Category Archives: General interest

General interest

We Are Not Alone

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We have been surrounded by feast days of the angels lately and as today is the Feast of the Holy Guardian Angels, I thought I would link to an article on the Ignatius Press blog written by Peter Kreeft. He lists the 12 top things you should know about angels.

“Do not neglect hospitality, for some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2).

By the way, Peter Kreeft will be speaking at an IRL event called A “Day of Faith” for the Year of Faith to be held on October 13 at Marytown, Libertyville, IL. The title of his talk is: “Defending the Faith: Catholicism is Reasonable.”

General interest, Women's Communities

An “Old Fashioned Order”

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The National Catholic Reporter recently had an article about a group of “old-fashioned nuns,” actually what I could call a timeless group of sisters carrying on the traditions of the ages. The LCWR was meeting nearby and the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus were carrying on with their work of caring for the aged and pre-schoolers.

These sisters belong to the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious (CMSWR), a group that comprises about 10,000 sisters and according to the article, they are young and growing. About 15 years ago, these Carmelites were “stagnant,” not attracting vocations. But then they emphasized their traditional life and vocations started coming in. Many young women are attracted to the wearing of the habit for as Sr. Mary Michael Reiss, 27, says: “I thought if I’m going to do this with my life, to give everything, I want people to know about it, darn it! I wanted the whole church.”

The spirit of the Carmel DCJ comes from the faith experience of Mother Mary Teresa of St. Joseph. Meditating upon and contemplating the Sacred Heart of Jesus, wounded and bleeding, yet burning with love for mankind, a desire was born in her to love the Sacred Heart with her whole being and make Him loved in every heart He had created.

For more information about this IRL Affiliate Community, see their website.


General interest

Our Restless Hearts

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I am writing about Saint Benedict at the moment and am intrigued by one of the three vows professed by Benedictines:  stability. Msgr. Charles Pope has an interesting article on the subject contrasting the Benedictine vow of stability with the instability of family and societal life today. As always, the saints are way ahead of us. Especially Saint Benedict who lived 1500 years ago.

The vow of stability means that a Benedictine will live out his or her life in one monastery. There’s no looking over the fence for where the grass is greener. It means that problems have to be worked out, difficult people have to be loved, selfish desires have to give way to the common good.

Look how it is today: no one lives in their hometown, parents move to Florida, no one stays with one company for their entire life, people don’t seem to want to settle down and establish roots. This is especially true in marriage where 50% of marriages end in divorce.

Monsignor says, “Stability, though difficult to find in our times is very important to cultivate wherever possible and to the extent possible. In particular, the gift to seek is the kind of stability that is content with what God has given and is not always restlessly seeking a more ideal setting. For again, as we have noted: Ultimately there is no escape from oneself, and the idea that things would be better someplace else is usually an illusion.”

Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.

 

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).

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.

General interest

The Roots of the Religious Vocation Crisis

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In Rome last week, a conference was held at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross to resurrect the name and works of Jesuit Jean Cardinal Daniélou who died in 1974 in mysterious circumstances that clouded his work as a one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century. His outspokenness on the truths of the Faith made him unpopular with the intelligentsia but his views on the decline of vocations and religious orders is still right on.

In an interview given in 1972, here are the reasons he gives for crisis facing religious institutions:

  • The evangelical counsels are no longer considered as consecrations to God, but are seen in a sociological and psychological perspective.
  • The group dynamic replaces religious obedience.
  • All regularity of the life of prayer is abandoned and the first consequence of this state of confusion is the disappearance of vocations, because young people require a serious formation.
  • In the name of a false secularization, men and women are renouncing their habits, abandoning their works in order to take their places in secular institutions, substituting social and political activities for the worship of God.
  • A false conception of freedom brings with it the devaluing of the constitutions and rules and exalts spontaneity and improvisation.

He concludes by saying that “experience will demonstrate if the vocations are more numerous in the houses of strict observance or in the houses of mitigated observance.”  I think we can answer that question today, at least in the Western world.

 

General interest

“They Cast Lots”

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How beautiful our faith is and how visual are its signs in our cathedrals and in the relics that we treasure.

Here is one that I knew nothing about: the “Heiliger Rock,” now on display in the Cathedral of Trier, Germany, from April 13 – May 13, 2012.

According to tradition, the Heiliger Rock is the robe worn by Jesus for which the Roman soldiers cast lots (Jn 19:24). Found by St. Helena c.327 it is rarely on display.

Pope Benedict XVI, in a message to the Bishop of Trier, said that the robe (or tunic) made with a single piece of cloth, that is, with no seams, is a sign of “the unity of the Church, founded as one indivisible community by the love of Christ.” His love, the Holy Father says, “brings together that which has been divided.” The jubilee pilgrimage (it was first viewed in 1512) in keeping with this theme, has the motto: “Lead to unity that which is divided.”

“We ask the Lord,” says the Holy Father, “to guide us on the shared path of faith, to make it live again for us….growing together as Christians in faith, prayer and witness.”

 

 

General interest, News

IRL 2012 National Meeting – Enroll Now!

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The Institute on Religious Life will hold its 2012 National Meeting on April 13-15, 2012, at The University of St. Mary of the Lake in Mundelein, Illinois. The theme of the meeting is: Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts: The Sacred Liturgy as a Foretaste of Heaven.

The banquet honoree is Very Rev. Cassian Folsom, O.S.B. who established a new Benedictine Community (founded in 1998) at the birthplace of St. Benedict and his twin sister, Saint Scholastica. As of the Autumn of 2011, the community had eight monks in Solemn Vows, four in Simple Vows, four novices, one postulant and one observer.

Other speakers are: Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I., Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. James Kubicki, S.J., Msgr. R. Michael Schmitz, Rt. Rev. Marcel Rooney, O.S.B., Rev. Douglas Martis, Dr. Denis McNamara,  and Sr. Maria Stella Whittier, C.J.D.

Details on registration can be found at our website or call 847-573-8975. The IRL 2012 National Meeting is open to all clergy, religious and laity! Check out the free Saturday program for young people ages 13-25. Advance registration required. Hope to meet you there!

General interest

“Hippies, Self-Sacrifice and the Disappearance of Nuns”

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How many brothers do you know who priests today? There are probably quite a few but how many of them are twins!?! Fr. Joel and Fr. Benjamin who studied next door to the IRL at Mundelein Seminary and are converts to the faith, are at least one example!

On their blog, brotherpriests.com, they have an interesting commentary on the disappearance of religious sisters and cloistered nuns from the landscape of our country. They describe the exodus as driven by the need for self-fulfillment versus self-sacrificing. I also look at it as filling myself up with me as opposed to letting myself be emptied so as to fill up with God.

It’s well worth a read because the same tendency that has negatively impacted religious life is one that they astutely point out is affecting marriage. People leaving a good, faithful spouse to “find themselves.”

“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it. (Mt 10:39)

General interest

The Role of the Church in Society

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Anna Williams writes an amazingly wonderful article which appears in the Tucson Citizen about the positive role of the Catholic Church in society.  While it seems that many people believe that taking care of the poor is someone else’s responsibility, Ms. Williams says that there is one group of people who  strive “to live out St. Paul’s ‘more excellent way’ of love. They don’t argue about poverty; they try to alleviate it.” This group of people are Catholic religious and priests whose “primary inspiration for both living in poverty and serving the poor is, of course, Jesus Christ.”

Well worth a read.

Anna Williams is an editorial page intern at USA TODAY . Her older sister is a novice in the Sisters of Life.