Francis Xavier

We started out our morning with our Bible devotional.  The verses were from Matthew 8:5-11.  The centurion (non-Jew) came to Jesus and asked for his servant to be healed.  Jesus said to take him to the servant so he could heal the man; however, the centurion said that all it would take was Jesus' word and the servant would be healed.  We could focus on the fact that Jesus healed the servant but the true message of this story comes when Jesus says, "...no one in Israel have I found faith as great as this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west and sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of Heaven."

And the boys picked up on the response from the centurion quickly..."Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter my house, say but the word and my servant will be healed."  These are the words we speak right before we go to the altar to receive the precious Eucharist!

I thought it was interesting that this passage would be our reflection for the day as today is the feast day of St Francis Xavier.  A man who had such faith in Jesus that he gave his life's work to spread the message.  I pray that one day I will have such faith.

I have talked about the importance of saints in past blog posts.  These special people, who walked this earth and showed an amazing (supernatural) ability to live their lives as Christ asked, are great models for us in our lives.  These are our heroes who we look up to for encouragement when we are unsure and need guidance.  These examples of Christian life far outweigh those sports heroes and movie stars who are lifted up in our society today!  The feast days for these individuals are celebrated on the day the person dies.  The idea is that they lived such saintly lives that we celebrate their death as the day they enter into Heaven.  We do not worship these saints but remember their lives and look for their examples of virtues that we can emulate ourselves.

During the Advent season, there are many of these saints who guide us in our search for Christ.  As we go through the season, I will show you what this means for our family.  Today is the first example of a saint we wish to learn to mimic in virtue.

Francis Xavier was born of noble parents in Spain in 1506.  He could have chose to live out his life in luxury basking in his wealth in privileged society.  However, upon his travels to Paris for education he became friends with Ignatius of Loyola (another saintly man).  Ignatius was a very devout follower of Christ and he spoke to Francis Xavier about his lifestyle and saving his soul.  Francis asked why he should not be successful in life.  Ignatius' response to Francis is recorded: "What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul?"  What an example of how we should always be willing to be good friends and speak the truth!

These men (along with some of their friends) formed a group that would come to be known as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits).  He would be ordained a priest and then began his missionary work in India.  He taught adults and children, ringing a bell to gain their attention.  He also visited the sick in hospitals and the imprisoned.

One of the special gifts Francis Xavier had was to be understood in all the lands he visited.  He traveled throughout India and surrounding islands and even to Japan...he was able to speak to all of the natives without struggle.  In 1552, he began his journey to convert China; however, he died on an island before reaching the mainland.  Through his perseverance and humility to give of himself for the faith, he is considered a patron saint for those who are foreign missionaries.  We enjoy reading his stories as a missionary in foreign lands.  We learn so much abut how we are also called to be missionaries in our lives.

Not only do we read about his life, but we also try to bring these virtues to light in our lives.  We ask the questions:  What does it mean to be an apostle? Consider how you might imitate St. Francis Xavier in apostolic works in your own situation.  We also pray for the Christians in these countries that they may continue to live in peace.  We also learned that St Francis Xavier's favorite prayers was the simple phrase:  "Give me souls!"  He spoke this when he wanted to share the faith during difficult situations.  May we also learn to seek Christ during our difficult times, so more souls come to know Christ.

This theme seemed to continue as we went to our nativity scene.  Edward added blankets to all the openings in our stable.  We prayed, "Jesus, help us to keep temptations out of our hearts, and especially guard our ears against sinful conversations."  How we could change the world if we avoided the temptations of gossip in our day to day conversations.  Add to that the removal of doubt in our faith and we could move mountains...or maybe just evangelize a little more.

One of the things I like to teach the children is having the heart of missionary sometimes means doing without.  St. Francis Xavier went to India with very little funds to help him travel and spread the message of the Gospel.  So to show this aspect of missionary work we only have a simple dinner of soup.  We found this recipe at a website called Xaver Suppa...it is a simple broth soup with dumplings which we serve with cheesy bread.

We worked on our puzzle a little more as we gathered all the outside pieces to put together tomorrow.  It is always slow going when we first start a puzzle.  Once we have the outside framed, we move a little faster.

We also have a few pieces of straw in our manger...most of the time was spent doubling up on school work today so we could take off for the holidays in a week.  Then we will have more time to focus on our good deeds around the community.  It is always nice to see the good deeds around the house as well.

Still no Jesse ornaments this year; however, I think that might change tomorrow...Edward saw my post and he is determined to find our ornaments and set up our Jesse Tree!  YAY!  So glad someone sees the importance of our salvation history and is eager to help me with this tradition.

We ended the evening with a reading from 'Jesus of Nazareth.'  We learned about the different genealogies found in Matthew and Luke.  We also learned that although John's Gospel does not list out the ancestors he takes the bold step to proclaim Jesus as the Word made flesh!  Who needs a genealogy when you can say you are the Son of God?!

SIDENOTE:  Little Zaira is now mobile...she can roll around the room and is only getting better by the second!  She might be moving around the room by the time we get our Christmas tree set up in a couple of weeks.  What a great motivation, right?!  Life is only going to get more interesting as we see what she tries to find around the house.