​Elizabeth of Hungary, whose feast day we celebrate today, was born into royalty in
Bratislava. Married at 14 years of age, she bore three children to her
husband Ludwig. Drawn to the plight of the poor, she wanted to use her
dowry, and sell her jewels, to provide for them during a famine and an epidemic. Her
husband approved, and she founded a hospital near their home. She took it upon
herself to visit the sick every day, helping them to regain their health.
A legend about Elizabeth is that she was once carrying bread in her apron to
give to the poor. Stopped by authorities, she was challenged to display what
she was carrying. When she opened her apron, it was full of red and white
roses. Her husband took that as a sign that God was at work.
Her husband died when she was twenty years old. Elizabeth fell out of
political favor, and spent some years in straightened circumstances. Then the
Franciscans came to town. She was attracted to Francis’ ideals, and began practicing
them, including caring for the sickest patients. She is revered as a patron saint of
The Third Order of Franciscans. She is also the patron saint of hospitals. Many across
the world are named after her.
Deacon Mary

​Reflection
November 10, 2020
 
Charles Simeon
Preacher, Evangelist 
 
Charles Simeon, whose feast day is today, was celebrated for his gifts as a preacher 
and supporter of missionaries. English historian William E.H. Lecky wrote that he and
his friends and colleagues “gradually changed the whole spirit of the English church. 
They infused into it a new force and passion of devotion, kindness, a spirit of fervent
philanthropy that raised the standard of clerical duty and completely altered the 
whole tone… of the preaching of its ministers.”
His start in the church was inauspicious. Educated at Cambridge, he was placed as a 
deacon in Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge.
He was highly unpopular at first. Perhaps that was because his influential father 
intervened to get his position raised to curate in charge for the Bishop. At first, services 
were disrupted, and he was insulted in the streets. 
By the time he ended his ministry at Holy Trinity 54 years later, his church was 
crowded. And Charles Simeon was noted for his sermons, which were Biblical, simple
and passionate. He also founded the London Society for Promoting Christianity
Among the Jews (now the Church’s Ministry Among Jewish People). He also helped 
choose chaplains for the British East India Company, prompting historian Thomas 
Macauley to write that he exerted “authority and influence from Cambridge to the 
most remote corners of the England.  His real sway in the Church was far greater than 
that of any primate.” (India was part of the British Empire then.) 
By the time he died in November 1836, he was a recognized leader in evangelism in 
England. Charles Simeon is buried at King’s Chapel, Cambridge. 
 
Deacon Mary 

Justice is the virtue by which we give to others what is due to them. 
 
Three kinds of justice are commonly recognized.  (1)  The relations of individuals to each other are addressed by reciprocal justice.  (2)  The relations of the social whole to the individual are addressed by distributive justice.  (3) The relations of individuals to the social whole are addressed by legal justice. 
 
Distributive justice deals with the distribution of the common good, the total product of community life shared by all community members.  The common good extends far beyond material resources.  It is not simply utilitarian.  Because humanity cannot be exhaustively defined, its common good cannot be either.  Distributive justice enables community members to share in the realization of a common good that inevitably exceeds concrete definition.
 
Distributive justice is violated by any exclusive standard for societal development incapable of recognizing goods that resist quantification.  Thus the contemporary tendency to overlook intangibles and assess a society solely in terms of its gross national product is a violation of distributive justice.  Human potentialities always exceed our ability to account for them.

Charles Hoffacker

Prudence requires a certain open-mindedness.  We must respect the true variety of things and experiences that life presents to us.  In particular, we must be willing to take advice, for reality always exceeds our perspective.  As St. Thomas Aquinas notes, “No one is altogether sufficient in matters of prudence.”  In contrast, a know-it-all attitude demonstrates resistance to the truth of what is real.
 
Closely related to prudence is solertia.  This nimbleness appears when a sudden event confronts people and they do not close their eyes and blindly take random action, but instead decide for what is good and act swiftly, avoiding injustice, cowardice, and intemperance.  Their sudden action is not blameworthy,
for changing circumstances may demand swift responses.
 
One of the false forms of prudence is astutia, the cunning practiced by people who avoid reality and are concerned only with tactics.  This cunning can even be practiced in pursuit of a good end.  Genuine prudence, however, requires that both the means we use and the purposes we pursue be good.  It demands that we be consistently loyal to reality.  Thus prudence is essential to right action.

​Charles Hoffacker