All posts by Anne Tschanz

Women's Communities

Angels in the Night

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In the past 2 years, my husband’s father, mother and sister all died after suffering for several years from chronic illnesses. I gained a great appreciation for the caregivers who came in day in, day out, through scorching heat and big snows to care for our loved ones. I only mention this because the Servants of Mary, Ministers to the Sick, who provide the same loving care, are profiled in an article in the Kansas City Nursing News.

They, amongst other things, offer respite to families who are caring for sick ones at home who are near death or suffer from chronic illnesses or disabilities.  The caregivers are often overwhelmed, sleep-deprived and at the end of their rope. Some cannot afford health care at home or want to care for the loved one themselves. All need and want someone loving to assist them at times. This is where the sisters come in.

The 29 sisters in Kansas City provide respite care for caregivers/families at no charge, usually at night.  They believe they are serving Jesus when they care for the sick, in imitation of Mary who stayed at the foot of the Cross. Sister Cristela Mackinnon said, “We want to be there. It makes (the patients) change, too. We’re giving our whole life to the care of the sick.”

“If you’re lucky to get a sister, it’s just like angels coming in to help you,” said Marcy Klein, RN, with Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care. Ruben Rabanal, a social worker with Compassionate Care Hospice, said, “We really, really need them. We need more of them.”

The congregation was founded by Mother Soledad Torres Acosta, who was canonized in 1970. They have 128 convents around the world. I am praying for more American vocations so that a convent may be built near me! In fact, we all need them close by.

General interest

Holy Virginity

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For those of you who are not too familiar with the vocation of a Consecrated Virgin, there is an article from the Dallas Morning News that I stumbled across that does a great job of explaining this unique vocation in the Church.

“The church recognizes that vocations can take various forms,” says (then) Bishop Raymond L. Burke. “These women don’t have the call to be sisters. That’s a very distinct call to live in a community and to take up a particular (mission), or to devote oneself completely to contemplation and prayer.” According to the article, there are about 100 American Consecrated Virgins and about 1,000 worldwide. From the earliest days of the Church, men and women devoted their lives to Christ as hermits or Consecrated Virgins. With the advent of monasteries and convents, this way of life somewhat disappeared. Following Vatican II,  the Solemn Rite of the Consecration of Virgins for Women Living in the World was re-instituted. A Consecrated Virgin must be self-supporting but many serve the local parish or diocese in some capacity. They also live a devout life of prayer and wear a ring as a sign of their espousal to Jesus Christ. They live in full communion with the Church through their spiritual bond with their Bishop.

“The consecrated virgin does not wear habit or veil, nor use the title ‘Sister,’ nor write ‘OCV’ after her name. She witnesses subtly, but publicly and powerfully, by her virginal life given exclusively to Jesus Christ.” (From USACV website)

To read the very interesting journey one women traveled to this beautiful vocation, click here. For more information about Consecrated Virgins, go to  USACV website (United States Association of Consecrated Virgins).

Saints, Women's Communities

Mother M. Angeline Teresa

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Lost in the shuffle of the welcome announcement that Archbishop Fulton Sheen is now Venerable will be the story of  Mother Mary Angeline Teresa (nee Bridget Teresa McCrory), founder of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm (1893-1984) who was also declared Venerable. Mother was a Little Sister of the Poor (founded in France by St. Jeanne Jugan) who, though she loved the Little Sisters, felt called to start a new order to care for the aged and infirm that had a distinctive American flavor to it.

“Our apostolate is not only to provide care in up to date homes for the aged, but as religious, it is to bring Christ to every old person under our care.” – Mother Angeline Teresa, Foundress

The Sisters have 18 homes in the US and one in Ireland. Their Motherhouse is in Germantown, NY. Her famous words left to her daughters were: “If you have to fail, let it be on the side of kindness. Be kinder than kindness itself to the old people.”

General interest

The Bells Are Tolling

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This month’s issue of the Liguorian (July/August 2012) has an interesting article about bells. I never gave them much thought until our parish put bells into our belfry at the kind bequest of a parishoner.  All of our bells have names and are used regularly. When my mother-in-law died, I particularly remember them tolling mournfully which was actually very moving.

The article says that bells were used to call monks to prayer (c. 400) and people to mass (c.600). Later they were rung during consecration alerting people in the fields of the miracle taking place on the altar so they could make an act of adoration or come to receive communion. Holes sometimes cut out of the floor of the bell tower allowed the priest bell ringer to see what was going on. Bells are still used today in the form of the small Sanctus bells rung by altar servers. Church bells are not rung from the Gloria at the Mass on Holy Thursday until the Gloria sung at the Easter Vigil.

One of the most common uses of the bells was to alert people to say the Angelus (see famous picture left). Usually it was a triple stroke repeated three times. (Click here to hear a sample from Wexford, Ireland) Appropriately enough, the bells were often dedicated to St. Gabriel.

The Catholic Cathedral in Cologne Germany has the largest free standing bell in the world at 24 tons. It’s name is St. Peter. Click here if you want to hear the bells of St. Peter’s in Vatican City tolling when a new Pope is elected. We are fortunate to hear the bells of Marytown tolling  through the walls of the IRL office. They are tolling right now announcing the ten o’clock hour.

News, Women's Communities

Daughter of Mary

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While “nuns on the air conditioned bus/van” are getting a lot of attention in the press these days, I couldn’t help but the notice the contrast between this event and the work of a Salesian sister whom I had never heard of until today.

On November 24, 2012, Ven. Maria Troncatti (1883-1969), a Salesian Sister, will be beatified in Macas, Ecuador. Sister Maria made her first profession in 1908 and left for Ecuador in 1922 where she worked among the Shuar people.

She and two other sisters “faced dangers of every kind, including those caused by the beasts of the forest and by fast-flowing rivers that had to be waded through or crossed on fragile “bridges” made from creepers or on the shoulders of Indians. Sr. Maria was nurse, surgeon, orthopaedist, dentist – but, above all, catechist and evangelizer, rich in the wonderful resources of her faith, patience, and fraternal love. Her work for the promotion of the Shuar woman bore fruit in hundreds of new Christian families formed, for the first time, on a free personal choice on the part of the young couple.”

Sr. Maria died in an airplane crash in Ecuador in 1969. Her works bore fruit that will last for all eternity, something that escapes notice of the secular press but not of our Heavenly Father. Her community, Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (Salesians) was founded by St. John Bosco and St. Mary Domenica Mazzerello and came to the US in 1908. They are the largest congregation of sisters in the world with over 15,000 sisters and growing!!

Women's Communities

Sisters Speak Out on the HHS Mandate

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The Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church are an IRL Affiliate Community who besides professing the typical vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, profess a fourth vow to perform works of charity.  They operate nursing homes, elementary schools, a boarding high school, food pantry and shelter, wherever there is a need to  serve God’s people.

On their website, they have a beautiful write up re: the HHS mandate and why they cannot support it. Here is just a small excerpt:

We joyfully serve the poor and are deeply concerned about the need for universal healthcare for all Americans, rich or poor, working or unemployed, young or aged. We are, nevertheless, firm in our conviction that no law, even one purportedly aimed at the “common good,” can be seen as “good legislation” if it opposes the moral law, requires persons of faith to betray their consciences, and is in flagrant violation of the freedom of religion clause of the Constitution of the United States….We ask all who cherish the freedom of religion given to us by the Constitution, and who stand in opposition to a federal mandate to provide insurance that covers most forms of contraception, to join the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady Mother of the Church in earnestly beseeching Almighty God, Source and Protector of all created life that He will inspire our legislative and executive leaders to reverse this onerous decision that threatens the very soul of our nation.
Praised be Jesus Christ.

For the full writeup, click here.

News

Priestly Vocations Guidelines

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The Vatican has issued new guidelines for the recruitment of seminarians with the aim of increasing vocations to the priesthood. I thought the reasons for the decline in vocations was worth noting:

  • having parents who have different hopes for their child’s future;
  • living in a society that marginalizes priests and considers them irrelevant;
  • misunderstanding the gift of celibacy;
  • being disillusioned by the scandal of priests who abused minors;
  • and seeing priests who are too overwhelmed by their pastoral duties to the detriment of their spiritual life

The solution as every one knows lies within the family. Children need to be taught to pray and to see the priesthood as a gift. Obviously, too, involvement in good, solid, orthodox activities for boys are important – altar serving, good Catholic schooling, solid CCD, charity work, introduction to good priests and religious men and women.

For more information, see the Catholic News Service.

News

One Billion Catholics in Adoration!

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The Holy See has unveiled the logo for the Year of Faith which kicks off on October, 11, 2012, the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Vatican Council II. What a beautiful image showing the barque of Peter representing the Church as well as the IHS in the sails, the mast as the cross and the sun representing the Eucharist.

The Year of Faith is a beautiful complement to the New Evangelization which calls for all Christians to deepened their relationship with Jesus Christ and to be a witness of that faith with others.

What a beautiful time to rediscover the history of the Catholic Church in America. In October, two of our most illustrious blesseds will be canonized: Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope. One special event that caught my eye will occur on June, 2, 2012, the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, when the Blessed Sacrament will be adored at the same time all over the world. Wow! A billion Catholics adoring Jesus at the same time! If we can muster this strength, we can change the world!

Archbishop Rino Fisichella says, “The crisis of faith is a dramatic expression of an anthropological crisis which has abandoned man to his own devices. We must overcome the spiritual poverty affecting so many of our contemporaries who do no longer perceive the absence of God from their lives as a void that needs to be filled. The Year of Faith, then, is an opportunity which the Christian community offers to the many people who feel nostalgia for God and who desire to rediscover Him.”

Men's communities, News

St. Romuald Intercedes For Soccer Team?

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We are used to sports figures thanking mothers, coaches, wives and sometimes even God after big wins. However, this appears to be somewhat unique in the current annals of sport – an Italian coach who makes a pilgrimage to a Camaldolese Monastery to thank a group of monks after unexpectedly reaching the Euro 2012 (soccer) quarter-finals in Poland.

The Italian team met with the monks whose historical origins are Italian but have a foundation outside Krakow, Poland, before the tournament.  Their coach, Cesare Prandelli, promised to make a pilgrimage to the monastery if the team got out of “Group C.”  After their big win, the coach and his staff, at 3:00 AM in the morning, left their team HQ and walked 13 miles to the monastery which took 3 1/2 hours.

The Camaldolese were founded by  Saint Romuald (11th C.) and trace their heritage to the 6th century monastic traditions of Saint Benedict and the reforms of Saint Romuald.

The Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli commemorated the 1,000th anniversary of its foundation by St. Romuald on June 19, the saint’s feast day. Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, Pope Benedict’s special envoy for the commemoration, was the principal celebrant at the hermitage’s June 19th Mass.

Drawing upon the Desert Fathers, St. Romuald encouraged some monks to live in solitude as hermits. “Saint Romuald, the father of the Camaldolese monks, striving for eremetic life and discipline, wandered through Italy for many years, building monasteries and tirelessly promoting the evangelical life among monks,” Pope Benedict recalled in his letter for the anniversary.