Category Archives: General interest

General interest

Israel’s Hope

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Earlier this month, fittingly on the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  His Excellency Edward J. Slattery, Bishop of Tulsa, established the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope as a Public Association of the Faithful, in view of their becoming an Institute of Consecrated Life.

The foundress of the community, Rosalind Moss, is a noted convert from Judaism who is well-known in the Catholic world through her work with EWTN and Catholic Answers.

In religion, Rosalind Moss is now Mother Miriam of the Lamb of God. On this happy occasion, she received the traditional Benedictine habit, given that the Daughters of Mary, Mother of Israel’s Hope have begun to follow the age-old Rule of Saint Benedict.

For more on this wonderful story, click here.

General interest

Fr. Neuhaus and the Priestly Vocation

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Fr. Raymond de Souza offered a fitting tribute to the late Fr. Richard Neuhaus at the First Things blog in honor of the 20th anniversary of Fr. Neuhaus’ ordination as a Catholic priest. His ordination took place at St. Joseph Seminary in Dunwoodie in 1991, a year after his reception into full communion with the Catholic Church.

Fr. de Souza noted that Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York was present at Dunwoodie on the eve of the anniversary to kick off the new academic year, and he drew lessons from Fr. Neuhaus’ remarkable life.

“Few of you will have a life as public at Father Neuhaus had,” Archbishop Dolan said. “But we can all learn from him. The key to his life as a Christian disciple was that he always did his prayers in the morning before reading The New York Times. Prayer before penance, he would say!”

Fr. Neuhaus understood that holiness is an urgent matter for all. Therefore, he stressed that seminary and the priesthood ought to be a pilgrimage toward holiness. The long road of fidelity—of holiness—begins now. Father Neuhaus was fond of saying that the solution to our crises in the Church is fidelity, fidelity, fidelity!

Our first response to the spiritual and moral crises of our time must be our daily pursuit of holiness.

General interest

Missionaries Find Faith in Vietnam

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The September 9, 2011 edition of the Rhode Island Catholic included this uplifting article about Greenville, RI pastor Fr. Francis Santilli and one of his parishioners, Donald Turbitt, who just returned from a missionary trip to Vietnam.

The mission trip was coordinated by Turbitt, the Vietnam coordinator for Renewal Ministries, Inc., an Indiana-based international nonprofit dedicated to fostering renewal and evangelization in the Catholic Church in 25 countries throughout the world.

Father Santilli and Mr. Turbitt were able to minister to seminarians as well as families during their visit, where they found a real hunger for the faith despite government opposition. They also visited convents belonging to the Lovers of the Holy Cross, a community of religious sisters dedicated to working with the poor, handicapped, and children.

The missionaries were even blessed to attend the final profession of eleven sisters during an early morning Mass in Phat Diem.

“Families are deeply honored if one of their children is in religious life or the priesthood,” Father Santilli noted. He added that the church is the “center of life” for the faithful in Vietnam.

General interest

Vocation, Anyone?

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The New York Times recently ran a feature article on Fr. Paul Arinze, a Nigerian-born priest who serves as vocation director for the Diocese of Madison. In his “spare time,” Fr. Paul serves is a tennis umpire who has worked at Wimbledon and, most recently, at the U.S. Open.

He doesn’t seem to be neglecting his “day job,” though. Madison projects that it will ordain 26 men between 2012 and 2019, and the diocese is welcoming a record ten seminarians for the 2011-12 academic year.

General interest

New Video on French Religious Foundress Highlights Virtue in the Face of Family Difficulties

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At the age of 28, Jane de Chantal, a French noblewoman, was faced with the difficult task of getting beyond her husband’s accidental death and raising five children. Beyond that, she was compelled to live at her father-in-law’s estate and  put up with his irritations.

A very devout woman, she then met St. Francis de Sales and the two formed a lifelong friendship. Francis confided to Jane his desire to found a religious order that would be welcoming to women who seek a deep relationship with God, but who for one reason or another could not live with the physical rigors of traditional religious life.

In 1610, the two officially established the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. Before she died, St. Jane de Chantal founded 86 houses of the Visitation.

All of this is recounted in a new video on the life of St. Jane de Chantal, which has been viewed over two thousand times on Gloria.TV in the first week of its debut.

The video was produced by VocationPromotion.com for the Second Federation of the Visitation in the United States and is featured on the website www.VisitationSpirit.org.

General interest

New Video on Redeeming Medieval Captives Goes Viral

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Offering one’s life in exchange for another Christian whose faith is in danger is certainly a noble cause. Maybe that’s why a new video on the history of a men’s order founded to do just that is attracting so much attention.

The nine-minute video, “Redeeming Medieval Captives–The Story of The Order of Mercy,” has gone viral on the Catholic video website Gloria.TV, with more than 2,000 views this week.

The nine-minute video explains the origins of the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mercy, complete with period paintings and drawings depicting 13th century ships, ancient drawings of men captured by Muslims, as well as prayerful modern-day Mercedarian friars.

Quoting the Mercedarians’ official historical record, the video says, “The real risk of captivity for a Christian captive in the power of the Saracens was the danger of renouncing the true faith. . . . The very circumstances of captivity were a real, ongoing and serious temptation for Christians whose faith was not very strong.”

Find out what experience motivated St. Peter Nolasco to found the Order by viewing the video and visiting the  Order of Mercy site.

General interest

Prayer Intentions

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Let’s once again unite our prayers this month with those of Pope Benedict XVI. Here are the Holy Father’s intentions for September 2011, as published by the Apostleship of Prayer:

  • Teachers. That all teachers may know how to communicate the love of truth and instill authentic moral and spiritual values.
  • Church in Asia. That the Christian communities of Asia may proclaim the Gospel with fervor, witnessing to its beauty with the joy of faith.

In addition, as we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11 this month, may we also pray for a new outpouring of healing, mercy, and peace throughout the world. Check out the USCCB website for resources for parish and diocesan observances of the anniversary.

General interest

How Do I Know?

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Last week the editors of the National Catholic Register offered the following response to the question, “How do I know what my vocation is?” In doing so, they quote Servant of God John A. Hardon, the beloved founder of the Institute on Religious Life.

“A religious vocation is a special grace that God gives to certain persons, calling them to a life of the evangelical counsels,” wrote Jesuit Father John Hardon, whose canonization cause is under way, as chronicled at EWTN.com. “What are some typical features of a true vocation to the religious life? I would emphasize especially three: 1) a strong faith in the Catholic Church and her teaching, shown by a firm loyalty to the Vicar of Christ; 2) a love of prayer, at least the capacity for developing a desire for prayer; and 3) a readiness to give oneself to a life of sacrifice in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. . . . I believe that if every prospective candidate were to make a private retreat, even for a few days, under a competent priest, it would help immensely. The retreat could be especially geared to a person who thinks that he or she has a vocation to the religious life. Then, during the retreat, in an atmosphere of silence and prayer, ask God to enlighten one’s mind as to whether or not he is calling the person to a life of Christian perfection. This, in fact, is one of the original purposes of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: to discover and decide on one’s state of life.” Continue reading How Do I Know? →

General interest

Grandma Nun, and Much More

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Check out this recent post from popular blogger and First Things columnist Elizabeth Scalia. It’s basically a cornucopia of upbeat vocation news. She does something like this every year, but I recommend checking in on her site much more frequently than that!

This piece contains updates on entries into novitiate and professions of vows from an array of communities, which she says are on the rise.

As for the identity of “Grandma Nun,” you’ll have to read her post!

General interest

Theater of the Word, for the Word

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In 2007, Fr. Joseph Fessio of Ignatius Press and Cardinal Raymond Burke, then Archbishop Burke of St. Louis, teamed with actor and playwright Kevin O’Brien to launch the Theater of the Word production company to spread the Gospel message through stage, film, television, audio recordings and the internet.

Inspired by the clandestine theater company run by Karol Wojtyla in Nazi-occupied Poland, also called the Theater of the Word, this traveling company seeks to evangelize through drama.

Kevin hosts his own series The Theater of the Word on EWTN, and he and his actors appear regularly on the EWTN shows The Apostle of Common Sense and The Quest for Shakespeare.

Check out Kevin’s interesting blog here. Many of our readers will recall the production of his play The Call, which his theater company performed at the IRL National Meeting last spring. Through the medium of drama, The Call offers profound insights into the nature and meaning of a “vocation.”

To book The Call or any other Theater of the Word shows, visit //www.thewordinc.org/ or call toll-free 1-888-840-WORD.