St Frances Xavier Cabrini

St Frances Xavier Cabrini

Facts

Feastday: November 13

Patron of immigrants

Death: 1917

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin (Feast day November 13) St. Frances was born in Lombardi, Italy in 1850, one of thirteen children. At eighteen, she desired to become a Nun, but poor health stood in her way. She helped her parents until their death, and then worked on a farm with her brothers and sisters.

One day a priest asked her to teach in a girls' school and she stayed for six years. At the request of her Bishop, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart to care for poor children in schools and hospitals. Then at the urging of Pope Leo XIII she came to the United States with six nuns in 1889 to work among the Italian immigrants.

Filled with a deep trust in God and endowed with a wonderful administrative ability, this remarkable woman soon founded schools, hospitals, and orphanages in this strange land and saw them flourish in the aid of Italian immigrants and children. At the time of her death, at Chicago, Illinois on December 22, 1917, her institute numbered houses in England, France, Spain, the United States, and South America. In 1946, she became the first American citizen to be canonized when she was elevated to sainthood by Pope Pius XII. St. Frances is the patroness of immigrants.

Memorial of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, Virgin

Lectionary: 494

Reading 1

PHLM 7-20

Beloved:

I have experienced much joy and encouragement from your love,

because the hearts of the holy ones

have been refreshed by you, brother.

Therefore, although I have the full right in Christ

to order you to do what is proper,

I rather urge you out of love,

being as I am, Paul, an old man,

and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus.

I urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus,

whose father I have become in my imprisonment,

who was once useless to you but is now useful to both you and me.

I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

I should have liked to retain him for myself,

so that he might serve me on your behalf

in my imprisonment for the Gospel,

but I did not want to do anything without your consent,

so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.

Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while,

that you might have him back forever,

no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother,

beloved especially to me, but even more so to you,

as a man and in the Lord.

So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

And if he has done you any injustice

or owes you anything, charge it to me.

I, Paul, write this in my own hand: I will pay.

May I not tell you that you owe me your very self.

Yes, brother, may I profit from you in the Lord.

Refresh my heart in Christ.

Responsorial Psalm

PS 146:7, 8-9A, 9BC-10

R. (5a) Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The LORD secures justice for the oppressed,

gives food to the hungry.

The LORD sets captives free.

R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The LORD gives sight to the blind.

The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;

the LORD loves the just.

The LORD protects strangers.

R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

The fatherless and the widow he sustains,

but the way of the wicked he thwarts.

The LORD shall reign forever;

your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.

R. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob.

or:

R. Alleluia.

Gospel

LK 17:20-25

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come,

Jesus said in reply,

“The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed,

and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’

For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”

Then he said to his disciples,

“The days will come when you will long to see

one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it.

There will be those who will say to you,

‘Look, there he is,’ or ‘Look, here he is.’

Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.

For just as lightning flashes

and lights up the sky from one side to the other,

so will the Son of Man be in his day.

But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”