Chiara Badano

Today marks the twentieth anniversary of the death of Chiara “Luce” Badano, who very well could be the first canonized saint from Generation X. Read about her inspiring life here.

Chiara was born Oct 29, 1971 and died of bone cancer on Oct 7, 1990. The Italian teenager was beatified by the Catholic Church very recently, on Sept 25, 2010.

Blessed Chaira Badano, pray for us!

What are they teaching our young people in schools these days?

The cover features icons that most Catholics will recognize, since they also adorn the cover of the Book of Gospels used in the Catholic liturgy. However, many people, including some Catholics, might not understand what these icons represent.

The quick explanation is that the cover shows Christ the Teacher surrounded by the Four Evangelists (i.e., the writers of the four gospels). Here’s a more detailed explanation of what they represent:

• Christ the Teacher – the large icon in the center depicts Jesus blessing the viewer with his right hand and holding a Bible in his left. The Bible shows His words from John 8:12: “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” This icon is commonly called “Christ the Teacher,” although it is also called “Christ Pantocrator” meaning “Christ, Ruler of All.” Also in the artwork are the abbreviated Greek words for Christ (abbreviations are indicated by the horizontal lines above the letters; Iota and Sigma (which look like IC) represent the first and last letter of the name Jesus in Greek; Chi Sigma (XC), the first and last letters of the title Christ).

Tradition has long associated the “four living creatures” mentioned in Rev. 4:7 with the four Gospels in the Bible:

• St. Matthew (upper left) – the winged “living creature with the face of a man” is the symbol for Matthew, since his Gospel narrative traces Jesus’ human genealogy.
• St. Mark (upper right) – the “living creature like a lion” is associated with Mark, whose Gospel begins with “the voice of one crying in the wilderness” (Mark 1:3), suggesting the roar of a lion.
• St. Luke (lower left) – the “living creature like an ox” is the emblem of Luke, since his account of Christ’s life emphasizes the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.
• St. John (lower right) – the “living creature like a flying eagle” symbolizes John, whose high-soaring narrative takes us to lofty heights in understanding Christ’s nature.

More interesting insight into the Four Evangelists can be found on Wikipedia and Catholic Resources.

But take heart! The good news is that Catholics neither (a) consider Mary to be a goddess nor (b) worship her.

Catholics think that it is appropriate to call Mary the “queen of heaven” for two reasons:

• Her son is the King, making her the queen mother. More than just an honorary role, the queen mother was an office in the Davidic kingdom. As one Protestant encyclopedia explains, “The gebhirah, or queen mother, occupied a position of high social and political importance; she took rank almost with the king.”
• The Bible depicts her as “wearing a crown of twelve stars” in heaven (Revelation 12:1), which is appropriate given her role as the queen mother of Christ the King.

But does the title’s pagan usage make it inappropriate to apply in a Christian context? By all means no! Just because the title was applied to a false queen of heaven in the Old Testament does not mean that the title cannot be used for the true queen of heaven.

There is strong Biblical precedent for this in the title “king of kings”. In the Old Testament, two pagan rulers were called “king of kings”:

• Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon – Daniel 2:37 and Ezekiel 26:7.
• Artaxerxes, king of Persia – Ezra 7:12

In spite of the pagan use of “king of kings”, we appropriately apply the title to Jesus Christ, our ultimate and true King of Kings, in 1 Timothy 6:15, Revelation 17:14 and Revelation 19:16.

So we see from Scripture that it is certainly appropriate to call the Blessed Virgin Mary “Queen of Heaven.”

“The Lord has turned all our sunsets into sunrise, and through the cross brought death to life.” – St. Clement of Alexandria (from his work Exhortation to the Heathen)

*Update: April 29*
I promised links to their bios. Here are three that are in English so far:

• Bernardo Tolomei (1272-1348)
• Nuno De Santa Maria Álvares Pereira (1360-1431)
• Geltrude Comensoli (1847-1903)

Looking for information about St. Nicholas, the 4th Century Bishop of Myra and original Santa Claus? Look no further than the St. Nicholas Center website. On top of the interesting historical information, there are several crafts for the kiddies: coloring, cards, and even instructions on how to turn chocolate Santas into the real St. Nicholas. Cute!