.
An element that characterised the ministry of St. Joseph Cafasso was his "concern for the lowest, especially for prisoners ... who lived in inhuman and dehumanising conditions". If at first, in his preaching to prisoners, the saint "often delivered great sermons that came to involve almost the entire prison population, with the passage of time he came to favour individual catechesis, made up of conversations and personal meetings. While respecting the individual situation of each individual, he tackled the great themes of Christian life, speaking of trust in God, adherence to His will, the utility of prayer and the Sacraments, the culmination of which is Confession, the meeting with God Who, for us, becomes infinite mercy". - VIS News.
"Even if you were in the vestibule of hell, and if there remained outside but one hair of your head, that would be sufficient for me to drag you from the claws of the devil and transport you to heaven." -St. Joseph Cafasso speaking to a death row inmate who doubted whether with his many crimes he could be saved.
.
I wish I could make my confession to the Holy Father.
.
Art: Source
In the end?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't finished reading it! Geese!
St. Joseph Cafasso...a great priest and saint...yeah, me, too, Terry...I would LOVE to make my confession to our Holy Father, Pope Benedict...such a loving Father...truly; why do so many hate him?
ReplyDeleteWell, I guess they hate Jesus, too.
Go figure.
Belinda - it wasn't important - an indiscretion on my part.
ReplyDeleteFather - wouldn't it be great just to have a half hour alone with him?
Terry:I quite agree with you. I just finished Spe Salvi. I was brought to tears. The clarity of his thought and writing about the great Truths is really breathtaking.
ReplyDeleteAgain--thanks for introducing me to a saint that I know nothing about...
ReplyDeleteI look forward to researching more about him...
Sara
Swing by Rome--ya never know who might be in the confessional...
ReplyDeleteA few years back I took my mom to the airport to drop her off for a trip....on the way back I was passing by the Cathedral and it was confession times....I thought "Why not?" I was not in a hurry to get home..So I randomly chose a line and waited my turn...I do confessional face-to-face so I introducted my self to "Father" who was behind the screen and I requested the face-to-face and he directed me to the chair for the face-to-face confession....
it so happened to be our new bishop...
From what I understand he takes a turn in the confessional from time to time.
I did make a good confession even though at first it was "A aaaa, where's my crib sheet??"
Sara
Try St. Philip Neri as well -- great confessor (had a funny sense of humor -- which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how egotistical you were, in St. Philip's estimation).
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, St. Philip Neri also tended sometimes to the condemned, but once had such a hard time convincing an obstinate condemned man to confess that he finally just picked him up and body-slammed him, so the condemned man had the Spirit and sense knocked into him as the wind was knocked out of him!
Thanks Friar - I love St. Philip too - yes - he went looking for sinners in the streetes of Rome and was always available for confession.
ReplyDeleteGreat painting...
ReplyDelete