Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop

Today is the Memorial of St. Charles Borromeo, Bishop

The apostle Paul in the letter to Philippians tells them and us that it is God who works in us so we may desire to do good works. Be it doing as mother Teresa said “small things with great love”, or doing extraordinary things in Church history as St. Charles Borromeo.

About 50 years after Protestantism, God raised up a youth, Charles Borromeo then just 22 years old in 1560, was made cardinal by his uncle Pope Pius the 4th to administer and direct the affairs of the Holy See at the Council of Trent which he accomplished very successfully. As Archbishop of Milan he founded schools for the poor, seminaries, and ordained well trained priest, he was strict and disciplined, but to his flock he was a tender father, would sit in the road side teaching a poor man our father and hail Mary. During the great plague he refused t leave Milan and was ever by the sick and dying.

In the Gospel, Jesus says “whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. As Jesus Carried his own cross to pay for the sins of humanity, so do his disciples carry their own cross after Jesus for the good of others, be it for small deeds with great love or for extraordinary actions. In this year of global pandemic great social and political unrest in the Church, what is the cross you are carrying today for the good of another.