4/29/2014 – Catherine of Siena – Doctor of the Church – Tuesday of 2nd week of Easter – Acts 4:32-37

      Father Albeen and I attended a workshop on parish administration for priests in our diocese this past week.  Monsignor Sunds, the Vicar General for our Diocese, gave the introduction to the workshop on Wednesday morning, reading from same passage we have from the Acts of the Apostles this morning.  He stated that this passage from Acts describes how the group of disciples in the Early Church addressed stewardship and the administration of the funds that they had.   All of us were there to talk about our roles as pastors in terms in administration and stewardship in our parishes.  They actually ended the workshop on Thursday afternoon with a quote from an anonymous priest, who said that early on in his priesthood he saw his administrative role as a pastor as a perhaps a necessary evil or something that he dreaded, but that he later saw it as a necessary part of his spirituality as a pastor of a parish.

      As we look at the Early Church in our readings from the Acts of the Apostles in these first weeks of the Easter season, today we celebrate one of the four female Doctors of the Church that we have in our Catholic faith – St Catherine of Siena.  (By the way, the other three female Doctors of the Church are Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, and Hildegard of Bingen.)  Catherine is quite a remarkable woman who lived in Italy way back in the 14^th century, so remarkable that she is the patron saint of Italy and the co-patron saint of all of Europe.  What is even more remarkable is that she was the youngest of 25 children, that she had a vision of Christ when she was only 7 years old, and that she became the respected counselor of princes and popes while she spent most of her time caring for the poor and the sick.  Quite a unique resume she has.  This remarkable saint who is renowned for being a church reformer and a world peace maker, once said this wise statement: "If you are what you are meant to be, you will set the world on fire!”  May we give thanks today during this joyful Easter season for the men & women like Catherine of Sienna and the disciples of the Early Church who devoted their lives to the faith and who worked tirelessly in living out the Gospel message & spreading it to others. May they be an example and inspiration to all of us on our own journeys.