten Hail Marys and a Glory Be. After each mystery, we repeat: "Mary, Mother of Grace, Mother of mercy, defend us from our enemies and protect us now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

At the end of the five mysteries, the five mysteries of the day are prayed:

After the three Hail Marys, we begin the prayers of praise of the Litany of Our Lady of Laurel. After them, we recite one of the most ancient prayers to Our Mother: "Under your protection we take refuge, Holy Mother of God: do not despise the supplications that we address to you in our needs, but rather, always deliver us from all dangers, glorious and blessed Virgin". And the Rosary ends asking for:

Many people like to end with the Salve to the Virgin. According to the traditions of different places, to this structure for praying the Rosary are added some ejaculatories and prayers that express the variety of popular piety.

guia rezar rosario octubre mes del rosario
You can use this guide
St. Josemaría, a lover of the Rosary

To understand this devotion, there are eloquent examples such as St. Josemaría Escrivá. His love for the Virgin was the driving force of his spiritual life and the Rosary was a fundamental part of his daily conversation with her. He did not see it as a pious obligation, but as a necessity of the heart.

In his book Holy Rosarywhich is not a theological treatise but a collection of contemplations written in a running order, St. Josemaría invites us to "immerse ourselves" in each scene of the Gospel. At pray the RosaryWe are not mere spectators; we are another character: the child who smiles at Jesus in the manger, the disciple who accompanies Christ in his pain, the friend who rejoices in his Resurrection.

San Josemaría reza el rosario con gran devoción

St. Josemaría called the rosary a "powerful weapon. With it, he said, we win the battles of the soul and the conversion of souls. This weapon is not of violence, but of love and trust. It is the weapon of perseverance, of inner peace and of the strength to face the difficulties of daily life, sanctifying work and ordinary duties. This vision converts the act of pray the rosary in a tool for the service to the Church from our own vocation.

To make of October, month of the RosaryIt is easier than it seems to make it a permanent habit in our lives. St. Josemaría teaches us that there is no need for extraordinary circumstances. We can pray it in the car, walking down the street, in a moment of rest at work, or, best of all, in the family. The family that prays together stays together, and the Rosary is the bond that unites the hearts of parents and children to the Immaculate Heart of our Mother Mary.

This profound love for the Virgin must be very special in the life of priests. A priest is first and foremost a alter ChristusAnd who better than Mary to form the heart of a priest in the image of her Son? She formed him in her womb, educated him in Nazareth and accompanied him to the Cross. For this reason, the rosary is an essential prayer for every seminarian and priest. It strengthens his priestly identity and unites him to the Mother of the High Priest. Supporting the formation of priests is to ensure that the Church has shepherds with a Marian heart.

The Virgin Mary is, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church defines her, the perfect pray-er, the figure of the Church. To go to her through the Rosary is to learn to pray as she did: with humility, faith and total surrender to the will of God.

Octubre, mes del rosario

A resolution for this month

What October, month of the RosaryLet it become not just a claim in the customs of the Catholic Church, but a lived reality. Inspired by the example of saints like St. Josemaría, let us take up our Rosary beads with enthusiasm. Let us make this prayer a daily appointment of love with our Mother. As Pope Francis has reminded us on many occasions, the Rosary is the prayer that always accompanies his life, the prayer of his heart. Pope Leo XIV has asked us to pray the Rosary in this month of October, especially for peace in Gaza and Ukraine and throughout the world.

Let us entrust to Our Lady our intentions, the needs of the world and, in a special way, let us pray for the holiness and perseverance of priests. We will discover that pray the rosary not only brings us peace, but makes us courageous apostles, capable of bringing the joy of the Gospel to every corner of the world. Because an authentic love for the Virgin always leads to a greater and more committed love for her Son and for the Church. Marian devotion, as the lives of so many saints teach us, is a pillar in the life of every Christian, a sure anchor that we can find in the example of Mary as a model for Christians.

St. Jerome: love for the Bible

"Ignorare Scripturas, ignorare Christum est." (Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ). This sentence, coined more than sixteen centuries ago by St. Jerome, remains just as topical in the Church today. St. Jerome holds that faith and love of Christ must be based on a solid knowledge obtained directly from his principal source of revelation: the written Word of God.

St. Jerome dedicated his entire life to a seemingly endless task, the translation of the Bible Latin, known as the Vulgatacommissioned by Pope Damasus I. This translation is still valid after 1,500 years of history and has served as a reference for the development of the work of the Bible of the University of Navarra.

For the CARF Foundation, which one of its founding purposes is to help in the formation of seminarians and diocesan and religious priests, the figure of this Doctor of the Church continues to be a reference of how Sacred Scripture must occupy an essential place in the life of every Christian and, in a special way, in that of his pastors.

Who was St. Jerome? The lion of the desert and the scholar of Rome

Eusebius Hieronymus Sophronius, born around 347 in Stridon (Dalmatia), was not a man of gentle character. He was vehement, with a sharp pen and an ascetic temperament. However, all that passion was channeled by his love for Christ and his Word.

His training in Rome made him one of the most brilliant intellectuals of his time, a master in Latin, Greek and rhetoric. But a dream in which he was accused of being "Ciceronian rather than Christian" prompted him to devote his intellect entirely to God.

This commitment led him to seek the solitude of the desert of Chalcis, in Syria. There, in the midst of penance and prayer, he devoted himself to the study of a language that would be key to his future mission: Hebrew. This work forged his spirit and provided him with the necessary philological tools for an undertaking that no Latin had dared to undertake with such rigor.

His fame as a scholar reached the ears of Pope Damasus I, who appointed him his secretary in Rome. It was precisely the Pope who, concerned about the chaotic diversity of Latin versions of the Bible in circulation (Vetus Latina), entrusted St. Jerome with the task of producing a unified and reliable translation.

Grabado en blanco y negro de san Jerónimo como un erudito trabajando en su estudio, con un león y un perro durmiendo pacíficamente a sus pies.
St. Jerome in his study (1514), engraving by Albrecht Dürer.

The mission of a lifetime: the Vulgate

Pope Damasus's commission was the beginning of a work that would occupy St. Jerome for more than thirty years. After the death of his patron, he settled definitively in Bethlehem, in a cave near the place where the Word became flesh. There, surrounded by manuscripts and with the help of disciples such as St. Paula and St. Eustochia of Rome (c. 368 - 419/420), who was the daughter of St. Paula. Both accompanied St. Jerome on his journey to the East, settling in the city of David.

What was the genius of St. Jerome? His revolutionary principle of Hebraica veritas (the Hebrew truth). Whereas the existing Latin versions were based mainly on the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament), St. Jerome insisted on returning to the original Hebrew and Aramaic sources. This earned him much criticism from illustrious contemporaries, such as St. Augustine, who viewed with suspicion the abandonment of the Septuagint tradition, used by the Apostles themselves.

Nevertheless, St. Jerome persevered, convinced that only by drinking from the original source could he offer the Church a more accurate version of the Bible. He translated the 46 books of the Old Will Hebrew (with the exception of some that he revised from the Hebrew Vetus Latina), and revised and translated the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament from the original Greek. The result was what is known as the Vulgate, so called because of its aim to be the edition accessible to the people (vulgus). It was a work of scholarship, discipline and faith.

This effort was a philological exercise and an act of pastoral love. As those involved in the formation of seminarians and priests know well, making the Word of God available to the faithful in an understandable and faithful way is a sacred mission.

The soundness of St. Jerome's bible

The Vulgata from St. Jerome far transcended its initial purpose. For more than a millennium, it was the biblical text of reference throughout the Christian West.

The Vulgata was not a perfect translation - Jerome himself was aware of its limitations - but its fidelity and impact made it a treasure for faith and culture. His work is a reminder of the importance of having patron saints who, like St. Jerome, dedicate their lives to the service of Truth.

San Jerónimo como un anciano asceta en el desierto, semidesnudo y con barba larga, meditando frente a una cruz mientras sostiene una piedra para golpearse el pecho.
St. Jerome penitent (1600), canvas by El Greco.

From the Vulgate to the University of Navarra Bible

Does this mean that the Vulgata is the only Bible valid? Not at all. The very spirit of St. Jerome to return to the sources is the driving force of the Church. The Second Vatican Council, in its dogmatic constitution Dei Verbumencouraged the creation of new translations based on the original Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek texts, which we now know much more accurately thanks to archaeology and papyrology.

As a result of this impetus, Pope Paul VI promulgated in 1979 the Nova VulgataThe text, a revision of St. Jerome's version in the light of modern criticism, is still the reference text for the Latin liturgy.

At the same time, excellent translations into vernacular languages have emerged. A paradigmatic example is the Bible of the University of Navarra. Produced by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarra, this version is a direct heir to the rigor and love for the truth of St. Jerome.

It offers a faithful and elegant translation of the original text, as well as being enriched with extensive notes and commentaries drawn from the Patristics, the Magisterium of the Church and great saints, allowing the reader to delve into the inexhaustible richness of the Word of God. It is a formidable tool for personal meditation and study, a resource that every seminarian and priest should have within his reach.

The life of St. Jerome goes beyond his work. He teaches us an attitude towards the BibleThe book is a blend of intellectual rigor and humble piety. It reminds us that approaching Scripture is not an academic exercise, but a personal encounter with Christ. In its pages we discover the face of God who gives meaning to our lives.

For the CARF Foundation, supporting the formation of a seminarian or diocesan priest is, in essence, a continuation of the mission of St. Jerome. It is to give the Church future pastors who, like him, love the Word of God, study it with passion, meditate on it in prayer and know how to transmit it faithfully to the faithful. A well-formed priest is a priest who knows and loves the Word of God. Bibleand who can, in turn, teach his people not to ignore Christ.

Therefore, make a donation for the formation of these young people is to invest directly in evangelization and in the future of the Church, assuring that the light of the Word, so well guarded and transmitted by St. Jeromecontinue to shine in the world.

El anciano y frágil san Jerónimo es sostenido por sus discípulos mientras se arrodilla para recibir la Eucaristía de manos de un sacerdote.
St. Jerome's last communion (1614), by Domenico Zampieri, known as Domenichino.

St. Jerome was more than a translator, he was a servant of the Word, a man who dedicated his life to making the treasure of the Word accessible to all. Bible. Your Vulgata unified the biblical texts of the Western Church and became the channel through which divine revelation nourished the faith, culture and thought of hundreds of generations.

His example invites us to take up our Bibles, to read them with the same love and reverence that he did, and to discover in them the living voice of God speaking to us. For, as he taught us, to ignore Scripture is, and always will be, to ignore Christ.

Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, September 29th

In the Catholic faith, few figures inspire as much reverence and affection as the angels. Spiritual creatures, endowed with intelligence and will, they are the manifestation of God's perfection, infinity and power: each of them exhausts in him his own species. Sacred Scripture and the tradition of the Church reveal their existence to us as a truth of faith. In this heavenly choir, three figures stand out for their name and mission: the saints archangels St. Michael, St. Gabriel y St. Raphael.

On September 29, the Church celebrates these three faithful servants of God in a single feast, recognizing their role in the History of Salvation. From the CARF Foundation, we want to deepen in the identity and mission of these heavenly princes, powerful allies on the road to holiness, whose protective and messenger work is still valid today as in biblical times.

The Gospel passage proposed by the Church for this feast of the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael is the meeting of Jesus with Nathanael, which St. John places at the beginning of his Gospel. "You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (Jn 1:47-51). Jesus makes himself known as the Messiah, and describes the mission of the angels, who are part of the history of salvation, carrying out different missions entrusted by God.

Angels: servants and messengers

Before reviewing the specific missions of St. Michael, St. Gabriel y St. RaphaelWe must understand what the Church teaches us about angels. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CEC) clearly instructs us: "The existence of spiritual, non-corporeal beings, which Sacred Scripture usually calls angels, is a truth of faith" (CEC, 328).

They are not a mere abstraction or a conjunction of energy. They are personal and immortal creatures that surpass in perfection all visible creatures. Their purpose is to glorify God without ceasing and to serve as executors of his saving designs. Like their own Greek name -angelswhich means "envoy" or "messenger" - indicates that one of its primary functions is to communicate the divine will to mankind.

Tradition, based on the Scriptures, has organized the angels into different choirs or hierarchies. The archangels are those entrusted with missions of special transcendence. Although the Bible suggests the existence of seven, the Catholic Church venerates with their own names the three revealed in the canonical texts, as a sign of divine intervention in the world. Their work is a constant reminder that Heaven is not distant, but is actively involved in our history, a reality that sustains the formation of future priests who will one day preach these truths of faith.

The liturgy has unified in on september 29th, the feast of the holy archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. Their names refer to their functions as intermediaries between God and men, as well as executors of his orders and transmitters of his messages.

El Arcángel san Gabriel, arrodillado con humildad ante la Virgen María en un pórtico, le anuncia que será la Madre de Dios.
The Annunciation (1426) by Fra Angelico. St. Gabriel is depicted as the messenger of the Incarnation.

The Archangel Gabriel

Its name means Fortress of God. The archangel Gabriel was entrusted with the mission of announcing to the Virgin Mary that she would be the Mother of the Savior. The message it conveys is transcendental. Undoubtedly the most important in the History of Salvation; it is about the arrival of the Messiah, the Son of God, to the world.

It was "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And he went in to her and said to her, 'Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you....'". Luke 1:26-28.

El Arcángel san Miguel, con armadura y espada en alto, somete con su pie la cabeza de Satanás, que yace derrotado en el suelo.
Saint Michael defeating the devil (1636) by Guido Reni. It represents his power as head of the heavenly militia.

The Archangel Michael

In Hebrew it means Who is like God, an expression that is in harmony with his mission and interventions. 

The archangel Michael is in command of the heavenly armies.. He is the defender of the Church and his name is the battle cry in the battle waged in Heaven against Satan. That is why St. Michael is depicted attacking the infernal serpent.

The Church has worshipped and prayed to him since the 5th century because of his protective role, both in the first reading and during the celebration of the Mass. Holy MassThe liturgy of the hours, in antiphons and in the Office of Readings.

"Archangel Michael, defend us in the struggle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. We beseech God to keep him under his empire; and you, O Prince of the Heavenly Militia, cast into hell with divine power Satan and the other evil spirits, who go about the world trying to lose souls. Amen.

The Archangel Raphael

The archangel Raphael is the friend of the wayfarers and physician of the sick. His name means Medicine of God or God has worked health. In the Bible he is presented as the protector and companion of all, and is one of the great angels present before the glory of the Lord.

It appears in the book of Tobit 12:17-20 that it is the Archangel Raphael himself who reveals his identity: "Do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Bless God forever. If I have been with you..., it has been by the will of God. To Him you must bless every day, to Him you must sing... And now bless the Lord on earth and confess to God. Behold, I go up to him who sent me...".

arcángeles san miguel, san grabriel y san rafael
Archangel Saint Raphael by Juan de Valdés Leal.

The archangels in the life of the saints

Devotion to the archangels is not a mere theological curiosity; it has been a source of strength for countless saints.

St. Thomas Aquinasthe Angelic Doctor, although he is not known to have a specific personal devotion to any of the three. archangels as well as other saints, is the most important intellectual figure in the understanding of the angelic nature. In his Summa Theologicadevoted an entire treatise to the angels, exploring with unparalleled depth their being, their knowledge and their will. His work provides the theological structure upon which the Catholic doctrine of angels rests, allowing us to appreciate more clearly the greatness of the angels. San Miguel, San Gabriel y San Rafael.

St. Michael, Gabriel and Raphael: Patrons of Opus Dei

St. JosemaríaFrom the beginning of the foundation of the Work, he felt that he needed a lot of help from heaven to carry out the mission that God had entrusted to him: to transmit the message that it is possible to be a saint through work and ordinary life. Part of that help came from the holy archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

"I prayed the prayers of the Work of God, invoking the holy archangels, our patron saints: St. Michael, St. Gabriel, St. Raphael.... And how sure I am that this triple call, to such high lords in the Kingdom of Heaven, must be - it is- most pleasing to the Triune and One, and must hasten the hour of the Work!"(St. Josemaría Escrivá).

On Thursday, October 6, 1932, while praying in the chapel of St. John of the Cross during his spiritual retreat in the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Segovia, St. Josemaría chose as patrons of Opus Dei the archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael and the Apostles St. John, St. Peter and St. Paul. From that moment on, he considered them patrons of the different apostolic areas that make up Opus Dei.

Under the patronage of the archangel St. Raphael is the work of Christian formation of youth, from where they arise vocations in the early years, the years of great deeds. Under the patronage of the archangel St. Michael, we find the vocations who are formed spiritually and humanly in celibacy. As for the fathers and mothers of families who are part of the Work, their patron is the Archangel Gabriel.

Thus, we can then recall the passage from the Gospel of Luke that will be read on the feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and think that God has wanted all Christians to count on the help of the archangels and with the help of the guardian angels who know a lot about the task of kindling cold hearts and helping to make generous decisions.

Bibliography

Savoring the silence

A silence that should serve to draw closer to Jesus Christ and through Him to others.

It has been stressed with some insistence -perhaps to help us overcome the selfishness we carry within us- that man is a 'social being'. And it is true. From time to time we are reminded of the need to be in solidarity with all the other inhabitants of the planet, worrying about hunger in a distant country or on our own doorstep.

The Church often brings to mind the "communion of saints," that spiritual bond that unites us all "children of God in Christ Jesus," which makes each of us responsible, in an ineffable way, for the fate of others, in good and evil.

disfrutar del silencio y la oración con Dios

All these considerations seem to me to be very correct. It is now up to us to recognize that fraternal solidarity among us does not exclude neither silence nor solitude; indeed, it demands them, if we truly want to live now a "communion of men" and, in its day, a "communion of men" and, in its day, a "communion of men".communion of saints". It is the same solitary silence in which an artist creates and ponders his works; in which a mother contemplates and loves her children.

Soledad

Silence and solitude -which in truth is oneself with God; the solitude of oneself with oneself ends up being truly unbearable- are necessary for each one to become aware of himself, of his existence; of "who he is" and of "who he is for".

"The humanity of those who never shut up, fades away", he said very accurately. Guardini. And only in this way will we today become aware of our own humanity, of the meaning of our walk on earth.

To enjoy this in enriching solitude with Christ, we have a great enemy: noise. I have the impression that the present moment of our civilization is producing too much noise, outside and inside man. The false news about the current Pope is a good example.

Sometimes we surround ourselves with too much internal noise, noise of the spirit, to escape from the solitude of silence. The television on all day long, the radio in the car and in the office. We look for information from any country and on the most absurd subjects, which we do not even know how to assimilate for something useful.

Noises in the ear and in the head that prevent us from living the joy of feeling the flapping of a mosquito. And it is a pity, because at that moment we would begin to know that we are alive and to realize what our own life is worth.

Eternity

The beauty and richness of silence expressed it very well Jean GuittonIt leads us to the most intimate point of ourselves, there where eternity touches us and vivifies us, there where eternity speaks to us in a whisper of words".

disfrutar del silencio y la oración con Dios

Esperanza

And in the Bible we read: "in silence and in hope you will find your strength" (cf. Is 30:15). It is true. Calm and solitude recreate within our spirit the moment of our own creation, they allow us to reproduce - and make our own - Adam's encounter with God in the garden of paradise.

Perhaps one of the fruits -I do not know if it is directly desired- of the battles of the ecologists is, precisely, to invite us to yearn for silence, savoring in solitude the silence of nature. The plane flies by, and the clouds remain silent.

But the stillness of nature is not enough for man; and since he cannot rid himself entirely of external noise, he needs peace within himself even more urgently. Even amidst the noise of the avenues, the orange trees produce their fruit in the quiet of the countryside. Even the man of today, who works and consumes himself in a thousand efforts of service to keep the world on its feet, longs for peace of soul, of spirit.

Only in the solitude of that silence will it be able to bear its best fruit.The contemplation and adoration of Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the Word of God.

Ernesto Juliá, ernesto.julia@gmail.com

Originally published in Religion Confidential.