Collect taken from the memorial of St. Junipero Serra, priest.
Collect: O God, who by your ineffable mercy have been pleased through the labors of your priest Saint Junipero Serra to count many American peoples within your Church, grant by his intercession that we may so join our hearts to you in love, as to carry always and everywhere before all people the image of your Only Begotten Son…
“O God, who by your ineffable mercy have been pleased through the labors of your priest Saint Junipero Serra to count many American peoples within your Church,”
– Bringing people into the Church takes work, hard work, but it is also entirely dependent on grace. So, we thank the God who chooses to bestow his grace on others through our labors, but especially for the way he did this for today’s saint.
“grant by his intercession that we may so join our hearts to you in love, as to carry always and everywhere before all people the image of your Only Begotten Son.”
– Though evangelization is work, it is not simply a skill we develop but rather the extension of an identity we take on. St. Junipero was effective not because of his talents, but because of the authenticity of his union with Christ, making him a more perfect image of Christ. We ask to be the same.
Questions & Advice: Do you evangelize? Would people realize know that you are a practicing Catholic? Would a new acquaintance be able to recognize that you have a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ?
Read about evangelization in the Catechism (849-856). Spend some of your daily prayer time reflecting on what it means to carry the image of Christ in yourself. St. Junipero Serra is also a patron of seminarians, men studying to become priests, so pray for those men in their discernment and formation.
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| Sancte Junipero, ora pro nobis! |