St. Joseph Sebastian Pelczar (1842-1924)
Founder of the Sister Servants of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus
Feast Day January 19th
Last year, an American cause for canonization took another step forward. In June of 2013, Mother Mary Elizabeth Lange (c. 1794-1882), the foundress of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, was exhumed from her resting place (read a fascinating eye-witness account by a well-know forensic anthropologist) in a Baltimore cemetery and moved to the sisters’ Motherhouse to be interred in the chapel of Our Lady of Mount Providence.
“We have prayed fervently for this day to become a reality, and now God has answered our prayers,” said Sister Mary Alexis Fisher, OSP, Superior General of the Oblate Sisters of Providence.
Mother Mary, along with Sulpician Father James Nicholas Joubert, founded the first religious congregation of women of African descent in the United States. Mother’s cause was opened in 1991 and officially approved in 2004.
Though not an-American born citizen, this Cuban emigre was moved to help African American refugee children in the slave state of Maryland. She opened a school for children, many years before the Emancipation Proclamation. As one can readily imagine, poverty and racial injustice were her companions on the heroic road of sanctity.
Currently, the Order has 80 members serving in the U.S. and Costa Rica, committed to education of children and service to the poor. To see a moving video of the reinternment ceremony, click here.
In 1854, Japan opened its doors to the West and soon thereafter, Catholic priests entered the country. Among those who came was the French priest, Fr. Bernard Petitjean (later Bishop of Nagasaki) of the Sociéte des Missions Étrangères. For ten years he labored with a fellow priest yet seemed to make no headway with the native people.
But in 1865, when Fr. Bernard Petitjean was praying in a chapel he had built in Nagasaki, Japan, some women approached him and asked him three questions:
Do you honor Mary, the Mother of Jesus?
Do you obey the Great Father in Rome?
Do you have a wife?
Father answered “yes” to the first two questions and “no” to the second and the women went away. Sometime later, some men approached him and told him they were Catholics. Three hundred years ago, their ancestors had known Christians who were not Catholic and they wanted to know: are you Catholic, part of the universal Church? For 300 years they had secretly kept the faith and as Father was to discover later, so did an estimated 15,000 others.
When Catholicism was first brought to Japan by St. Francis Xavier on Assumption Day in 1549, conversions were plentiful. By 1614, there were an estimated 400,000 Catholics in Japan. However, persecutions were severe, many were martyred and in the 1630’s all Christians went into hiding. By 1640 not a priest or religious was left alive. An edict was issued that read: Let no Christian dare venture into Japan…They shall pay for it with their heads.
These remarkable Japanese Catholics passed the down the Faith from generation to generation for 200+ years. No Mass, no Confession, no Anointing of the Sick in all those years. Pope Pius IX called this “The miracle of the Orient.”
The Oura Church in Nagasaki commemorates Fr. Petitjean’s first encounter with the women. Also known as the Church of the Twenty-Six Martyrs, it faces Nishizaka Hill where 26 martyrs were crucified in 1597. As you can see by the picture, a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary greets visitors at the entrance of the church, a reminder of the first question posed by the Japanese women: Do you honor the Mother of Jesus?
(Most of the information in this article came from the October-December 2013 of Contact magazine, published by the Confraternity of Christ the Priest in Australia, whose missionary priests seek to evangelize the 96% of the population who do not go to Mass.)
Fr. Fabrizio De Michino of Naples, Italy, died recently at age 31 of a rare heart condition. At his funeral in the Basilica of Our Lady of the Snows were almost 3000 people who came to remember this dedicated servant of God. The following is his letter to Pope Francis written shortly before his death.
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To His Holiness, Pope Francis
Holy Father,
In the daily prayers that I offer to God, I do not cease to pray for you and the ministry that the Lord himself has entrusted you with, so that you might always have the strength and joy to proclaim the beautiful news of the Gospel.
My name is Fabrizio De Michino, and I am a young priest of the Archdiocese of Naples. I am 31, and have been a priest for five years. I serve in the Archdiocesan Seminary as an educator in diaconal formation as well as in a parish in Ponticelli, located on the outskirts of Naples. The parish, which recalls the miracle that happened on Esquiline Hill, is named in honor of Our Lady of the Snows, and in 2014 it will celebrate the centenary of the coronation of its wooden statue, which dates back to 1500 – an image that is very dear to all the inhabitants of the parish.
Ponticelli is degraded by poverty and high crime, but every day I truly discover the beauty of the Lord’s goodness on those who trust in him and the Blessed Virgin.
I, too, have been able to grow in my love for our Heavenly Mother during my time at this parish, while also experiencing her closeness and protection in the face of my adversities. Unfortunately, over the past three years, I have been fighting a rare disease – a tumor located just inside my heart, which within the past month has metastasized to my liver and spleen. But throughout these difficult years, I have never lost the joy of being a preacher of the Gospel. Even in my fatigue, I perceive a strength that does not come from me, but from God – a strength that allows me to continue on in my ministry. There is a scriptural passage from Ezekiel that accompanies me and instills in me a confidence in the strength of the Lord: “I will give you a new heart; I will place in you a new spirit. I will tear out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ez. 36:26).
During this time, I have felt the close presence of my bishop, Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, who supports me constantly, though sometimes he tells me to rest so that I might not become too fatigued.
I thank God also for my family and friends, and for my fellow priests, who sustain me while I undergo my various therapies, sharing with me these inevitable moments of suffering. My doctors also give me great support, and seem to do the impossible to find the right treatments for me.
Holy Father, I’m beginning to write at length now, but I just want to tell you that I offer all this to the Lord for the good of his Church – and for you, in a special way, so that the Lord will bless you and be with you always in this ministry of service and love.
I beseech you to include me in your prayers. I ask the Lord every day to help me to do his will, always and everywhere. I do not ask God for my healing, but rather the strength and joy to remain a true witness to his love and a priest in the model of his own heart.
Assured of your fatherly prayers, I greet you devotedly,
Don Fabrizio De Michino
Last week in Canada, a wonderful conference for young people called Rise Up was held in Ottawa. Sponsored by the Catholic Christian Outreach (CCO), a Canadian university student movement founded 25 years ago as a small Bible study group at the University of Saskatchewan, it attracted 900 men and women during the Christmas/New Year’s break. Incredible!
The line up of speakers was impressive and included Archbishop Gérald Lacroix, ISPX; Archbishop Paul-André Durocher; Fr. Raymond de Souza, well-known Vatican commentator; Audrey Assad, singer; Sr. Helene Burns, fsp; Sr. Cecilia Rose, SV; Sr. Miriam James Heidland, SOLT.
Timely and needed presentations included: Contraception, Same-Sex Attraction, Emotional Virtue, Modern Atheism, Discernment, Discipleship and more. There was also fun! including a banquet and dance to celebrate the New Year.
The purpose of the CCO movement is to motivate and inspire leaders for the renewal of the world! “By focusing on university students, CCO desires to see not only that young people come to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, but also for them to radically affect our world.” They are seeking to provide answers to the plagues that beset young people in the modern world: atheism, hedonism, humanism and scientism.
The movement now serves hundreds of students on eleven campuses through a wide array of programs and outreaches. CCO continues to expand with the growing Rise Up Conference, an increasing number of staff, and a growing number of mission opportunities (both domestic and international). Their ministry is mainly one-on-one for this is the personal way to show the love of Christ to the world.
Read the story of Fr. Nick Meisl, ordained in December, who as an Engineering Physics major who had drifted away from the Faith, got involved in a CCO Discovery Study and began re-examine his life including asking the question: Is Jesus who He says He is?
Visit their website or Facebook for more information!
During our December Executive Committee Board Meeting, the IRL unanimously approved the nomination of the Cloistered Dominican Nuns of the Monastery of the Infant Jesus in Lufkin, Texas, to be an IRL Affiliate Community.
As contemplative Dominican Nuns, their mission is to witness to the Gospel by a hidden life of prayer and sacrifice on behalf of all God’s people. They adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament throughout the day and evening.
Their monastery is located in the piney woods of East Texas on almost 100 acres of land that includes a small lake. The chapel at the monastery is open to the public to come to for prayer or to attend daily Mass.
The Dominican nuns were founded of course by St. Dominic in Prouilhe, France, in 1206. However, this monastery was founded from Detroit (now Farmington Hills), Michigan, in 1945. There are presently 23 nuns in their monastery who hail from the USA, Cuba, Mexico, Tanzania and Vietnam. They sing the entire Liturgy of the Hours as a community every day.
For more information, visit their website!
And for a glimpse into their life, watch this YouTube video!
The nuns should keep before their eyes by day and night Christ the Lord who, during his life on earth, offered up prayers and supplications to God with loud cries and tears, and now sits at the right hand of the divine majesty, always living to make intercession for us. (LCM 74:I)
he IRL is happy to welcome a new Affiliate Community: The Sisters of Our Lady of Sorrows in Lafayette, LA!
The sisters were founded in 1839 in Coriano, Italy, by Bl. Elisabetta Renzi (1786-1859). In 1947, they opened their first mission in Louisiana and today also serve God’s people in Mexico, Brazil, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.
Their apostolates include: education, catechesis, parish ministry, and social services. They also promote devotions to Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows; Christ Crucified; the Eucharist; and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. What better companions for life’s journey!
Their motto is ardere et lucere meaning “to burn and to light.” Bl. Elisabetta said, “We are called to burn in order to give light and warmth to our brothers and sisters.” Their patroness is Our Lady of Sorrows from whom they learn to be women of strength, faith and love, particularly in times of darkness and suffering, united with Mary at the foot of the cross.
The characteristics of this beautiful congregation’s charism are:
Lord, fill my heart with a love as great as Elisabetta’s for all people, and with an ardent desire to proclaim everywhere the Good News of salvation, so that all may come to know, love and follow You.
For more information, visit their very informative website
In a recent blog entry, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, a convert from Anglicanism, described his experience at a Krispy Kreme donut shop. It demonstrates how the wearing of a cassock (or habit or Roman collar) can initiate positive conversations on the Faith.
Pope Francis says religious need to give witness not proselytize, and what better way to do that than by wearing something distinctive that says “I am Catholic. Feel free to talk to me!” Proudly proclaim your faith, when necessary use words!
So many conversations are initiated when people see religious or priests. A few years ago, I accompanied a group of 4 sisters to a Holy Hour in our Church which hasn’t had a religious community onsite in 40 years, and many people stopped us afterwards to say how happy they were to see young sisters in habits.
There is a wonderful YouTude video showing religious communities who wear habits. You might be surprised to see how many young nuns/sisters are in habits and to know that most of them are IRL Affiliates.
There is another story in Homiletic & Pastoral Review about sister in a habit and the impact this habit had on a prison.
I am a Minister of Care and bring Communion to the sick in a hospital. When I visit as a civilian, I am invisible. But when I am wearing my name tag that indicates I am a Catholic, I act differently and am treated differently. I have a responsibility to the Church community I represent and to the Lord. I smile at everyone, go out of my way to be helpful, and generally try to live up to what the name tag implies. So many times, a nurse has stopped me to ask to receive Communion for herself or for one of her patients. I feel that I am representing Christ in my own small way to my little flock. For sure, I am bringing Christ to them.
That is what a habit does; it reminds people to Whom they belong and it reminds people “in the world” of the other world of faith we are all called to.
The Holy Father’s prayer intentions for the month of January and as well as reflections by Fr. James Kubicki, S.J., National Director of the Apostleship of Prayer.
1. Universal Intention
Pope Francis sees that the “worship of the golden calf of old (see Exodus 32: 15-34) has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money” which puts making money ahead of people. “Concealed behind this attitude is a rejection of ethics, a rejection of God. Money has to serve, not to rule!”
The universal intention this month challenges us to examine ourselves and our choices, for as the Holy Father declared: “The Pope appeals for disinterested solidarity and for a return to person-centered ethics in the world of finance and economics.”
1 Timothy 6: 6-10 The love of money is the root of all evils.
2. Evangelization Intention
Because there are obvious divisions among Christians, the world has trouble believing in Jesus. Thus, part of evangelization—spreading the Gospel—is work and prayer for unity. At the Last Supper Jesus prayed to the Father that Christians “may all be one…so that the world may know” that the Father sent Him (John 17: 20-23). This unity among Christians must be visible so that the world can see and believe.
During the annual Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity, January 18-25, we pray with Pope Francis that the Holy Spirit may make us one as Jesus and the Father are one—so that the world may believe.
James 4: 1-12 Where do the conflicts among you come from?
For Father Kubicki’s complete reflections, please visit the Apostleship of Prayer.
I’m sure most Fathers think and agonize about the day of their daughter’s marriage. After holding this precious gift of life in their hands for so many years, they can only hope and wonder if any man can cherish, protect and care for their little girl as well as a Father can do.
Here are one Father’s thoughts as he watched his daughter process down the aisle to be espoused forever to the One who does not disappoint those who love Him.
It was written by Tom Kissel and his daughter is now Sr. M. Gemma, FSGM, of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Martyr St. George. He wrote:
To be an intimate witness to a life answering and surrendering to God’s call is awe inspiring; you can’t help but be deeply touched by the process. Through Sr. M. Gemma’s (Lauren’s) journey, I was confronted with the desire to examine my own life of faith. To see one so young freely and happily devoid her life of “STUFF” and fill that vacancy with prayer, the sacraments, her sister community and the will of God, reset my priorities.
Read the entire letter on the Sisters’ website.