Easter: May 10th
Saturday of the Third Week of Easter; Opt. Mem. of St. Damien de Veuster, Priest; Opt. Mem. of St. John of Avila
MASS READINGS
May 10, 2025 (Readings on USCCB website)
PROPERS [Show]
COLLECT PRAYER
Saturday of the Third Week of Easter: O God, who in the font of Baptism have made new those who believe in you, keep safe those reborn in Christ, that, defeating every onslaught of error, they may faithfully preserve the grace of your blessing, through our Lord Jesus Christ, our Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Optional Memorial of St. Damien: Father of mercy, who gave us in Saint Damien a shining witness of love for the poorest and most abandoned, grant that, by his intercession, as faithful witnesses of the heart of your Son Jesus, we too may be servants of the most needy and rejected. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Optional Memorial of St. John of Avila: Almighty and eternal God, who gave your holy Church blessed John of Avila as Doctor, grant that what he taught when moved by the divine Spirit may always stay firm in our hearts; and, as by your gift we embrace him as our patron, may we also have him as our defender to entreat your mercy. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
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Today the Proper Calendar for the US celebrates the Optional Memorial of Father Damien de Veuster, SS.CC. (1840-1889), formerly Joseph de Veuster, and fondly called St. Damien of Molokai. (In Hawaii this is an Obligatory Memorial.) He was a Belgian missionary of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary and revered primarily by Hawaii residents and Christians for having dedicated his life in service to the lepers of Molokai in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Father Damien is the spiritual patron of lepers, outcasts, and those with HIV/AIDS, and of the State of Hawaii. April 15 is his commemoration date in the Roman Martyrology.
The Universal Calendar celebrates Optional Memorial of St. John of Avila (1499-1569). St. John was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope St. John Paul II in 2012. He was the Apostle of Andalusia and the spiritual advisor of St. Teresa, St. Francis Borgia, St. John of the Cross, St. Peter of Alcantara, and others. He was born on January 6, 1499, at Almodovar del Campo, Spain. After studying law at the University of Salamanca, he left the university to be a hermit. He then went to Alcala, where he was ordained. John drew great crowds with his fiery denunciations of evil and his many sermons. A brief imprisonment by the Inquisition in Seville made him even more popular. His missionary efforts were centered on Andalusia, and his letters and other writings have become Spanish classics. John was canonized in 1970.
Meditation for Saturday of the Third Week of Easter
The Glory of the Resurrection
1. "Alleluia. It behooved Christ to suffer ... and so to enter into His glory." "Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him" (Rom. 6:9). Thus the glorified Christ stands before us and prays for us to His Father. "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou hast given Me may be with Me [as My brethren, as members of My body], that they may see My glory which Thou has given Me" (John 17:24).
2. The glory of the risen Christ. Christ gave us a glimpse of His glory through the three apostles whom He took with Him to Mount Tabor, where "He was transfigured before them. And His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as snow" (Matt. 17:2). Now, after the resurrection, the splendor of the victor becomes visible on Tabor. The soul of Jesus, from the plenitude of the light of divine life with which it is flooded, sheds its heavenly beauty and strength upon His body also. Even though He was wounded, scourged, spat upon, and mocked, even though He suffered the pains and tortures of His passion, and was put to death and robbed of all beauty, yet He now shines with the brilliancy of the sun (gift of clarity). He can no longer suffer pain or death (gift of impassibility).
He has shed all the defects of mortal human nature. The fulfillment of every wish and command follows the act of the will with the speed of light, penetrating all things like thought, like a spirit; He is like a spirit, yet possesses a true body (gift of agility). For the risen Christ, walls, towers, and locks are no longer an obstacle. On Easter morning the glorified body of Jesus rises from the grave and penetrates the door of the room where the disciples were gathered with the ease with which light penetrates glass. Such was the glory of the risen Christ. "Shout with joy to God all the earth, alleluia; sing ye a psalm to His name, alleluia" (Introit).
The glory of those who rise with Christ. "When Christ shall appear [on the last day], who is your life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory" (Col. 3:4). Christ is risen, and we, too, shall one day rise from the dead. We are bound to Him by a most intimate union, for we have already risen with Him. The beginning of our resurrection is to be found in our baptism, by which we receive sanctifying grace, and in Holy Communion, by which we receive actual grace. This is the source of our eventual resurrection. "Who will reform the body of our lowness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation whereby also He is able to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. 3:21). "Then shall the just shine as the sun" (Matt. 13:43).
All the noble and holy saints who have ever lived on earth will rise and live again, and they will be honored and acclaimed in heaven for all eternity. For them there will be no more wailing, no more sorrow, no more pain. "Behold, I make all things new' (Apoc. 21:5; II Cor. 5:17). This miserable body which we now have will share in eternal life, in the glory and the immortality of the resurrection. "It is sown in corruption; it shall rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor; it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness; it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body; it shall rise a spiritual body. ... And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" (I Cor. 15:42-44, 54 f.)
3. "A little while." If Christ is risen, then we, too, shall rise. After our residence on earth for a little while, the life "in My Father's house" awaits us (John 14:2). That life will not be an empty existence, a dull, shadowy life such as the pagans considered the afterlife; it will be a life full of activity, a full, eternal life spent in company with the blessed and with God, who is the fountainhead of all life and happiness. After this "little while" we shall experience complete satisfaction, we shall have every desire fulfilled, and be perfect in God. "Father, I will that where I am, they also whom thou hast given Me may be with Me" (John 17:24). A future of perfect bliss lies infallibly ahead of me. What, then, are the momentary trials and difficulties I suffer now? Two things are absolutely certain: that life on earth is brief and transient; and that after a little while there will be an eternal life of glory (c. Rom. 8:18). Indeed, they are inseparably connected. By means of this short life I earn my eternal glory. "These that are clothed in white robes, who are they? And whence came they?" John is asked in the Apocalypse. When he is unable to answer, he is told: "These are they who are come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and have made them white in the blood of the lamb" (7:13 f.). "Out of great tribulation." That is the surest pledge and the best guarantee of a happy eternity.
Should not our hearts be filled with joy and blessed hope? We are one with the risen Christ. This union is the source of all our good fortune. If we truly believed and had full confidence, we would exclaim, "I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come." The Christian may expect such a resurrection. "A little while…and I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice."
—Benedict Baur, OSB, The Light of the World, Vol. 2
St. Damien of Molokai
Joseph De Veuster, the future Father Damien, was born at Tremelo in Belgium, January 3rd, 1840. His was a large family and his father was a farmer-merchant. When his oldest brother entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts (called 'Picpus' after the street in Paris where its Generalate was located), his father planned that Joseph should take charge of the family business. Joseph, however, decided to become a religious. At the beginning of 1859 he entered the novitiate at Louvain, in the same house as his brother. There he took the name of Damien.
In 1863, his brother who was to leave for the mission in the Hawaiian Islands, became ill. Since preparations for the voyage had already been made, Damien obtained permission from the Superior General to take his brother's place. He arrived in Honolulu on March 19th, 1864, where he was ordained to the priesthood the following May 21st. He immediately devoted himself, body and soul, to the difficult service of a "country missionary" on the island of Hawaii, the largest in the Hawaiian group.
At that time, the Hawaiian Government decided on a very harsh measure aimed at stopping the spread of "leprosy," the deportation to the neighboring island of Molokai, of all those infected by what was thought to be an incurable disease. The entire mission was concerned about the abandoned "lepers" and the Bishop, Louis Maigret ss.cc., spoke to the priests about the problem. He did not want to send anyone "in the name of obedience," because he knew that such an order meant certain death. Four Brothers volunteered, they would take turns visiting and assisting the "lepers" in their distress. Damien was the first to leave on May 10th, 1873. At his own request and that of the lepers, he remained definitively on Molokai.
He brought hope to this hell of despair. He became a source of consolation and encouragement for the lepers, their pastor, the doctor of their souls and of their bodies, without any distinction of race or religion. He gave a voice to the voiceless, he built a community where the joy of being together and openness to the love of God gave people new reasons for living.
After Father Damien contracted the disease in 1885, he was able to identify completely with them: "We lepers." Father Damien was, above all, a witness of the love of God for His people. He got his strength from the Eucharist: "lt is at the foot of the altar that we find the strength we need in our isolation..." It is there that he found for himself and for others the support and the encouragement, the consolation and the hope, he could, with a deep faith, communicate to the lepers. All that made him "the happiest missionary in the world," a servant of God, and a servant of humanity.
Having contracted "leprosy" himself, Fr. Damien died on April 15th, 1889, having served sixteen years among the lepers. His mortal remains were transferred in 1936 to Belgium where he was interred in the crypt of the church of the Congregation of Sacred Hearts at Louvain. His fame spread to the entire world. In 1938 the process for his beatification was introduced at Malines (Belgium): Pope Paul VI signed the Decree on the "heroicity of his virtues" on July 7th 1977. He was canonized on October 11th, 2009.
In Father Damien, the Church proposes an example to all those who find sense for their life in the Gospel and who wish to bring the Good News to the poor of our time.
—Excerpted from SSCC Website
Patronage: Lepers; against leprosy
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about Fr. Damien:
- Be adventurous and prepare a Hawaiian luau in honor of St. Damien. Or see some other food ideas at Catholic Cuisine.
- Father Damien was originally buried next to Saint Philomena Church, Molokai, Hawaii, then later interred in a basement chapel in the church of Saint Antonius, Leuven, Belgium in 1936, which was bought and remodeled by the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts. See St. Anthony's Chapel. Also see Saints in Rome for relics information about St. Damien.
- Virtually visit the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, where there is a relic of Fr. Damien.
St. John of Avila
Saint John of Ávila was born in Almodóvar del Campo of a wealthy and pious family of Jewish converso descent. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Salamanca to study law but returned after a year to his father's home, where he spent the next three years in the practice of austere piety. His sanctity impressed a Franciscan journeying through Almodóvar, on whose advice he took up the study of philosophy and theology at Alcalá de Henares, where he was fortunate to have as his teacher the famous Dominican Domingo de Soto. While he was a student his parents died and after his ordination he celebrated his first Mass in the church where they were buried, sold the family property and gave the proceeds to the poor.
He saw in the severing of natural ties a vocation to foreign missionary work and prepared to go to Mexico. In 1527, while he was in Seville looking for a favorable opportunity to set out for his new field of labor, his unusually great devotion in celebrating Mass attracted the attention of Hernando de Contreras, a priest of Seville, who mentioned him to the archbishop and Inquisitor General, Don Alonso Manrique de Lara. The archbishop saw in the young missionary a powerful instrument to stir up the faith in Andalusia, and after considerable persuasion Juan was induced to abandon his journey to America.
His first sermon was preached on 22 July 1529, and immediately established his reputation. During his nine years of missionary work in Andalusia, crowds packed the churches at all his sermons. However, his strong pleas for reform and the denunciation of the behavior of the high society brought him before the inquisitor at Seville. He was charged with exaggerating the dangers of wealth and with closing the gates of heaven to the rich. The charges were quickly refuted and he was declared innocent in 1533. By special invitation of the court he was appointed to preach the sermon on the next great feast in the church of San Salvador, in Seville. Like other Spanish mystics of the period, including La Beata de Piedrahita, he was suspected several times during his career of belonging to the Alumbrados, deemed a heretical sect.
John of Avila is also remembered as a reformer of clerical life in Spain. He founded several colleges where his disciples dedicated themselves to the teaching of youths. Among the disciples attracted by his preaching and saintly reputation were Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint John of God, Saint Francis Borgia and the Venerable Louis of Granada. Of special importance was the University of Baeza established in 1538 by a papal bull of Pope Paul III Its first rector was Saint John of Ávila and became a model for seminaries and for the schools of the Jesuits.
He is especially revered by the Jesuits. Their development in Spain is attributed to his friendship and support to the Society of Jesus.
St. John of Avila was declared Venerable by Pope Clement XIII on February 8, 1759 and beatified by Pope Leo XIII on November 15, 1893. On May 31, 1970 he was canonized by Pope Paul VI. Pope Benedict XVI named him a Doctor of the Church on October 7, 2012, the Feast of the Holy Rosary.
—Excerpted from Patron Saints
Patronage: Andalusia, Spain; Spain; Spanish secular clergy; World Youth Day 2011
Highlights and Things to Do:
- Read more about St. John of Avila:
- The Letters of St. John of Avila can be found at the Open Library.
- St. John's body is interred in the Basílica de San Juan de Ávila in Montilla, Spain.
