Angels and Saints

I celebrated Mass today with the Apostleship of Prayer staff.  I wore white instead of green, the color most people going to Mass today would have seen.  Today is what is known as a "ferial day" on which there is no feast, obligatory memorial, or optional memorial.  The presider is free to choose any saint from the calendar or a votive Mass of one king or another.

I could have worn white to celebrate St.
Raymond Nonnatus.  "Nonnatus" is Latin for "not born" and this name was given to Raymond because he came into the world in 1204 via cesarean section after his mother died during labor.  In time Raymond joined the recently founded Mercedarian order, a religious congregation whose mission was to ransom Christian slaves and going so far as to take their place until the ransom could be paid.  This is what Raymond did and while he was in prison he preached the Gospel so convincingly that some of his Muslim captors became Christian.  This so infuriated the governor that, according to tradition, he had a red-hot spike driven through Raymond's lips and a padlock inserted to prevent his preaching.  Eventually Raymond was ransomed, returned to Europe, and was made a cardinal adviser to the pope who had heard about his courageous witness.  He died on this day in 1240.

I could have celebrated Mass in his honor, but instead I chose white as I celebrated a Mass in honor of the Angels.  When Monday is a ferial day, I like to remember the Angels who, from time to time, have certainly remembered me.  The latest such incident occurred a week ago.

I was in the St. Louis airport on my way back to Milwaukee after a retreat for 78 men at White House Jesuit Retreat Center.  I had plenty of time to catch my 8:25 flight to Milwaukee but had misread the gate information.  Settling myself down to wait at Gate E4, I checked email and then began reading a book when suddenly, I heard a name over the loud speaker.  It sounded vaguely familiar and it was repeated a second time announcing the immediate departure of his flight for Milwaukee at Gate E20.  Sometimes people have trouble pronouncing my last name ("Kubicki," which I don't think is that difficult) and such was the case this time.  Realizing I was at the wrong gate, I got up and raced through the terminal, arriving at the correct gate just in time to board my plane before the doors closed.

I'm convinced that my Guardian Angel opened my ears to hear my mispronounced name being paged and then gave my legs some extra wings as I raced through the terminal.

And that is one of the many reasons why I like to honor the Angels in a votive Mass from time to time.

The Peoria Franciscan Sisters

I am in East Peoria these days, giving a week long retreat to the Sisters of the Third Order of St.

Francis.  On August 21, 1875 a community of 25 Sisters and 4 Postulants left Germany because of the Bismark Laws which restricted religious freedom.  They ended up in Iowa City where a priest whom they had met in Germany helped them get settled.  About a year later six of the Sisters went to Peoria at the request of a local priest who asked them to start a hospital.  The first bishop of Peoria, John Spalding, promised his help to them if they would form a separate congregation. Thus began this particular community of Franciscans with Mother Mary Frances as the first superior.

Mother Mary Frances' last words to her community capture the spirit that is still very much alive among these Sisters: "Dear Sisters, live in meekness and obedience. Nurse the sick with the greatest care and love, then will God's blessing be with you."

Our retreat will end on Wednesday, the feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and the annual World Day of
the Sick.  In his message this year, Pope Francis wrote about "the wisdom of the heart."  What is this wisdom?  "It is a way of seeing things infused by the Holy Spirit in the minds and the hearts of those who are sensitive to the sufferings of their brothers and sisters and who can see in them the image of God."  He went on to say, "Time spent with the sick is holy time. It is a way of praising God who conforms us to the image of his Son, who 'came not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many' (Mt. 20:28)."

It strikes me that the Sisters are living proof of these words.  The gift the Sisters make of themselves in service of the sick gives praise to God and helps them grow in holiness.  I'm praying that more women will hear the call to join them because they are very stretched as they direct the operations of 9 medical centers throughout Illinois and in the upper peninsula of Michigan.  Please join me in that prayer.

St. Francis of Assisi Church

 I am in Springfield, IL, at the Motherhouse of the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis where I am helping direct some seminarians from Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis on their annual retreat.



While the weather has been desperately cold, I've stayed indoors where it is cozy and warm.  The Sisters run a retreat and conference center called Chiara Center.  The hospitality has been great.





One of the beauties of this retreat center is the church which clearly shows we are still in the Christmas Season.

This Nativity set is up yearlong and includes St. Francis who is credited with organizing the first living creche.








The church also includes a shrine of St. Therese of Lisieux which depicts various scenes from her life.

The Sisters ran a Tuberculosis Sanitarium here from 1919 to 1973.

St. Therese died of TB and so it was natural to create this shrine in the church and to ask her help for the patients as well as for the missionaries who left this Motherhouse and journeyed throughout the world.

The Sisters of Life

I am half way between New York City and Albany at St. Joseph Camp which the Sisters of Life are using for their retreat. I am with Fr. Christopher Collins, S.J., and Fr. Joseph Koterski, S.J. and we are directing 17 Sisters in their annual eight day retreat.  The Sisters of Life are a new religious congregation which John Cardinal O’Connor of New York City founded on June 1, 1991. 

In a retreat conference, Cardinal O’Connor spoke of the rationale for this new order: “Over the course of hundreds of years Almighty God has inevitably seemed to raise up religious communities to meet the special needs of the day. I am convinced that the crucial need of our day is to restore to all society a sense of the sacredness of human life. Basic to the worst evils of our day is surely a widespread contempt for human life.”

He went on: “Now it seems time for a religious community to pray each day at some length, by way of the Sacred Liturgy, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the Divine Office, in contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament, in the holy rosary, in various other forms of prayer.  In addition, the community will engage in active ministries which will be an extension of contemplation.”

These Sisters are certainly prayer warriors in the cause of promoting a culture of life, a civilization of love.  Their annual, individually-directed eight day retreat, of which I am blessed to participate, is a prime example of this. 

On the day of their foundation, the Cardinal told them:  “It is your charism to plead for the protection of all human life at every level, with a special focus on those most helpless and unwanted, and to advance a sense of the sacredness of all human life.” 

Cardinal O’Connor told the first Sisters of Life that their consecration was a witness to sacrifice, the antidote to what St. John Paul II called “the culture of death.”  He said: “It will not be through your human persuasion, it will not be through your writings, it will be through your prayer, through your apostolate, through your example of consecrating yourselves that other women will come to understand and will consecrate themselves. It is imperative that you see the relationship between your laying down your life and your encouraging these women to be willing to sacrifice rather than to destroy or permit to be destroyed, the life of their unborn child. This is true not only for the unborn; it is true for all human life, human life which has come to be held in such contempt. The refugees in the Middle East at this moment are enduring unbelievable suffering, not simply because of the war but because the world has accepted this kind of contempt for human life. The world has accepted bombings and artillery fire which, even if destined only against a military adversary, by its nature is going to kill, to maim, to wound, to leave hungry and homeless hundreds of thousands of human beings created in the image and likeness of God.”

Those words were spoken in 1991, but could have been spoken today. Today there are millions “of human beings created in the image and likeness of God” who have been left “hungry and homeless” by war in the Middle East.  During this month of August Pope Francis has asked us to pray in a special way for them and for all refugees.

While reading Cardinal O’Connor’s remarks at the foundation of the Sisters of Life I discovered that another group of Sisters, to whom I gave a retreat acouple years ago, played a significant role in the early life of this new congregation.  They are the ParishVisitors of Mary Immaculate.  The Cardinal placed the early formation of the Sisters of Life in the hands of the Parish Visitors, saying: “I have known you since I was the Bishop of Scranton and Sister Mary played the same guitar for me that she played today. I have admired you. Your lives are contemplative, missionary. That will be the lives that these women will lead. I cannot, and I say this to you sincerely, I cannot think of a congregation anywhere in the world who will give them a better example, who will better model for them our Blessed Mother, who will give them a greater example of devotion to Our Lord and to the service of His people. They will see you as you pray, they will see you in many of your activities. They will learn from you. They will grow rapidly under your care, as Jesus the Christ Child grew in wisdom and grace under the tutelage of His mother and father.” 

The Sisters of Life. The Parish Visitors. One of the blessings of being the director of the Apostleship of Prayer in the U.S. is praying with these consecrated women who are true Apostles of Prayer and who are devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus as they live the Daily Offering. 

Venerable Nano Nagle

I have been giving a retreat this week to Nano Nagle’s Sisters in Aberdeen, South Dakota. They are known as the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  But who was Nano?

Honora Nagle was born in County Cork, Ireland in 1718 and was soon called by the affectionate name “Nano.” This was time of persecution for Catholics in Ireland. They were forbidden to teach, open up schools, or travel elsewhere for an education. Some of the Nagle family were merchants who had connections on the continent and Nano was able to travel to Paris to attend school. In 1746, after her father’s death, she returned to Ireland and, in violation of the laws, began teaching. She set up her first school in 1754 and very soon started seven more. She was never arrested and in 1775, with other women who joined her in the work, she founded the Society of Charitable Instruction of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which in time became the Sisters of the Presentation. She received the habit on June 29, 1776 and took the name Mother Mary of St. John of God after the 16^th Century Portuguese saint who had dedicated his life to the service of the poor and the sick. She died in 1784 and her cause for canonization was approved by Pope Francis in 2013. Today the Presentation Sisters teach and care for the sick in 23 countries around the world.

I’ve resonated with a number of Nano’s sayings. One—“Not words, but deeds”—reminds  me of something that St. Ignatius Loyola wrote in his “Spiritual Exercises,” that love shows itself best in deeds. Love is not so much a feeling or even the words that express a feeling. Love is action.

Her zeal for souls is seen in this quote: “If I could be of any service in saving souls in any part of the world, I would willingly do all in my power.”

Like so many saints from St. Paul through St. Margaret Mary to the present, Nano knew that any good she accomplished was not her doing but God’s.  She wrote: “The Almighty makes use of the weakest means to bring about his work.” We see her great trust in these words: “By degrees, with the assistance of God, we may do a great deal,” and “God is all-sufficient.”

In the Positio or testimonies gathered after her death we read: “Absorbed in wordless prayer, she carried in her heart those in need of compassion.” Her devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus made her heart go out to all those who were suffering. She carried them in her heart, prayed for them, and offered her life to help them. 

Respect for Elders

I'm on the road these days and have not had much time to write. I'm in Cascade, Iowa, a town of 2,000 that is only 20 minutes from Dubuque. At one time Cascade had two Catholic churches, St. Patrick's founded in 1840 and St. Matthias founded in 1848. One was for the Irish and one was for the Germans. Now the parishes are combined and I am in the middle of a 40 Hours Devotion with adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and talks on the Sacred Heart and the Eucharist. Last summer Fr. Douglas Loecke invited me to come here after he read my book "A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus." 

Before coming here I was in Burlington, Iowa where I spoke in all the Catholic grade school classes on Valentine's Day. Naturally I spoke about a Heart that shows us the truest and deepest love that has ever existed.  I also spoke to an assembly of middle and high school students in the gym.  I was invited to Burlington by Mark Knutsen, someone I had on retreat at Bellarmine Retreat House in Barrington, IL last fall.  The local Knights of Columbus Council 568 hosted me for a supper Friday night and I gave two talks Saturday morning. 

When I met with the children on Friday I talked to them about having a heart like the Heart of Jesus, a heart that goes out to other people with love. I told them that one way our hearts can go out to others is through prayer. Then I shared with them the idea of praying for Pope Francis' monthly prayer intentions and, using the "smart board" in every classroom, I showed them the Kids' Page on our website. They laughed at the photo we have for this month's Universal Intention. We are praying for our seniors or elders. I showed them the activity page which can be printed up and which gives them the opportunity to reach out to an older person to say that they are thinking about him or her.

My good friend, Anne Bender, has a wonderful reflection on her blog "Imprisoned in These Bones" about the joys and struggles of helping our elders.  Many of the people coming to the evening talks that I am giving in Cascade are older people who are making the effort to come out in the snow and the cold. They have been the pillars of the Church in rural communities like this and have passed the faith on to future generations that continue to fill the churches here.  May God reward them for their faithfulness!

Retreat in Hawaii

A couple weeks ago, during the coldest week (so far) of our Wisconsin winter, I went to Hawaii to
give a retreat to the priests and bishop of the Honolulu Diocese. The view from St. Stephen’s Retreat Center was spectacular and the weather was perfect, though the local TV weather station told people that we would be having a “two blanket night” because the temperatures were going to fall to 60.  I survived.  This photo is from the dining room and in the distance you can see the ocean.

 

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is the oldest cathedral in continuous use in the United States. It was dedicated in 1843 and St. Damien, the leper priest of Molokai, was ordained there on May 21, 1864. On either side of the sanctuary you will find pictures and relics of both St. Damien and St. Marianne Cope, a Franciscan Sister who cared for lepers, including Fr. Damien during the last year or so of his life.  Today is Mother Marianne’s feast. Here is a saying of hers: “What little good we can do in this world to help and comfort the suffering, we wish to do it quietly and so far as possible unnoticed and unknown.” 

One of the priests who was on the retreat and whose company I enjoyed at meals was Fr. Cletus  Mooya. He was from Zambia and he came to Hawaii with two other Africans who were members of the Oratorians, a group founded by St. Philip Neri in 1575. They were unable to start an Oratory in Hawaii and ended up becoming diocesan priests for Honolulu. A week ago I was shocked to receive a message that Fr. Cletus had suddenly gone into a coma and died. He was only 40. I hope my retreat, with its focus on the deep, enduring love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, helped prepare him to meet the Lord. May Fr. Cletus rest in peace and may his family in Zambia and the friends he made and people he served in Hawaii be consoled. Amen.

St. Therese and Prayers for Conversion

I am in Woodstock, Maryland these days, at St. Alphonsus Rodriguez Church, a Jesuit parish, where I am in the middle of a parish mission. The church here has a statue of the saint whom we honor today--St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face--and a large candle burns in front it. As providence would have it, the readings at Mass this morning (not the readings for her feast but for Tuesday in the 26th Week in Ordinary Time) allowed me to share with the congregation some of the spirit of St. Therese who is the second patron saint of the Apostleship of Prayer.

The first reading from the Prophet Zechariah (8: 20-23) contains a beautiful prophetic word: "Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem. ... [They] shall take hold of every Jew by the edge of his garment and say, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.'" Those words, "God is with us," appear in the first chapter of Matthew where the Son of God made flesh is called "Emmanuel." Jesus is God with us in the flesh. Zechariah's prophetic word was fulfilled when God became human, dwelt on earth, and died and rose in Jerusalem. Of course he continues to dwell with us in the Blessed Sacrament.
In today's gospel, Luke 9: 51-56, Jesus "resolutely determined to go to Jerusalem" where his destiny as the Savior of the world would be fulfilled.  In Jerusalem he will die on a cross to prove God's love for the world. On the cross he will draw all people to himself, to his pierced heart. In Jerusalem he will rise from the dead to blaze a trail for us. 

On the journey to Jerusalem a Samaritan village refuses hospitality to Jesus and his followers. Jews, especially those going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, were hated by the Samaritans who in turn were hated by the Jews as heretics. James and John, true to the nickname that had been given them--Boanerges or Sons of Thunder--ask Jesus if they should "call down fire from heaven to consume" the Samaritans. "Jesus turned and rebuked them."  It is as though Jesus is telling them, "When I get to Jerusalem, I will die for them too. So pray for them. Pray that they may know and accept my love and be converted."

Jesus, as Pope Francis has recently pointed out, died for all, including atheists and our enemies. All. But not all have accepted the love of Jesus. Not all have accepted the salvation Christ won for us on the cross. Many are at risk of being alienated from God forever and it is for these in particular that we should offer our prayers and sacrifices.

That is what St. Therese did a year after she enrolled in the Apostleship of Prayer when she was 12. Here's how she describes it in her autobiography:

"One Sunday, looking at a picture of Our Lord on the Cross, I was struck by the blood flowing from one of the divine hands. I felt a pang of sorrow when thinking this blood was falling to the ground without anyone's hastening to gather it up. I was resolved to remain in spirit at the foot of the Cross and to receive the divine dew. I understood I was to pour it out upon souls. The cry of Jesus on the Cross sounded continually in my heart: 'I thirst!' These words ignited within me an unknown and a very living fire. I wanted to give my Beloved to drink and I felt myself consumed with a thirst for souls."

The first soul whom she targeted for her loving attention, the first soul that she felt Jesus thirsted for the most because he was at great risk of being alienated forever from God, was a murderer named Henri Pranzini. He was bitter and unrepentant, but Therese prayed and offered sacrifices for him. At the very last second, as the blade of the guillotine was about to drop on his neck, he, in Therese's words, "took hold of the crucifix the priest was holding out to him and kissed the sacred wounds three times?" Convinced that her prayers had played a decisive role in his last second act of repentance, Therese called Pranzini "my first child."
With these thoughts in mind, as we celebrate St. Therese, co-patron of missionaries and the Apostleship of Prayer, let us commit ourselves to praying and sacrificing for the conversion of our enemies, the "Samaritans" in our lives, as well as for all those most at risk of choosing eternal separation from God. 

The Mystery of the Cross

On Saturday I was on Chambers Island in the middle of Green Bay, not the city but the body of water that forms part of Lake Michigan. I was at Holy Name Retreat House leading a retreat for the Catholic men's group called Esto Vir.  In my homily for the Feast of the Exaltation or Triumph of the Cross I said the following:

Our faith is based on a paradox: the very source of death has become the source of healing and life.  This is the cross.

In the first centuries of Christianity the most common image of Jesus was that of the Good Shepherd. There was a reluctance to show Jesus on the cross. This was too shameful. Yet it is the proof of God's love.

As our gospel today states: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him" (John 3: 16-17).

How did God save the world? Not with physical power. Not with an army of angels that would force people to follow God's will. Not with a destructive flood like the one that wiped out evil at the time of Noah.

God saved the world with weakness. With a helpless baby born in a stable who would grow to suffer and to die. With a flood of blood and water that gushed forth from the Heart of his Son when he was pierced on the cross. With spiritual power, the power of love.

In 2005 at World Youth Day in Cologne in his homily at the closing Mass, Pope Benedict said that at the Last Supper Jesus anticipated what he was going to do on the next day. He accepted it into his Heart. And in doing so, an act of violence was transformed into the greatest act of the love the world has ever known. Death was transformed into life. Bread and wine were transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ. 

St. Thomas Aquinas called what happened at the Last Supper the greatest miracle of Jesus. Greater than healing the sick, feeding the 5,000, calming the storm, or raising the dead.

Pope Benedict went on to say that the transformation must not stop there with the bread and wine becoming the Body and Blood of Christ. He said that the change must now gather momentum and transform those who receive the Body and Blood of Christ so that they will transform the world.

Now we are to love as Jesus loved. We are to not only wear a cross but join our lives to it. We are to offer ourselves as Jesus did when he offered himself to the Father for the salvation of the world, something that he makes present every time the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is celebrated. We are, in the words of St. Paul, to offer our bodies, our selves "as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God" (Romans 12: 1). 

Pope Francis, in his sermon at the Vigil for Peace in Syria that was celebrated in St. Peter's Square and around the world on September 7, called us to look to the cross so that our world might find peace.  He said:

"When man thinks only of himself, of his own interests and places himself in the center, when he permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power, when he puts himself in God’s place, then all relationships are broken and everything is ruined; then the door opens to violence, indifference, and conflict. ... We have perfected our weapons, our conscience has fallen asleep, and we have sharpened our ideas to justify ourselves. As if it were normal, we continue to sow destruction, pain, death! Violence and war lead only to death, they speak of death! Violence and war are the language of death!

"And at this point I ask myself: Is it possible to walk the path of peace? Can we get out of this spiral of sorrow and death? Can we learn once again to walk and live in the ways of peace? Invoking the help of God, under the maternal gaze of the ... Queen of Peace, I say: Yes, it is possible for everyone! From every corner of the world tonight, I would like to hear us cry out: Yes, it is possible for everyone! Or even better, I would like for each one of us, from the least to the greatest, including those called to govern nations, to respond: Yes, we want it! My Christian faith urges me to look to the Cross. How I wish that all men and women of good will would look to the Cross if only for a moment! There, we can see God’s reply: violence is not answered with violence, death is not answered with the language of death. In the silence of the Cross, the uproar of weapons ceases and the language of reconciliation, forgiveness, dialogue, and peace is spoken."

The Special Role of Seniors

One of the talks I usually give on my retreats is about the perspective that death gives to life. Realizing that we are not going to live on this earth forever should make us use the time we have well. I like to quote from Psalm 90: "Seventy is the sum of our years, or eighty, if we are strong." Then I look out at the retreatants and observe that we have some "strong" people in the group. The psalm goes on: "Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart."

A few weeks ago I had two retreats with "strong" people. They were residents of the Little Sisters of the Poor Residences for the Elderly in Scranton, PA and Totowa, NJ.  In fact one of the residents in Totowa is very "strong." He's the retired archbishop of Newark who is 101 years old. 

I enjoy giving retreats to "seniors," as one person told me I should call older people. They are often forgotten and aren't mobile enough to get out to a retreat house.  Society in general treats them as useless and unproductive. Yet they play a very important role in the life of society and the Church.  They are wisdom figures. A comedian once said: "You don't get to be old by being a fool."  I enjoyed telling those older retreatants that their prayers, joined to their sacrifices and sufferings, play an important role.  And so that they would know this wasn't just my opinion, I shared with them a quote from Pope Benedict XVI.  He said the following when he visited a home for the elderly November 12, 2012:

"I come to you as Bishop of Rome, but also as an old man visiting his peers. ... I would like to tell you with deep conviction: it is beautiful to be old! ... We have received the gift of longevity. Living is beautiful even at our age, despite some 'aches and pains' and a few limitations.

"In the Bible longevity is considered a blessing of God; today this blessing is widespread and must be seen as a gift to appreciate and to make the most of. And yet frequently society, dominated by the logic of efficiency and gain, does not accept it as such: on the contrary it frequently rejects it, viewing the elderly as non-productive or useless.

"When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary.

"Dear elderly brothers and sisters, the days sometimes seem long and empty, with difficulties, few engagements and few meetings. Never feel down at heart: you are a wealth for society, even in suffering and sickness. And this phase of life is also a gift for deepening the relationship with God. ... Do not forget that one of the valuable resources you possess is the essential one of prayer: become interceders with God, praying with faith and with constancy. Pray for the Church, and pray for me, for the needs of the world, for the poor, so that there may be no more violence in the world. The prayers of the elderly can protect the world....  The Pope loves you and relies on all of you! May you feel beloved by God and know how to bring a ray of God's love to this society of ours...."

Cor Unum

I'm at my old "stomping grounds," the Jesuit Retreat House in Lake Elmo, Minnesota, located on Lake Demontreville and often referred to by that name. I gave my first retreat here in 1986 and was part of the staff from 2000-2003. Sixty-nine men from around the Twin Cities and as far away as Kansas and California are on retreat with me.

I've given several retreats this summer but have not been able to write about them because I didn't have the necessary computer access. Last week I was at Conception Abbey in the northwest corner of Missouri where I gave a retreat to members of Cor Unum. Though founded in France in 1790, the groups that comprise "Cor Unum" (One Heart), are secular institutes, a relatively new phenomenon in the Church. After Opus Dei, they were the second such canonically recognized group.

The year of their foundation was a difficult time for the Church in France. It was a time of revolution and suppression. The Society of Jesus or Jesuits had already been suppressed but one of their members, Fr. Joseph de Cloriviere, continued to function as a priest and imagined a new form of consecrated life. In a letter dated 1810, he wrote: "I conceived it would be the setting up of a sort of universal Religious Society that would be open to any kind of people, or any age, country or condition, being capable of the evangelical perfection. They would not separate their members from the ordinary faithful people...." This "Society" had shaky beginnings and was re-founded in 1918 by Fr. Daniel Fontaine, another French priest.

Today this group can be found around the world and calls itself "Cor Unum" or "The Family of the Heart of Jesus." A brochure describes them as follows: "The Family of the Heart of Jesus is comprised of three secular institutes (one for clerics, one for celibate laymen, and one for celibate laywomen) and an association of the faithful for married persons and others who wish to belong to the Family without taking vows. The secular institutes are a special structure within the Roman Catholic Church, a form of 'consecrated life,' designed to enable single lay people and diocesan priests to live and work in the secular world while consecrating themselves more fully to the Lord. However, members to do not live in communities (necessarily), and do not wear anything distinctive." The group shares a common spirituality of devotion to the Sacred Heart and of St. Ignatius Loyola. Before its members pronounce their permanent vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, they make the full thirty day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

On the retreat I gave there were diocesan priests, single lay men and women, and a married couple who had come together from both coasts and places in between. At the end of the retreat, two women pronounced their permanent vows in the Institute of the Heart of Jesus. As always, giving a retreat like this was a blessing for me and another opportunity to learn more about the wonderfully diverse Catholic Church.

Auguste "Nonco" Pelafigue

A week ago I enjoyed Southern hospitality in Arnaudville, Louisiana, in the heart of Cajun country. The day before I was at Loyola University in New Orleans where I spoke at the National Jesuit Brothers Committee's bi-annual meeting on the topic "From Paper to Podcasts: How the Apostleship of Prayer went from the 19th Century to the 21st Century in 10 Years."  I was on my way to Our Lady Queen of Heaven Parish in Lake Charles to preach at all the Masses and decided to stop in Arnaudville. 

In the past year a group of people from that small town contacted me because a well-beloved member of their community, who died in 1977 had been a member and promoter of the Apostleship of Prayer.  They had started the Auguste "Nonco" Pelafigue Foundation in order to honor his memory and promote his cause for beatification.  I talked to them about the Apostleship and showed them a monthly leaflet from our archives dating back to 1909 and others from the 1940's and 50's. The ones from the '60's and 70's looked familiar because Nonco had brought similar ones to their families.  We talked about how they could continue Nonco's work of promoting prayer for the pope's monthly intentions and devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  On our way to a local café, The Little Big Cup, for real Cajun food (I

had gumbo and a Po-Boy sandwich made with shrimp), we stopped at Nonco's house, a small shack with no running water where he slept and prayed and ate. I can't really say he "lived" there because he spent so much of his time walking around the area delivering leaflets, teaching catechism, and directing the local children in plays that they performed for the parish. 

I carry away happy memories of my time in Arnaudville and have begun to ask Nonco to intercede for the Apostleship as we try to carry on the work that was so dear to his own heart. 

Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus

I am in Kirkwood, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis, where I am in the middle of a retreat for the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. The Central Province is headquartered here and I gave the sisters a retreat back in December, 2005.  I know this religious order which unites two of my loves--Carmel and the Sacred Heart--not only through this particular community but also because I've given retreats to the Sisters of the Northern Province in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin and the Canadian Province in Missassauga, Ontario.  Whenever I'm in the Milwaukee area for the feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel (July 16), I celebrate it with the community in Wauwatosa and I was privileged to be there for special celebrations of the beatification of their foundress, Mother Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, in 2006 and for the 100th anniversary of their foundation in the U.S.A. in 2012. 

Bl. Maria Teresa was an amazing woman. She was born in East Prussia in 1855, the daughter of a staunch Lutheran minister.  She decided to become a Catholic on June 17, 1887 without knowing that this was the feast of the Sacred Heart that year and was received into the Church on October 30, 1888. Prior to this she had spent some time in a convent in Cologne where a deep love for the Eucharist grew.  She wrote about this in her autobiography:

"During the first days of my stay at the convent, the Forty Hours' adoration was observed. It was the first exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and the first nocturnal adoration I had ever attended. I cannot find words to describe my feelings. I was so filled with holy joy that I knelt before the Blessed Sacrament from nine o'clock in the evening until two o'clock in the morning without realizing the time. God inflamed my heart with such fervor that later on, all the sorrows sent to me, or allowed to happen to me by His grace, seemed to be only a drop of water on a glowing iron. They can only cause a momentary flare,  a human twitch of nature, and nothing else. The real fervor stays like the real heat of the iron. When I awoke in the morning, my heart was filled with a burning love for God."

This love impelled her to follow God's will at all costs.  One of my favorite stories of Bl. Maria Teresa is how shortly after this experience in adoration and before she had become a Catholic she, in her words, "desired to become a holocaust of love for God."  She concluded all her prayers with the following words: "O Lord, send me wherever You will, to work for the salvation of souls. Fulfill the ardent longing of my soul, O God, to prove my love and gratitude to You. But if it is possible, do not send me to Berlin. However, Your will be done, not mine."  And where did God send her? That's right. To Berlin, where she began her work of caring for abandoned children and also encountered much opposition.

Pope Pius XII said the following about her: "Never in the history of humanity have events required on the part of a woman so much initiative and daring, so much fidelity, moral strength, spirit of sacrifice and endurance of all kinds of suffering--in a word, so much heroism."

A Croatian Jesuit, Fr. Mihaly Szentmartoni, in his book Even Then Will I Trust, compared her to a locomotive: "As I read the autobiography of the Venerable Anna Maria Tauscher/Mother Mary Teresa of St. Joseph, the image of a hurtling locomotive appeared before my spiritual eyes. This fairly frail woman rumbled through this world like a hurtling locomotive, not only in the figurative sense. She actually crisscrossed old Europe who knows how many times, and also went to America. Travel became a symbol of her life. Like the good old steam locomotives of her time, she whizzed by, overcoming every obstacle in her path, pulling her train, i.e., her associates, candidates, nuns and thousands of impoverished children, old persons and others who suffered from spiritual or physical misery.  Like a good old locomotive, she could fume at those who tried to block her path. No one and nothing could stop her until she reached her final destination, the last station on her journey."

The Eucharist was clearly the fuel for this locomotive of a woman.  When she was finally able to establish her first convent and received permission to have the Blessed Sacrament there, she wrote about that first night in which the Eucharistic Presence of our Lord was in the building:

"Joy filled the hearts of all the guests.... At last they were gone, and I was alone. No, not alone, and as I believed, I would never again be alone. I was with Him whom I had longed for so ardently, and over whose absence I had shed so many tears since leaving the convent in Cologne twenty-five years ago. He was here now, the great King, hidden in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Oh, I felt unutterable bliss; He was mine, and I was His!"

The locomotive kept racing along until September 20, 1938. Her last words to those gathered around her deathbed were: "All that God does is good! Always praise and glorify God!"

For more about Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph, foundress of the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus, see the St. Agnes Home website. 

"A Stupendous Gift"

I am blessed to be in the second day of an eight day retreat that I am giving to the Carmelite Sisters of Flemington, New Jersey.  So far I have been reflecting with the Sisters on a beautiful 1999 document, "Verbi Sponsa"--an instruction from the Congregation  for Institutes of Contemplative Life and  for Societies of Apostolic Life.  From beginning to end this document, subtitled "Instruction on the Contemplative Life and on the Enclosure of Nuns, is filled with gratitude for this special vocation.

The first section says that "cloistered nuns" are "a unique grace and precious gift within the mystery of the Church's holiness."  And the conclusion contains this tribute which contains a quote from the Apostolic Exhortation Vita Consacrata: "The intention of this Instruction is to confirm the Church's high esteem for the wholly contemplative life of cloistered nuns, and to reaffirm her concern to safeguard its authentic nature, 'that this world may never be without a ray of divine beauty to lighten the path of human existence'."

Next week, using the writings of St. Teresa of Avila, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and excerpts from Pope Benedict's first volume of Jesus of Nazareth, I will reflect with the Sisters on the Our Father. The Sisters live a cloistered life, apart from the world for which they offer intense prayer. I celebrate Mass and present my conferences through a grill.

I'm especially blessed to be here today, the World Day for Consecrated Life. In 1997 Blessed John Paul II called for this special day on which to remember and pray for all those who are called to the consecrated life like these Sisters and like myself, a Jesuit.  In his Message for the first such World Day, Pope John Paul gave three reasons for instituting this special day.

First, to give praise and thanks to God for the vocation to consecrated life which the Holy Father called a "stupendous gift." He followed these words with a quote from the autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, the foundress of these Discalced Carmelites: "What would become of the world if there were no religious?"

Secondly, Pope John Paul wrote, "this day is intended to promote a knowledge of and esteem for the consecrated life by the entire People of God."  From such "knowledge" and "esteem" it is hoped that many more young people will hear God calling them to this life.

The third reason for this special day concerns consecrate people themselves. Blessed John Paul II hoped that this celebration would help them "to acquire a more vivid consciousness of their irreplaceable mission in the Church and in the world."  He wanted them each year "to return to the sources of their vocation, to take stock of their own lives, to confirm the commitment of their own consecration." Doing this, the pope was convinced, "they will be able to give witness with joy to the men and women of our time, in diverse situations, that the Lord is the Love who is able to fill the heart of the human person."

What a blessing it is for me to celebrate the "stupendous gift" of a religious vocation at the Carmel of Mary Immaculate and Saint Mary Magdalen in Flemington, NJ! What a blessing it is to give a retreat to these Sisters during the Year of Faith!

The Wedding Feast

I'm giving a parish mission at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in Odessa, Texas. The focus is on the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the parish bought two cases of my book A Heart on Fire: Rediscovering Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These copies were available after all the Masses and after my first talk last night and I'm happy to report that the parish sold all but 6 of the books.  As always, I preached at all the Masses this weekend and here is a summary of my homily:
This is my first time in West Texas and I always like to get a "feel" for new places so as I was getting ready for Mass on Saturday evening I asked the ushers what professional football team the people of Odessa support.  I was thinking it would be the Houston Texans but I found out it was the Dallas Cowboys.  That caused a little concern because I was born and raised in Wisconsin and my Green Bay Packers have somewhat of a rivalry with the Cowboys.  But this year we can both commiserate. Neither of our teams will be in the Super Bowl. 

Though our teams won't be playing, I suspect most of you will still be watching. Are you getting your menu of appetizers ready?  How about the list of people that you'll be inviting to your Super Bowl party?  Now, here's a question: if you could, if it were possible, would you invite Jesus? 

I imagine some of you are thinking: "Jesus? Well, I don't know. I have to be honest: I'm sort of afraid of Him. You know, most pictures of Him don't show Him laughing or smiling, and the Gospel stories don't really show that either.  I don't know if it be much fun having Jesus at my Super Bowl party."

And then maybe some of you are thinking: "Wait a minute!  Remember what Jesus did at Cana?!"

Isn't it interesting that the first miracle of Jesus that we find in John's Gospel is not a healing but water being changed into wine.  In today's Gospel (John 2:1-11) this is called the first of Jesus' "signs."  A sign points to something and the miraculous signs of Jesus point to His divine power, to His glory.  Jesus chose to show His divine power for the first time, according to John, by providing something that would bring pleasure and joy to a party.

The marriage celebrations at the time of Jesus were long affairs. Because travel was dangerous and expensive, instead of going away on a honeymoon, the newly married couple stayed home with their family and friends for a week long celebration. They were treated like royalty and were even given crowns to wear. The women would have been at work behind the scenes preparing the food for the couple and their guests. So it's no surprise that Mary became aware of the fact that the celebration was running out of wine.  She goes to Jesus to make him aware.

Jesus' response to her is curious.  He calls her "Woman."  At first this may seem derogatory, but in the context of faith, it's a reminder of how in the book of Genesis Adam referred to Eve as the "woman" for she had come forth from her man.  We recall that Eve, as "Woman," is representative of all women.  In John's Gospel, Jesus refered to His mother as "Woman" in one other place.  As He hung dying on the cross, He saw His mother Mary and His closest friend John standing there.  He told Mary, "Woman, behold your son," referring not to Himself but to John.  He gave Mary into the care of this apostle and in telling him, "Behold your mother," we hear Jesus giving us Mary to be our mother. 

The reason Jesus gave for not immediately sharing Mary's concern about the lack of wine is that His "hour has not yet come."  By this He meant not only the hour or time for Him to reveal His power to work miracles, but the hour of His suffering, death, and resurrection.  This was His "hour," the hour when He triumphed over sin and death.  And by working a miracle that would capture people's attention, Jesus would set in motion the events that would ultimately lead to that "hour."  So it seems Jesus hesitates.

But Jesus is the Sinless Son of God who is also the Son of Mary.  He is obedient to the commandments and follows what has traditionally been called the 4th Commandment--"Honor your father and your mother."  He honors His mother by responding to her hint.  He obeys her wish that He do something to help the newly married couple about to be embarrassed.

This is why we Catholics honor Mary.  We imitate Jesus who honored and obeyed His mother.  We know that as she interceded for the couple at Cana, she will also intercede for us with her Son.  We can confidently approach her with our needs and then hear her tell us "Do whatever he tells you." 

And so, after Mary's intercession, Jesus works His first sign or miracle.  He changes water into wine.

In a few minutes an even greater miracle will take place on this altar.  Water will not become wine but wine will become the Precious Blood of Jesus. Bread will become His Body. Why? Why does the Lord do this through those words of His that the priest will pronounce over the bread and wine? 

The answer can be found in our first reading (Isaiah 62:1-5).  The prophet writes: "The Lord delights in you."  When you delight in another you want to be around them, you want to be with them.  The Lord delights in us and wants to be here with us.  But even more: when you truly and deeply love another, you don't just want to be around them.  You want to be one with them.  Again, in the words of Isaiah: "As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you."  Our "Builder" is our Creator, our God.  God wants not only to be with us but to be one with us.  We are made for union with God and that union begins here and now when the Lord comes to us in Holy Communion.  "Com--union."  A union with.

The Eucharist is the beginning of the Heavenly Wedding Feast.  It's the beginning of the celebration which will reach it's finale, its culmination, in heaven when, in the words of St. Paul, God will be all in all (Ephesians 1:10).  Now that will be one super party that will make our earthly parties seem like nothing.    

Spiritual Road Building

I began a parish mission at St. Mary's in East Dubuque, IL today.  Here's part of what I said in my homily for Sunday Mass.

From 1989 to 1995 I lived in western South Dakota at a place that was 13 miles off a paved road where mail delivery came 3 days a week to a mailbox that was a mile and a half from the house.  The paved road was Highway 34 which runs between Pierre and Sturgis, site of an annual bike rally that swells the town's population from less than 7,000 to 250,000. It was a dangerous road because of its hills and valleys and curves.  It was common to come over a hill and almost run into cattle that had gotten out of their pasture. The state decided to upgrade the road by leveling the hills and valleys and softening and straightening the curves. 

Our first reading from the prophet Baruch contains a road building promise.  God promised not to forget the people who had been taken into exile when Israel fell to an invading army.  God promised to bring them home and even make the return easier: "God has commanded that every lofty mountain be made low, and that the age-old depths and gorges be filled to level ground." 

The gospel also speaks of road building.  St. John the Baptist fulfills Isaiah's promise: "Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight...." This was done to prepare a way for the Messiah to come to his people. 

Advent is our time for spiritual road building.  We are to prepare a way for Christ to come at the end of time or at the end of our lives. 

The hills and mountains that we level are our ego and pride.  We often build ourselves up, trying to look good in front of others.  How is this pride brought low?  By humility.  That doesn't mean putting ourselves down or beating ourselves up over our failures.  Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.  It means not being so concerned about "ME" but turning our attention toward God and our brothers and sisters.  Humility also involves gratitude by which we realize that all we are and have accomplished is a gift.  We can take no credit for our success because our life and health and talents by which we have accomplished all we've done are all gifts from God.  We could do nothing without those prior gifts, so all praise goes to God.

What are the valleys to be filled in?  Discouragement.  Discouragement never comes from God.  God never uses it to motivate us.  It always comes from the devil who would have us wallow in the depths of discouragement and give up.  How do we fill in this valley?  By living with gratitude in the present.  When we look at the past and our weaknesses and failures, we get discouraged.  When we look to the future and wonder how we will ever be able to stay on the good path we are on or do what we are called to do, we get discouraged.  The past is over and there is no guarantee we will be here tomorrow, so it's best to live one day at a time.  When we see the blessings of the present we can better overcome discouragement.

What are the curves in our life?  Blessed John Paul II, in a reflection on Psalm 51, said that one of the Hebrew words for "sin" in that prayer has the connotation of "twisting" and turning and getting off track.  How do we get back on track?  We begin by celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation.  In doing so we leave the way that points us in a different direction than the one God has laid out for us and we return to the path that leads straight to God.  Reconciliation gets us back on track. 

This year's Advent is special because we are celebrating it in the Year of Faith which, Pope Benedict said, "is a summons to an authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord."  Through conversion we turn away from pride, discouragement, temptation, and sin.  We turn to God. We do so with confidence because, as St. Paul wrote in our second reading: "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus."  God will complete the road building that will lead to our heavenly home, if we but let Him.

The Saints: Witnesses of Faith



Crystal Cathedral on Friday before Magnificat Day of Faith

 On Saturday I had the privilege of participa-ting in the Magnificat Day of Faith event at the Crystal Cathedral in the Orange Diocese of southern California.  Next spring, when this building will be consecrated for Catholic worship and become the new cathedral for the diocese, it will be named Christ Cathedral.  I gave the following homily as part of the Morning Prayer.

Over ten years ago Blessed John Paul II, in his apostolic letter at the end of the Jubilee Year and the beginning of the new millennium, wrote: "The time has come to re-propose wholeheartedly to everyone the high standard of ordinary Christian living."  He issued a "call for a genuine 'training in holiness'" and said that "this training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer."

Just last month, Pope Benedict, in his homily at the opening of the Synod of Bishops which met to discuss the New Evangelization, said that holiness is "the language of truth and love."

How do we learn to understand and to speak this language?  From those who have spoken it.  From the saints, the witnesses of faith.

When Pope Benedict announced the Year of Faith in his apostolic letter Porta Fidei, "The Door of Faith," he presented the saints to us.  First and foremost he spoke of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of faith, saying: "By faith, Mary accepted the Angel's word and believed the message that she was to become the Mother of God in obedience of her devotion. Visiting Elizabeth, she raised her hymn of praise [the Magnificat] to the Most High for the marvels he worked in those who trust him."  He went on to say that Mary trusted the dream that her husband St. Joseph received and "took Jesus to Egypt to save him from Herod's persecution."  And, "with the same faith, she followed the Lord in his preaching and remained with him all the way to Golgotha." 

Then the Holy Father presented to us the apostles and the first disciples of the early Church and the martyrs, about whom he said: "By faith, the martyrs gave their lives, bearing witness to the truth of the Gospel that had transformed them and made them capable of attaining to the greatest gift of love: the forgiveness of their persecutors." 

And then he wrote about all the saints of every time and place, saying: "By faith, across the centuries, men and women of all ages, whose names are written in the Book of Life, have confessed the beauty of following the Lord Jesus wherever they were called to bear witness to the fact that they were Christian: in the family, in the workplace, in public life, in the exercise of the charisms and ministries to which they were called."

We too are called to be holy witnesses as they were.  As Pope Benedict wrote: "By faith, we too live: by the living recognition of the Lord Jesus, present in our lives and in our history."

"Living recognition."  This is what St. John wrote about in the reading we have just heard (1 John 1:1-4)--"what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands." We are not able to see and to touch Jesus the way John did, but we can still see and touch him in a deeper way.  We can see him with the eyes of faith.  We can touch him with the eyes of our heart. And Jesus says that we are more blessed in seeing and touching him this way than in the way the apostles did.

Do you remember the scene in the Gospel when Jesus appeared to the apostles and Thomas did not believe until he actually touched the wounds of Jesus?  Do you remember what Jesus said to him?  "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed" (John 20:29). We are blessed because, though we have not seen Jesus physically, we have seen and touched him through faith and with our hearts.  Or rather, the Heart of Jesus, which was pierced open on the cross, has reached out to us.  The Sacred Heart of Jesus has seen and touched us and so we have come to believe in the deep love he has for us. 

We believe but we always need to go deeper in our faith.  Our belief in his love for us can grow and deepen.  How? 

Pope Benedict gives us the answer in Porta Fidei: "Faith grows when it is lived as an experience of love received and when it is communicated as an experience of grace and joy." 

Faith is a matter of the heart.  Our faith is "an experience of love received," the love of God's Heart which was made flesh in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  Through faith our hearts respond to the One who loved us first and loved us totally, even to death.

The saints knew this love.  They believed in it and they lived in union with its source--Jesus.  We have their example and witness to inspire us.  This is why Blessed John Paul II beatified and canonized more people than any previous pope.  He wanted us to have examples of holiness to follow.

But there is more.  We have not only their example and witness to inspire us.  We have their help.

Have you ever been asked, "Why do you Catholics pray to saints?"  The answer is very simple.  People don't think twice about asking others to pray for them when they are faced with a crisis or difficulty. They turn to their family and friends to ask for prayers. This is what we do when we turn to the saints.  Though they are dead they are not dead and gone.  Though they are separated from us physically, in time and space, they are united to us spiritually in the Church, the Communion of Saints.  So it is natural that we ask for their help.

The Letter to the Hebrews 12: 1-2 has a beautiful image of this: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us and persevere in running the race that lies before us while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, the leader and perfecter of faith."  Whenever I read that passage I think of watching the marathon in the Twin Cities. 

For four years I lived at our Jesuit novitiate which was located on the route of the marathon at about mile 21.  Each year, on a Sunday in October, we would watch the runners: the first ones racing by and then over the next few hours the others chugging along, some simply walking.  We would cheer them on and pass water to them, encouraging them to not give up.  That's the image presented in Hebrews.  We are all in a marathon and the saints are on the sidelines cheering us on, encouraging us, and offering us refreshment with their prayers. 

We are part of a great Communion of Saints.  We who are on earth are saints-in-the-making.  Others have finished the race but they aren't resting.  Rather, they pray for us and encourage us.

So don't give up! Have faith! Persevere!  And may we all meet again in the Heavenly Jerusalem which, according to the Book of Revelation 21:11 gleams "with the splendor of God, ... its radiance like that of a precious stone, ... clear as crystal."

Travels and Travails

My silence in the blogosphere is due to two things--travels and travails.  First, the travails because they are more important and they are not mine.  Stephanie Schmude, the Apostleship of Prayer's receptionist, Spanish-speaker, webmaster, leaflet designed, and order-taker and filler, is sick.  Three weeks ago she was diagnosed with acute leukemia and she has been in the hospital ever since undergoing chemotherapy and other treatments to build up her blood and immune system.  In her absence the Apostleship of Prayer office has been somewhat chaotic as we try to stay on top of all the things she does.  That's especially difficult because this is our busy time of year when people around the country and in other parts of the world are ordering our leaflets with the 2013 papal intentions.  While we could use prayer support now, Stephanie needs it even more.  Please pray for her healing.

From October 12 to 14 I was at Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra, California giving a retreat for 75 women. 
Then last weekend I was at a Marian conference in Rolling Meadows, Illinois that was sponsored by Totally Yours Pilgrimages.  It was a tremendous weekend in which many people stopped at my table to talk, to tell me that they hear me on Relevant Radio, and to get some of our materials.  On Sunday night I was honored to be given the 24th annual Msgr. Popek award at a banquet sponsored by the St. Gregory VII Chapter of Catholics United for the Faith in Milwaukee.  The title of my talk was "The Sacred Heart and the Year of Faith" and I hope to present it here in parts. 

Tomorrow I leave for southern California again where I'll be giving a retreat to the leaders of "Magnificat, A Ministry to Catholic Women."  I'll be on the West coast all week and preach on Saturday, November 3 at "The Magnficat Day of Faith."  This is different from the other Magnificat group.  It's being sponsored by "Magnificat," the prayer book and missal people and it is being held at the Crystal Cathedral, soon to be consecrated as Christ Cathedral for the Diocese of Orange.  I hope to get pictures, but without Stephanie's expert help I may have trouble figuring out how to post them. 

Play and Work

These have been busy weeks as I try to learn how to use a smart phone.  I got one because I thought it would make it easier to access emails on the road and to use an app for my Breviary, thus saving my suit case some space and weight.  But not being technologically savy, I'm finding myself spending extra time learning how to use it.  Is there a manual "Smart Phone for Dummies"?  But another advantage to the phone is being able to take pictures more easily as I travel and I'm hoping to share those more frequently.

Last weekend I went to Door County, Wisconsin where I spent an absolutely perfect weekend weather-wise with my sister and brother-in-law.  Besides having my first ever "fish boil" I saw some of Peninsula State Park.













I returned on Sunday to give a talk at Mary Queen of Heaven Parish in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee.  It was scheduled before the end of the Packer game but quite a few people showed up,
including Confirmation candidates and their parents.

And now, this weekend, I'm in St. Louis at the White House Jesuit Retreat House giving a retreat to 70 men.  I've never seen the Mississippi River, which is just below the bluff on which the retreat house is situated, as low as it is because of this summer's drought. It rained all day today, keeping the retreatants inside, but providing the earth and its growth and rivers with some much needed moisture.  God is good!

The Parish Visitors

I'm in Monroe, NY these days, giving a retreat to the Parish Visitors of Mary Immaculate.  This group of consecrated women was founded in 1920 in New York City by Mother Mary Teresa Tallon.  They call themselves "contemplative-missionaries in the midst of parish life."  They are dedicated to family ministry through prayer, the visitation of homes, and religious education and they serve in the U.S., Nigeria, and the Philippines.  Here is something their foundress wrote about their charism in 1930.  Her words and the goal of the Parish Visitors are as important today as they were then.

"The trend of the day is toward materialism, overindulgence, luxury, amusement.  Many families, caught up in the whirl of the times, or through poverty, change of residence, or some unfortunate mistake, have let slip the precious heritage of the True Faith which once was theirs.  Many, caught up in the mad seeking for pleasure or the blind battle for the almighty dollar, have forgotten their Creator or, entangled by spurious reading, have denied Him entirely.  All these cases cry loudly for help--for some apostle of holy charity to alleviate, to rectify.  This is where the Parish Visitor of Mary Immaculate comes in; one who can enter homes and seek for the Shepherd's lost sheep, who is consumed with a divine thirst for souls--'Souls!  Souls!  Lord, give me souls!' must be her cry.

On August 15 the Parish Visitors celebrated the 92nd anniversary of their founding with a special guest, Cardinal Timothy Dolan.  I was able to concelebrate Mass with this friend of the Apostleship of Prayer whom I first met when he was Archbishop of Milwaukee.  After Mass we went to visit the nearby grave of Mother Mary Teresa Tallon whose cause for beatification the Sisters hope will soon be opened.