island life- in a monastery

This third week of Advent is filled with choice morsels giving us much food for thought in the Liturgy as we await the coming of our Savior.

First of all this Sunday is called GAUDETE SUNDAY,because of the first word in Latin of the antiphon that begins, Gaudete (Rejoice). The presence of the Lord is acknowledged to be here, right now, in our midst. Catholics should be a people full of joy today and everyday of our lives, as this Jesus who is to come, has given us the lasting gift of Himself in the Eucharist.

The Epistle again incites us to rejoicing, and bids us prepare to meet the coming Savior with prayers and supplication and thanksgiving, whilst the Gospel, the words of St. John Baptist, warns us that the Lamb of God is even now in our midst, though we appear to know Him not. The spirit of the Office and Liturgy all through Advent is one of expectation and preparation for the Christmas feast as well as for the second coming of Christ, and the penitential exercises suitable to that spirit are thus on Gaudete Sunday suspended in order to symbolize that joy and gladness in the Promised Redemption which should never be absent from the heart of all God's people..

In his 2014 Gaudete Sunday homily, Pope Francis said that instead of fretting about "all they still haven't" done to prepare for Christmas, people should "think of all the good things life has given you."

Then the next day begins what we monastics call theGREAT Os. Each O Antiphon gives to Jesus a title which comes from the prophecies of Isaiah, which anticipate the coming of the Messiah.

Each of the "O Antiphons" carries Old Testament biblical figures. At the same time each one carries an element of the New Covenant . These two characteristics are juxtaposed and a third dimension emerges which serves as a point of meditation when considering the Incarnate Word, the Son of God made flesh.

These antiphons are sung at the Magnificat, to show us that the Savior whom we expect is to come to us by Mary.

On Monday, December 17, we pray “O Sapiéntia”. O Wisdom Who camest out of the mouth of the Most High, reaching from end to end and ordering all things mightily and sweetly: come and teach us the way of prudence.

Wisdom is something which we deeply desire. It is also a human attribute, not just a divine attribute, though authentic human wisdom is never separated from a relationship with God. We understand (if we are wise) that wisdom is more than mere knowledge. It is something more than love. Rooted as it is in fear of the Lord, true human wisdom is both love and that knowledge of God that seeks to understand, the knowledge that is completed by faith.

Jesus is coming, both at Christmas as the Christ Child and at the end of the world as the Judge and King. This is a cause to rejoice. But it is also cause to prepare prudently and well the way of the Lord and make straight His paths before He comes, as we heard on "Gaudete" ("Rejoice!) Sunday.

The Feast of the EXPECTATION of the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY was a feast that was originally celebrated in Spain, but later spread to other Catholic countries.countries. It is not on the universal calendar, but is still commemorated on December 18 in places such as

Spain

Portugal

Italy

and

Poland

as well as in a few religious orders.

The feast owes its origin to the bishops of the tenth Council of Toledo, in 656. The accompanying of the expectant Mother of Jesus became a prominent theme that spread throughout the Iberian Peninsula and Italy during the Middle Ages. A High Mass was sung at a very early hour each morning during the octave, and it became customary that all who were with child would attend, that they might honor Our Lady's Maternity, and seek a blessing upon themselves. "

The feast heightens the anticipation of Christmas and makes the last few days of Advent unique opportunities to meditate on what Mary must have been pondering in her heart."

This feast sometimes goes under the name of Our Lady of O, or the feast of O, on account of the great antiphons which are sung during these days, and, in a special manner, of that which begins O Virgo virginum (which is still used in the Vespers of the Expectation, together with the O Adonaï, the antiphon of the Advent Office)..

The feast heightens the anticipation of Christmas and makes the last few days of Advent unique opportunities to meditate on what Mary must have been pondering in her heart.

Most just indeed it is, O holy Mother of God, that we should unite in that ardent desire thou hadst to see Him, who had been concealed for nine months in thy chaste womb ; to know the features of this Son of the heavenly Father, who is also thine; to come to that blissful hour of His birth, which will give glory to God in the highest, and, on earth, peace to men of good-will. Yes, dear Mother, the time is fast approaching, though not fast enough to satisfy thy desires and ours. Make us redouble our attention to the great mystery; complete our preparation by thy powerful prayers for us, that when the solemn hour has come, our Jesus may find no obstacle to His entrance into our hearts.

Abbott Prosper Louis Paschal Guéranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year,

Vol. 1 Advent.Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1948,

Translation by Dom Laurence Shepherd, O.S.B.

THE GREAT ANTIPHON TO OUR LADY

O Virgin of virgins! how shall this be? for never was there one like thee, nor will there ever be. Ye daughters of Jerusalem, why look ye wondering at me? What ye behold, is a divine mystery.

The feast heightens the anticipation of Christmas and makes the last few days of Advent unique opportunities to meditate on what Mary must have been pondering in her heart. And it gives us the chance to ponder new life in our own hearts!

Belles Heures- 15th C.

We have an unusual set-up this year in Advent as we celebrate the 4^th Sunday and then go right into Christmas, as Monday is the eve, and for us as Benedictines we sing the first Vespers of Christmas, the trees are lit and we ready ourselves for Matins of Christmas.

In the Gospel for the 4th Sunday, St. Luke tells us that Mary undertook in haste the long and perilous journey from Nazareth to a village in the hill country of Judea. Did she go along? How long did it take her. The emphasis here is haste!

In his commentary on Luke's Gospel, St. Ambrose, one of the great doctors of the Church, describes this haste with an almost untranslatable Latin phrase, "nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia," which means, literally: "the grace of the Holy Spirit does not know delayed efforts." Mary's free choice to move in hast to the Spirit within her is reflective of a decision taken deep within her heart.

"She goes eager in purpose, dutiful in conscience, hastening for joy."

I know in past Blogs I have given you the lovely poem by Thomas Merton, but I never get tired of it- and he so vividly paints the scene as we imagine her cloths like sails as she flies by all she passes.

The Quickening of John the Baptist

On the Contemplative Vocation

Why do you fly from the drowned shores of Galilee,
From the sands and the lavender water?
Why do you leave the ordinary world, Virgin of Nazareth,
The yellow fishing boats, the farms,
The winesmelling yards and low cellars
Or the oilpress, and the women by the well?
Why do you fly those markets,
Those suburban gardens,
The trumpets of the jealous lilies,
Leaving them all, lovely among the lemon trees?

You have trusted no town
With the news behind your eyes.
You have drowned Gabriel's word in thoughts like seas
And turned toward the stone mountain
To the treeless places.
Virgin of God, why are your clothes like sails?

The day Our Lady, full of Christ,
Entered the dooryard of her relative
Did not her steps, light steps, lay on the paving leaves
like gold?
Did not her eyes as grey as doves
Alight like the peace of a new world upon that house, upon
miraculous Elizabeth?

Her salutation
Sings in the stone valley like a Charterhouse bell:
And the unborn saint John
Wakes in his mother's body,
Bounds with the echoes of discovery.

Sing in your cell, small anchorite!
How did you see her in the eyeless dark?
What secret syllable
Woke your young faith to the mad truth
That an unborn baby could be washed in the Spirit of God?
Oh burning joy!

(Basilica of the Visitation in Ein Karem,

in the hill country of Judea where

John the Baptist was born.)

What seas of life were planted by that voice!
With what new sense
Did your wise heart receive her Sacrament,
And know her cloistered Christ?

You need no eloquence, wild bairn,
Exulting in your hermitage.
Your ecstasy is your apostolate,
For whom to kick is contemplata tradere.
Your joy is the vocation of Mother Church's hidden children -
Those who by vow lie buried in the cloister or the hermitage;
The speechless Trappist, or the grey, granite Carthusian,
The quiet Carmelite, the barefoot Clare, Planted in the night of
contemplation, Sealed in the dark and waiting to be born.

Night is our diocese and silence is our ministry
Poverty our charity and helplessness our tongue-tied
sermon.
Beyond the scope of sight or sound we dwell upon the air
Seeking the world's gain in an unthinkable experience.
We are exiles in the far end of solitude, living as listeners
With hearts attending to the skies we cannot understand:
Waiting upon the first far drums of Christ the Conqueror,
Planted like sentinels upon the world's frontier.

But in the days, rare days, when our Theotokos
Flying the prosperous world
Appears upon our mountain with her clothes like sails,
Then, like the wise, wild baby,
The unborn John who could not see a thing
We wake and know the Virgin Presence
Receive her Christ into our night
With stabs of an intelligence as white as lightning.

Cooled in the flame of God's dark fire
Washed in His gladness like a vesture of new flame
We burn like eagles in His invincible awareness
And bound and bounce with happiness,
Leap in the womb, our cloud, our faith, our element,
Our contemplation, our anticipated heaven
Till Mother Church sings like an Evangelist.

Lyuba Yatskiv- Ukraine

Today is born unto us the Hope of our world! Today our Savior is born, and we are born anew. Today the Church is filled with new life. Glory to God in the Highest.

"The birthday of the Lord is the birthday of peace: for thus says the Apostle, "He is our peace, who made both one; through Him we have access in one Spirit to the Father." And it was this in particular that He taught His disciples before the day of His passion which He had of His own free-will fore-ordained, saying, "My peace I give unto you, My peace I leave for you;" and lest under the general term the character of His peace should escape notice, He added. "not as the world give I unto you." (Sermon for Christmas St. Leo the Great)

L. Yatskiv

Lyuba Yatskiv

We sing the song 12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS all during Advent (well nuns don’t) and when the Birth is upon us, we say, “thank God it is all over”. Do most people even have a clue what these days are? For true Christians it is only the beginning of the celebration. As the crazy, materialistic world packs up presents, throws out wreaths and trees, and prepares for the next commercial holiday (New Year’s Day) and pretends the day after Christmas is just like any other day, we are celebrating new Life in our hearts.

For the whole week after the birth of our Savior, the Church’s celebration continues, reminding us that Jesus Christ is alive still. He is here among us in His Body and Blood, and He will go from this place with us to whatever beginnings we face tomorrow and in the weeks and months to come.

"The mystery of Christmas, which is light and joy, questions and unsettles us, because it is at once both a mystery of hope and of sadness. It bears within itself the taste of sadness, inasmuch as love is not received, and life discarded. This happened to Joseph and Mary, who found the doors closed, and placed Jesus in a manger, "because there was no place for them in the inn" Jesus was born rejected by some and regarded by many others with indifference. Today also the same indifference can exist, when Christmas becomes a feast where the protagonists are ourselves, rather than Jesus; when the lights of commerce cast the light of God into the shadows; when we are concerned for gifts but cold towards those who are marginalized.

The shepherds grasped this in that night. They were among the marginalized of those times. But no one is marginalized in the sight of God and it was precisely they who were invited to the Nativity. Those who felt sure of themselves, self-sufficient, were at home with their possessions; the shepherds instead "went with haste"

( Lk 2:16). Let us allow ourselves also to be challenged and convened tonight by Jesus. Let us go to him with trust, from that area in us we feel to be marginalized, from our own limitations. Let us touch the tenderness which saves. Let us draw close to God who draws close to us, let us pause to look upon the crib, and imagine the birth of Jesus: light, peace, utmost poverty and rejection. Let us enter into the real Nativity with the shepherds, taking to Jesus all that we are, our alienation, our unhealed wounds. Then, in Jesus we will enjoy the flavor of the true spirit of Christmas: the beauty of being loved by God. With Mary and Joseph we pause before the manger, before Jesus who is born as bread for my life. Contemplating his humble and infinite love, let us say to him: thank you, thank you because you have done all this for me."

(Pope Francis, Christmas Homily 2016)

Lyuba Yatskiv

One of my favorite Doctors of the Church, St. Augustine, wrote: “He is the One through whom all things have been made and, on Christmas, Who has been made in the midst of all things. He is the Revealer of His Father and the Creator of His mother, the Son of God through His Father without a mother and the Son of Man through His mother without a father.

He is great in the eternal day of the angels but small in the time-conditioned day of men. He is the Word of God before all time and the Word made Flesh in the fullness of time. Maker of the sun, He is made under the sun. Disposer of all ages in the bosom of His Father, He consecrates Christmas Day in the womb of His mother. In Him He remains while from her He goes forth. Creator of the heavens and the earth, He is born on earth under the heavens.

Unspeakably wise, He is wisely speechless. Filling the universe, He lies in a manger. Ruler of the stars, He nurses at His mother’s bosom. He is both great in the nature of God and small in the form of a servant, but His greatness is not diminished by His smallness nor His smallness overwhelmed by His greatness.”

Lyuba Yatskiv

Saint John Chrysostom (his name means "golden-mouthed), one of the great doctors of the Church, was at the same time a Pastor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, where he too preached eloquently at the sacred liturgies each Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

“Behold on Christmas a new and wondrous reality. The angels sing and the archangels blend their voices in harmony. The Cherubim hymn their joyful praise. The Seraphim exalt Christ’s glory. All join to praise this holy feast, beholding the Godhead here on earth and man in heaven. He Who is above now for our redemption dwells here below, and we who are lowly are by divine mercy raised up. Bethlehem this day resembles heaven, hearing from the stars the singing of angelic voices. Ask not how. For where God wills, nature yields. For He willed. He had the power. He descended. He redeemed. All things move in obedience to God. This day He Who is born and He Who is becomes what He is not. He is God become man, yet not departing from His Godhead.”

(Lyuba Yatskiv whose icons I have used for this Christmas season was born in Lviv, Ukrainein 1977. Her credo is a “search for spirituality in art forms”. She says her work shows the inner world of man. For me there is a startling beauty in her warm earth tones , especially in the faces of her subjects, who engage us as we gaze . When I look at her Virgin Marys I see life. Lyuba has been criticized for not writing icons in the “traditional “ style, but for me there is a fluidity which is so unlike the static icon, lacking in movement, action, or change.)

Onorio Marinari- 1715

MAY OUR HEAVENLY MOTHER WATCH OVER ALL IN THE NEW YEAR
THAT WE MIGHT HAVE PEACE, JOY, HEALTH AND MANY GRACES.

We had the Christmas bird count in our county this past Saturday. Due to the inclement weather on count day this year, the overall numbers of both species and total birds were low compared to past counts. We have had as many as 64 species in a given year and this year only 39. To say that it rained was an understatement! At times it poured, so the only happy birds were the ducks!

Not only has the weather affected the annual count, but so has the human population- or lack thereof! As far as I know I am the only one on our small island still maintaining bird feeders. Due to some of the residents migrating south themselves, there is a lack of feeders. Also we have been threatened with rats, something unheard of here, so people have abandoned the feeding of our winged friends.

Perhaps most exciting for me and my two companion counters, were the nine bald-eagles seen right over the car as we drove. They circled over us for 5 minutes and headed for some wooded area we could not approach. Not sure if the message went out that some animal had expired, or it was an out of county convention. But it was breathtaking!

Pete Rumney

Other than a low count , we are noticing a rapid decline of our song birds, as well as ducks. In past years I would put feed out before Mass for the birds and perhaps 50+ would show up- Now I am lucky to have 15, even on the sunniest of mornings. One of our island birders told me she has noticed the same situation. There are all kinds of theories as to what is going on, global warming being at the top of the list, as well as loss of habitat.

On Sunday, a beautiful cold but very sunny day, we decided to check out the birds again only to find most of the ducks had fled- so in spite of the very bad weather the day before the ducks were happy.

I am glad I did the counts when I saw so many bird species, and I feel for future birders who will only see some species in books- which is what has happened the world over, especially in my beloved Hawaii.

Our nearest neighbors are in Perufor three months with their two young daughters to immerse themselves in the language and people. This reminds me that I have several Peruvians on the list being considered for canonization. The first is ANDREA AZIANI(SAMEK-LODOVICI) who, while not a native Peruvian, gave his life to the people there. He was born in Milanin 1953 and at a young age lost his mother. He and his brother were raised by their grandmother Cora and his grandfather, Professor Emanuele Sameck Ludovici. He had Jewish roots on the mother's side and was related to Emanuele Samek Ludovici, young philosopher of the Catholic University of Milan, who died prematurely in 1981 after a car accident..

In 1972, at the age of 19, he met Fr. Giussani (Servant of God Luigi Giovanni Giussani was an Italian Catholic priest, theologian, educator, public intellectual, and founder of the international Catholic movement Communion and Liberation), which began his path in 1987 to

Peru

, laying the foundation of the CatholicUniversity in which he taught until his death in 2008.

He dedicated his whole life to Christ, consuming himself with love for Him, with a passion for others to find Jesus, always seeking to do God's will, whether in his work as a teacher or as a consecrated layman. He was a model of virtue and example for the Church to all who knew him especially children and his students.

He was totally consecrated to the Church and to Christ without leaving the world. His joy, his holiness and fullness of life, led many to question: "Can you live like this?" Proposing the beauty of Christ, in chastity, he was an example of total dedication to God as a layman sanctifying the world.

Education was the central nerve of his life and he educated with the passion with which he faced reality and his total commitment to communicate it. He taught philosophy, ethics, epistemology, anthropology, and social doctrine of the Church, transmitting a passion to know more deeply the Truth, knowing the situation of the today's educational crises of faith.

Despite his dedication to the teaching profession, there was always time to talk, to live with everyone, students, teachers, priests, the poor, the elderly, children and young people. Everyone knew him, from the president to the street vendors of the city. He could argue peacefully with the ministers and with the greatest intellectuals of the country and then quickly spend hours among the shacks helping the hungriest people and playing with the children in the dust of the roads, teaching them songs and prayers and bringing them food.

He was a man of great prayer and could be found absorbed before the tabernacle in adoration.

At his funeral attended by the highest representatives of the institutions but also a crowd of unknown people, united by the condolences, affection and gratitude for a person who had given them every kind of support. A concrete help, personally he took care of buying medicines as well as whitening the house, he did not deny anything to anyone in need. He attended heads of state as the most humble. Now he rests in a Peruvian park, his memory is more alive than ever and the countless testimonies of his 'fever of life' dedicated to others in his name,

Sadeo Watanabe- Japan

In an earlier Blog, we mentioned the end of the Christmas season for many Christians is December 26 (some even manage to stretch it to the day after New Year), while the 12 days of Christmas only begin on December 25. But in fact the season actually ends January 6.

In the early Church, Christians, particularly those in the East, celebrated the advent of Christ on Jan. 6 by commemorating Nativity, Visitation of the Magi, Baptism of Christ and the Wedding of Cana all in one feast of the Epiphany. By the fourth century, both Christmas and Epiphany had been set as separate feasts in some dioceses. At the Council of Tours in 567, the Church set both Christmas day and Epiphany as feast days on the Dec. 25 and Jan. 6, and named the twelve days between the feasts as the Christmas season.

Over time, the Western Church separated the remaining feasts into their own celebrations, leaving the celebration of the Epiphany to commemorate primarily the Visitation of the Magi to see the newborn Christ on Jan. 6.

It seems every country has some special tradition to celebrate this important feast, which ends the Christmas season (though many Americans are not aware of this!) In Italy it is the day children receive their presents (hence the birth of Jesus on December 25 is highlighted). Children in many parts of Latin America, the Philippines, Portugal, and Spain also receive their presents on “Three Kings Day.

Adoration of the Magi- S. Watanabe

In nearly every part of the world, Catholics celebrate Epiphany with a Kings Cake, which contains an object like a figurine or a lone nut. In some locations the winner of this prize must then hold a party at the close of the traditional Epiphany season on Feb. 2. For our Community, it is a party at Mardi Gras.

In December of 2018 a great man died in PERU where he had given his life for the peoples there. He was 94.

PADRE UGO de CENSI SCARAFONI was born in 1924, in Polaggia, a village in the province of Sondrio, Italy. Coming from a humble and simple family, he was educated, together with his five brothers, to love fGod and neighbor.

In 1940, when he was 16, his mother Ursula died. In 1949 he suffered bone tuberculosis, which forced him to spend a long time at the hospitalof Santa Corona, in Liguria. Three years later, on March 8, 1952, he was ordained a Salesian priest.

In 1955, he took up work with the boys of the Salesian Center of Arese, a home for young people without families and with behavioral problems. It was a fundamental step in his life, because being among those youths tempered his character.

In 1960, he was appointed spiritual assistant of the oratories of Lombard . He would take the youth climbing the mountains of Val Formazza, helping them study and prepare for their future.

In 1966, he met Fr Pietro Melesi ,who returning to

Italy

after ten years of his missionary work in

Brazil

, told him about the difficulties encountered in his work for the poor of Mato Grosso. Fr Ugo then launched his proposal: "Why do we not help them?"

It was July 8, 1967, when the first group of young missionaries left for Brazil. "It was like lighting a flame among these young people," Fr Ugo later wrote. Thus 'Operation Mato Grosso' was born, to provide assistance to the poorest families in the Brazilian region of Mato Grosso".

With the success of this cooperative movement supported by young Italians, Father Ugo decided to expand his range of action in the Peruvian Andes , arriving in 1976 , to the Ancashino people of Chacas as priest of the San Martín Papa Parish.

Every week, on the heights of the Andes of Huaraz, he gathered over 20,000 teenagers and young people to talk to them about God, Mary Help of Christians and Don Bosco. Don Ugo looked to St. Don Bosco as a father, a friend, a teacher of charity, and a guide to the great work for the benefit of the oratories. Father Ugo did not think of any work without prayer.

This holy Italian missionary founded centers, parishes, schools, workshops, hospitals, shelters, institutes, seminaries, and a monastery. His work is widely recognized at the local, regional and international level where he managed to practically instill the Catholic faith but at the same time promote the development of the towns where the Mato Grosso Foundation has operated. He was in Chacas between 1976 and 2018.

The flame of charity that burned on the Cordillera Blanca of the Andeshas not been extinguished but will continue to burn in the thousands of young people the holy priest formed.

“The greatest figures of prophecy and sanctity step forth out of the darkest night. But for the most part, the formative stream of the mystical life remains invisible. Certainly the most decisive turning points in world history are substantially co-determined by souls whom no history book ever mentions. And we will only find out about those souls to whom we owe the decisive turning points in our personal lives on the day when all that is hidden is revealed.”

St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

In looking for new saints, I am amazed to find so few Benedictines or monastics of any order up for canonization- a lot of Franciscans though. That is because other orders go out to missionarize or be with the people whereas monks and nuns stay home in their monasteries and pray, so are less known to outsiders for their holiness. We forget that saints walked with ordinary people who were clueless as to their holiness. I sometimes wonder how many people I encounter day by day are among the ranks of those we call saints?
Pause for thought in our new year.

One of our favorite nuns, a TV personality, died at the Carmelite Monastery in Quidenham in Norfolk right after Christmas, at the grand age of 88. All in our Community were avid fans of her programsi n the early 1990s on great art.

This little known religious soared to international fame presenting her series of popular and unscripted art programs for the BBC. Her popular shows included Sister Wendy's Odyssey (1992) and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour (1994).

SISTER WENDY BECKETT was born in South Africa in 1930, she was still a child when her family moved to Edinburgh, where her father studied medicine. She joined the Sisters of Notre Dame at the age of 16 and was sent to OxfordUniversityin 1950, where she was awarded a Congratulatory First Class degree in English literature, before a stint teaching in South Africa. But persistent heart trouble and a history of epilepsy drained her strength. Health problems combined with the dream of a contemplative life, which she had abandoned when she entered her order of teaching nuns, brought her back to England.

In the early 1970s, she was released from her vows as a Sister of Notre Dame and changed her religious status to “consecrated virgin,” with the blessing of the Vatican. From then on, she was not a member of any religious order, yet still wore a homemade black habit, a variation on the one she wore as a Sister of Notre Dame. Carmelites in Norfolk offered her a home on their property and took care of her for the rest of her life. They delivered her meals to the unheated blue trailer and in return she contributed most of her income to the convent.

Sister Wendy began studying fine art in the 1980s and began her art career as a magazine critic, reviewing exhibitions for small British art journals. She decided to write a book to raise money for the convent. Contemporary Women Artists, published in 1988, was the first of many books and articles.

Sister Wendy became well-loved for her unusual presenting style, which saw her discuss featured paintings in depth and without an auto-cue. She was not a physically striking figure with her almost buck teeth and her tendency to pronounce “r” as if it were “w”, yet she won the hearts of all who watched her with her keen wit and insight on the art she presented.

"Art is beauty and God is beauty. If you can get people to look at art; you are bringing them closer to Him, even if they don't know His name."

"My own definition of beauty is that which perpetually satisfies us. You look at it again and again and there is more of it to satisfy us. I would say that beauty is very much an attribute of God - He is essential beauty. But only those of us who have been fortunate enough to have faith know where beauty comes from. For the others, they are responding to beauty and responding to Him, though they mightn't be aware of that - they are responding to the pure, free, strong, loving spirit of God."

My favorite of all the books she wrote, did not deal with art, but rather her spiritual letters to the many who sought her wisdom. In the preface she has written a charming and very personal short autobiography, setting the letters in their context.

As she joins the Lord in a better place, she has left us much food for thought.

The Week of Prayer for CHRISTIAN UNITY is an international Christian ecumenical observance kept annually between 18 January and 25 January. It is an octave ,that is, an observance lasting eight days.

The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began in 1908 as the Octave of Christian Unity, and focused on prayer for church unity. The dates of the week were proposed by Father Paul Wattson, co-founder of the Graymoor Franciscan Friars. He conceived of the week beginning on the Feast of the Confession of Peter, the Protestant variant of the ancient Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, on 18 January, and concluding with the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on 25 January.

Pope Pius X officially blessed the concept, and Benedict XV "encouraged its observance throughout the entire Roman Catholic Church."

A saint who gave her life to unity among Christians wasBL. MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDUwho was born to a family of shepherds. As a child she was described as obstinate, critical, protesting, and rebellious – but loyal, and obedient; she would say no to a request – but act on it at once. At 18 she became gentler, her temper abated, she became involved in prayer and charity, and joined “Azione Cattolic,” a Catholic youth movement.

She was born in Sardinia in 1914. At 21 she entered the Trappestine monastery of Grottaferrata. When she was accepted, her attitude finally became “Now do what You will.” When the community’s leader explained a request for prayer and offering for the great cause of Christian Unity, Maria Gabriella felt compelled to offer her young life to the cause. Though she’d never been sick before, she suddenly developed tuberculosis. In a mere 15 months spent in prayer for Unity, it took her to her death in 1939.

Her body found incorrupt in 1957. Not only is she the patroness of ecumenism, but also against poverty and sickness.

Pope John Paul II proclaimed:

A model which I consider exemplary, the model of a Trappestine Sister, Blessed Maria Gabriella of Unity, whom I beatified on 25 January 1983. Sister Maria Gabriella, called by her vocation to be apart from the world, devoted her life to meditation and prayer centered on Chapter 17 of Saint John's Gospel and offered her life for Christian Unity. This is truly the cornerstone of all prayer: the total and unconditional offering of one’s life to the Father; through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. The example of Sister Mara Gabriella is instructive; it helps us to understand that there are no special times, situations, or places of prayer for unity. Christ's prayer to the Father is offered as a model for everyone, always and everywhere."

I don’t normally get involved in this Blog in politics- especially foreign countries I know nothing about- but the killings in African countries is disheartening. Nigeria was in the news last week and reminds me of the feast January 20 of a Nigerian monk.

Seven people were killed in Rann when Boko Haram fighters attacked a military base in remote northeast Nigeria, setting fire to shelters for those displaced by the conflict. Rann currently hosts around 35,000 internally displaced people according to the International Organization for Migration. It has been repeatedly hit in the conflict, exacerbating already dire humanitarian conditions on the ground.The Islamist insurgency which began in 2009 has killed more than 27,000 and some 1.8 million people are still homeless.

But this brings us to our saint of the day-BLESSED CYPRIAN MICHAEL IWENE TANSIwho was a Trappist monk and is Nigeria’s patron saint.

Born to non-Christian parents in 1903, he was sent to live with his Christian uncle who gave him an education. Holy Trinity School in Onitsha, which was run by the .Holy Ghost Fathers, meant a better education that would help lead the family out of poverty

He was baptized 3 years later by the Irish missionaries. Bl. Cyprian was a diligent student with a precocious personality and deep piety. When Iwene was a young child, he became permanently blinded in one eye as a result of a mud-fight with other children.

He worked as a teacher for 3 years and later served as a headmaster of St. Joseph’s school for one year in Aguleri.

In 1925 against the wishes of his family, he entered St. Paul’s Seminary in Igbariam and was ordained a priest in the Cathedral of Onitsha in 1937. He had to travel on foot to visit his widely scattered parishes, spending whole days hearing confessions and was always available to the people in their needs. The large Christian populations of many Igbo villages are a present witness to his zeal.

He felt the call to serve God in a more direct way in a life of contemplation and prayer and, if possible to bring the contemplative monastic life to

Nigeria

. In 1950 his Bishop was able to free him to try his vocation at Mount Saint Bernard Abbey, near Nottingham, England, and to be trained in view of founding a contemplative monastery in the diocese of Onitsha. His new name in the monastery was Father Cyprian. The complete change of lifestyle, particularly living under obedience when he had been a leader of people, the change of climate, food and most of all the culture shock were severe tests, but he was convinced that this is where God wanted him to be.

In 1962 MountSaint Bernarddecided to make the foundation in Africa, but for political reasons it was made in the neighboring country of Cameroon, near Bamenda, rather than in Nigeria. Although he was appointed as Novice Master of the foundation, Father Cyprian was too sick to go. In January 1964, the intense pain in one of his legs was diagnosed as a result of acute thrombosis. However, admitted unconscious on 19 January to the Royal Infirmary of Leicester, tests revealed an aortic neurism, a condition that led to his death the next morning. He died on January 20, a few months after the departure of the founders.

Interestingly enough, the process for his beatification was first opened in the diocese of Nottingham, but then transferred in 1986 to the Archdiocese of Onitsha. The Archbishop was the present Cardinal Francis Arinze, who had been among the first children baptized by Father Tansi when the latter was a young parish priest.

He is called the Patron Saint of Nigeria’s Democracy because soon after his Beatification in 1998, Nigeria was miraculously delivered from the tyrannical rule of the military dictator, General Sani Abacha and returned to democracy in 1999.

Mount. Saint Bernard Abbey

Bl. Cyprian used to say, “if you are going to be a Christian at all, you might as well live entirely for God”.

He died on 20 January 1964 and was beatified on 22 March 1998 by Saint John Paul in Nigeria.

Speaking in a homily to over three million faithful that gathered for the Papal Mass at Onitsha for the Beatification of Fr. Tansi on 22 March 1998, the visiting Pope St. John Paul II said:

"Today I wish to proclaim [to Nigerians] the importance of reconciliation: reconciliation with God and reconciliation of people among themselves… When we see others as brothers and sisters, it is possible to begin healing the divisions within society. This is the reconciliation, which is the path to true peace and authentic progress for Nigeriaand for Africa."

The saintly Pope also said:

He was first of all a man of God: his long hours before the Blessed Sacrament filled his heart with generous and courageous love. Those who knew him testify to his great love of God. Everyone who met him was touched by his personal goodness. He was then a man of the people: he always put others before himself, and was especially attentive to the pastoral needs of families. He took great care to prepare couples well for Holy Matrimony and preached the importance of chastity. He tried in every way to promote the dignity of women. In a special way, the education of young people was precious to him.

As readers know I am very dedicated to Jesuit saints, having been educated by the Jesuits. A new one for me is Jesuit novice TOMAS MUNK and his father FRANTISEK.

From 1939 to 1945 Hitler’s campaign to eradicate both the Jewish population of Europe and the non-Jewish people who opposed his assault on the Jews, an estimated 9 to 11 million people perished.

Hundreds of the non-Jewish victims of the Nazis were Catholic religious sisters and priests, religious priests and monks, as well as non-Catholic ministers who were targeted because of their influence. Among those victims were 152 Jesuits of many different nationalities who were executed, died in concentration camps or as a result of captivity.

Frantisek was born in 1895 in Senec, Slovakia. Tomas Munk was born in Budapest on January 29, 1924, the first son of a Frantisek and Gizela. The Family Munk were Jewish converts to Catholicism in 1939. They were atheists prior to their conversions.

In the mid-1930s, Tomas began having an interest in the Catholic faith. He was baptized in 1939 in the city of Ruzomberok, Slovakia. Tomáš entered the Jesuit novitiate in Ružomberok in 1943.

Due to the Nazi ideology against Jewish people, the Munk family were captured by Nazis at the end of 1944. Frantisek and his wife Gizela, together with their sons Tomas and Juraj, were sent to a concentration camp. They were later separated and sent on three different trains to Germany. Gizela and Juraj were deported to Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. Tomáš and his father were sent to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen and were shot during a “death march” on April 22. Tomas was 21 years of age and Frantiske was 49.

Vatican Radio reported that on the night before his arrest, Tomas decided to offer his life to God for the salvation of his country.

In 2008 the Slovakian author, Ivan Petransky, wrote a book about Tomas life, “A Life under a Star”. The beatification cause for Tomas Munk and his father, Frantisek was opened on Sept. 27, 2011 in the Slovakian city of Bratislava.

Tibor and son Peter

We have had a wonderful Rabbi here this past week on retreat from Arizona. He shared with us a fascinating story of a friend who died on January 20 at the age of 96. We were so touched by this story that we had a small display with the photo of TIBOR BARANSKI. When the Rabbi saw the display he wept and took a photo to send to Tibor’s family.

Tibor was credited with saving thousands of Jewish women, men and children from the Nazis and in 1979 he was named as "Righteous among the Nations" at Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in

Israel

. Reading of this courageous man makes me think how many men and women helped saved lives during these horrid years- so many we have never heard of.

Just before he died his son prayed the rosary with him. Tibor's last act was to reach out and touch the beads. His whole life was built around the Mass and his Catholic faith and his love for the Blessed Mother.

Our Rabbi friend tells the story of Tibor's adopted son, Peter Forgach, an eye surgeon adopted as a child years ago after his family fled Communist Hungary. Tibor married Peter's mother, Katalin, who died in 2011.

Tibor Baranski was raised in Budapest. In 1944, at 22, he returned home from studying in a Catholic monastery to a city under tight control of German forces.

An aunt of Tibor’s ask him to find a way to save some Jewish friends from Nazi control, especially their baby Gabor. Tibor was able to have an interview with Monsignor Angelo Rotta, the Catholic papal nuncio. Msgr Rotta was so impressed by this young man he recruited him to help with saving other Jews in immediate danger of being sent to concentration camps. Tibor became executive secretary of what was called the Jewish Protection Movement. In that role, he often spoke with Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat also credited with saving thousands of lives before his mysterious death in Soviet custody. (One of our friends and benefactors is a cousin of Raoul, so we have felt a connection there of years).

Msgr. Rotta provided the papers and Tibor did the work of hiding the Jews, often disguised as a priest and using every ploy he could think of. One mistake would have meant his own death. Roughly 3,000 Jews were saved in a protected sector of apartment complexes.

Understanding the Nazi mentality, he borrowed the Papal Nuncio’s impressive-looking diplomatic vehicle, a Rolls Royce, and using a combination of bluster, bravado, theatrics and abusive language, he outwitted the Nazi soldiers and anti-Semitic Arrow Cross members.

In 1945, the Soviets captured the city. Raoul Wallenberg vanished and Tibor too was apprehended by the Soviets. Speaking of the meeting with Raoul he said: "We knew in a second we shared the same opinion … the same recklessness, the same determination, all through," His motivation was "divinely human love."

Tibor nearly died on what amounted to a death march toward Russia, but a guard took pity on him and turned him over to a local hospital. In Budapest, he would be imprisoned again for five more years by the Communists, before he finally went to Rome in 1953, where he sought aid for the Hungarian revolution.

When that revolt failed, it was not safe for him at home. He met Katalin, who was doing cancer research, in Italy. They traveled to Canada and eventually settled in Buffalo.

Tibor was an educator, a teacher who understood the depths of human nature and survival. Over the years he had a close and life-changing impact on hundreds of students from Eastern Europe who saw him as a mentor as they studied at Catholic universities in the Buffalo area.

Gabor Szekeres, the Hungarian infant who touched off his lifesaving work in Budapest, grew into an adult who worked as a physician in California. He was like family to Tibor until Gabor's death.

Tibor's family spoke of his fierce and unshakable Catholic faith, how it served as a lighthouse during times when pain, sickness or terror might have broken many spirits. People would ask Tibor how he could believe in God after all he witnessed.

"These things happened, and there has to be a God to bring justice," he would respond.

Tibor received many awards for his bravery and work, but was humble to the end saying:

"I don't need any compliments. God gave me the idea of what to do, and I thank God they didn't kill me."

Many years later, Tibor's son Dr. Peter was to save the life of the wife of our Rabbi friend, when she was diagnosed with a malignant tumor behind her eye.

(Information: Rabbi John Linder and Sean Kirst, The Buffalo News).

While the Holy Father was speaking to youth in Panama last week, his message was for the whole world.

Recognizing the weariness felt in the priesthood and in religious communities due to the sins that wound the Church today, he said: .

“Weariness of hope comes from seeing a Church wounded by sin, which so often failed to hear all those cries that echoed the cry of the Master: ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?... Let us open the door and let our wearied hope return without fear to the deep well of our first love, when Jesus passed our way, gazed at us with mercy and asked us to follow him.”

Dr. He Qi

Describing the fatigue of Jesus’ found in the Gospel of John (Ch. 4) he said Jesus was weary as He sat down beside the well. “The Lord knew what it was to be tired, and in his weariness so many struggles of our nations and peoples, our communities and all who are weary and heavily burdened can find a place.”

“There are many reasons for weariness on our journey as priests, consecrated men and women, and members of lay movements: from long hours of work, which leave little time to eat, rest and be with family, to ‘toxic’ working conditions and relationships that lead to exhaustion and disappointment. Like the Samaritan woman who for years had been carrying the empty pitchers of failed loves, we know that not just any word can help us regain energy and prophecy in our mission. Not just any novelty, however alluring it may seem, can quench our thirst.”

The Holy Father warned against a particular type of weariness that “calls into question the energy, resources and viability of our mission in this changing and challenging world. It is a weariness that paralyzes. It comes from looking ahead and not knowing how to react to the intense and confusing changes that we as a society are experiencing.

“Weariness of hope” can “lodge in the heart of our communities. Everything apparently goes on as usual, but in reality, faith is crumbling and failing.”

Pope Francis reminded those with vocations “how the Spirit inspired … the founders of your institutes and the bishops and priests who laid the basis for your communities.”

“Through these “saints next door,” the Holy Spirit “gave life and fresh breath to a particular moment of history when all hope and dignity seemed to be stifled and crushed.”

“A wearied hope will be healed … when it is unafraid to return to the place of its first love and to find, in the peripheries and challenges before us today, the same song, the same gaze that inspired the song and the gaze of those who have gone before us.”

New Benedictine monasteries seem to be popping up all over the world in the strangest of places and started by Americans. Silverstream in Meath, Ireland is one example, but the latest is in one of my favorite places, Tasmania. I visited there 12 years ago, staying with a vet friend I knew from California. It is so unlike the rest of Australia, being a lot more our San Juan Islands.

Gorgeous hill country of Southern Midlands

“Separated from the Australian mainland by 140 miles of the treacherous pitch and toss of Bass Strait, Tasmania is a byword for remoteness...it is like outer space on earth and invoked by those at the 'centre' to stand for all that is far-flung, strange and unverifiable,” Nicholas Shakespeare writes in his book “In Tasmania.”

Notre Dame Priory is led by Father Pius Mary Noonan, a monk from Kentucky who lived previously as a monk in a French monastery in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain.

Tasmania’s first Benedictine monastery is near the small town of Colebrook on over 2,700 acres of green pastureland in the island’s idyllic Southern Midlands, which is about 45 minutes north of Hobart.. While I can’t say I visited this town, I did drive several times through this gorgeous hilly country, which had more sheep than people ( typical Australia). Interestingly, the land is named Jerusalem Estate, as the Jerusalem river runs through it.

“For us, the abundance of the house of God is the immense spiritual treasure of the monastic life which it is our honor and privilege to bring to Tasmania, and through it, to the rest of Australia. The abundance is meant to fill the monks to the brim, as they each strive to reach perfection, and it is meant to overflow through the continual prayer that they send up before the throne of God, and also through the retreats which allow souls to share in that abundance in a more tangible way.” Prior Noonan

The young Benedictines - their average age is less than 30, and most of them, with the exception of one monk and the American prior- come from mainland Australia. In just two years there are 10 monks.

At present they say daily Mass in the old church in Colebrook. Soon the local bishop is having an old wooden Church moved to the site, so the monks can pray on their own land. Like us they sing Gregorian chant.
As part of their labora, they lead silent and guided retreats based on the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola

.In 2017 meeting with members of Benedictine communities in Rome, Pope Francis said the order offered quiet and prayer amidst a rushed world.

“In this age, when people are so busy that they do not have enough time to listen to God’s voice, your monasteries and convents become like oases, where men and women of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and religions can discover the beauty of silence,” These monks “Downunder” certainly fill the bill!

GAUDATE SUNDAY- THE GREAT Os

EXPECTATION OF MARY

MARY IN HASTE

CHRISTMAS BLESSINGS

12 DAYS of CHRISTMAS??

REVEALER OF THE FATHER

ANGELS REJOICE WITH US

OUR MOTHER WHO WATCHES

HAPPY DUCKS!

HOLINESS IN PERU

THE 12TH DAY OF CHRISTMAS- EPIPHANY

FLAME OF CHARITY IN THE ANDES

SAINTS FOR THE NEW YEAR

HOLINESS IN ART

SAINT OF CHRISTIAN UNITY

NIGERIA'S PATRON SAINT

HOLY JESUIT AND HIS FAMILY

SAVIOR OF HIS PEOPLE

A WEARIED HOPE

NEW MONKS IN TASMANIA