St. Camillus de Lellis

Camillus de Lellis was born in 1550 in the Kingdom of Naples. His parents were older, and after his mother’s death in 1562, he was taken care of my family members who often neglected him. At age 16 he joined the Venetian army. After his regiment disbanded in 1575, he gambled away everything he had. He took a job at a Capuchian friary. He continued to gamble excessively and suffer from a leg injury he received in the army. He was known for having an aggressive temper.

Yet a friar worked to bring out Camillus’ better side. Eventually Camillus had a religious conversion and entered the novitiate there. However, he was denied admission because of his leg wound. He went to Rome and entered the San Giacomo Hospital for incurable diseases. He also worked as a caregiver for others there. He followed an ascetic lifestyle, and St. Philip Neri served as his spiritual director and confessor.

Camillus worked for the sick to receive better attention and care, inviting pious men he met at Neri’s Oratory to come care for patients at the hospital. He felt called to start a religious order to care for the sick. Neri helped him receive funding to go to seminary and get ordained. He became a priest on Pentecost 1584. He established the Order of Clerks Regular, Minister of the Infirm, called Camillians. They wore red crosses on their cassocks as a symbol of their service. They took a vow to “serve the sick, even with danger to one’s own life.”

Charity to patients was of first concern, but they also worked to make hospitals clean and make sure people received proper burial. The order served soldiers in battle and victims of bubonic plague. The order spread throughout Italy. The pope assigned them the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Rome (whose feast is today), which the order still operates. 

St. Camillus continued to suffer from his leg injury as he traveled and served the sick. He died in Rome in 1614 and was entombed at the Church of St. Mary Magdalene. He is the patron of the sick, hospitals, doctors, and gamblers. His feast day (in the old calendar and still in the US) is July 18.

The Person Behind the Mask

I’m so tired. More than ever the hatred I see from people online is wearing on me. People I’ve known my own life spouting dangerous conspiracy theories. Friends I sit beside in church supporting racist, sexist, fascist ideologies. Pride and ignorance flaunting health precautions. Fear and arrogance claiming false propaganda as truth. There is so much wrong in the minds of these acquaintances that it hurts.

I’m struggling so hard to love. I know I should respond in compassion and charity. Arguments don’t work; they will just dig in deeper. You can’t logic your way out of something you didn’t logic your way into. To them, I am part of the evil globalist state, a brainwashed coward capitulating to fear. My words have no weight in argument. So what can I possibly say?

In most cases, I have decided it is not my fight to fight. I do not want to stay silent, but I must choose my battles, especially when they wear on me so. I’m not crusading in the forums, patiently laying out facts and data and expert opinions that will just be ignored. But in each brief interaction, each scroll through, each time I click “read more,” I open myself to danger.

I judge. Quickly, harshly. How can they be so stupid? Why can’t they see the truth? Where is their compassion? But where is mine? I struggle to separate the person from his toxic, dangerous mindset, to see the scared, lost child of God behind the racist comment and anti-mask meme. I think of the dangers their ideology has in affecting society, but I also need to remember to dangers their ideology has in their hearts. They are victims of their own toxic ideas too. It’s rotting their hearts and keeping them from loving their neighbors.

How do you show compassion to someone threatening society? How do you love someone promoting hate? How do you forgive someone who does not apologize or change their ways? Arguing won’t persuade them. And maybe loving them won’t either. But love will help me. My attitude matters, even if I’m the only one affected by it as I silently scroll and judge.

God has not abandoned me when I have fallen so, so short. He loves me when I’m arrogant, ignorant, dangerously wrong, and quick to judge. Redemption cannot happen without love. And we all can be redeemed.

Our leaders have chosen hate and contempt. Dividing the people into strongly defined camps. It is “us” good guys versus “them” bad guys who want to control you. Even our church leaders taut this divide. We’re warriors in a culture war; “they” are the enemy to defeat.

But they aren’t the enemy. They are children of God, caught up in just as much fear. Their ideologies deserve contempt. Their policies deserve push back. The fight is against ignorance and immorality, not people. And it’s so, so hard to love people who are wishing me ill, who are saying lies about me, who are dismissing my words as harmful. Yet we are not called to love those who it is easy to love; we are called to love our enemies, to see the human behind the ideology as a brother.

It is a dark, scary time. And I’m shaken and stressed at how many people I know refuse medical advice or dismiss violence or promote conspiracies or laud tyrants. I do not understand. I have tried to understand and failed. It is so easy to judge and hate. But I cannot descend into dark anger like them. I may not convince them to change, but I can try to change my reaction. I can try to forgive. I can try to love. And when I fail, I can ask God for His grace and try again.

Blessed Alan the Great of Lille

Blessed Alan the Great of Lille was born in Lille, Flanders (now France), around 1120.

He was a philosopher and theologian who wrote a number of books as well as poetry. His books addressed philosophy, nature, sin, and preaching. He wrote against sexual sins and heresies. He taught in Paris and Montpellier. He was well known for his intelligence and called Doctor Universalis.

He attended the Third Lateran Council in 1179. His writings on sin and penance are said to have influenced members of the Fourth Lateran Council thirty years later. Though an academic, he followed an eclectic scholasticism that included both rationalism and mysticism.

He joined the Cistercian order and lived the rest of his life as a monk in Citeaux, where he died of natural causes in 1202. His feast day is July 6 or July 16, depending on the calendar.

Ordering Time

It’s the long stretch to Advent. Ordinary Time takes up half of the year, and I find it the most difficult to celebrate. The other seasons have specified traditions and pass quickly (well, maybe not Lent), and then there’s just months of green and parables and an occasional feast day.

While churches have opened up here, I have been hesitant to return. It’s still too many people for my comfort, especially as cases are spiking. So I’m left to my domestic church of one, trying to maintain a rhythm to my prayer life without the pulse of a community helping along.

The Church has no shortage of suggestions on how to pray; one thing I love about the Church is her full toolbox of various devotions, something to help everyone. I’m not a regular rosary pray-er, but I like the chaplet of divine mercy. I struggle to do morning prayer each day, but lately I’ve been praying evening prayer. I won’t go back to the adoration chapel yet, but I have plenty of spiritual books. It’s the discipline and routine I have to supply on my own, and, like Lysol wipes, they are hard to come by these days.

Yet Ordinary Time gets its name because it is orderly. It is a time for spiritual growth. Without the focus of holidays and short seasons, you can slow down—to go deeper, not stop. A full half of the year to keep the faith at the steady pace; it is a practice of discipline of routine.

The readings focus on Jesus’ ministry, but also, as it follows Pentecost, the season reflects the growth of the Church. We are the Church, still growing, currently between the Ascension and the Second Coming. What will we do with that time? Will we be ready for Christ the King (Sunday)?

So much of this time is spent in uncertainty. What are the new numbers? When can we gather with friends? What’s the best time to go to the store? How will life look in November? It’s easy to hide away at home, bury my head from the news, and retreat into books or movies or other distractions. And some days that’s needed self-care. But I can’t do that indefinitely. Life has to go on. Living needs purpose. It needs order.

This time may look different than it did last year or 10 years ago. I hope it looks different next year. Ordinary Time is less about annual traditions and seasonal devotions and more about attitude. Be discipline and keep the routine. Integrate faith into daily living. Hold on.