13 November 2026 - Mother Cabrini - homily for Friday of the 32nd week of Ordinary time - 2 John 4-9

The saint we celebrate today is St Francis Xavier Cabrini. Born in 1850 in the kingdom of Lombardy, which was then part of Austro-Hungarian empire, she was the youngest of 13 children, but only 5 of them lived passed adolescence. She was born 2 months premature, and thus had frail and delicate health her entire life. She became a teacher at the age of 18, being very successful and valued at that vocation. After being rejected twice from being a sister in two religious orders, she was accepted by the Sisters of Providence. At her vows at becoming a sister, she added the name Xavier, in honor of the Jesuit priest Frances Xavier, the patron saint of missionaries. In 1880, the orphanage where she taught closed. She approached the Bishop of the diocese about becoming a missionary, with him advising her to start her own missionary order. With some of the former sisters of her past congregation, she formed a new order: the Salesian Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, an order established to care for poor children in schools and hospitals.  Pope Leo XIII asked her to come to the United States with 6 other nuns from her order to work among the Italian immigrants. She received approval from Archbishop Corrigan of New York to work there in 1889. She did much work with the immigrant population in the US, founding school, hospitals, and orphanages.She became a US citizen in 1909.  She died in Chicago in 1917. The Cambrini-Green public housing project in downtown Chicago was named after her.  She was canonized a saint in 1946, the first American citizen to receive such an honor. She is the patron saint of immigrants. 

In our first reading today, we hear from the very short second letter of John. John takes great joy that the community is living out the Gospel message. As always, living out the Gospel is not done in the abstract, but rather in the relationship we have with Christ as his disciples. John calls them to live in both Christ’s love and in obeying God’s commandments. The two must always complement one another. The New Testament letters that we have been hearing from in our first readings in daily Mass always give us great advice. God’s word can give us strength and encouragement on our journey.