Kathryn Lopez
1. This is in the Liturgy of the Hours for those who want to celebrate and learn from and ask for the intercession of Saint Bridget of Sweden on her feast day today:
Blessed are you, my Lord Jesus Christ. You foretold your death and at the Last Supper you marvelously consecrated bread which became your precious body. And then you gave it to your apostles out of love as a memorial of your most holy passion. By washing their feet with your holy hands, you gave them a supreme example of your deep humility.
Honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. Fearing your passion and death, you poured forth blood from your innocent body like sweat, and still you accomplished our redemption as you desired and gave us the clearest proof of your love for all men.
Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. After you had been led to Caiaphas, you, the judge of all men, humbly allowed yourself to be handed over to the judgment of Pilate.
Glory be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the mockery you endured when you stood clothed in purple and wearing a crown of sharp thorns. With utmost endurance you allowed vicious men to spit upon your glorious face, blindfold you and beat your cheek and neck with cruelest blows.
Praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. For with the greatest patience you allowed yourself like an innocent lamb to be bound to a pillar and mercilessly scourged, and then to be brought, covered with blood, before the judgment seat of Pilate to be gazed upon by all.
Honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. For after your glorious body was covered with blood, you were condemned to death on the cross, you endured the pain of carrying the cross on your sacred shoulders, and you were led with curses to the place where you were to suffer. Then stripped of your garments, you allowed yourself to be nailed to the wood of the cross.
Everlasting honor be to you, Lord Jesus Christ. You allowed your most holy mother to suffer so much, even though she had never sinned nor ever even consented to the smallest sin. Humbly you looked down upon her with your gentle loving eyes, and to comfort her you entrusted her to the faithful care of your disciple.
Eternal blessing be yours, my Lord Jesus Christ, because in your last agony you held out to all sinners the hope of pardon, when in your mercy you promised the glory of paradise to the penitent thief.
Eternal praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for the time you endured on the cross the greatest torments and sufferings for us sinners. The sharp pain of your wounds fiercely penetrated even to your blessed soul and cruelly pierced your most sacred heart till finally you sent forth your spirit in peace, bowed your head, and humbly commended yourself into the hands of God your Father, and your whole body remained cold in death.
Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. You redeemed our souls with your precious blood and most holy death, and in your mercy you led them from exile back to eternal life.
Blessed may you be, my Lord Jesus Christ. For our salvation you allowed your side and heart to be pierced with a lance; and from that side water and your precious blood flowed out abundantly for our redemption.
Glory be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. You allowed your blessed body to be taken down from the cross by your friends and laid in the arms of your most sorrowing mother, and you let her wrap your body in a shroud and bury it in a tomb to be guarded by soldiers.
Unending honor be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ. On the third day you rose from the dead and appeared to those you had chosen. And after forty days you ascended into heaven before the eyes of many witnesses, and there in heaven you gathered together in glory those you love, whom you had freed from hell.
Rejoicing and eternal praise be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, who sent the Holy Spirit into the hearts of your disciples and increased the boundless love of God in their spirits.
Blessed are you and praiseworthy and glorious for ever, my Lord Jesus. You sit upon your throne in your kingdom of heaven, in the glory of your divinity, living in the most holy body you took from a virgin’s flesh. So will you appear on that last day to judge the souls of all the living and the dead; you who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
2. Quick primers here and here and here.
4.
Today is the feast of St. Bridget of Sweden!
"The people of earth have need of a triple mercy: sorrow for their… http://t.co/hH0hkeSH5j
— St. Mary's Bookstore (@stmarybookstore) July 23, 2015
5.
To write well and speak well is mere vanity if one does not live well.
St Bridget of Sweden
— Ever mindful (@albroodryk) July 23, 2015
6.
The 15 Prayers of St. Bridget of Sweden – Discerning Hearts: There’s somethng that happens when you not only r… http://t.co/EfCjeYjPtC
— Kris McGregor (@KrisMcGregor) July 22, 2015
it was a profound sense of the mystery of Christ and the Church which led Bridget to take part in building up the ecclesial community at a quite critical period in the Church’s history. Her profound union with Christ was accompanied by special gifts of revelation, which made her a point of reference for many people in the Church of her time. Bridget was recognized as having the power of prophecy, and at times her voice did seem to echo that of the great prophets of old. She spoke unabashedly to princes and pontiffs, declaring God’s plan with regard to the events of history. She was not afraid to deliver stern admonitions about the moral reform of the Christian people and the clergy themselves (cf. Revelations, IV, 49; cf. also IV, 5). Understandably, some aspects of her remarkable mystical output raised questions at the time; the Church’s discernment constantly referred these back to public revelation alone, which has its fullness in Christ and its normative expression in Sacred Scripture. Even the experiences of the great Saints are not free of those limitations which always accompany the human reception of God’s voice.
Yet there is no doubt that the Church, which recognized Bridget’s holiness without ever pronouncing on her individual revelations, has accepted the overall authenticity of her interior experience. She stands as an important witness to the place reserved in the Church for a charism lived in complete docility to the Spirit of God and in full accord with the demands of ecclesial communion. In a special way too, because the Scandinavian countries from which Bridget came were separated from full communion with the See of Rome during the tragic events of the sixteenth century, the figure of this Swedish Saint remains a precious ecumenical “bridge”, strengthened by the ecumenical commitment of her Order.
She
was a master in accepting the Cross as a central experience of the faith; she was an exemplary disciple of the Church, professing complete Catholicism; she was a model of the contemplative and active life and a tireless apostle in the search for unity among Christians. She also had the gift of prophetic intuition when reading the history of the Gospel and the Gospel in history.”
After highlighting the “marian dimension of her consecration to Christ,” he says:
Striving always to imitate Mary, she was a wife, mother, and faithful religious. Following the footsteps of the Virgin, she tried to do the will of God in all circumstances.
The Holy Father concluded by emphasizing the saint’s passion for unity in the Church:
As a woman of unity, she is for us a witness of ecumenicism. … Unity of the Church is a grace from the Holy Spirit that must be asked for constantly in prayer.
9. Yet more from JPII:
the saint was constantly inspired by the mystery of Christ’s passion and death. She never tired of contemplating the face of the Crucified One.
10. I couldn’t resist:
I got Bridgettine! Which Nun Doll Are You? http://t.co/vfMM4AdmP0 via @buzzfeeders (It's the feast of their foundress St Bridget of SWE!)
— Marian Library (@marian_library) July 23, 2015
11. Persevere!
12. A homily from Fr. Lawrence Lew.
13. Ten things from Pope Benedict XVI about her.
14.
“The world would have peace if only men of politics would follow the Gospels.”
St. Bridget of Sweden
— Fr. Dismas, O.P. (@dismasop) July 6, 2015
PLUS: The readings for today. A homily from Fr. Steve Grunow for today.
Saint Bridget of Sweden gave up wealth and status to find Christ in the cloister. May we too seek the Lord, whatever the cost. #HomilyTweet
— Fr James Bradley (@FrJamesBradley) July 23, 2015
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