News

A Meeting of the Saints

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It is always interesting, when reading the lives of the saints, to discover that different saints’ lives often intertwined. It’s as if one were attending class in a schoolroom and sitting next to you was St. Catherine of Siena and in front of you was St. Ignatius of Loyola. Of course, there is the other moment in history when Poland had in their midst St. Maximilian Kolbe, St. Faustina and Bl. Pope John Paul II and yet they did not personally know one another!

Today, we celebrate the great saint Bonaventure, Cardinal-Bishop and Minister General of the Franciscan Order, Doctor of the Church known as the Seraphic Doctor who, with St. Thomas Aquinas, studied in Paris. Born in c. 1218, Bonaventure was given the name John. When he was 4 years old, according to tradition, his mother threw herself at the feet of St. Francis of Assisi begging that her son John be delivered from a serious illness. He was cured and St. Francis, foreseeing the “Divine graces” in store for the child cried out ,”O buona ventura!” (Good Fortune!).

At age 22, Bonaventure entered the Order of St. Francis. Sent to Paris to study, he was asked by St. Thomas Aquinas where he had acquired his knowledge. St. Bonaventure pointed to the crucifix and said: “This is the source of all my knowledge. I study only Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

While attending the Council of Lyons in 1274, St. Bonaventure took ill and died on July 14th. Amazingly enough, St. Thomas Aquinas died en route to the same council. The humble Franciscan who rose to the highest ranks of the Church and the celebrated Dominican who said at the end of his life, “All that I have written seems like straw compared to what has now been revealed to me,” were like bookends in a glorious chapter of the Church.

Pope Benedict XVI (March 17, 2010) describes the two Doctor’s definition of the ultimate goal of mankind:

St Thomas and St Bonaventure define the human being’s final goal, his complete happiness in different ways. For St Thomas the supreme end, to which our desire is directed is: to see God. In this simple act of seeing God all problems are solved: we are happy, nothing else is necessary.

Instead, for St Bonaventure the ultimate destiny of the human being is to love God, to encounter Him and to be united in His and our love. For him this is the most satisfactory definition of our happiness.

In the words of St. Bonaventure, “Let us therefore say to the Lord Our God: ‘Lead me forth, Lord, in Thy way, and let me step in Thy truth; let my heart be glad, that it fears Thy name.'”

 

 

News

Listen Carefully, My Child

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I S T E N  carefully, my child,
to your master’s precepts,
and incline the ear of your heart (Prov. 4:20).
Receive willingly and carry out effectively
your loving father’s advice,
that by the labor of obedience
you may return to Him
from whom you had departed by the sloth of disobedience.

To you, therefore, my words are now addressed,
whoever you may be,
who are renouncing your own will
to do battle under the Lord Christ, the true King,
and are taking up the strong, bright weapons of obedience.

And first of all,
whatever good work you begin to do,
beg of Him with most earnest prayer to perfect it,
that He who has now deigned to count us among His children
may not at any time be grieved by our evil deeds.
For we must always so serve Him
with the good things He has given us,
that He will never as an angry Father disinherit His children,
nor ever as a dread Lord, provoked by our evil actions,
deliver us to everlasting punishment
as wicked servants who would not follow Him to glory.

From the Prologue of the Rule of St. Benedict

Papal Address

The Source of Mission

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On Sunday, July 7, Pope Francis celebrated Mass before 6000 seminarians and novices who have been on a 4-day pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter, reflecting on their call from God and their vocation.

The Holy Father described the three reference points to the missionary call, part of his reflection on the Sunday readings.

First: the joy of consolation. “If we first experience the joy of being consoled by Him, of being loved by Him, then we can bring that joy to others. This is important if our mission is to be fruitful: to feel God’s consolation and to pass it on to others!”

Second: the Cross of Christ. “The fruitfulness of the Gospel proclamation is measured neither by success nor by failure according to the criteria of human evaluation, but by becoming conformed to the logic of the Cross of Jesus, which is the logic of stepping outside oneself and spending oneself, the logic of love. It is the Cross – the Cross that is always present with Christ – which guarantees the fruitfulness of our mission.”

Third: Prayer. “If the Apostle is born of prayer, he finds in prayer the light and strength for his action. Our mission ceases to bear fruit, indeed, it is extinguished the moment the link with its source, with the Lord, is interrupted.”

The spread of the Gospel is not guaranteed either by the number of persons, or by the prestige of the institution, or by the quantity of available resources. What counts is to be permeated by the love of Christ, to let oneself be led by the Holy Spirit and to graft one’s own life onto the tree of life, which is the Lord’s Cross.

To see the complete text, visit the Vatican News website.

Women's Communities

It’s All in the Family

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When a young teenage boy learned that his sister was going to become a “Sister,” he immediately thought, “I’m going to get made fun of for this!” Steve Mills was just entering 7th grade and his sister, now Sr. Mary Cecilia, was entering the School Sisters of Christ the King in Lincoln, NE.

Fast forward to May 25th, 2013, which is the day that Steve Mills was ordained to the priesthood in the diocese of Lincoln. He and his sister are just two of the brother/sister/priest/Sister combinations in the School Sisters family. Fr. Tom Dunavan is the brother of Sr. Mary Fidelis and Sr. Mary Agnes while Fr. Mark Tasler (now deceased) is the brother of Sr. Marie Jacqueline.

“Growing up with the sisters has been a blessing,” Fr. Steve said. “I think her ‘yes’ helped foster my ‘yes,’ whether I realized it or not. Being around the Sisters and their joyful spirit really helped me be more open to a vocation.”

Fr. Steve is the youngest of four children in the family. He graduated from the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln and then devoted two years to the missionary group FOCUS (Fellowship of Catholic University Students), assigned to the Air Force Academy.  Interacting with priests “helped me to realize the need to be rooted in prayer in order to keep that flame of faith alive, whether or not I was called to be a priest.”

His parents were surprised yet supportive of his desire to enter the seminary. At his ordination, Father Steve’s sister felt “intense jubilation and awe at watching his transformation into a priest of Jesus Christ.” Father Steve has one goal: “to be a faithful priest, pure and simple.”

Women's Communities

Hospitality and Joy

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I have just returned from a brief trip to Kansas City where the beauty of the Church was on full display.

The occasion of the visit was the 25th anniversary of the profession of Sr. Silvia Enriquez, S de M, in the order of the Servants of Mary, Minsters to the Sick. The impact that Sr. Silvia has had on my own life as I dealt with the deaths of several close relatives was amazing. She has truly been a mother to me. We, who had never met in person until the day of her celebration, greeted each other like old friends.

The Servants of Mary (Check out this documentary on their life) care for the sick and dying in their own homes. They provide a respite to the families who are caring for loved ones and they give solace to the sick and dying as they prepare to go to their final and everlasting Home. They are true angels of mercy. We could use them in every diocese in America!

What was amazing was that I was staying with the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Eucharist at their very comfortable retreat house in Independence, Missouri. Just before we arrived, these wonderfully hospitable sisters had brought one of their elderly sisters home from the hospital to the convent where her death was expected to come quite soon. Who came to help the sisters? The Servants of Mary came each night while I was there to do the night watch. Seeing the sister in her white habit getting out of the car in the rain and gloom was like looking at a light from heaven.

The Servants of Mary also have two Lovers of the Holy Cross living with them who are studying at a local college. The Franciscan Sisters have seminarians living on their property for the summer as they work in local parishes and ministries. Once again, the all-embracing love that these two groups of sisters have for the Church and Her members was all too evident. I put myself in that category.

Many thanks to Bishop Naumann of Kansas City for his wonderful homily on consecrated virginity and its meaning for today. How wonderful to see so many religious and priests from around the diocese in attendance at the Jubilee Mass. And if you are looking for a great book (I bought a biography on St. Philip Neri and a G. K. Chesterton Father Brown Anthology) visit the Sisters of St. Francis’ Bookstore.

May God bless these two communities with vocations!

News

On the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle

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Saints like St. Thomas the Apostle, separated from us by 2000 years of time and minimal in their biblical documentation, can often become a bit abstract in our minds. Most people can recognize the name “Thomas” and recall, “Oh, yes, the doubter,” but few can actually account for how he got the title “St.” placed before his name. Much less can they see any real depth of applicability in his story, besides the obvious “Don’t doubt in Jesus.”

Perhaps, however, in the Gospel of John, when Jesus says to Thomas, “Put out your hand, and place it in my side,” He is offering Thomas a directive that years of meditation could not exhaust. Place your hand in the wound in My side? In the very wound inflicted by a lance, and from which streams of blood and water flowed? In the very puncture of My beating heart, which loved you enough to die for you? Even though you had not the trust to take both My own and My apostles’ word for it that I was truly alive? Thomas’s need for continuing proof, despite all that he had already seen, is at one time or another an experience we all share, but Jesus’ merciful response—to enter the Upper Room through a locked door and invite him to touch His wounds anyway—belongs to us just as much. He extends to all of us this inexhaustible invitation to forever share in all His heart’s secrets—His joys and pains, His love and His sorrow.

As for how Thomas did get the “St.” before his name, traditional accounts say that he traveled as far as India in response to Jesus’ instruction to teach all nations, and that in the end, he met his martyrdom by being pierced through with a lance. For one who was given the privilege to touch the pierced heart of Jesus Himself, this act of accepting a lance through his own heart was the ultimate response. And it is the response we must make (day-to-day and probably in less dramatic ways than Thomas did, but make it we must nonetheless), if we are one day to have the title “St.” placed before our own names.

Cloistered life, Men's communities

The Faith of Peter is Our Faith!

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A priest and friend of the IRL from the Maronite Monastery in Petersham, Massachusetts, recently sent us a picture of a beloved confrere who died (or as the ancient monastic saying has it was “perfected”) on June 3, 2013. He was by all accounts everyone’s favorite, a lovely and holy priest. The picture says it all. May he rest in peace.

As an Eastern Rite Church, the Maronites are a beautiful example for the Church to take inspiration from today. They are and always have been in full communion with the Catholic Church. Despite persecution, their belief in the teachings of the Church and in the authority of the Chair of St. Peter have never wavered. Over 350 Maronite monks were martyred in 517 A.D. for their defense of the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon (451) which defined Jesus as “true God and true Man.”

The ancient roots of the Maronite Church are quite amazing. The early Maronites were descendents of the people who received the gift of Faith from Saint Peter himself. The Maronite Patriarch resides in Antioch which is where the early followers of Jesus were first called Christians (Acts 11:26). According to Eusebius, St. Peter founded the Church at Antioch and became its first bishop. Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, is still the liturgical language of the Maronite Church.

The cloistered, contemplative Maronite Monks of the Most Holy Trinity in Petersham were founded in 1978 and are dedicated to a life of prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. “The particular goal of the Maronite Monks of Most Holy Trinity is to participate in the hidden and suffering life of Jesus Christ. The spirit of the community is especially to consist in this: that it is joined to Christ as a body appropriated by Him in His love and adoration of the Father and pouring out of Himself in love for His brothers.”

On the Feast of  St. Peter and St. Paul, the Maronites pray in the Divine Liturgy: “O Lord, preserve your children from all error or deviation, grant us to live and die proclaiming: ‘Our faith is the faith of Peter, the faith of Peter is our faith!’” May we today have the faith and courage of the early Maronites!

 

 

Liturgical Year

Our Mother of Perpetual Help

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Today, we celebrate the feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. Having lived in a Redemptorist Parish for 10 years, I am very familiar with the devotion and have a great fondness for the image and what it invokes.

The Redemptorists have custody of the miraculous and ancient icon in their Church, San Alfonso, in Rome. According to tradition, the icon originally came from Crete, found its way into private hands and in 1499, was displayed in the Church of St. Matthew in Rome.

The icon was rescued when the Church was destroyed by Napoleon’s army and remained in obscurity until until the Redemptorists asked Pope Pius IX for guardianship of it, for they had learned that the site of their new church in Rome, San Alfonso (named after their founder St. Alphonsus Liguori), was built on the site of the very same St. Matthew’s that had once housed the relic. The icon was transferred to the new Church in 1866. As the guardians of the holy icon, the Holy Father entrusted them with the mission to “make her known throughout the world.” During the restoration of the icon about 20 years ago, it was determined that it was about 600 years old.

The symbolism depicted in the icon is most touching and reassuring. Mary is holding Jesus while the Archangels Michael and Gabriel hover in the background.  On the left side, Michael is holding a lance and  a sponge while Gabriel is holding the cross and nails. Jesus’ eyes are fixed on the Cross. Mary’s eyes gaze solemnly at us. One of Jesus’ sandals is loose, indicating that in His haste to get to Mary He almost lost a shoe! Though some say it indicates the Divine and human nature of Christ.

The Handmaids of the Precious Blood in Lake Villa, Illinois, have two beautiful stained glass windows depicting the scene in the icon before Jesus is in Mary’s arms. In one window, Jesus is running to Mary with His loose sandal behind Him; in the other, Mary with outstretched arms is awaiting Him.

Mary is telling us to ponder and keep in mind the salvation her Son has won for us in His Passion and death. Jesus, meanwhile, is telling us to run to Mary. If we stay close to her, we have nothing to fear.

Two beautiful shrines to Our Mother of Perpetual Help are at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston and St. Michael’s Church in Old Town, Chicago. As the patroness of Haiti, may Our Mother of Perpetual Help be of constant help to them and those who are far from home.

Women's Communities

Little Sisters of Jesus

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Everyone always says that the Church in France is dead or dying but there are always wonderful signs of life. Today, I stumbled across this newish order of women called the Little Sisters of the Consolation of the Sacred Heart and the Holy Face. When I first saw the habit I thought: Charles de Foucauld. There is no mistaking the red heart with the red crucifix coming out of the top.

While Charles de Foucauld did not found any orders of men or women during his lifetime, after his death many Little Sisters or Little Brothers of Jesus have cropped up around the world, taking their inspiration from Charles’ humble and solitary life. These particular sisters were founded in 1989 in the diocese of Frejus-Toulon (Provence-France) and seem to be an active/contemplative order with an apostolate for children, the elderly and the sick. They say the Office in Latin.

Charles is not yet a saint but he continues to inspire people, almost 100 years after his sudden death. His alone-ness, his thirst for Jesus in the Eucharist and the value he saw in silent fraternity with the poor moves people to give Jesus their all.

Charles de Foucauld himself was a child of privilege, born in 1858 in Strasbourg, France. Leading a selfish and irreligious life that was a scandal to his family, he told a priest that he had trouble believing in God. The priest told him, “What is missing now, in order for you to believe in God is a pure heart. Go down on your knees, make your confession to God and you will believe.” This is exactly what happened. Charles left the Church filled with “that infinite peace, that dazzling light, that unfailing happiness.”

Charles eventually became a monk and moved to Algeria where he lived alone in the desert until he was killed in 1916 by rebels. Despite having few companions in life, after death he inspired many to live his life of poverty and solitude in imitation of Jesus in His hidden life in Nazareth. In the 1930’s, the Little Sisters of Jesus and the Little Brothers of Jesus were founded and established their first foundations in North Africa. Today, they are virtually in every country in the world or close to it. I stumbled across a Little Sister in an Israeli desert who gave me cookies and juice from her meager rations.

The evangelization that I am called to live is not through the word but through the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, the offering of the sacrifice of the Mass. It is through prayer and penance and the practice of the Gospel virtues – love, fraternal and universal love, sharing even my last mouthful of bread with every poor person, with every visitor, every stranger, and welcoming each person as a beloved brother or sister. -Charles de Foucauld

 

 

Cloistered life, Women's Communities

Daughters of Elijah

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Last week, I had the privilege of visiting the Hermits of St. Mary of Carmel in Houston, Minnesota, a diocesan institute of autonomous right following the Primitive Rule.  I was not planning to spend more than an hour but the conversation was so lively and the tour so interesting that the time flew by like the breeze. We found we had a lot in common, where we grew up, etc., so there was a lot of laughter.

The prioress was a Carmelite for the Aged and Infirm for 25 years. Another sister was originally a Poor Clare until she experienced the call within a call. The youngest sister was a Carmelite in Singapore who felt drawn to the hermit life which took her to Ireland and finally to Minnesota. One sister, in search of the hermit life, worked on Mount Carmel then went to Italy and finally to Minnesota. There is also a postulant and 3 others who will soon be coming to experience their unique life.

Most of the women who “come and see” what the life is like do not stay. Some feel called to live a solitary life as a canonical hermit (Canon 603). Others return to traditional community life. The blend of community life and eremitical life is difficult. St. Bruno said that some amount of community life is necessary to make the life livable. Nevertheless, it is a call for the few.

This is not a place to escape to or a place to escape from problems. If anything, if you come in carrying a lot of unresolved issues, they will be brought to the cold light of day.  Many people come but “few are chosen.”

The center/community building is on a hill overlooking a valley and the individual hermitages. The chapel is in the middle with a bay window overlooking the hermitages. The tabernacle is made of glass containing a large consecrated host in a small monstrance. The tabernacle is lit at night so that all the sisters can see it from their hermitages. It must be quite a sight to see the golden glow of the Lord in the dark of night.

They accept only alms for their support. If the Lord wants their life to continue, then He will provide.

Visitors are welcome but silence and quiet is the norm. You can write to them for more information at 33005 Stinson Ridge Road, Houston, MN 55943. They do not have a website or use email.