Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.
Praised be Jesus and Mary.
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Bridget of Sweden.
She was the daughter of wealthy royal parents.
And from them she inherited a great love of the passion of our Lord.
Even from early childhood, she would meditate on our Lord's suffering.
Her father consecrated every Friday as a day of penance.
And from the age of seven, she was favored with visions and revelations from our Lord through her meditation on his sufferings.
And in obedience to her father, she was married to Prince Ufo.
Of Sweden, at the age of 16, by whom she had eight children.
And the youngest of those children we know is St. Catherine of Sweden.
Later on, this holy couple took a vow of chastity.
They made a pilgrimage to Compostela in Galicia.
And on their return to Sweden, Ufo, with his wife,
his wife's consent, entered a Cistercian monastery.
And he died shortly thereafter in the odor of sanctity.
In 1344, St. Bridget built the great monastery of Wostein,
which became the mother house of a new community,
the order of the most holy trinity, which today we know as the Byzantine nuns.
And St. Brigde made a pilgrimage to Rome.
And there she died in 1370.
And she was canonized just 21 years later.
So let us follow her example and meditate frequently on the sufferings of our Lord.
all the saints encourage us to do this
if we wish to overcome our sins
there are so many lessons to be learned
from our Lord's suffering
his patience
his compassion
his great love for us
and when we meditate frequently
on these sufferings
we cannot help but want to in some small way
return this love
that our Lord has for us