As I like to say, there are no coincidents in heaven.  We have just celebrated the beatification of Father Michael McGivney  and someone  who had a great devotion to him, has passed to the Father- all too soon for many, as he was only 45 years old. Shortly before he passed away, a relic of Bl. McGivney was laid upon his chest, as those in the hospital room sang the Salve Regina.

ANDREW THOMAS WALTHER, president and chief operating officer of EWTN News, died Sunday evening in New Haven, Connecticut. Remembered first as a loving husband and father, in his life’s work he was dedicated to serving the Catholic Church and defending persecuted religious minorities throughout the world. 

Only in June of this year, did he take on these responsibilities and was soon after diagnosed with leukemia. During the course of his treatment, Andrew continued to lead the EWTN News team and to serve both his family and the Church.

“Andrew Walther’s death is a source of great sadness for all of us at EWTN and for me personally. Although Andrew had only been in his role as President and Chief Operating Officer of EWTN News since June, he had already accomplished so much. He had also been a friend and collaborator for many years before joining the Network. His death is a great loss for all who knew him, for EWTN and for the Church,” Michael Warsaw, chief executive officer and EWTN board chairman, remembered Nov. 2.

For 15 years, until his death Andrew worked for the Knights of Columbus, where he was Vice President for Communications and Strategic Planning. He served as an advisor to Supreme Knight Carl Anderson, while overseeing numerous initiatives for the Knight, including a pandemic response campaign earlier this year and other crisis response projects.

With his wife, Maureen, he co-authored “The Knights of Columbus: An Illustrated History,” a book released this year.

Andrew's work on behalf of Middle Eastern Christians  was especially close to his heart. He played an essential role in a Knights of Columbus effort to assist persecuted and refugee Christians, through a fund that has distributed more than $20 million in aid, especially in Syria, Iraq, and the surrounding region. This offered on-the-ground assistance to Christians rebuilding lives, churches, and  towns destroyed by ISIS, including an effort to completely rebuild the Iraqi town of Karamles on the Nineveh Plain. His work in the region has been widely praised by bishops and other Christian leaders across the Middle East.

“He was a man of deep faith and extraordinary gifts who always used his talents to serve others. He leaves behind a tremendous legacy that includes years of service to the Church, to the cause of persecuted Christians around the globe and to building up the culture of life. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Maureen and their four young children. He was a tremendous man and a wonderful friend whom I will miss greatly. That his death came on the Solemnity of All Saints is a great consolation to us all,” Warsawrecalled.

He and his wife Maureen  married in 2010 and are the parents of four children. It is fitting that we remember him especially on this day of All Souls.

I don’t care who you are or what your work is, there is always some stress. Psychologists tell us that a certain amount of stress in our lives is good, as it basically keeps us going by challenging us.  But too much stress?  In these days of an on-going pandemic, it can be too much for the best of us.  So who can we turn to?

ST. WALTER of PONTOISE was an 11th-century Benedictine monk who is recognized today as the patron saint of people experiencing job-related stress. He himself experienced his fair share of job-related stress. He longed for a life of solitude, but he kept being appointed to leadership positions in his community. 

St. Walter, born in Francewas an intelligent and devout man, becoming a professor of philosophy and rhetoric. He then felt called to the religious life and become a Benedictine monk at Rebais-en-Brie.

 King Philip noticed his natural abilities and appointed him abbot of a monastery in Pontoise against his will. Walter didn’t have much of a choice, so he obediently accepted his new position.

Life wasn’t easy as the discipline at the monastery when he arrived was horrid. Because of his dedication to monastic life, many of the monks were angry, so  they captured and imprisoned him. He was eventually released and resumed the work he began, devoting himself more to prayer, asking God to grant him the strength to persevere. 

St. Walter fled several times from the monastery because he couldn’t deal with the stress of the situation. 

At one point, Walter left his position at Pontoise to become a monk at Cluny under Hugh  (St. Hugh (d. 1109), sometimes called Hugh the Great, was the Abbot of Cluny from 1049 until his death. He was one of the most influential leaders of the monastic orders from the Middle Ages.) but he was forced to return to Pontoise. 

A story told of him, was that he once took the road to Touraine and hid himself on an island in the Loire, before being led back to the abbey. He also escaped to an oratory near Tours dedicated to Sts. Cosmas and Damian before being recognized by a pilgrim there. Poor man, he just never gave up  trying to avoid his  duties. 

He even fled as far as Rome, delivering a written letter of resignation to Pope Gregory VII, but the Holy Father turned him back and said he was forbidden to run away from his monastery ever again.

With grace, St. Walter embraced his responsibilities using his God-given talents. St. Walter is a good intercessor to help you get through any stress that work is causing for you.

 Mother Hildegard has been away for a month, but will be back very soon to offer you new blogs. This is one she wrote in early November and well worth the wait!

When  one of the nuns- from Connecticut- put out the Archdiocesan magazine, I noted that November is Black Catholic History Month.

In this month we celebrate two beloved  Black saints. St Martin de Porres' Feast  was this week (November 3) and the great St Augustine's will be  November 13.

Some people forget that Christianity did not originate in Europe and even express surprise when they learn that Black Catholic History began in the Acts of the Apostles (8: 26-40) with the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch by Philip the Deacon. This text  chronicles the conversion of the first Black African in recorded Christian history. And also suggests that the man was a wealthy, literate, and powerful emissary of the Nubian Queen and also a faithful, practicing Jew prior to his baptism. Clearly, he was not an ignorant heathen. The Ethiopian Eunuch's conversion predates the conversions of Saints Paul and Cornelius. Most significantly, many cite this conversion as the very moment when the church changed from a Hebrew and Hellenist community to the truly universal and Catholic Church.

Black Catholics trace their faith history back to Christian antiquity long before other nations heard the "Good News." Christian Africa was indeed a "leading light" in early Christendom. Black Catholics point to three popes who were born in Africa: Sts Victor I, Melchiades, and Gelasius I. All three shepherded the early church through tough and tumultuous times in history. Black Catholics claim many Black Saints like Sts Cyprian, Zeno, Anthony of Egypt, Moses the Black, Pachomius, Maurice, Athanasius, Pisentius, Mary of Egypt, Cyril of Alexandria, Monica of Hippo ( the mother of Augustine), the martyrs Perpetua, Felicitas, and Thecla. Without them  the church would not be what it is today.

Interestingly enough, I had just finished Michelle Obama’s book, Becoming,  and now at noon we are reading the life of Servant of God Thea Bowman (see Blogs  11/12/18  & 10/4/16) . All without realizing what this month signifies.

On thing that stood out for me was Michelle often saying how Blacks (especially women)  had to strive to be better so they could fit in, be accepted.  Thea says the same thing in her writings (her father was a doctor and her mother an educator).  When I commented on this, Mother Prioress said that our Black nun at  the Abbey had the same experience (and she is a lawyer).  So no matter how far we think we have progressed in civil rights, it isn’t far enough, by half!

At present we have six Blacks being considered for canonization in the USA.  We should all take courage in them.

Three priests, including one now known as a martyr, offered spiritual comfort to fellow passengers on the doomed Titanic. They, along with 1500 others, perished in the icy Atlantic in 1912. All three of the European-born priests,  Father Juozas Montvila of Lithuania, Father Josef Peruschitz, O.S.B. a monk atScheyern Abbey in Bavaria, and English rector Father Thomas Byles, are said to have declined lifeboats in order to offer spiritual aid to travelers who perished in the shipwreck, which claimed 1503 lives.

FATHER THOMAS BYLES is being considered for canonization.  He was was born Roussel Davids in Leeds, Yorkshire, the eldest of seven children of the Reverend Alfred Holden Byles, a Congregationalist minister, and his wife Louisa Davids. He went to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1889 to study theology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1894. While at Oxford, Byles converted to the Church of England, and later, like his younger brother William had done before, to the Roman Catholic faith, taking the name Thomas. In 1899, he went to the Beda College in Rome to study for the priesthood and was ordained in 1902. He was assigned to St Helen's Parish in Chipping Ongar, Essex in 1905, where he would remain until his death.

Father Thomas was walking on the upper deck praying his breviary when the Titanic struck the iceberg. As the ship was sinking, he assisted many third-class passengers up to the boat deck to the lifeboats. He reputedly twice refused a place on a lifeboat.

Toward the end he recited the Rosary and other prayers, hearing confessions, and giving absolution to more than a hundred passengers who remained trapped on the stern of the ship after all of the lifeboats had been launched.

Helen Mary Mocklare, a third class passenger, offered more details about the final hours of the priest’s life.

“When the crash came we were thrown from our berths ... We saw before us, coming down the passageway, with his hand uplifted, Father Byles,” she recalled. “We knew him because he had visited us several times on board and celebrated Mass for us that very morning.”

“'Be calm, my good people,' he said, and then he went about the steerage giving absolution and blessings... A few around us became very excited and then it was that the priest again raised his hand and instantly they were calm once more. The passengers were immediately impressed by the absolute self-control of the priest.”

She recounted that a sailor “warned the priest of his danger and begged him to board a boat.” Although the sailor was anxious to help him, the priest twice refused to leave.. “After I got in the boat, which was the last one to leave, and we were slowly going further away from the ship, I could hear distinctly the voice of the priest and the responses to his prayers.”

Father Thomas has three times been portrayed in films about the disaster. In the 1979 television movie S.O.S. Titanic, he was portrayed by Matthew Guinness. In the 1997 film, Titanic, he was portrayed by James Lancaster, reciting the rosary and Revelation 21:4. Richard Basehart plays a thinly disguised Father Thomas in the 1953 film. His story is featured in a book written by Cady Crosby entitled A Titanic Hero: Thomas Byles. The book documents his early life, his years in ministry and his final hours on board the RMS Titanic.

Interestingly enough, Katherine and William did not reschedule their wedding. They had another priest perform the ceremony. In a Brooklynnewspaper it reported the bride and groom went home from the wedding and changed into mourning clothes and returned to the church for a memorial mass. The couple then left for a short honeymoon in New Jersey.

Later that year Katherine and William travelled to Europe. They visited Londonand the Houses of Parliament to meet 'Uncle Willie' (Sir W. P. Byles). Katherine had to wait outside in a parlor as women could not enter. According to family legend, a young man came to her and said "Hello Mrs Byles, I am here to give you a tour, my name is Winston Churchill". From London they travelled on to Romewhere they had a private audience with the Pope, who declared Father Byles a martyr for the Church.

FATHER JOSEF PERUSCHITZ, OSB, age 41, was also one of the three Catholic priests on the Titanic and was described by eyewitnesses as declining a place on the lifeboats. The Bavarian priest-monk, born in 1871, was traveling on the Titanic to take up his new position as principal of  the Benedictine high school at Saint John’s Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesotawhere there were many German settlers. (This community, Saint John’s Abbey, grew to be the largest Benedictine community in the world.)

Like Father Byles, Father Peruschitz had offered Mass on the morning of Sunday, April 14, only hours before the supposedly “unsinkable” ship struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic.

Prior to the crash, both men had preached sermons on humanity’s need for the spiritual “lifeboat” offered by Jesus Christ amid the dangers of the world. He gave his daily homilies in German, but must have spoken English to have been sent to the United States.

 FatherJosef was a monk of Scheyern Abbey near Munich. He was born in Bavaria in 1871 and was a student at the abbey he would one day enter in 1894.   After profession his duties included teaching mathmatics, music and sports (a well-rounded monk.)

He spent Holy Week at the Benedictine Abbey at Ramsgate (England) just before sailing on the doomed ship.  He wsa to become the principal at the BenedictineHigh School in Minn.

 He was well-remembered, since he had a beard and wore a soup-plate hat. He was also offered a place, and refused it, preferring rather to stay with the passengers and absolve them.

His body, like those of the other two priests, was not recovered. A memorial at his monastery in Bavariareads: “May Joseph Peruschitz rest in peace, who on the ship Titanic piously sacrificed himself.”

What better time than Advent for the Holy Father to proclaima Year ofST. JOSEPHin honor of the 150th anniversary of the  proclamation as his being the patron of the UniversalChurch by Pope Pius IX on Dec. 8, 1870.

Pope Francis said he was establishing the year so that “every member of the faithful, following his example, may strengthen their life of faith daily in the complete fulfillment of God’s will.”

In our own SeattleArchdiocese we have the year of the Eucharist, so how fitting to have the Lord’s foster father in on the celebration.

Pope Francis said the coronavirus pandemic has heightened his desire to reflect on St. Joseph, as so many people during the pandemic have made hidden sacrifices to protect others, just as St. Joseph quietly protected and cared for Mary and Jesus.

“Each of us can discover in Joseph -- the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence -- an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.” 

Throughout the ages the Popes have stressed devotion to St.  Joseph.  In  1937  Pius XI placed “the vast campaign of the Church against world Communism under the standard of St. Joseph, her mighty Protector.”

“He belongs to the working-class, and he bore the burdens of poverty for himself and the Holy Family, whose tender and vigilant head he was. To him was entrusted the Divine Child when Herod loosed his assassins against Him. He won for himself the title of ‘The Just,’ serving thus as a living model of that Christian justice which should reign in social life.”

 “If you want to be close to Christ, I repeat to you ‘Ite ad Ioseph’: Go to Joseph!” said Ven. Pius XII in 1955 as he instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, to be celebrated on May 1.The new feast was intentionally placed on the calendar to counter communist May Day rallies. But this was not the first time that the Church had presented St. Joseph’s example as an alternative path toward workers’ dignity.

Beloved St. John Paul II   wrote in his 2004 book “Rise, Let Let Us Be On Our Way”, For St. Joseph, life with Jesus was a continuous discovery of his own vocation as a father.  

Jesus Himself, as a man, experienced the fatherhood of God through the father-son relationship with St. Joseph. This filial encounter with Joseph then fed into Our Lord’s revelation of the paternal name of God. What a profound mystery!”

In his announcement of the Year of St. Joseph, Pope Francis released a letter, “Patris corde” (“With a father’s heart”), explaining that he wanted to share some “personal reflections” on the spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic,” he said, noting that many people had made hidden sacrifices during the crisis in order to protect others.

“St. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation.”

St. Joseph is also the patron of  a good night's sleep, and a happy death.

In a following Blog learn of the  opportunities to gain a plenary indulgence, or remission of all temporal punishment due to sin during the Year of St. Joseph. 

                                                                            Painting: Pietro Annigoni (d. 1988)

In our last Blog we presented the Year of St. Joseph proclaimed by Pope Francis.   What does this mean for Catholics? According to the decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary on Dec. 8, there are 15 ways to receive an indulgence in the Year of St. Joseph. Plenary indulgences remit all temporal punishment due to sin and must be accompanied by full detachment from sin. 

1) Participate in a spiritual retreat for at least one day that includes a meditation on St. Joseph. 

2) Pray for St. Joseph’s intercession for the unemployed that they might find dignifying work.

3) Recite the Litany of St. Joseph for persecuted Christians.

4) Entrust one’s daily work and activity to the protection of St. Joseph the Worker.

5) Follow St. Joseph’s example in performing a corporal work of mercy. These include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the imprisoned, visiting the sick, and burying the dead.

6) Perform one of the spiritual works of mercy, such as comforting the sorrowful, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing the sinner, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries, and praying for the living and the dead.

7) Pray the rosary together with the family in order that “all Christian families may be stimulated to recreate the same atmosphere of intimate communion, love and prayer that was in the Holy Family.”

8) Engaged couples can also receive an indulgence from praying the rosary together.

9) Meditate for at least 30 minutes on the Lord’s Prayer, because St. Joseph“invites us to rediscover our filial relationship with the Father, to renew fidelity to prayer, to listen and correspond with profound discernment to God’s will.”

10) Pray an approved prayer to St. Joseph on St. Joseph Sunday.

11) Celebrate the feast of St. Josephon March 19 with an act of piety in honor of St. Joseph.

12) Pray an approved prayer to St. Josephon the 19th of any month. 

13) Honor Joseph with an act of piety or approved prayer on a Wednesday, the day traditionally dedicated to St. Joseph.

14) Pray to St. Josephon the Feast of the Holy Family on Dec. 27.

15) Celebrate the feast of St. Josephthe Worker on May 1 with an act of piety or prayer.

“All the faithful will thus have the opportunity to commit themselves, with prayers and good works, to obtain with the help of St. Joseph, head of the celestial Family of Nazareth, comfort and relief from the serious human and social tribulations that today afflict the contemporary world,” the decree signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza said.

The elderly, the sick, and the dying who are unable to leave their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic also have special permission to receive an indulgence by “offering with trust in God the pains and discomforts” of their lives with a prayer to St. Joseph, hope of the sick and patron of a happy death.

The decree noted that in this instance the person must have the intention of fulfilling, as soon as possible, the three usual conditions for an indulgence, as well as a detachment from sin.

The Apostolic Penitentiary permits any prayer to St. Joseph approved by the Church, mentioning in particular the “To you, O blessed Joseph” prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII:

“To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also. Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.”

“O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.”

“As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God's Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.”

Both images: Our dear friend  Br. Arturo Olivas (RIP)

This week  of the fourth and last week of Advent,  we are so concentrating on Mary and the Birth of her Son, that we tend to overlook St. Joseph, who plays a key part in this whole epic.  He is protector, guide and father.

There is little art portraying  the  marriage of Joseph and Mary,  but one which  to me shows the love between them is by Sebastian  Lopez de Arteaga (d. 1656).  So often we see Joseph  as this graying, old man, which most  probably was not the case.  He most likely was not that much older than Mary.  In this painting we see a  virile, handsome young man who is very intent on his marriage-  the mission will be revealed to him later. Like his bride he will accept it with full heart.

In this year dedicated to St. Joseph, may we find comfort in his quiet acceptance of God’s will and joy in his relation to the Son of God and His Mother.

CHRISTMAS   BLESSINGS  TO  ALL

        ESPECIALLY  THOSE  ALONE ~

        MAY  HIS BIRTH  BRING A  RAY  OF  HOPE

I have done a Blog in the past  on our dear friend & benefactor,Lauren Ford,  who gifted  our Abbey of Regina Laudis, in Bethlehem, Connecticut, her property, Sheepfold, where she lived for many years and did much of her artwork.

This week of Christmas  I want to portray her art, as I feel the world right now needs simplicity as we celebrate the Birth of our Savior.  It has been a very hard year for all, but most especially for the working class peoples of all countries as they have tried to stay afloat for their families, as their livelihood has been threatened or destroyed.

Lauren loved to use the people of her area in her art, especially the farmers.  This simple, yet moving piece shows the laborers getting the animals fed in the midst of a cold winter’s day. 

Christmas is about simplicity. Jesus was  born in an ordinary manger. A feeding trough was his cradle. He was not born of royalty, but of humble, poor parents. And it was this simplicity that held the destiny of  our salvation.

Christmas

Your voice speaks:
Little child out of Eternity, now will I sing to thy mother! The
song shall be fair as dawn-tinted snow.
Rejoice Mary Virgin, daughter of my earth, sister of my soul,
rejoice, O joy of my joy!
I am as one who wanders through the night, but you are a house
under stars.
I am a thirsty cup, but you are God's open sea.
Rejoice Mary Virgin, blessed are those who call you blessed,
never more shall child of man lose hope.
I am one love for all, I shall never cease from saying: one of you
has been exalted by the Lord.
Rejoice Mary Virgin, wings of my earth, crown of my soul, rejoice joy of my joy!
                                 Blessed are those who call you blessed.

               German original: Gertrude Von Le Fort   (German)
                                               English translation: Margaret Chanler

A Christmas Carol

The Christ-child lay on Mary's lap,
His hair was like a light.
(O weary, weary were the world,
But here is all aright.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings,
But here the true hearts are.)

The Christ-child lay on Mary's heart,
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary, weary is the world,
But here the world's desire.)
The Christ-child stood on Mary's knee,
His hair was like a crown,
And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down.

                 G.K. Chesterton

Sometimes in reading Magnificat, I get ideas for this Blog. I like doing research on saints and holy people I do not yet know. I have made some great “friends” this way.

Last month’s issue of this lovely magazine featured artists who were saints.  One I had never heard of  is BL CLAUDIO GRANZOTTO,  born in 19, who was the youngest of nine children. His parents were peasants who required his help in working in the fields in order for them to survive and this increased all the more after the death of his father in 1909. His poor parents were devout, instilling in their children  a great love of their faith. With  the outbreak of World War I he was drafted into the Italian armed forces in 1915 where he served until 1918 when the war concluded.

 Once he was discharged from service he was able to begin his studies, developing his talents as an artist with a passion for sculpture. He enrolled in the ArtAcademy in Venice and graduated there with honors in 1929. One of the major themes of his works was religious art, but he soon felt a call to the life after meeting the Franciscan priest Amadio Oliviero in 1932 (the two became good friends).  He entered the Order of Friars Minor  in 1933.

 In his letter of recommendation his pastor wrote to the friars that "the order is receiving not only an artist but a saint". He was given the religious name of "Claudio" making his religious vows in 1936 and being sent to the monastery of San Francesco in Vittorio Venice. 

Bl. Claudio chose not to pursue ordination and lived his life as a professed religious at the Franciscan monastery of Santa Maria della Pieve in Padua. He dedicated his life to  living the Gospel, serving the poor and his art through which he hoped to express his faith.

Most of his works are depictions of Jesus Christ and the saints. One example of it can be found in the parish church of his hometown which is a sculpted figure of the Devil which supports the baptismal font of the parish. The pastor commissioned this particular work. Another version was later sculpted for the ancient shrine of the Madonna in the care of the Franciscan friars on the island of Barbana.

 He would often spend whole nights in silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament,  which had a great devotion for. 

Santa Lucia  with her eyes gouged out

The sudden and inexplicable healing of a child was declared as the miracle attributed to his intercession. His liturgical feast is September 2 instead of the date of his death as is the norm.         

                                            

                                                               St. Bernadette in ecstasy 

Another religious artist, not known in our country, was  ST. ALBERT ADAM CHMIELOWSKI who was  born in 1845, near Kraków as the eldest of four children in a wealthy family.

Not yet 18, Adam took part. During one battle, a Russian grenade killed Adam’s horse and badly damaged his leg, which was amputated. Adam, however, didn’t take pity on himself; he stoically taught himself to function with a wooden limb and offered up the dismemberment to God for the cause of Polish independence.

After the uprising, Adam decided to pursue a career in painting and was accepted at the prestigious Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, where he studied with many famous Polish painters. Upon returning to Poland, Adam worked as a painter 1870-1885. In total, he produced 61 paintings. He quickly became one of the most feted Polish artists, living briefly in Warsawand then in artsy, intellectual Krakow. Adam’s social circle consisted of the best-known Polish artists, actors and writers.

Yet Adam Chmielowski wasn’t happy with this glitzy life of celebrity.  He knew that he needed to grow closer to God. Adam briefly thought of becoming a Jesuit, but his enthusiasm fizzled after entering the novitiate. He kept asking God what he wanted of him.

Adam returned to Kraków and became a Secular Franciscan. In 1888, when he founded the Brothers of the Third Order of Saint Francis, Servants to the Poor, he took the name Albert. They worked primarily with the homeless, depending completely on alms while serving the needy regardless of age, religion, or politics. A community of Albertine sisters was established later. To finance the improvements, Brother Albert auctioned off his paintings to improve the material conditions. He asked the poor to work (making exceptions for the elderly and those with disabilities), teaching them practical skills, and lectured on the Catechism and the Gospels.

 Brother Albert worked to help as many poor persons as possible until his death in 1916, amidst World War I. During that bloody conflict, he sent Albertine Brothers and Sisters to the trenches to aid war invalids. After his death, thousands of Kracovians visited his tomb, convinced that he died a saint.

 Pope John Paul II beatified Albert in 1983, and canonized him six years later. His Liturgical Feast Day is June 17.

Reflecting on his own priestly vocation, Pope John Paul II wrote in 1996 that Brother Albert had played a role in its formation “because I found in him a real spiritual support and example in leaving behind the world of art, literature, and the theater, and in making the radical choice of a vocation to the priesthood” (Gift and Mystery: On the Fiftieth Anniversary of My Priestly Ordination). As a young priest, Karol Wojtyla repaid his debt of gratitude by writing “The Brother of Our God”, a play about Brother Albert’s life.

(Top painting- Leon Jan Wyczolkowski

            St. Margaret Mary  with Christ  by St. Adam

                        “Ecce Homo"  by St. Adam)

SERVANT of GOD  PAUL MURPHY, an architect from Arizona,  was a lay member of Miles Jesu * (Soldier of Jesus). Those who knew him, say he practiced Christian virtues in a heroic way.

Friends say he is deserving of sainthood because of his chastity, his consistency in following God’s will, and his commitment to consecrated life, which only increased after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Two of his friends, Jacinto and Frances Herrera, former Miles Jesu members, said he was an unassuming, down-to-earth man who had a deep love of God and the Virgin Mary..

“He didn’t seem overly pious. He was not a fanatic but you knew there was something different about him by the way he acted. You knew you were in the presence of God whenever you were with him. That’s the presence he radiated. He could preach without saying anything to you,” Frances Herrera said.
”

Testimonies collected in a 59-page booklet on Paul’s life echo similar sentiments about the young  man who died a virgin at age 36.

Paul Murphy, the youngest of nine boys, was raised in Chicago in a strong Catholic household. His father attended Mass daily, and two of his brothers went on to become priests.

In 1962, he graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a degree in architecture and joined the U.S. Navy. Following his service in the Navy, Lt. Murphy came to Phoenix at the invitation of his brother in 1965 to make his Cursillo, a three-day retreat on Christianity.

After the retreat, Father Alphonsus Maria Duran, who founded Miles Jesu, sensed something special in Paul.  Paul made it clear he was not called to the priesthood.

Father Duran told Paul he was meant to be an architect, as Paul had always dreamed he would be, but he must dedicate himself to God completely and absolutely through vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

Those who knew him said Father Duran’s guidance and the Cursillo changed his life. Instead of returning to Chicago to marry his fiancée, he kindly broke off the engagement, and embraced consecrated life with Miles Jesu, his true vocation.

Friends say he was always upbeat and the life of the party and he had a great sense of humor, but he was known for his humility.  Despite a lucrative career, Paul dressed simply, drove an old blue car, never complained and dedicated himself completely, financially and personally, to Miles Jesu and the Cursillo movement..

“Paul offers us an example of evangelization of society from within by the laity living their faith values at work, in work and with co-workers as well as putting time and talents at the service of the Gospel, said Father Christopher Foeckler, a 25-year priest with Miles Jesu.

Nearly nine years after joining Miles Jesu, which has 30 communities around the world, Paul collapsed while attending an architect’s meeting in Tucson.

Doctors determined he had an inoperable brain tumor and warned the religious community that the pressure on his brain would cause him to be impatient and have a personality change. While his character did change, he disproved the doctors and became more patient and more dedicated to prayer than before. The tumor caused sporadic and uncontrollable seizures.

Always faithful to his life of prayer, he insisted on going to morning prayers, in spite of intense pain and shakiness, and collapsed in the chapel before the Blessed Sacrament as he began the last part of his terminal illness in a coma.
Paul died Feb. 10, 1976, on the eve of the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, after being comatose for six weeks.

Father Duran  described Paul’s life:  

The most important thing I know about him is that he was dedicated, always charitable, always loving, never put anyone down, faithful to God in every aspect of his life.” His friend Jacinto Herrera said:“He always said God comes first. That’s the way he died, too. You never saw him with a sad face, always with a smile, even in his coma.

His funeral Mass was con-celebrated by then-bishop of Phoenix, Edward McCarthy and 14 other priests and deacons, including Paul’s two brothers.

* Miles Jesu is a Catholic institute of consecrated life founded in 1964, in Phoenix, Arizona, whose membership comprises lay people and clerics who take religious vows and in addition, since it is structured as an ecclesial family of consecrated life. Miles Jesu is thus a new form of consecrated life in the Church which has been approved by the Holy See in accordance with canon 605 of the Code of Canon Law, which reserves to the Holy See approval of forms of consecrated life other than the traditional forms.

As we await transition in government of our country, many are in fear of what may play out.  For sure, many have forgotten the word balance, which is so primary in the Rule of St. Benedict. And while many are denied the Eucharist due to the on-going crises caused by the pandemic, we must not forget the value of the Body of Christ given to us in the Eucharist. Christ’s presence in the Eucharist heals wounds and transforms bitter negativity into the joy of Lord. 

 Many are fearful still of attending Sunday Mass, but find consolation in daily Mass where there are few in attendance. 

The Holy Father has said: “The Eucharist brings us the Father’s faithful love, which heals our sense of being orphans. It gives us Jesus’ love, which transformed a tomb from an end to a beginning, and in the same way can transform our lives. It fills our hearts with the consoling love of the Holy Spirit, who never leaves us alone and always heals our wounds.”

In this year dedicated to the Eucharist in our Archdiocese, I find it no coincidence, that while so many cannot partake of Christ’s Body, many who can, are offering it for those still suffering denial.

“He comes as Bread broken in order to break open the shells of our selfishness. He gives of himself in order to teach us that only by opening our hearts can we be set free from our interior barriers, from the paralysis of the heart.”

“It is especially urgent now to take care of those who hunger for food and for dignity, of those without work and those who struggle to carry on. And this we must do in a real way, as real as the Bread that Jesus gives us.”

“This is the strength of the Eucharist, which transforms us into bringers of God, bringers of joy, not negativity,” Pope Francis said.

Recently, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington D.C. noted how in that day’s Gospel reading, “the Lord casts out evil spirits, and we often, as we look at the world around us, in particular during these past several days here in our nation, we need the Lord to cast out the spirit of evil, hatred, division, bigotry, racism (and) inequity.”  I quote him directly, as he says it so well!

“But equally destructive, if not even more destructive than the virus, is the spirit of division that is so present in our society and manifested itself in horrible ways last week…

We have lots of evil spirits that somehow are destroying the harmony of the nation, making people of different races and cultures and languages and religions afraid of one another.” We need the Lord to cast out the demon of division in our nation.”

“We need the Lord to send his healing into our nation, so that we can see ourselves as one people, united in our one government under the one flag that is a symbol of the unity and preciousness of our democracy."

“Just like Jesus did in his own day we need to be healed of our illnesses and have the spirit of hatred and division cast out. Amen.”

The theme of the 2021 Week of Prayer for CHRISTIAN UNITY is “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit“ (John 15:5-9), and the biblical text is John 15:1-17.

“This year, the theme refers to Jesus’s counsel: ‘Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit.’.

In these days, let us pray together so that Jesus’s desire might be accomplished—that all may be one: unity, that is always superior to conflict.”

In 1964, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council issued its Decree on Ecumenism (Unitatis Redintegratio), and in 1995, St. John Paul II issued Ut Unum Sint, an encyclical letter on commitment to ecumenism. In a 2007 doctrinal note, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith taught that

ecumenism does not have only an institutional dimension aimed at “making the partial communion existing between Christians grow towards full communion in truth and charity.” It is also the task of every member of the faithful, above all by means of prayer, penance, study and cooperation.

Everywhere and always, each Catholic has the right and the duty to give the witness and the full proclamation of his faith. With non-Catholic Christians, Catholics must enter into a respectful dialogue of charity and truth, a dialogue which is not only an exchange of ideas, but also of gifts, in order that the fullness of the means of salvation can be offered to one’s partners in dialogue. In this way, they are led to an ever deeper conversion to Christ.

One of the saddest stories I have read in the on-going pandemic, which has caused our world enough grief, is the senseless death of an Ethiopian migrant who became a symbol of integration in Italy by building a thriving cheese business in the Alpine countryside.  She was brutally  killed on her  goat farm in the Valle dei Mocheni of Italy on December 29, 2020.

A Ghanaian employee on the farm in northern Italy confessed to killing 42-year-oldAGITU IDEO GUDETA  with a hammer in a dispute over an unpaid salary.  .

Agitu who fled Ethiopia in 2010  was seen as a shining migrant success story at a time of rising hostility towards immigrants in Italy. She had escaped from Addis Ababa after angering local authorities by taking part in protests against government 'land-grabbing'.  She had been a university student in Italy, where she studied sociology, so was already fluent in the language.

Her goats were the rare Pezzata Mochena, the ancient piebald race of the high Alpine region near the Austrian border. They come in all goat-colors, but mostly streaked and patched with black or warm red-brown. In 2010, when she bought 15, they were almost extinct; within a decade she had 180, and knew the names and characters of every one of them.

“In Ethiopia I had worked on some projects with nomadic desert shepherds and learned how to raise goats. I thought that with all these pastures it would not be difficult to make good milk.”

She was renowned for making goat's cheese and beauty products on her farm La Capra Felice - the Happy Goat - which was built on previously abandoned land.

On reaching Italy, she was able to use the common land which lay in waste in the northern mountains to build her new enterprise.  The cheeses produced by Capra Felice received several awards over the years, including an award received in 2015 by Cheese, the annual international cheese fair organized by Slow Food.

 'I created my space and made myself known, there was no resistance to me,' she told Reuters in a 2018 interview.

However, the same year she revealed that she had received racial threats, and earlier in 2020 a man was jailed for nine months for injuring her. 

Agitu employed a fellow migrant to help out at her business and was looking to hire at least two more foreigners.  Italians struggled to keep up with the grueling work day, she said, with milking starting at 5 A.M. followed by long hikes through the mountain pastures to tend the goats.  

The Piebald Mochena goat is originally from Valle dei Mocheni, a valley in eastern Trentino in northern Italy inhabited since the end of the 14th century by a population with Bavarian origins. The local goat breed was described as having the current characteristics in the first half of the 20th century. I t is a good sized goat that typically has hooves slightly larger than other breeds. The horns, almost always present, are tapered and sword-like. In most Mochena goats, the coats are of an uneven piebald or streaked pattern, with a black and white striped pattern or red and white pattern both being rather common. The length of the coat varies, with most goats having long wool. Small cheeses of pure goat’s milk or of goat’s milk mixed with cow’s milk are produced from this breed.

A smoked sausage called Kaminwurtz is produced using 60% meat from the Piebald Mochena goat and 40% pork. In 2005, this breed came very close to being lost. Thanks to the Province of Trento, some individual goats were recovered. From these, new Mochena goats could be bred.

The Piebald Mochena Goat Association was born in 2009 to promote and maintain the survival of the breed. Today, there are more than 10 breeders with 300 goats registered. The Piebald Mochena Goat Association, a non-profit organization, is responsible for bringing them all together to the pastures in the summer.

While, in winter, the association redistributes the goats to the various farmers situated from Rovereto to Trento. In Bedollo in autumn, there is a festival that centers on the Mochena goats. During the event, the best examples of the breed are exhibited in various categories, and the best goats are awarded prizes. Counting also the small number of breeders outside of the Association, about one hundred excellent examples of the breed are consistently presented. The main reason this breed is at risk of extinction is the fact that the Piebald Mochena has only an average milk production, less than many other breeds.

                                                               (From Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity)