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HOLY SATURDAY- DAY OF REST

March 31, 2018, 7:05 am
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To You eternal Three in One
Let every living creature laud;
Whom by the Cross Thou did restore,

O guide and govern evermore! Amen.




St. John has just been given the duty to care for Jesus’ Mother as his own. 
In this dramatic, painfilled scene we see Mary swept away with great anguish to the point of transparency, as John holds her up.  It is as if he weeps for her, as well as His beloved friend! 

This is one of those pieces of art that has to be seen in the flesh to appreciate the color, the movement (or lack of) and artistry.
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ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA!

April 1, 2018, 7:45 am
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HE HAS RISEN AS HE PROMISED!
ALLELUIA!       ALLELUIA!





"Christ Opening the Gates of Dachau" in the Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel of Dachau. Dedicated to the RESURRECTION OF JESUS, the chapel holds an icon depicting angels opening the gates of the concentration camp and Christ Himself leading the prisoners to freedom. The simple wooden block conical architecture of the chapel is representative of the traditional funeral chapels of the Russian North .


Interestingly enough Dachauwas liberated during Holy Week, so this icon is a fitting image. While it reminds us of the horrors of another era, we see in our own day, in every country, the devaluation human life. The Resurrection of Jesus reveals that death is destroyed and we have hope of life beyond this “vale of tears”, as we await our resurrection into His Life. 

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NOLI ME TANGERE

April 3, 2018, 10:38 am
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St. John's Bible



THE RISEN ONE

Until His final hour He had never
refused her anything or turned away,
lest she should turn their love to public praise.
Now she sank down beside the cross, disguised,
heavy with the largest stones of love
like jewels in the cover of her pain.
But later, when she came back to His grave
with tearful face, intending to anoint,
she found Him resurrected for her sake,
saying with greater blessedness, “Do not –”
She understood it in her hollow first:
how with finality He now forbade
her, strengthened by His death, the oils’ relief
or any intimation of a touch:
because He wished to make of her the lover
who needs no more to lean on her beloved,
as, swept away by joy in such enormous
storms, she mounts even beyond His voice.

(Rainer Maria Rilke1908)


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A NEW BLESSED BENEDICTINE OBLATE

April 6, 2018, 1:06 am
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Soon to be blessed  (April 28 in Poland) HANNA HELENA CHRZANOWSKA was a Polish Roman Catholic Benedictine oblate who served as a nurse.  She worked in her profession during World War II when the Nazi regime targeted Poles, tending to the wounded and the ailing throughout the conflict. She was awarded two prestigious Polish awards for her good works. Her cause of sainthood began  a decade after her death in 1973.  Pope Francis declared her to be Venerable in 2015 upon the confirmation of her heroic virtue. She will be beatified on 28 April 2018 in Poland.

Hanna was born in 1902 in Warsaw.  She was part of an industrialist (maternal side) and a land-owning household (paternal side) that maintained a long-standing tradition of charitable works. Her parents were well known for this in their native Poland. Her home's religious circumstances were also quite unique since half were Roman Catholic and the other half was Protestant (descended from the Jauch house). Her maternal grandfather Karol set up a technical school for aspiring artisans while his wife Maria set up a health center for poor children in Warsaw. 
She was a relative of the Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz (on her father's side) who was best known for writing the novel Quo Vadis.
Since childhood she suffered from respiratory and immune system deficiencies and spent a great deal of time in hospitals and sanatoriums in order to recover from illness. In 1910 the family relocated from Warsaw to Kraków.
Hanna was  curious and exuberant, attending an Ursuline high school and graduating with honors. During the Bolshevik Revolution she tended to the wounded soldiers and later began studies at the Schoolof Nursing in Warsaw in 1920.  It was also around this  time that she worked under the Servant of God Magdalena Maria Epstein. She gained a scholarship to a nursing school in France in 1925 while later going on to work with the members of the U.S. Red Cross as a nurse in a time when the profession was not so well respected.
She also traveled to Belgium to observe the nursing profession there as part of her education in order to gain greater experience and broader knowledge of the field. During her time as a nurse she became a leading light in the field in her region and a well known face in her local area due to her temperance and her good works among the people whom she was dedicated to serving.
Hanna became an instructor at the University School of Nurses and Hygienists in Krakow from 1926 until 1929 and also served as the editor of the monthly publication "Nurse Poland" from 1929 to 1939.
Drawn to St Benedictand aspiring to follow his example and the message of the Gospel in an effort to draw closer to God she became an Oblate, with the desire  to fuse her faith with her work as merciful and charitable.
In 1940 during World War II she lost her father who died during the Sonderaktion Krakau at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and her lieutenant brother Bogden died at the hands of Soviet soldiers on the orders of Joseph Stalin in the Katyn massacre. As the war continued she organized nurses for home care in Warsaw and helped to both feed and resettle refugees. At the conclusion of the war she became the head of a nursing home where she attended to administrative duties and cared for residents while working with nursing students.  She also served as the director of the School of Psychiatric Nursingin Kobierzyn until the Communists closed it.  She then  moved into nursing the poor and the neglected in her own parish area. She  attained a scholarship to the USA from 1946 until 1947.


In 1966 she was diagnosed with cancer and despite several operations  the disease spread. On 12 April 1973 she received the Sacrament of the Sick  and the next day lost consciousness, dying a day later. Cardinal Archbishop of Krakow Karol Józef Wojtyła ( the future St.Pope John Paul II) celebrated her funeral. 





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20TH C. MYSTIC- HER LIFE FOR PRIESTS

April 8, 2018, 2:28 pm
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SERVANT of GOD LUIGINA SINAPIis another lay woman- mysticism.  She was born September 8 (the birthday of the Blessed Virgin), 1916 . IItriri, Italy. She was the eldest of five children of Francis Paul Sinapi, a cabinet maker, and Filomena Catena, a licensed midwife. Her twin sister died at birth.  


From early childhood, Luigina felt a strong love for Jesus that manifested itself in a desire to live in intimate union with Him. Her mother was a pious Catholic, and on one occasion she went to San Giovanni Rotondo to recommend her husband and her daughter to (St.) Padre Pio. He told her:  the Lord has great designs on the your daughter here on earth.

At the age of eight she received her first Holy Communion and also the Sacrament of Confirmation, as was the custom at that time. From that day she never neglected to receive the Eucharist, and if she was sometimes prevented to receive it for a serious reason she cried, "If I don't receive Jesus in my heart, I don't live."

She was "lively and impulsive", remembered one of her younger brothers. Concerning herself she said with a slight smile "I was always a terrible child.", but others who knew her all recall her being a very good girl.

At 16 years old, Luigina was fascinated by the ideal of the Daughter of St Paul 'to spread the Gospel by the most modern means of communications', so overcoming the resistance of her parents she entered the institute the Pious Society of the Daughters of St. Paul in Rome. Unfortunately she was obliged to leave the institute because of her delicate health. She was comforted by her spiritual director, Bl. Father  Joseph Timothy Giaccardo, who exhorted her to offer her life for souls, and to remain in the Pauline family as a laywoman.

When she was 17 her mother died suddenly, so she took over the care of her younger brothers. It was not long after that she began experiencing extreme pain in her stomach and she was soon diagnosed with a tumor on the bottom part of the right intestine. The physician could not operate as he believed she would not survive the operation. As the days passed she grew more and more ill and her pain and suffering became more and more acute. 

On August 15, 1933, she and others believed that her last day had arrived. Luigina asked her grandmother to dress her and prepare her for  death  and with much devotion she received the Sacrament of the Sick. She was already in what seemed to be her last agony when suddenly Jesus appeared close to her bed and smiled at her.

In her simple childlike confidence and love which from her earliest years she had always addressed Jesus in her prayers Luigina looked at Jesus and said to Him in a loving reproach: "You have not shown Yourself to me for two long years and now that I am dying, you come?"

At Christ’s side was also His Mother. They ask her: “We have come to offer you a proposal. You however are free to choose: do you want to come right now with us to Paradise or remain on earth and offer yourself as a victim of expiation for the Church and for priests?”

In an instant, Luigina sees the dangers of apostasy, the defections that would come in the years ahead and she accepted the second alternative, still offering herself as a victim to God.

Jesus then tells her: “You will not go into a convent, but as an ordinary person you will live hidden from the eyes of the world. You will be poorly understood, you will suffer much, and you will die alone. You will live the extraordinary in the ordinary. From this moment on, I will leave to you my holy Mother: she will guide you and she will comfort you. Be not afraid.”

Jesus had barely finished speaking when Luigina suddenly found herself healed. After that vision, on the first Saturday of every month and on Marian feasts, the Blessed Mother,  always appeared to Luigina, leaving on the spot a heavenly aroma that lasted throughout the whole day.



Luigina died in Rome in April of 1978. Her doctor, Dr. Mark Grassi, testified that the last days were of great suffering for Luigina. Yet she was very peaceful, loving and happy. On one occasion, smiling she was overheard murmuring, "I am waiting!"
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SAINTS WHO KNEW EACH OTHER

April 11, 2018, 7:08 pm
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In the last Blog we mentioned the spiritual director of Bl. Luigina Sinapi. This leads us to two more blesseds, not known in this county, but who have an on-going effect on our present Church.



BL.  JOSEPH TIMOTHY GIACCARDOwas the first priest of the Society of St. Paul. He was born on June 13, 1896 , at Narzole d’Alba in Italy, and at a young age, 12 years old he had his first encounter with Father Alberione. Assisting the pastor of Giaccardo’s parish, Father Alberione heard the young boy’s first confession and was impressed by his docility, devotion to the sacraments and spirit of prayer.


Aware of his desire to become a priest, in October of 1908 Father Alberione invited Joseph to accompany him to the seminary. On September 4, 1917 while still a seminarian, Joseph Timothy joined the Society of St. Paul and two years later was ordained a priest. Soon after, he was named as the vice-superior and treasurer of the Pious Society of St. Paul.

On January 6, 1926, Father Alberione entrusted Father Giaccardo with the task of establishing the first house of his Institute in Rome. While in Rome, Father Giaccardo mediated matter between Father Alberione and the Holy Father in the approval of his Congregation.

In 1936, Father Giaccardo relocated to Alba, Italy as the Motherhouse director. Furthermore, he also dedicated himself to the spiritual, moral and cultural formation of the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master.


Father Giaccardo celebrated his last Mass on the morning of January 12, 1948. During that same morning, Pius XII approved the Sister Disciples of the Divine Master, a Congregation so dear to Father Giaccardo. He had offered his life for the approval of this Congregation.

Bl  Jospeh Timothy passed away on January 24, 1948. John Paul II beatified him on October 22, 1989.

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FIRST APOSTLE OF NEW EVANGELIZATION

April 13, 2018, 5:45 pm
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BL. JAMES ALBERIONE may not be universally well known, yet many of us read great books which we have purchased from the Pauline bookshops.  He was also the spiritual guide of Bl. Joseph Timothy (previous Blog).

Bl. James was born into a family of poor farmers in the year 1884 in Italy. His parents, Michael and Teresa, were deeply devout and raised their children to also live their Faith. James from an early age longed to become a Priest.

Both his parents placed great emphasis on learning and gaining a good education and  taught their children a love of knowledge.

The Alberione family eventually moved to Cherasco in the diocese of Alba, where James came to the notice of Father Montersino, who encouraged James to follow his calling from God. At the young age of 16, James entered the Seminary.

It was a night spent in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament that would lead James to become more than an ordinary priest as he felt God call to him to pursue an avenue of evangelisation to young people.

He was ordained a Priest in 1907 and spent a brief spell in Narzole as an assistant Pastor.  It was here that he also began to reflect on women’s role within the Church, a thought that would stay with him for many years.

During these years of guiding young seminarians as their spiritual director and also of teaching Catechesis to the young people, it began to dawn on Fr. James that a new Era called for a better way of communicating the Faith to all people around the world. It was at this time also that he authored two books, one dealt with women and how their gifts could benefit the Church.


And it was during this time that Father James felt called to found a new Order to be undertaken to spread the Gospel. This Order would at first be termed the Pious Society of St. Paul, which would be better known as the 'Pauline Family' of Brothers and Sisters, when Father James began and incorporated the 'Daughters of St Paul', with the help of a young woman Teresa Merlo who had also embraced his ideal of spreading the Gospel message.

Father James and Teresa realized that they were living in an age where the technology of communication was ever growing and expanding into new formats. But this dream nearly faltered when Father James Alberione became seriously ill and little hope was held for a recovery. But upon recovering he credited his healing to St. Paul, for he while he was sick he had seen in a dream these words, "Do not be afraid. I am with you. From here I want to enlighten. Be sorry for sin." Father James took this as his living Motto and for his Order of the Pauline Family.

This also led him to enlarge his family to include the prayerful apostolate of 'the Pious Disciples of the Divine Master', which was a group of Sisters who would dedicate their lives to prayer and Eucharistic Adoration. He chose Sr. Scholastica Rivata to join him in this prayerful addition to the Pauline family. Both realized that prayer was essential for the lifeblood of their Order.

There are now thousands of Pauline bookshops around the globe, helping to instruct the Faithful and those wishing to learn the Faith. All of which came from his vision and passion that has blazed a trail for future enterprises as many look at the life of this remarkable Saint and learn to emulate his philosophy of perseverance and giving all Glory to God.




Father James Alberione died in 1971 and was beatified in 2003 by (St.) Pope John Paul.


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MORE FRIENDS

April 16, 2018, 2:49 pm
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The co-founder with Bl. Jospeh Alberione of the Daughters of St. Paul, VENERABLE TECLA (TERESA)  MERIOwas born in Castagnito d'Alba in 1894.  The daughter of peasants she asked to join the Sisters of Cottolengo of Turin, but was not deemed suitable for health reasons. 


Teresa Merlo met Father Alberione  (BLOG) in the church of Sts. Cosmas and Damian in 1915. The meeting had been arranged by her brother, who was a seminarian at the time. Father Alberione had already heard of Teresa’s desire to be a religious. He invited her to join the group of young women he was forming at Alba with the aim of one day founding a feminine congregation dedicated to the apostolate of the press. This community would complement the Society of St. Paul, the congregation of men which he had started a year before. With great faith, Teresa said “yes.”

In 1918, the women were invited by Father Alberione to move to the small city of Susa and take charge of the diocesan newspaper. He explained that this would involve the direction, composition, and printing of the paper; the women would learn the typographical skills from their brothers in the Society of St. Paul. The women named their little workshop the “St. Paul Typography” and placed it under the great Apostle’s patronage. Soon the group began to be called the Daughters of St. Paul.


Four years later, the first nine members of the Daughters of St. Paul were allowed to make their perpetual profession of religious vows. Twenty-eight-year-old Teresa Merlo took the name Thecla, in honor of St. Thecla, the early follower of Paul.  Bl. Thecla Merlo was appointed Superior General of the new community.


With Father Alberione

The difficulties which the sisters encountered from society and from the Church’s hierarchy were immense. No one had ever heard of  women religious operating printing presses and composing books and newspapers.

With tremendous vision and trust in God’s will for this new form of apostolate, the little group continued to grow and develop. Under Mother Thecla’s guidance, the fledgling community expanded to twenty-five communities in Italy and established new foundations in Brazil, Argentina, and the United States.

Mother Thecla remained Mother General until her death in 1964. During her lifetime she traveled around the world, and under her direction the Daughters of St. Paul established themselves in every continent.

Mother Thecla once wrote: “The power idea that must animate us is the thought of souls. This thought must spur us on. We must be concerned about how we are to reach people and bring them the word of truth and salvation. How many souls never hear of God! Who will help them?”


Mother Thecla was a woman both of her time and ahead of her time. She had a singular desire to reach the people of her day with the word of truth and salvation. And she courageously led the Daughters of St. Paul to the forefront of evangelization with each new form of media as it was developed. Embracing the press, radio, film, and TV, she wrote: “Our Congregation will always be young, because it will make use of every new means to do good.”




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NEVER TOO OLD

April 23, 2018, 1:27 pm
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Last year Sister Anne Gardiner was given the “Senior Australian of 2017 Award” for her years of service to the nation's remote Tiwi indigenous community.  

 Her testimony was so inspiring that a number of different organizations pitched in to help fly her to the women's day event in Rome. Now 86, sister was asked to be the guest speaker at the Australian Embassy to the Holy See's celebration of International Women's Day, which took place March 8.

In her speech, sister said the biggest lesson she learned was simply how to listen, which meant getting to know and accept the Tiwi ways and working with their cultural traditions rather than speaking as someone from the outside and expecting them to completely adapt to western models.

“The biggest gift you can bring to indigenous people is to listen to what they are saying,”  explaining that by listening, one is able “to communicate back with them so that you know you are really understanding what they are saying.”

Though most of the Tiwi people are bicultural and are able to engage with the larger Australian population, they still maintain strong roots in their own heritage, particularly when it comes to leadership and the family structures.

Sister Anne was born in Gundagai in New South Wales in 1931. From a farming family, she went to school at the Mercy School of St Stanislaus, completing her education at St Joseph's BoardingCollege in Albury.
She entered the Order of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart on 31 May 1949, attracted by the opportunity to work with Aboriginal people.


Sister Anne vividly recalls the day she flew to the Tiwi Islandsto start her missionary work in 1953 at the age of 22. “That was a moment of joy when I landed. I got out of the plane and the children all ran up to me, pinching my skin and saying ‘you look so young.”

The year was 1953. Sr Anne was just 22 years old and, as a member of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, she had been asked to move to Bathurst Island, the smaller of the two TiwiIslands, 80km north of Darwin, to live among the Tiwi Aboriginal people.

“I didn’t know very much about indigenous people at all. I was enthusiastic, I was full of life, I wanted to change the world, but to go to Bathurst Island I think the people there changed me,” she said.

 She recalls she didn’t know exactly what her mission would be, but she was well guided by the man who had founded the Tiwi Catholic mission in 1911, Bishop Francis Xavier Gsell, who she met in Sydney on her way to her new posting.


Receiving  Senior Award


“And I asked him ‘What will I do? I’m going to Bathurst Island.’ And he looked down through his beard and looked deep into me and said two words, ‘Love them’.”

“And that's what I've tried to do all through my life, is to love them,” she said. “It was the best advice ever.”

When Sister Anne first arrived on the island, she joined three other sisters from the order, three religious brothers, one priest and one lay missionary who were living there at the time. They were the only white people the Tiwi had really ever seen and encountered.


A number of years after arriving, the sisters launched a bilingual school and Gardiner was made principal. She was put in charge of a leadership team that was tasked with helping her run the school.

Currently, Sister Anne is the only sister left working at the mission on Bathurst Island, with one priest who offers the sacraments.

A beloved figure in the community, she still teaches religious education classes and drives around town on an electric scooter with a banner that says “share a prayer.” Being well known throughout the island, she said people will either stop her with a request or she will approach them and ask for prayer requests, “and in that way let them know I care about them.”

Photo Monica Napper
Sister says it is the Tiwi women who form the backbone of Church life on the island. “If we look back over the years, it is religious and laywomen who have worked in these outback places that have nurtured and kept the faith together. When they didn't have a priest it was the women who were there”.

She urged both women and men in the Church to be involved in its ministries, saying that Pope Francis “asked us to get out there and get the smell of the sheep, to work with the people and hand over to the people as much as we can of what we've been doing.”


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ANOTHER MODERN VIRGIN MARTYR

April 29, 2018, 6:01 pm
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Another modern virgin martyr soon to be beatified is ANNA KOLESAROVA, who  was born in 1928 in the village of Vysoka nad Uhom, outside the city of Michalovce, in the eastern Slovak region of Zemplin, in what was then a part of the newly formed Czechoslovakia. Her family was described as a pious farming family that attended church regularly and lived out their faith in their daily lives.


When she was ten years old, her mother died, and it fell on Bl. Anna to look after the household, as well as her older brother Michal. Her life was described as modest and simple, going regularly to church.

During the autumn of 1944, the Second World War was approaching its final and bloodiest phase, the Eastern front was passing through the eastern Slovak district of Michalovce, which was then a part of Hungary. During this violent transition period, the inhabitants of Vysoká and the surrounding villages would hide in their cellars, waiting for the shelling and fighting to end.

On 22 November, the village was occupied by the Soviet Red Army troops. Jan Kolesár sheltered with his family and their neighbors in the cellar under the kitchen. During a tour of the house, a drunken Soviet soldier discovered the hideout and peered inside. At first, at her fathers insistence, Bl. Anna emerged from the hideout, walked up to the kitchen and served the soldier with food and water.

Due to the uncertainty of the war, she and the other women of the village wore black dresses in order not to attract unwanted attention to themselves, and to discourage improper behavior from the soldiers. Despite this however, the soldier later started to make sexual advances towards her. When she refused him, he ordered her, either to sleep with him or be killed. She, however, despite his threats to shoot her, again refused. She pulled herself out of his grip and ran back to the basement. The soldier pursued her, then allowed her to say goodbye to her father before he pointed his  rifle at her and killed her on the spot.

Despite the massive fighting that was ongoing around the village, Bl. Anna was buried in the evening the next day, with the funeral conducted in secret, without a priest present. Catholic funeral rites were performed one week later by Father Anton Lukac on 29 November.




Father Lucac, who was the parish priest in the nearby village later himself investigated Bl. Anna’s death. He interviewed the villagers and obtained signed statements from five witnesses. He then recorded the incident into the parish chronicles of Pavlovce. Another native of the village, the Jesuit priest Fr. Michal Potocky, also gave testimony about the saint’s life and the circumstances surrounding her death. Despite this, after the war, the new socialist government of Czechoslovakiabanned mention of the incident, and strictly enforced a ban on any open gatherings at the grave site.

The house where Bl. Anna  is today used by a Catholic youth organization which was founded and dedicated to her memory. That organization; Domcek, is organizing in volunteer work, prayer, workshops, sports games and social events. Three times a year in February, April and August, at nearby Pavlovce, there is a large Catholic youth gathering, dedicated to Bl. Anna's legacy, which each year draws more and more young people.


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NEW MARIAN FEAST--MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

May 5, 2018, 5:10 pm
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Since May is the month dedicated to our heavenly Mother we present some news for her!

The Holy Father, Pope Francis, has given the Church a new feast in honor of the Blessed Mother to  celebrate her role as “MOTHER  of the CHURCH”. This feast will be celebrated on the Monday after Pentecost (this year May 21).
The decree establishing the memorial was published March 3 in a letter from Cardinal Robert Sarah, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
As Cardinal Sarah explained, Pope Francis added the memorial to the Roman Calendar after carefully considering how the promotion of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary under this particular title might encourage growth in “the maternal sense of the Church” and in “genuine Marian piety.”

“This celebration will help us to remember that growth in the Christian life must be anchored to the Mystery of the Cross, to the oblation of Christ in the Eucharistic Banquet and to the Mother of the Redeemer and Mother of the Redeemed,” Cardinal Sarah wrote.
The cardinal noted that the “joyous veneration given to the Mother of God by the contemporary Church, in light of reflection on the mystery of Christ and on his nature, cannot ignore the figure of a woman, the Virgin Mary, who is both the Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church.”
The memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, has been added to the General Roman Calendar, the Roman Missal, and the Liturgy of the Hours. The Latin text has been published, and the translations will be prepared by the bishops’ conferences and approved by the congregation.
A celebration of a memorial generally means that prayers and readings specific to the day’s memorial are used in the Mass.j
The Marian title of “Mother of the Church,” was given to the Blessed Mother by Bl. Pope Paul VI at the Second Vatican Council. It was also added to the Roman Missal after the Holy Year of Reconciliation in 1975.
Some countries, dioceses and religious families were granted permission by the Holy See to add this celebration to their particular calendars. With its addition to the General Roman Calendar, it will now be celebrated by the whole Roman Catholic Church.

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ORA et LABORA

May 10, 2018, 10:17 am
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I have been away so was not able to post this timely message from the Holy Father when he  spoke to Benedictines gathered in Rome last month.

(Perugino 1495)

I welcome you on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine Confederation, and I thank the Abbot Primate for his kind words. I would like to express all my consideration and gratitude for the important contribution that the Benedictines have made to the life of the Church, in every part of the world, for almost fifteen hundred years. In this celebration of the Jubilee of the Benedictine Confederation we wish to remember, in a special way, the commitment of Pope Leo XIII, who in 1893 wanted to unite all the Benedictines by founding a common house of study and prayer here in Rome. We thank God for this inspiration, because this has led the Benedictines all over the world to live a deeper spirit of communion with the See of Peter and between themselves.

Benedictine spirituality is renowned for its motto: Ora et labora et lege. Prayer, work, study. In the contemplative life, God often announces His presence in an unexpected way. With the meditation of the Word of God in the lectio divina, we are called to remain in religious listening to His voice in order to live in constant and joyful obedience. Prayer generates in our hearts, willing to receive the amazing gifts that God is always ready to give us, a spirit of renewed fervour that leads us, through our daily work, to seek to share the gifts of God’s wisdom with others: with the community, with those who come to the monastery in their search for God (“quaerere Deum”), and with those who study in your schools, colleges and universities. An ever renewed and invigorated spiritual life is thus generated.

Some characteristic aspects of the Easter liturgical season, which we are living, such as announcement and surprise, prompt response, and the heart willing to receive the gifts of God, are indeed part of everyday Benedictine life. Saint Benedict asks you in his Rule to “put absolutely nothing before Christ” (No. 72), so that you may always be vigilant, today, ready to listen to Him and to follow Him obediently (cf. Prologue). Your love for the liturgy, as a fundamental work of God in monastic life, is essential above all for yourselves, allowing you to be in the living presence of the Lord; and it is precious for the whole Church, which over the centuries has benefited as though from a spring water that irrigates and fecundates, nourishing the capacity to live, personally and in community, the encounter with the risen Lord.


If Saint Benedict was a luminous star – as Saint Gregory the Great called him – in his time marked by a profound crisis of values and institutions, this was because he was able to discern between the essential and the secondary in spiritual life, placing the Lord firmly in the centre. Lord. May you, his children in our time, practice discernment to recognize what comes from the Holy Spirit and what comes from the spirit of the world or the spirit of the devil. Discernment “calls for something more than intelligence or common sense. It is a gift which we must implore … of the Holy Spirit. Without the wisdom of discernment, we can easily become prey to every passing trend” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, 166-167).


In this age, when people are so busy that they do not have enough time to listen to the voice of God, your monasteries and convents become like oases, where men and women of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and religions can discover the beauty of silence and rediscover themselves, in harmony with creation, allowing God to restore proper order in their lives. The Benedictine charism of welcome is very precious for the new evangelization, because it gives you the opportunity to welcome Christ in every person who arrives, helping those who seek God to receive the spiritual gifts He has in store for each of us.

Moreover, the Benedictines have always been recognized for their commitment to ecumenism and interreligious dialogue. I encourage you to continue in this important work for the Church and for the world, placing your traditional hospitality at its service. Indeed, there is no opposition between the contemplative life and the service of others. The Benedictine monasteries – both in cities and far from them – are places of prayer and hospitality. Your stability is also important for people who come to look for you. Christ is present in this encounter: He is present in the monk, in the pilgrim, in the needy.

I am grateful for your service in the field of education and formation, here in Romeand in many parts of the world. The Benedictines are known for being “a school in the service of the Lord”. I urge you to give to students, along with the necessary ideas and knowledge, the tools for them to grow in that wisdom that drives them to continually seek God in their lives; that same wisdom that will lead them to practise mutual understanding, as we are all children of God, brothers and sisters, in this world that so thirsts for peace.


St. Benedict Church, Baltimore
In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, I hope that the celebration of the Jubilee for the anniversary of the foundation of the Benedictine Confederation may be a fruitful occasion for reflecting on the search for God and His wisdom, and how to most effectively transmit His perennial riches to the future generations.

By the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, in communion with the heavenly Church and with Saints Benedict and Scholastica, I invoke upon each one of you my apostolic blessing. And I ask you, please, to continue to pray for me. Thank you.

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A NEW PATRONESS FOR YOUTH

May 14, 2018, 10:06 am
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Will this new venerable be the next Bl. Giorgio Frassati,  a patroness for the youth of today, so sadly in need of inspiration. 

VENERABLE ALESSANDRA (SANDRA) SABATTINI, a medical student  dedicated all her free time to young people and the poor. 

She was born on 19 August 1961 in Riccione, Italy. iIn 1972, at the age of 10, she started keeping a diary: “A life lived without God is just a way of passing time, whether it’s boring or fun, time to be filled in while waiting for death.”.

She met (Servant of God) Father Oreste Benzi, founder of the Pope John XXIII Community, when she was 12. She dreamed of becoming part of the medical missions in Africa. On the weekends and in the summer breaks of 1982 and 1983 she tended to drug addicts in the association's rehabilitation centers. She got up each morning to meditate in the church in the dark before the Eucharist and loved to do so on the floor to demonstrate her meek and humble nature; she sung in a choir and learnt the piano..

Sandra later met Guido at a Carnivale event. The two started dating and were later engaged to be married though both decided to lead a chaste engagement. To their delight both wanted to become missionaries in Africa after getting married but her father, who knew of the couple's dreams, advised his daughter to take things at a slow pace rather than to rush into things.

In late April 1984 the association prepared for their meeting in Igea Marina near Rimini. On  the 29  at 9:30am she arrived there with her fiancé and her friend Elio. Just as she got out of the car both she and Elio were struck when another car came past placing her into a coma from which she never recovered. Sandra died less than a week later from her injuries . Her funeral was celebrated on 4 May. She was 23 years old.

In 1985  Father Benzi edited the first edition of her journal and again in 2003 along with notes on her life. Father Benzi once said that "Sandra should not be sought among the dead" alluding to potential exhumation. His musings proved correct for in 2009 (after Father Benzi died) an exhumation took place but no remains were found. This was attributed to the fact that she wished to be buried in bare earth which meant corrosion of the casket was most probable following internment


"Sandra was deep in a clear, intense relationship with God. She lived every moment with profound joy. She relished the entire universe, discovering all its beauty together with Him.
Her life was directed toward the Infinite, Light, Mystery and Love." Father Oreste Benzi


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SERVANT TO THE POOR

May 17, 2018, 11:15 am
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In our last Blog we spoke of SERVANT of GOD ORESTE BENZI the spiritual director of Ven. Sandra Sabattini.  He was an Italian priest and the founder of the  "Community of Pope John XXIII". Father Benzi championed the rights of the individual and founded his association to aid teenagers in their lives and their path to Jesus Christ while also striving to evangelize to those including the destitute.

Oreste Benzi was born in San Clemente, Italy in 1925 the seventh of nine children to the poor Achille Benzi and Rosa Silvagni, who instilled a sense of great piousness in her children.

His second grade teacher Olga Baldani spoke of a priest and of a scientist and explorer in a tale meant to challenge the students as to what would seem the better profession. This had a profound impact on the child who returned home and told his mother that he wanted to become a priest.

He began his studies for the priesthood in 1937 first at Urbino and then at Rimini. He transferred his studies to Bologna due to Allied bombings during World War II around Rimini. After ordination in 1949 he was appointed as the chaplain for the parish of San Nicolò in Rimini.


In 1953 Father Benzi was made  the spiritual director of students in Rimini and he later oversaw the establishment of an Alpine vacation home for teenagers in Alba di Canazei (built between 1958 and 1961) that saw him make several visits to the USA in order to raise funds.

In 1968 he founded the "Community of Pope John XXIII". The priest opened the first home for families at Coriano in 1973. The Italian government recognized the movement, while it received diocesan recognition in 1983. The Pontifical Council for the Laity recognized the movement as an "association of the faithful" in 1998.

Father Benzi was known for his action in defense of those who were marginalized and his battle against prostitution and homosexual unions. His work bought him into contact several times with Pope John Paul II. From 1969 until 2000 he served as a parish priest at the Resurrection parish in the Grotta Rossa neighborhood of Rimini. St. Teresa of Calcutta and St. Maximilian Kolbe inspired him as well as spiritual writers such as Cardinal Henri de Lubac and Bl. Antoine Chevrier.



Father Benzi died in 2007 after suffering a heart attack. More than 10 000 mourners attended his funeral and it included several of the prostitutes that he had rescued. His movement is now present in a total of 27 European countries as well as in Asia and Africa and Latin America and Australia.


When Father Benzi  died, Pope Benedict XVI sent his heartfelt condolences, recalling Father Benzi’s early enthusiasm for pastoral work as a parish priest and his later role as an indefatigable apostle for charity in favor of the least and the defenseless, shouldering the burden of so many of the serious social problems afflicting our modern world.

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A RENEWED EARTH

May 19, 2018, 6:01 pm
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"Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your SPIRIT and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth."

We pray this prayer to the Ho;ly Spirit often in the monastery, certainly before every important gathering in which a decision must be made.

I have always  thought that we need to add that the earth will be renewed only by us, with  His help, as we are the instruments through which He performs His miracles. And only by accepting  the seven gifts of His Spirit will we make the changes in our own life that in turn can effect change in our world.

“O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.”



Sadao Watanabe

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NEW FEAST FOR OUR MOTHER

May 20, 2018, 9:18 pm
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Pope Francis celebrated the first feast of Mary, Mother of the Church saying that without the emphasis placed on motherhood, the Church would be isolated, composed of no more than “old bachelors.”
“Without this dimension, it sadly becomes a church of old bachelors, who live in this isolation, incapable of love, incapable of fecundity. Without the woman, the Church does not advance – because she is a woman. And this attitude of woman comes from Mary, because Jesus willed it so.”
In his homily Pope Francis said “the Church is feminine, because it is 'church' and 'bride,'” both of which are grammatically feminine in the Italian language.
The Church is also a mother, “she gives life,” he said, adding that only a feminine Church would be able to have a truly “fruitful attitude” in accordance with the will of God, who chose “to be born of a woman in order to teach us the path of woman.”
“The important thing is that the Church be a woman, that it has this attitude of a bride and of a mother, when we forget this, it is a masculine Church.”
Mary's motherhood is emphasized throughout the Gospels, from the Annunciation to the foot of the cross, he said, explaining that the fathers of the Church realized this attention to motherhood is not just applied to Mary, but can be applied to the entire Church.
The Church itself is feminine, he said, noting that the Fathers of the Church say, “even your soul is the bride of Christ and mother.”
“It is with this attitude that comes from Mary, who is Mother of the Church, with this attitude we can understand this feminine dimension of the Church,” the pope said, adding that if this aspect is lost, “the Church loses its identity and becomes a charitable organization or a football team, but not the Church.”
Francis said the primary distinctive quality of a woman is tenderness, which can be seen in Mary's act of wrapping her newborn son “in swaddling clothing” and laying him in the manger in Bethlehem.
In this action, Mary cared for Christ with meekness and humility, the strongest virtues mothers possess, he said, explaining that “a Church that is a mother goes along the path of tenderness.”
“It knows the language of such wisdom of caresses, of silence, of the gaze that knows compassion,” he said, explaining that this attitude is also representative of those people who live as part of the Church, knowing that they are “[like] a mother [and] must go along the same path: a person [who is] gentle, tender, smiling, full of love.”

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MOTHER OF ORPHANS

May 25, 2018, 11:01 am
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Everyone who knows me knows that I am always interested in anyone who has spent their lives dedicated to children. Recently, I had an older woman email regarding entrance into the monastery.  She was beyond our acceptance age so I told her the Church needs good holy lay people. That many have been made saints in the past 25 years, thanks especially to St. John Paul.  She did not want to hear this and said sanctity in the world is impossible! One such holy woman has recently been named Venerable, but I could find very little about her, even in Italian news, even though she died in 1978.



VENERABLE MARIA  ANTONELLA BORDONI,  of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, was the founder of the Lay Fraternity of the Little Daughters of the Mother of God, now Little Daughters of the Mother of God.  She was born on 13 October 1916 in Arezzo, Italy, and died in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, on 16 January 1978.


 

She is considered the apostle of orphans, who responded to the tragedy of children without families in the post-war period.  She was considered a kind, patient woman.  She had opened a house in Castelgandolfo where she worked full time. 

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DANCING WITH THE LORD

May 28, 2018, 10:38 am
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Another lay woman of note  isBL. ANGELA SALAWA  a Pole  who served in hospitals in World War I.  Born in  the villageof Siepraw near Kraków, Poland in 1881 she was the eleventh of twelve children.  Her father Bartłomiej was a blacksmith. Angela was baptized four days after her birth. 

Because she was weak and sickly, Angela was not as able help with chores as much as her more physically robust siblings. Yet she was an obedient child who tried to do her best to help her family.
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At the age of 16, Angela left home to work as a maid in Kraków. While there, she became caught up in worldly pursuits and her religious fervor waned. She was much affected by the death of her sister Teresa, who had appealed to Angela to reconsider her worldly values. 

While dancing at a wedding reception, Angela perceived Christ standing nearby, asking her how she could prefer dancing to following Him. The experience was a turning-point in her life. She immediately went to a church to pray and became devoted to adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament.


Angela considered a religious vocation, but her weak physical health was an impediment. She decided to remain in the world, taking private vows of chastity and virtue in 1900. She continued to work as a maid, but suffered due to a breach between herself and her family.

In 1912, Angela became a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. She felt an affinity with St Francis of Assisi, who, like Angela herself, had broken with his family.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Angela remained in Kraków, nursing soldiers. Her own health was deteriorating, but no one noticed her suffering. In 1916 her employer accused her of stealing, and she lost her employment. She was homeless, in pain and ill, but she was discharged from the hospital because she appeared to be well. Eventually she was alone in the world, living in a basement room, abandoned by family, friends and neighbors.  She died on 12 March 1922. She was only 42 years old.



The first miracle towards her canonization 1990 in Nowy Targ in Poland was a young boy who suffered a severe brain injury. The intercession of Angela Salawa was asked to help the boy, and he made a full recovery. (St.) John Paul II approved the miracle on 6 July 1991 and beatified her on 13 August 1991. 

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OASIS OF BEAUTY AND JOY

May 29, 2018, 10:18 am
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Chartres Cathedral


His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, spoke  May 21 in the cathedral of Chartresto the pilgrims present. Towards the end of his homily, His Eminence, a great friend of the monastic life and the author of the best selling  The Power of Silence, said:

Dear people of France, it is the monasteries that made the civilization of your country! It is men and women who have accepted to follow Jesus to the end, radically, who have built Christian Europe. Because they have sought God alone, they have built a beautiful and peaceful civilization, like this cathedral.

People of France, peoples of the West, you will find peace and joy only by seeking God alone! Return to the Source! Return to the monasteries! Yes, all of you, dare to spend a few days in a monastery! In this world of tumult, ugliness and sadness, monasteries are oases of beauty and joy. You will experience that it is possible to put concretely God in the center of his whole life. You will experience the only joy that will not pass.

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NEW AMERICAN VENERABLE

June 1, 2018, 1:11 pm
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On May 19, Pope Francis issued a decree that recognized the heroic virtues of BR. NORBERT McAULIFFE, an American missionary in Africa.



Venerable Norbert McAuliffe was born in 1886 in Manhattan, New York, and eventually joined the Brothers of the Sacred Heart, a relatively new religious congregation at the time. The congregation was founded by in 1821 by Fr. André Coindre in France and by the time of his death was beginning to spread around the world. The community of brothers are trained to work with the poor through the establishment of schools.

According to their Rule of Life: “Our love for our brothers and the young people in our care radiates from the love Jesus has for us. Our dedication to others, marked by respect, kindness, and concern, will be a sign to them of the compassion of Christ.”

The congregation is primarily made up of religious brothers, with only a few members being ordained priests.

Initially Bro. McAuliffe served as a director of their house in Metuchen, New Jersey, for about six years before being sent as a missionary to Africa. He was sent to Gulu, Uganda, where he established the congregation’s first mission there. The country at the time was under British rule and the people were receptive to Brother
Norbert’s missionary activities. He remained there for 20 years until his death on July 3, 1959 at the age of 72.


His legacy lives on in Ugandaand his life was an inspiration to the African people he ministered to in the region.

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