Tuesday, 23 July 2013
By request from a reader on St. Bridget of Sweden
Pray for Europe.
Today is the Feast of St. Bridget of Sweden, one of the patronesses of Europe. The other patrons of Europe are St. Benedict, St. Cyril and St. Methodius. We celebrated her day today at Mass. Her dates are 1303-1373. She was a queen who became a nun and a saint. I love her because she loved the Church so much. One of her daughter, Catherine, is a saint as well. Here is one quotation from St. Bridget for your meditation today from her Revelations from Christ:
The castle I spoke about previously is the Holy Church and the souls of Christians, which I built with my own blood and that of the saints. I cemented and joined it with my love and placed my friends and chosen men in it. The foundation is true faith, that is, to believe that I am a righteous and merciful judge.
Now, however, this foundation is undermined because all believe and preach that I am merciful, but almost no one preaches or believes me to be a righteous judge. They view me as an unjust judge! Unjust and unrighteous, indeed, would the judge be who, out of mercy, allowed the unrighteous to go unpunished, so that they could oppress the righteous even more! But I am a righteous and merciful judge; for I do not let even the least sin go unpunished, nor the least good go unrewarded. By the undermining of this wall’s foundation, there entered into the Holy Church people who sin without fear, who deny that I am a righteous judge, and who torment my friends as severely as those who are placed in the stocks. My friends have no joy or consolation given to them but, instead, every kind of mockery and torment are inflicted upon them as if they were possessed by the devil. When they tell the truth about me, they are rejected and accused of lying.