The Lord sows good seeds in our heart

[Weedy]

The Lord sows good seeds in our heart

"The Lord clearly points out that he is the sower of good seeds. He
does not cease to sow in this world as in a field. God's word is like
good seed in the hearts of people, so that each of us according to the
seeds sown in us by God may bear spiritual and heavenly fruit."
by Chromatius (died 406 AD) (excerpt from TRACTATE ON MATTHEW 51.1)

[Note: Chromatius was an early Christian scholar and bishop of
Aquileia, Italy. He was a close friend of John Chrysostom and Jerome.
He died in 406 AD. Jerome described him as a "most learned and most
holy man."]

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17 September – Saint Zygmunt Szcesny Felinski TOSF

(1822-1895)
Archbishop of Warsaw and founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the
Family of Mary, Apostle of poor, Confessor, Professor, Writer,
Reformer. Patronage – the Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary.

St Zygmunt Szczesny Felinski was born on 1 November 1822 to Gerard
Felinski and Eva Wendorff, in Wojutyn, Volinia (present-day Ukraine),
then Russian territory. He was the third of six children, of whom four
survived.

Felinski was raised with faith and trust in Divine Providence, love
for the Church and for Polish culture. His father died when he was 11
and in 1838 the Russians exiled his mother to Siberia for “involvement
in patriotic activity” that is, working for farmers’ rights.

Felinski studied mathematics at the University of Moscow (1840-44) and
in 1847 went to the Sorbonne University and the Collège de France in
Paris to study French literature. He was in touch with all the
important Polish emigrants and took part in the unsuccessful Revolt of
Poznan.

In 1851 he returned to Poland. He entered the diocesan seminary at
Zytomierz and studied at the Catholic Academy of St Petersburg. He was
ordained a priest on 8 September 1855 and assigned to the Dominican
Fathers’ Parish of St Catherine of Siena in St Petersburg until 1857,
when the Bishop appointed him spiritual director of the Ecclesiastical
Academy and professor of philosophy. In 1856 he founded a charitable
organisation for the poor and in 1857, the Congregation of the
Franciscan Sisters of the Family of Mary. On 6 January 1862, Pope
Pius ix appointed Fr Felinski, Archbishop of Warsaw and he was
consecrated on 26 January 1862 in St Petersburg. He arrived in Warsaw
on 9 February 1862.

The Russians had brutally suppressed the Polish uprising in this city
in 1861. On 13 February 1862, the new Archbishop reconsecrated the
Cathedral of Warsaw, which had been desecrated by the Russian troops.
Three days later he opened all the churches with the solemn
celebration of the “Forty Hours” Devotion.

Zygmunt Felinski was Archbishop of Warsaw in the turbulent period from
9 February 1862 to 14 June 1863. Unfortunately, he met with distrust
on the part of some, even clergy, since the Russian Government had led
people to believe that he was collaborating secretly with the
Government. The Archbishop always showed clearly he was at the service
of the Church alone and strove to eliminate government interference in
the internal affairs of the Church. In reforming the diocese he
regularly visited all the parishes and charitable organisations on
order to address their needs better. He reformed the syllabus of the
Ecclesiastical Academy of Warsaw and of the diocesan seminaries,
giving a new impetus to the spiritual and intellectual development of
the clergy. He took steps to obtain the release of priests in prison
and he encouraged them to proclaim the Gospel publicly, to catechise
their parishioners, to open parish schools and to educate a new
generation that would be devout and honest. He also cared for the poor
and opened an orphanage in Warsaw that he entrusted to the Sisters of
the Family of Mary.

Archbishop Felinski strove to prevent the nation from making rash
moves and, as a protest against the Russians’ bloody repression of the
“January Uprising” in 1863, resigned from the Council of State and
wrote to the Emperor Alexander ii, urging him to put an end to the
violence. He likewise protested against the hanging of Fr Agrypin
Konarski, a Capuchin and chaplain of the “rebels”. His courageous
actions soon led to his exile to Siberia.

On 14 June 1863, he was deported to Jaroslavl, where he spent the next
20 years, deprived by the Tsar of all contact with Warsaw. Yet he
managed to organise works of mercy for his fellow prisoners,
especially the priests and somehow succeeded in collecting enough
funds to build a Catholic church. The people were impressed by his
spirituality and nicknamed him the “holy Polish Bishop.” Archbishop
Felinski was released on 15 March 1883 and Leo XIII transferred him
from the See of Warsaw to the titular See of Tarsus. For the last 12
years of his life he lived in semi-exile, serving as parish priest in
south-eastern Galizia at Dzwiniaczka, among farmers of Polish and
Ukrainian origin. As chaplain of the public chapel of the local manor,
he undertook an intense pastoral work. He set up the first school and
a kindergarten in the village at his own expense.

He also built a church and convent for his Franciscan Sisters of the
Family of Mar, and found the time to prepare for publication the works
he had written in exile. He died in Kraków on 17 September 1895 and
was buried there on 20 September, the following month his mortal
remains were translated to Dzwiniaczka and in 1920, to Warsaw. Here,
on 14 April 1921, they were solemnly interred in the crypt of St
John’s Cathedral where they are venerated today. St John Paul II
Beatified him in Kraków, Poland, on 18 August 2002. … Vatican.va

He was Canonised on 11 October 2009 by Pope Benedict XVI.

You can visit the Museum of St Zygmunt here :
http://muzeumfelinskiego.pl/en/museum/


Saint Quote:
Occupy your minds with good thoughts, or the enemy will fill them with
bad ones. Unoccupied, they cannot be.
--St Thomas More

Bible Quote:
Jesus said to her: I am the resurrection and the life: he that
believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live: And every one that
liveth, and believeth in me, shall not die for ever. Believest thou
this? (John 11:25-26)


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A prayer to the Holy Trinity, from the Raccolta:

Of Thy tender mercy, we beseech Thee, O Lord, loose the
bonds of our sins, and through the intercession of Mary, the
blessed and ever-Virgin Mother of God, together with that of
Saint Joseph and Thy blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and of
all Thy Saints, keep us Thy servants and our dwelling places in
all holiness; cleanse from sin and endue with virtue all those
who are joined to us by kindred, affinity and friendship; grant
unto us peace and safety; remove far from us our enemies, both
visible and invisible; repress all our carnal desires; grant us
wholesome air; bestow Thy charity upon our friends and
enemies; guard Thy city; preserve our Pontiff N.; defend all
prelates and princes and Thine entire Christian people from
every adversity. Let Thy blessing be evermore upon us, and do
Thou grant unto all the faithful departed rest everlasting.
Amen.