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.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Happy Anniversary
Pope John XXIII's reason for calling the Council
"And now the Church must once more reaffirm that teaching authority of hers which never fails, but will endure until the end of time. For that was Our reason for calling this most authoritative assembly...."
"The major interest of the Ecumenical Council is this: that the sacred heritage of Christian truth be safeguarded and expounded with greater efficacy. That doctrine embraces the whole man, body and soul. It bids us live as pilgrims here on earth as we journey onwards towards our heavenly homeland. It demonstrates how we must conduct this mortal life of ours. If we are to achieve God's purpose in our regard we have a twofold obligation: as citizens of earth, and as citizens of heaven. That is to say, all men without exception, both individually and in society, have a life-long obligation to strive after heavenly values through the right use of things of this earth. These temporal good must be used in such a way as not to jeopardize eternal happiness."
"And our duty is not just to guard this treasure [of the truth of the Church's doctrine], as though it were some museum-piece and we the curators, but earnestly and fearlessly to dedicate ourselves to the work that needs to be done in this modern age of ours, pursuing the path which the Church has followed for almost twenty centuries."
What is needed is to turn to Christ and to share the faith with enthusiasm
"Certain it is that the critical issues, the thorny problems that wait upon men's solution, have remained the same for almost twenty centuries. And why? Because the whole of history and of life hinges on the person of Jesus Christ. Either men anchor themselves on Him and His Church, and thus enjoy the blessings of light and joy, right order and peace; or they live their lives apart from Him; many positively oppose Him, and deliberately exclude themselves from the Church. The result can only be confusion in their lives, bitterness in their relations with one another, and the savage threat of war."
"What is needed at the present time is a new enthusiasm, a new joy and serenity of mind in the unreserved acceptance by all of the entire Christian faith, without forfeiting that accuracy and precision in its presentation which characterized the proceedings of the Council of Trent and the First Vatican Council. What is needed, and what everyone imbued with a truly Christian, Catholic and apostolic spirit craves today, is that this doctrine shall be more widely known, more deeply understood, and more penetrating in its effects on men's moral lives. What is needed is that this certain and immutable doctrine, to which the faithful owe obedience, be studied afresh and reformulated in contemporary terms. For this deposit of faith, or truths which are contained in our time-honored teaching is one thing; the manner in which these truths are set forth (with their meaning preserved intact) is something else."
In these words of Blessed John XXIII there are clear echoes of what has come to be known as the "New Evangelization." Christ is not new. The contents of the faith are not new. What is new is the enthusiasm with which the faithful ought to believe and to share their faith. What is new is the method with which the Church communicates its knowledge to a world in desperate need of the faith that leads to love of God and neighbor. May this anniversary and the Year of Faith inspire us all!
Friday, October 5, 2012
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.
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!
Sunday, September 23, 2012
"The Benjamins of Providence"
This morning I celebrated Mass at Mount St. Joseph, the care center run by the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence in Lake Zurich, Illinois for people with developmental disabilities. My retreat with a dozen of the Sisters ends today and I celebrated Mass not only with them but with the residents, some of their families, and some of the staff. As Providence would have it, the readings were perfect.
In the Gospel (Mark 9: 30-37), Jesus is on the road with his disciples, teaching them and preparing them for what is going to happen--that he is going to be handed over and killed and then will rise from the dead. They are confused. How could this man, so successful that crowds follow him to hear his every word, come to such a bitter end? How could this man who has healed so many be rejected in such a way? They are afraid to ask him for an explanation. Better to let it pass.
Jesus knows their lack of comprehension and he walks ahead of them. They begin a discussion that turns into an argument over which of them is the best, which is the greatest apostle, which of them is Number One. When they arrive at the house in Capernaum, Jesus asks them what they were arguing about. They fall silent, ashamed. They know Jesus doesn't approve of such talk.
So once again Jesus begins to teach them about greatness. He tells them that God sees things in a very different way. God turns worldly values upside down so that the least are the greatest, the last are the first. He tells them to be servants like he is. Because he is the servant of all and because he will be despised and rejected and discarded, he will be raised up to be the greatest and the source of salvation for all.
Then Jesus hugged a small child, one who in that world was considered unimportant, and said: "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me." These words echo another Gospel--the judgment scene in Matthew 25, where Jesus says that whatever we do for one of his least brothers and sisters, we do for him.
This is true wisdom. Wisdom is not knowing a lot of things, knowing how to make a lot of money, becoming wealthy and powerful. The Second Reading from the Letter of Saint James (3:16-4:3) says that this worldly wisdom leads to envy and conflicts. True wisdom "from above" is, according to James, "pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits." True wisdom is knowing what's most important--God and the heaven he has prepared for us. In the Gospel Jesus shows us true wisdom, the way that leads to our ultimate goal of heaven. It is to care for one another. It is to care for God's "good children." It is to serve all those who are in need and whom God places in our lives.
That's what I told the congregation this morning. The expression "good children" is what St. Louis Guanella, the founder of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, used when speaking about those who had developmental disabilities. There they were in front of me. The world thinks of them as the least and the last, as people lacking wisdom because they cannot read or write or care very well for themselves. Many were in wheelchairs and movable beds. Fr. Guanella had another expression for them--"the Benjamins of Providence." Remember: Benjamin was the last son of Jacob. After the disappearance of the second youngest son, Joseph, Benjamin became Jacob's favorite. It is a mystery of Providence that some people are born with disabilities. They are seen by the world as the last, but in God's eyes they are the first and the favorites. They are given to us so that we may have the opportunity to love God by loving them. What a privilege it was for me to celebrate Mass with them today.
In the Gospel (Mark 9: 30-37), Jesus is on the road with his disciples, teaching them and preparing them for what is going to happen--that he is going to be handed over and killed and then will rise from the dead. They are confused. How could this man, so successful that crowds follow him to hear his every word, come to such a bitter end? How could this man who has healed so many be rejected in such a way? They are afraid to ask him for an explanation. Better to let it pass.
Jesus knows their lack of comprehension and he walks ahead of them. They begin a discussion that turns into an argument over which of them is the best, which is the greatest apostle, which of them is Number One. When they arrive at the house in Capernaum, Jesus asks them what they were arguing about. They fall silent, ashamed. They know Jesus doesn't approve of such talk.
So once again Jesus begins to teach them about greatness. He tells them that God sees things in a very different way. God turns worldly values upside down so that the least are the greatest, the last are the first. He tells them to be servants like he is. Because he is the servant of all and because he will be despised and rejected and discarded, he will be raised up to be the greatest and the source of salvation for all.
Then Jesus hugged a small child, one who in that world was considered unimportant, and said: "Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me." These words echo another Gospel--the judgment scene in Matthew 25, where Jesus says that whatever we do for one of his least brothers and sisters, we do for him.
This is true wisdom. Wisdom is not knowing a lot of things, knowing how to make a lot of money, becoming wealthy and powerful. The Second Reading from the Letter of Saint James (3:16-4:3) says that this worldly wisdom leads to envy and conflicts. True wisdom "from above" is, according to James, "pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits." True wisdom is knowing what's most important--God and the heaven he has prepared for us. In the Gospel Jesus shows us true wisdom, the way that leads to our ultimate goal of heaven. It is to care for one another. It is to care for God's "good children." It is to serve all those who are in need and whom God places in our lives.
That's what I told the congregation this morning. The expression "good children" is what St. Louis Guanella, the founder of the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence, used when speaking about those who had developmental disabilities. There they were in front of me. The world thinks of them as the least and the last, as people lacking wisdom because they cannot read or write or care very well for themselves. Many were in wheelchairs and movable beds. Fr. Guanella had another expression for them--"the Benjamins of Providence." Remember: Benjamin was the last son of Jacob. After the disappearance of the second youngest son, Joseph, Benjamin became Jacob's favorite. It is a mystery of Providence that some people are born with disabilities. They are seen by the world as the last, but in God's eyes they are the first and the favorites. They are given to us so that we may have the opportunity to love God by loving them. What a privilege it was for me to celebrate Mass with them today.
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Fr. Guanella and the Daughters
On December 15, 1912, Fr. Luigi Guanella boarded a ship to take him across the Atlantic to the United States. He was 70 and the winter seas were rough. He spent most of the time sick in his cabin and as the ship was tossed around he probably thought about another ship named "Titanic" that tried to make this same journey only eight months earlier. He was on his way to Chicago where the archbishop had asked for the help of a community of Sisters which he had founded. He carried a letter from his friend, Pope Pius X, which read:
"Fr. Guanella undertakes this journey to explore the possibility of beginning a foundation directed by his Sisters to assist the mentally and physically disabled of every age and social background in order to care for them and look after their needs. We bear witness that these dear Sisters here in Rome and anywhere else are very appreciated because of their committed ministry and obedience to the holy charism of their institute. They perform miracles of true charity."
On December 23 the ship carrying Fr. Guanella docked in New York. Over the next one and a half months he visited Boston, Providence, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Utica, New Haven, Baltimore, and Washington, as well as Chicago where he laid the groundwork for the first Sisters to follow him. He would have liked to have gone to Genoa City, Wisconsin where some of his relatives had lived and died, but he did not have time to make that trip. He left the U.S. in early February and arrived back in Naples on February 22, 1913.
Who are these Sisters about whom Pope St. Pius X spoke so highly? In 1871 two sets of siblings, the Bosatta sisters and the Minatta sisters, came together with the encouragement of their pastor to care for the orphans and the sick in their village. They were called the "Pious Union of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate." In 1881 Fr. Guanella was sent to take the place of their deceased pastor and in time they changed their name to what it is today--the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence. From this small beginning they have spread throughout the world in order to create, in their words, a "culture of charity," by caring for the poor and abandoned, the elderly, and especially the developmentally disabled.
One of the original four, Clare Bosatta (1858-1887), was beatified in 1991. Fr. Luigi Guanella, who was himself beatified in 1964 and canonized in 2011, was amazed at her deep spirituality and took it upon himself to read St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, the great Carmelite mystics and doctors of the Church, in order to be a better spiritual director for her. He wrote the following about her. His words are a reminder to us that because the Son of God united in himself a divine nature and a human nature, and because he said that whatever we do for the least of his children we do for him, our own longing for God is partially satisfied on earth not only in prayer but in our service of our least brothers and sisters.
"Clare wanted God; she wanted to be able to hug Him physically and see His face if she could, but not being able to do that, she extended her hugs to the creatures who could attract her to Him and from whom she could draw a drop of water that could quench her heart which was always thirsty for God."
"Fr. Guanella undertakes this journey to explore the possibility of beginning a foundation directed by his Sisters to assist the mentally and physically disabled of every age and social background in order to care for them and look after their needs. We bear witness that these dear Sisters here in Rome and anywhere else are very appreciated because of their committed ministry and obedience to the holy charism of their institute. They perform miracles of true charity."
On December 23 the ship carrying Fr. Guanella docked in New York. Over the next one and a half months he visited Boston, Providence, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Utica, New Haven, Baltimore, and Washington, as well as Chicago where he laid the groundwork for the first Sisters to follow him. He would have liked to have gone to Genoa City, Wisconsin where some of his relatives had lived and died, but he did not have time to make that trip. He left the U.S. in early February and arrived back in Naples on February 22, 1913.
Who are these Sisters about whom Pope St. Pius X spoke so highly? In 1871 two sets of siblings, the Bosatta sisters and the Minatta sisters, came together with the encouragement of their pastor to care for the orphans and the sick in their village. They were called the "Pious Union of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate." In 1881 Fr. Guanella was sent to take the place of their deceased pastor and in time they changed their name to what it is today--the Daughters of St. Mary of Providence. From this small beginning they have spread throughout the world in order to create, in their words, a "culture of charity," by caring for the poor and abandoned, the elderly, and especially the developmentally disabled.
"Clare wanted God; she wanted to be able to hug Him physically and see His face if she could, but not being able to do that, she extended her hugs to the creatures who could attract her to Him and from whom she could draw a drop of water that could quench her heart which was always thirsty for God."
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Mount St. Joseph
On Tuesday afternoon I took a walk around their spacious grounds and entered the large church that serves the care center. I didn't go beyond the vestibule because I didn't want to distract or disturb the residents who were praying the rosary together. I couldn't help thinking how pleasing to God are the prayers of these people whom St. Louis Guanella called "good children." And how powerful they are! The world doesn't understand the developmentally disabled. Through testing and abortion it wants to rid itself of any "imperfect" human beings. But I have found--through my high school classmate's Down Syndrome sister, through my work as a Jesuit novice at Cambridge State Hospital in Minnesota, and through Andy, the son of one of our volunteers--that the disabled, the mentally and physically challenged, are gifts from God. All life is a gift and these particular gifts are given to us so that we may have the opportunity to love God by loving them in their weakness. As God told St. Paul when he asked that his particular weakness might be removed so that he would be a better and more effective apostle: "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." (see 2 Corinthians 12:9.)
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Holy Name of Mary
Today's feast of the Holy Name of Mary was first celebrated in Spain in 1513 but was extended to the whole Church as an act of thanksgiving by Pope Innocent XI. What was he thankful for? The victory of Christians forces over the Turkish army which had besieged the city of Vienna for two months. Pope Innocent XI had appealed to the leaders of Europe to come to the aid of Vienna and on August 15, 1683, King Jan Sobieski of Poland, answered the call and brought together their armies. On the way to Vienna, he and the army that began to gather, stopped in Czestochowa and prayed before the image of Our Lady that is there. Marching toward Vienna, the army prayed the rosary and the king gave them for their battle cry "In the Name of Mary: Lord God, help!"
Here is a description of the Battle of Vienna from Adam Zamoyski's book The Polish Way.
They reached the heights of the Kahlenberg just before nightfall. From this vantage-point the king and his generals surveyed the great plain stretching into the distance, cut across by the winding course of the Danube. At their feet lay the city of Vienna. Only the occasional flash of a cannon from its battered ramparts and the distress-rockets rising periodically into the evening sky from the tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral confirmed that after sixty days of siege the garrison was still holding out.
The proud Habsburg capital was dwarfed by a larger city, a sprawling encampment of many thousand tents which pullulated with a quarter of a million soldiers, slaves, camp-followers and houris; with horses, camels and buffalo. ...
"He's badly camped--we shall beat him!" said the king, turning to his generals. Few of them shared his confidence, but they trusted his experience, his reputation, and the renown of the strange-looking regiments he had brought with him. A beacon was lit on the heights to inform the defenders of the dying city that help was at hand. This signal did not unduly worry Kara Mustafa. He had over a hundred thousand fighting men securely entrenched with plenty of artillery, and he was convinced that no serious threat could come from the Kahlenberg: a large army would have chosen a longer route through the plain. His own army did not fear the solid but slow-moving Austrian and German troops, their unadventurous generals or their pusillanimous emperor, who had abandoned his capital. The only Christian general they held in awe was Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland. But he, Kara Mustafa believed, was still hundreds of miles away in Krakow.
Just before dawn on the following day, 12 September 1683, the King of Poland attended Mass in the ruins of an old convent on the Kahlenberg. ... Only about one third of the 68,000 troops were Polish--the rest were Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Scots and Irishmen. ... The king felt tempted to put off the decisive battle to the following day, even though this would give the Turks time to turn the heavy guns bombarding Vienna to face his army. ... Instinct made the king change his mind....
Zamoyski goes on to describe the battle in which the Polish cavalry or Husaria, with eagle feathers on their backs rising above their heads, cut through the Turkish encampment and sent the Turkish army .
Then, he continues:
This battle, which was crucial to the future of the whole of Europe, had not been hard-fought, and the casualties on both sides were light. It had been won principally by the prestige of Jan Sobieski and his army. In 1683 Poland was the largest state in Europe....
As Pope Innocent XI recognized, there was another reason for the victory. Grace came to the aid of nature and that grace came through the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Our secularized world tends not to see it that way and so today we tend to rely more on human than heavenly means in the battles we face. Today's feast is a reminder to seek and to trust in heavenly help, especially the help of her whom the first book of the Bible prophesied would crush the serpent (see Genesis 3:15).
Here is a description of the Battle of Vienna from Adam Zamoyski's book The Polish Way.
They reached the heights of the Kahlenberg just before nightfall. From this vantage-point the king and his generals surveyed the great plain stretching into the distance, cut across by the winding course of the Danube. At their feet lay the city of Vienna. Only the occasional flash of a cannon from its battered ramparts and the distress-rockets rising periodically into the evening sky from the tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral confirmed that after sixty days of siege the garrison was still holding out.
The proud Habsburg capital was dwarfed by a larger city, a sprawling encampment of many thousand tents which pullulated with a quarter of a million soldiers, slaves, camp-followers and houris; with horses, camels and buffalo. ...
"He's badly camped--we shall beat him!" said the king, turning to his generals. Few of them shared his confidence, but they trusted his experience, his reputation, and the renown of the strange-looking regiments he had brought with him. A beacon was lit on the heights to inform the defenders of the dying city that help was at hand. This signal did not unduly worry Kara Mustafa. He had over a hundred thousand fighting men securely entrenched with plenty of artillery, and he was convinced that no serious threat could come from the Kahlenberg: a large army would have chosen a longer route through the plain. His own army did not fear the solid but slow-moving Austrian and German troops, their unadventurous generals or their pusillanimous emperor, who had abandoned his capital. The only Christian general they held in awe was Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland. But he, Kara Mustafa believed, was still hundreds of miles away in Krakow.
Just before dawn on the following day, 12 September 1683, the King of Poland attended Mass in the ruins of an old convent on the Kahlenberg. ... Only about one third of the 68,000 troops were Polish--the rest were Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, Spaniards, Scots and Irishmen. ... The king felt tempted to put off the decisive battle to the following day, even though this would give the Turks time to turn the heavy guns bombarding Vienna to face his army. ... Instinct made the king change his mind....
Zamoyski goes on to describe the battle in which the Polish cavalry or Husaria, with eagle feathers on their backs rising above their heads, cut through the Turkish encampment and sent the Turkish army .
This battle, which was crucial to the future of the whole of Europe, had not been hard-fought, and the casualties on both sides were light. It had been won principally by the prestige of Jan Sobieski and his army. In 1683 Poland was the largest state in Europe....
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