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He woke up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Quiet! Be still!" The wind ceased and there was great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?" They were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this whom even wind and sea obey?"

Before the reform of the Roman Calendar this was the feast of St. Francis de Sales which is now celebrated on January 24.

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Meditation
There is an important lesson for all of us in today's gospel story. Our lives are really a journey across the sea of time to the shore of eternity. During that crossing all those who come to the use of reason encounter some storms. This is the will of God. Our Lord knew the storm was going to arise that day in Galilee; He allowed His disciples to face that terrifying ordeal because He wanted to strengthen their faith and their trust in Him. He foresees all our life's storms, too, and He permits them because He intends them as means to help us in our struggle toward heaven. If we use these storms or trials of life to get closer to Jesus, to throw ourselves on His mercy, they will serve the purpose for which He permits them. There are some, alas, who question the goodness of God when some heavy seas break across their life's barque. "How could God, if He be good," they say, "allow us to suffer like this, we who have been so faithful? Why should He let us bear all this poverty, all these pains, all this dishonesty of our fellow men, when a small act of His will could remove all this and make us healthy, happy, prosperous?" They forget that God's purpose in creating them was not to make them healthy, happy, and prosperous in this life, but to give them a share in His eternal happiness in heaven. If this life were the end of man, if all ended with death, then certainly their complaint would have some foundation, for the very fact of putting man, with his desire for perfect happiness, into a life in which it cannot be found would be the act of a cruel jester, not that of a just, good God. But our human reason and divine revelation prove to us conclusively that this life is not an end for man but only a means with which to attain his real end, perfect happiness.

Therefore, we must not expect to get from this life what it cannot give. Instead, we must use what it gives us, the unpleasant as well as the pleasant, the rain as well as the sunshine, the pain as well as the pleasure, as the means which will lead us to the end. Too often, like the disciples, we think that God has forgotten us, that He is not interested in us when storms break around us, whereas in fact, it is then that He is nearest to us. We think He is sleeping and that all is lost, as the disciples did that day, when He is but using this storm to rekindle our faith and the awareness that "we have not here a lasting city." — My Sunday Reading, Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.

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St. Gildas the Wise
He was probably born about 517, in the North of England or Wales. His father's name was Cau (or Nau) and that he came from noble lineage.

He lived in a time when the glory of Rome was faded from Britain. The permanent legions had been withdrawn by Maximus, who used them to sack Rome itself and make himself Emperor.

Gildas noted for his piety was well educated, and was not afraid of publicly rebuking contemporary monarchs, at a time when libel was answered by a sword, rather than a Court order.

He lived for many years as an ascetic hermit on Flatholm Island in the Bristol Channel. Here he established his reputation for that peculiar Celtic sort of holiness that consists of extreme self-denial and isolation. At around this time, according to the Welsh, he also preached to Nemata, the mother of St David, while she was pregnant with the Saint.

In about 547 he wrote De Excidio Britanniae (The Ruin of Britain). In this he writes a brief tale of the island from pre-Roman times and criticizes the rulers of the island for their lax morals and blames their sins (and those that follow them) for the destruction of civilization in Britain. The book was avowedly written as a moral tale.

He also wrote a longer work, the Epistle. This is a series of sermons on the moral laxity of rulers and of the clergy. In these Gildas shows that he has a wide reading of the Bible and of some other classical works.

Gildas was an influential preacher, visiting Ireland and doing missionary work. He was responsible for the conversion of much of the island and may be the one who introduced anchorite customs to the monks of that land.

He retired from Llancarfan to Rhuys, in Brittany, where he founded a monastery. Of his work on the running of a monastery (one of the earliest known in the Christian Church), only the so-called Penitential, a guide for Abbots in setting punishment, survives.

He died around 571, at Rhuys. The monastery that he had founded became the center of his cult.

St. Gildas is regarded as being one of the most influential figures of the early English Church. The influence of his writing was felt until well into the Middle Ages, particularly in the Celtic Church.

Symbols and Representation: with a bell

Highlights and Things to Do:

• Read St. Gildas's work The Ruin of Britain at CCEL.
• Read about St. Gildas:
  • Catholic Encyclopedia
  • CNA
  • Celtic Saints
  • CatholicSaints.info