THE SAINTS: STORIES, IMAGES, MEDITATIONS

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maryjos
00sabato 12 dicembre 2009 19:32


Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
I'm posting this because this apparition of Our Lady is one of my favourites and the depiction, miraculously appearing on the tilma, is, I think, particularly beautiful.


Sorry. ImageShack is messing me about today. May try later.
benefan
00domenica 13 dicembre 2009 07:23

Our Lady of Guadalupe

More than 40 years ago when I finished college, I went to Mexico on a month-long trip and visited the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The old basilica, which faced a bumpy cobblestone plaza, was very crowded with worshippers and tourists. The thing that impressed me most were the many people approaching the basilica on their knees. Our tour guide mentioned that some of them "walked" on their knees for more than a mile. Believe me, that had to hurt. The stones were very lumpy, hard, and uneven. But those worshippers were pious and penitent. They kept moving toward the shrine.

Unfortunately, I suspect such piety is not being practiced today and, with all the drug gang killings and torture going on now in Mexico, the Virgin must be very saddened indeed.



benefan
00lunedì 14 dicembre 2009 07:18

PM's visit to chapel renews Australian saint hopes

(AFP) - Dec. 12, 2009

SYDNEY — Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd attended a Catholic mass at a chapel dedicated to a beatified nun on Sunday, sparking hopes that the country will have its first saint within days.

The surprise visit comes amid media reports that Pope Benedict XVI will soon announce Mary MacKillop, who adherents believe was responsible for several medical miracles, will be canonised.

"It was a private visit -- I'm not going to get into the details of what went on at the church," a spokesman for the prime minister said.

Rudd, a practising Anglican, visited the Pope earlier this year and the pair reportedly discussed MacKillop, who took the first steps on the road to sainthood when she was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

To be canonised, MacKillop must be found to be responsible for two miracles and her followers at the Sisters of St Joseph believe this could happen by the end of the year.

"Excitement is building up, but we need to be careful not to pre-empt things before they actually come out from Rome," Sister Marie Foale said.

"We have been led to believe an announcement is imminent, but that we have no idea just how soon that will be," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

"I think it could mean a great lift to the Catholic Church in Australia. We've never had a saint here before."

News Ltd newspapers reported that Vatican officials, who had already verified that prayers to MacKillop had healed a woman with terminal leukaemia, had cleared her second miracle and that final approval from the Pope was imminent.

The second event being assessed relates to a woman who recovered from an inoperable cancer in 1995, reports said.

Melbourne-born MacKillop co-founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart in 1866 and established schools and charitable institutions devised to meet the difficulties of the fledging Australian colonies.

By the time of her death in 1909, MacKillop led 750 nuns and had 117 schools which taught some 12,400 students and had opened orphanages and homes to care for the homeless and destitute.

Pope Benedict XVI visited MacKillop's memorial chapel in North Sydney during his stay in Australia for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day celebrations in 2008. He was the third Pope to pray at the tomb.


**************


In an age of celebrity, a role model to give church the boost it needs

LINDA MORRIS
Sydney Morning Herald
December 15, 2009

SOMEWHERE in Australia a devout Catholic grandmother is quietly celebrating her against-the-odds survival from terminal cancer, and waiting on Rome's recognition that her cure was no mere fluke.

Just as the Sisters of St Joseph have kept secret for almost half a century the identity of the woman whose cure from leukaemia triggered beatification, they want to protect the identity of the mother of five whose recovery 13 years ago from inoperable lung cancer and secondary cancer of the brain is expected to receive the final sanction of Pope Benedict.

The cure will give Catholics an early Christmas present. All that remains is for the Pope to announce the canonisation and Australia will have its first saint - although the Sisters are playing down this milestone, worried the Vatican might retreat in the face of any hint of triumphalism.

There is no doubt the Catholic Church would receive a fillip from its first Australian saint. Mary MacKillop stands alone as a figure of popular adoration among ordinary Catholics and offers all Australians a role model for selfless service in an age when celebrity and sports stars dominate.

The founder of the order of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, she was excommunicated by her local bishop on the grounds she had incited the sisters to disobedience. She later begged her passage to Rome to seek papal authority for her order over the heads of her bishops. Australians have never been partial to bosses.

Her considerable grassroots following comes not only from within the church's increasingly conservative rump, who see in her the classic image of saintliness, but also from disaffected Catholics who are reminded that being in trouble with the church hierarchy is no barrier to holiness.

The woman of the second cure is religious in a quiet Australian way, devoted to the Blessed (Mother) Mary but not especially pious.

In other words, she is one of the many Australian Catholics, the overwhelming majority, who believe but are not churchgoing. One of Mary's people, the ones the church needs back.



benefan
00venerdì 18 dicembre 2009 17:27

A step toward sainthood for John Paul II?

by John Thavis
Catholic News Service
December 18, 2009

VATICAN CITY — For more than a week, Vatican sources have been predicting that on Saturday Pope Benedict would sign the decree declaring that Pope John Paul II heroically lived the Christian virtues — a major step toward eventual beatification of the late pope.

The decree declaring Pope John Paul “venerable” would confirm a recommendation made by the Congregation for Saints’ Causes after years of study. We reported in November on the congregation’s action here.

It’s premature, but already Vatican officials — and the Roman patrons of my local coffee bar — are talking about a likely beatification ceremony in October of 2010, perhaps on the Oct. 16 anniversary of the late pope’s election in 1978.

Before beatification occurs, however, the Vatican must approve a miracle attributed to Pope John Paul’s intercession. Church experts are already studying a possible miracle, the cure of a French nun from Parkinson’s disease, the same disease from which Pope John Paul suffered.

In 2005, Pope Benedict set Pope John Paul on the fast track to beatification by waiving the normal five-year waiting period for the introduction of his sainthood cause. That seemed to respond to the “Santo subito!” (“Sainthood now!”) banners that were held aloft at Pope John Paul’s funeral. In April, the church will mark the fifth anniversary of Pope John Paul’s death.

The initial diocesan phase of his sainthood cause was completed in April 2007. In November of 2008, a team of theological consultors to the Congregation for Saints’ Causes began studying the 2,000-page “positio,” the document that made the case for beatification. After their favorable judgment, the cardinal and bishop members of the sainthood congregation met last month and gave their go-ahead for the decree of heroic virtues.

The presumed miracle, meanwhile, is being studied in a five-step process that involves medical experts, a medical board, theological consultors, the members of the congregation and, finally, Pope Benedict.

There’s some speculation that Pope Benedict might be ready to approve the miracle along with the heroic virtues. That happens rarely, but it does happen: in December of 2002, Pope John Paul II signed decrees on the same day affirming the heroic virtues of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and a miraculous cure attributed to her intercession. She was beatified the following October.

Pope Benedict on Saturday is also expected to formally recognize the miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Mary MacKillop, the Australian founder of a religious order dedicated to educating the children of the poor.


benefan
00domenica 20 dicembre 2009 19:59

Benedict applies a gentle brake to saint-making

DESMOND O'GRADY, ROME
The Age
December 21, 2009

Mary MacKillop's canonisation will take place under Pope Benedict XVI's policy of restoring solemnity to canonisations.

His approach differs from that of his predecessor, John Paul II, who tended to cancel the distinction between beatification, in which a person's accession to heaven and ability to intercede for others is recognised, and canonisation, in which one becomes a saint.

He believed that as many nations as possible should have their saints, to correct the impression that heaven is populated by Italians, and that they should be as contemporary as possible.

He also believed that lay people and married couples should be canonised to balance the shoals of saints from religious orders.

The result was that he beatified and canonised more people than all his predecessors of the previous four centuries. Joseph Ratzinger, before becoming Benedict XVI, complained publicly that the inflation of saints was devaluing the currency.

John Paul II held many of the ceremonies in St Peter's, but Benedict XVI has encouraged beatifications at local level by bishops of the place where the person died rather than holding them in Rome.

For beatification, one cure for which no scientific explanation can be found is needed, but for canonisation the requirement is a second miracle which must occur after the beatification.

It did not seem a great difference to John Paul II but Benedict XVI has a different perspective.

He has the more traditional view that beatification is a papal concession to allow veneration of the beatified at the local level but that canonisation involves full papal authority in endorsing veneration throughout the church universal.

When Benedict XVI visits Britain early next year he is expected to beatify the 19th-century convert from Anglicanism John Henry Newman, an eloquent defender of the rights of conscience who is much admired by Benedict XVI.

Some candidates are blocked in the saint-recognition process for decades while evidence is gathered or miracles are awaited.

It is exactly a century since the archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Moran, left Mary MacKillop's deathbed expressing the conviction she was a saint.

Evidence began to be gathered in Sydney in 1925 but the case only reached Rome in 1973.

In contrast, 17th-century reformer Pope Innocent XI was on hold for 267 years. He was beatified in 1956.

benefan
00sabato 26 dicembre 2009 16:56

Rescuing a pope's spiritual legacy

Robert Ventresca
National Post
December 26, 2009

Pius XII — popularly vilified as “Hitler’s Pope” — is inching closer to becoming a 21st century saint. There are still some imposing tests to be met, and his canonization is far from certain, but under Pope Benedict XVI, an important step on that long journey has been taken.

Having spent some time studying the contentious issue of Pius XII’s role in the Holocaust, Pope Benedict has clearly seen nothing, even in the Vatican’s private records, that would prevent Pius’s canonization. Pope Benedict believes that Pius, born Eugenio Pacelli, worked constantly but prudently behind the scenes during the war, directing papal representatives and Catholic institutions throughout Europe to shelter and rescue thousands of Jews. This announcement suggests that Benedict intends to use the full weight of the papal office to challenge the public image of the wartime pope.

What makes Benedict’s decision so potentially provocative is that it will challenge the prevailing tendency to reduce Eugenio Pacelli’s long life of service to merely that period during the Second World War. Pius XII’s role during the Holocaust, important as it is, has obscured our view of this man’s broader legacy. After all, Pius XII continued to reign as Roman pontiff for some 13 years after the end of the war. In some respects, it was the Cold War that defined his pontificate. He was an influential scholar, diplomat and theologian, and left a lasting mark on the Church. Little of this is remembered today.

The judgment of history and historians has tended to obscure Pius XII’s spiritual legacy, which Pope Benedict wants to acknowledge. The Church teaches that the “goal of a virtuous life is to become like God.” To say that he exhibited “heroic virtues” in his lifetime is to say that Pius XII gave extraordinary witness in word and deed to the Christian virtues, among them prudence, fortitude and temperance. Above all, it is to say that he made the three theological virtues — faith, hope and charity — the cornerstone of his conscience and activity.

Whether in his renowned asceticism and spirituality; his Eucharistic devotion; his concrete initiatives as a diplomat during the First World War and later as Pope on behalf of POWs and refugees; his prophetic warnings about the evils of pagan nationalism and atheistic materialism; even his cautious response to the many demonstrable crimes of Nazism — in all this, his promoters say, Pius XII practiced the Christian virtues in an extraordinary way.

Caution and prudence often have the feel of indifference or timidity. Pius never explicitly criticized the Third Reich, not even when the Nazis occupied Rome and began to round up the city’s small but ancient Jewish community in October 1943. One thousand Roman Jews were sent to Auschwitz; most were gassed within a week of arriving. All this, it was said, happened “under the Pope’s very window,” without public protest.

In fact, the Pope was not oblivious to the complaints coming from various corners of Nazi-occupied Europe that the Holy See was not responding to the Nazis’ brutality. As he wrote to the German bishops in February 1941, “Where the Pope wants to cry out loud and strong, it is expectation and silence that are unhappily often imposed upon him; where he would act and give assistance, it is patience and waiting [that are imposed].” Pius’s approach — silence, patience and waiting — was to avoid greater evil. This principle of avoiding greater evil was consistent with all of Pius XII’s diplomatic training and careful character. It may even have saved lives.

Pius XII’s oratorical restraint did not equal inaction. Some estimates suggest that Catholic institutions, including Vatican properties, offered shelter or offered assistance to more than 4,000 Roman Jews during the Nazi occupation of Rome. In Budapest, 25,000 Jews were sheltered and survived thanks to the efforts of papal representatives acting with Pius XII’s blessing and material assistance. Through his representatives, Pius XII protested directly and forcefully when the Slovak government began to deport approximately 80,000 Jews to Auschwitz.

Was this enough? More to the point: Was this prudence befit the Vicar of Christ? What if Pius XII had issued a forceful, unequivocal condemnation of Nazism and especially its persecution of Jews? What if the Pope had directed his representatives and all European Catholics to resist actively Nazi policies? How many more lives might have been saved?

It is impossible to provide properly historical answers to such imponderables. It is entirely understandable that for many people, especially Jews, such is not satisfactory. To many, Benedict’s decision to advance the process of Pius’ canonization will appear premature and insensitive, given the many fresh wounds and pronounced scars in Jewish-Catholic relations.

However, Benedict’s actions do not render a final verdict on the open questions about Pius’s wartime activities. Benedict simply suggests that Pius lived as a virtuous man striving in extraordinary ways to be like God. The extent to which he succeeded awaits final judgment.


Robert Ventresca is a historian at King’s University College at the University of Western Ontario. He is working on a biography of Pius XII titled Soldier of Christ: The Political Life of Pope Pius XII.

benefan
00lunedì 28 dicembre 2009 17:13

St. Barbara watches over Detroit's miners

Martyr has shrine in the salt beneath city

BY NIRAJ WARIKOO
DETROIT FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
December 28, 2009

For more than a century, miners have extracted tons of salt 1,200 feet below the surface in southwest Detroit.

Now, they have a saint to look over them at the bottom of Detroit's only rock salt mine.

At Detroit Salt Co., workers installed this year a 3-foot statue of St. Barbara, the 3rd-Century martyr who is the patroness of miners. Lit by three lamps, the basswood image greets employees right after they step off the elevator that spiders down a quarter of a mile below the city's surface.

Connecting God with the Earth -- and the workplace -- the shrine is a unique way to link the divine and material worlds. The salt deposits were created about 400 million years ago from evaporation of ocean water and are now used as road salt in winter.

And so the saint acts as a spiritual force that binds the safety of the miners with the safety of drivers during bad weather.

Shrine makes salt workers feel safer

A sword in her left hand, a chalice in her right, the martyr stands watch over miners deep underground at Detroit Salt Co.

Inside a carved-out section of the mine, St. Barbara stands atop a mound of salt shaped in a heart. Beside her are images of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope John Paul II. Just outside the display are candles lit by miners who seek her protection.

"It's a reminder we're on Earth for a short period of time," said E.Z. Manos, vice president of the company. "Most of us want a good afterlife."

Manos, who has roots in Slovakia, thought of adding the statue after visiting mines in his homeland and Poland that had similar shrines. St. Barbara, whose festival day is Dec. 4, is venerated among Catholics and Orthodox Christians. She's the patron saint of miners, artillerymen and all those who face the risk of sudden, violent death at work.

Mining is a hazardous occupation, most recently evidenced by the deaths of 104 workers in a November mine explosion in China. Europe also has had its share of mining accidents over the years. Accordingly, the idea of having a patron saint to watch over the workforce became popular among some European Catholics.

One notable example is in the salt mine in Wieliczka, a town in southern Poland that Manos visited. The elaborate underground shrine has salt statues of St. Barbara and Pope John Paul II and a depiction of the Last Supper.

In the United States, many miners in the Midwest, including those at Detroit Salt, are Catholics with roots in Europe. Today, the company also employs workers with roots in Laos.

Regardless of background, "if you believe in God, this can help," Manos said.

"We feel safer looking at this," Wally Oslizlo, 33, of Sterling Heights, a mining supervisor, said in front of the shrine.

Peter Graham, 61, of Trenton, director of mining, has worked for 40 years and visited several mines across the United States.

"I've never seen anything like this," Graham said of the shrine. "It gives the place a family atmosphere."

George Davis, a manager at Detroit Salt, is Protestant, but says the saint is for everyone.

"It adds to the morale of the employees," Davis said inside the mine. "It gives a spiritual presence."


Who is St. Barbara?

Historical details are unclear, but St. Barbara is considered a martyr by some Christians. According to some stories, she was the daughter of a rich man, Dioscorus, who kept her in a tower in what is now Turkey. She rejected a marriage offer and became a Christian, upsetting her father. He sentenced her to death and beheaded her. She's often depicted with a chalice in her right hand and a sword in her left. She's the patron saint of artillerymen, miners, mathematicians, prisoners and those who fear lightning, among others.


benefan
00venerdì 1 gennaio 2010 22:59

U.S. Postal Service to Honor Mother Teresa in 2010

POSTED BY TIM DRAKE
National Catholic Register
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 11:22 AM

The U.S. Postal Service has unveiled its postage stamps for 2010. Among them will be a stamp honoring Missionaries of Charity founder, Mother Teresa.

The stamp features a portrait of Mother Teresa painted by award-winning artist Thomas Blackshear II of Colorado Springs, CO.

It is expected that the stamp will be released on August 26, the anniversary of Mother Teresa’s birth.

benefan
00mercoledì 13 gennaio 2010 17:34

Australian woman tells of cure that advanced Blessed MacKillop's cause

By Anthony Barich
Catholic News Service
Jan. 12, 2010

PERTH, Australia (CNS) -- The grandmother of 20 whose cure from cancer was attributed to the miraculous intercession of Blessed Mary MacKillop has spoken to Australian media for the first time about her experience.

Kathleen Evans, 66, of Windale, whose identity had been closely guarded, spoke at the Mary MacKillop Memorial Chapel in Sydney Jan. 11 about the events that led to the second miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed MacKillop, who will be canonized in Rome this year on a date not yet confirmed.

Surrounded by her husband Barry, two of her five children, Annette and Luke, and members of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Sacred Heart -- the order founded by Blessed MacKillop -- Evans, the great-grandmother of two, told how she had smoked since the age of 16 but had stopped in 1990.

Three years later, she was diagnosed with cancer -- a particularly aggressive tumor in her right lung that quickly spread to her glands. Within a few months another tumor was found on her brain. She was told it was inoperable and that chemotherapy and radiation were considered pointless.

"Besides, the odds were just not worth it," she said. "I was only given a couple of months at the most to live so I said thanks but no thanks. All I had left was prayer. I was a great believer in prayer.

"The next few weeks were hard times. I was unable to stay out of bed for any length of time. I would get the shakes so bad that my husband would have to lay on me to ease them down."

She said she could not bathe or shower or use the toilet on her own; she suffered from night sweats and struggled to breathe at times.

"I was in a bad way," she said.

A friend gave her a picture of Mother MacKillop with a piece of her clothing attached with some prayer cards from the St. Joseph Sisters, so Evans, her family and her parish all began praying.

"I'm not one to be on my knees all the time or think I'll go to hell if I miss Mass," said Evans, but confirmed she does attend church regularly. Within two weeks she was able to attend a retreat.

After four months her doctor called for more tests "because, as he said, I just shouldn't be here."

Ten months after her original diagnosis, she was told there was no sign of the cancer, just some scarring where the tumors had been; and though doctors heavily scrutinized her medical records, she has no doubt about what saved her.

"I do believe in miracles," she said, adding that she talks to Blessed MacKillop all the time in prayer and hopes to go to Rome for the canonization ceremony.

"So after all this time I can say I'm still here and very well and enjoying life to the fullest," she said.

On Dec. 19, Pope Benedict XVI formally signed a decree recognizing the second miracle needed for Blessed MacKillop's canonization. The campaign for her canonization began in 1926, 17 years after her death.

The first miracle attributed to her intercession was the 1961 cure of a woman with terminal leukemia. Pope John Paul II beatified Mother MacKillop in 1995.

PapaB83
00domenica 24 gennaio 2010 00:38
Blsd Mother Marianne Cope
Today a statue of Blessed Mother Marianne is being unveiled and blessed at Kaka'ako Beach Park, the place where she originally set up a hospital to care for girls ... 

January 23, 2010
Blessed Mother Marianne Cope (1838-1918)
Though leprosy scared off most people in 19th-century Hawaii, that disease sparked great generosity in the woman who came to be known as Mother Marianne of Molokai. Her courage helped tremendously to improve the lives of its victims in Hawaii, a territory annexed to the United States during her lifetime (1898). Mother Marianne’s generosity and courage were celebrated at her May 14, 2005, beatification in Rome. She was a woman who spoke “the language of truth and love” to the world, said Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints’ Causes. Cardinal Martins, who presided at the beatification Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, called her life “a wonderful work of divine grace.” Speaking of her special love for persons suffering from leprosy, he said, “She saw in them the suffering face of Jesus. Like the Good Samaritan, she became their mother.” On January 23, 1838, a daughter was born to Peter and Barbara Cope of Hessen-Darmstadt, Germany. The girl was named after her mother. Two years later the Cope family immigrated to the United States and settled in Utica, New York. Young Barbara worked in a factory until August 1862, when she went to the Sisters of the Third Order of Saint Francis in Syracuse, New York. After profession in November of the next year, she began teaching at Assumption parish school. Marianne held the post of superior in several places and was twice the novice mistress of her congregation. A natural leader, three different times she was superior of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse, where she learned much that would be useful during her years in Hawaii. Elected provincial in 1877, Mother Marianne was unanimously re-elected in 1881. Two years later the Hawaiian government was searching for someone to run the Kakaako Receiving Station for people suspected of having leprosy. More than 50 religious communities in the United States and Canada were asked. When the request was put to the Syracuse sisters, 35 of them volunteered immediately. On October 22, 1883, Mother Marianne and six other sisters left for Hawaii where they took charge of the Kakaako Receiving Station outside Honolulu; on the island of Maui they also opened a hospital and a school for girls. In 1888, Mother Marianne and two sisters went to Molokai to open a home for “unprotected women and girls” there. The Hawaiian government was quite hesitant to send women for this difficult assignment; they need not have worried about Mother Marianne! On Molokai she took charge of the home that Blessed Damien DeVeuster (d. 1889) had established for men and boys. Mother Marianne changed life on Molokai by introducing cleanliness, pride and fun to the colony. Bright scarves and pretty dresses for the women were part of her approach. Awarded the Royal Order of Kapiolani by the Hawaiian government and celebrated in a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, Mother Marianne continued her work faithfully. Her sisters have attracted vocations among the Hawaiian people and still work on Molokai. Mother Marianne died on August 9, 1918.

Comment:
The government authorities were reluctant to allow Mother Marianne to be a mother on Molokai. Thirty years of dedication proved their fears unfounded. God grants gifts regardless of human short-sightedness and allows those gifts to flower for the sake of the kingdom.Quote:Soon after Mother Marianne died, Mrs. John F. Bowler wrote in the Honolulu Advertiser, “Seldom has the opportunity come to a woman to devote every hour of 30 years to the mothering of people isolated by law from the rest of the world. She risked her own life in all that time, faced everything with unflinching courage and smiled sweetly through it all.”
PapaB83
00domenica 24 gennaio 2010 00:47
Local Report on the statue of Mother Marianne Cope
Our Vicar General, Fr. Marc Alexander reported on the ceremony on his blog.  Here's the link to read the story with photos.

http://musingsfromthepacific.blogspot.com/

PapaB83
00martedì 26 gennaio 2010 22:54
More Blessed Marianne
http://musingsfromthepacific.blogspot.com/

Our Vicar General Fr Marc Alexander has posted three videos of the gathering at Kaka'ako Beach Park where a statue of Mother Marianne was unveiled and blessed.  Click on the link above to view the videos.  The first one is a brief interview with the artist and the other two feature our Bishop Larry Silva.

See the nice weather?

Enchoy ....
PapaB83
00mercoledì 3 febbraio 2010 17:34
St Blase Day!
From a Saint of the Day email I receive - St Anthony Messenger Press

We know more about the devotion to St. Blase by Christians around the world than we know about the saint himself. His feast is observed as a holy day in some Eastern Churches. The Council of Oxford, in 1222, prohibited servile labor in England on Blase’s feast day. The Germans and Slavs hold him in special honor and for decades many United States Catholics have sought the annual St. Blase blessing for their throats

We know that Bishop Blase was martyred in his episcopal city of Sebastea, Armenia, in 316. The legendary Acts of St. Blase were written 400 years later. According to them Blase was a good bishop, working hard to encourage the spiritual and physical health of his people. Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. Blase was apparently forced to flee to the back country. There he lived as a hermit in solitude and prayer, but made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blase’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.

As the hunters hauled Blase off to prison, the legend has it, a mother came with her young son who had a fish bone lodged in his throat. At Blase’s command the child was able to cough up the bone.

Agricolaus, governor of Cappadocia, tried to persuade Blase to sacrifice to pagan idols. The first time Blase refused, he was beaten. The next time he was suspended from a tree and his flesh torn with iron combs or rakes. (English wool combers, who used similar iron combs, took Blase as their patron. They could easily appreciate the agony the saint underwent.) Finally he was beheaded.

Off to Mass to get my throat blessed .... I like it that the ritual prayer is for relief "from all ailments of the throat and EVERY OTHER EVIL ...  so, we all could use a blessing of the Church today.  Aloha
benefan
00venerdì 19 febbraio 2010 15:28

Mother Mary MacKillop becomes 1st Australian saint

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON,
Associated Press Writer
Feb. 19, 2010

VATICAN CITY – Pope Benedict XVI approved sainthood for Mother Mary MacKillop on Friday, making the woman known for her work among the needy Australia's first saint.

The pope made the announcement during a ceremony at the Vatican and set the formal canonization for Oct. 17 in Rome. Five others — from Italy, Spain, Poland and Canada — will be canonized at the same time.

MacKillop founded the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, an order that built dozens of schools for impoverished children across the Australian Outback in the 1800s, as well as orphanages and clinics for the needy.

With vows of abstinence from owning personal belongings and dedication to helping the poor, MacKillop is credited with spreading Roman Catholicism in Australia and New Zealand.

But she was a strong-willed advocate who sometimes got into trouble for challenging orthodox thinking within the male-dominated church. In 1869 she was excommunicated for inciting her followers to disobedience, though the bishop who punished her recanted three years later and she was exonerated by a church commission.

"This is a great, great tribute to the Catholic church and a great, great tribute to her hard work in education," Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Friday. "This is a great honor for Australia. I offer a heartfelt expression of appreciation to the wider Catholic community."

MacKillop died in 1909 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1995.

Sainthood was also approved for Stanislaw Soltys, a 15th-century Polish priest; Italian nuns Giulia Salzano and Battista Varano; Spanish nun Candida Maria de Jesus Cipitria y Barriola and a Canadian brother, Andre Bessette.

Bessette, who died in 1937, was a highly popular figure among French Canadians and was known for miraculous cures.

Australians have been awaiting Friday's announcement since Benedict in December cleared the way by declaring MacKillop was responsible for the required second miracle, one of the final steps in the complex process before sainthood can be bestowed.

"It's more than just Catholics, the whole country has a new hero — someone that will give them hope for the future," said Garry McLean, CEO of the Mary MacKillop Heritage Center in Melbourne.

"Today it has been recognized that a woman can become a saint in the Australian environment with all its complexities and challenges," Postulator for the Cause of Mary MacKillop, Sister Maria Casey, said in a statement. "Mary MacKillop is to be listed among the saints of the Catholic Church. I look forward to the celebration of her goodness when many pilgrims from all over the world come to Rome for the ceremony."


benefan
00domenica 21 febbraio 2010 03:18

Announcement of Brother André’s canonization causes elated reaction

Ottawa, Canada, Feb 19, 2010 / 06:55 pm (CNA).- The announcement of Bl. Brother André’s Oct. 17 canonization has caused a grateful reaction and much anticipation among Catholics and Canadians devoted to the humble porter who showed great devotion to St. Joseph.

Pope Benedict XVI announced Br. André’s pending canonization in the Consistory Hall of Vatican City on Friday. The Oratory of Mt. Royal in Montreal said that his audience included priests and brothers of the blessed’s order, the Congregation of Holy Cross. They were joined by members of the Oratory and members of the Archdiocese of Montreal.

Those gathered showed elation and greeted the announcement with “warm applause.”

Fr. Hugh Cleary, CSC, Superior General of the Congregation of Holy Cross, and Rector of St. Joseph’s oratory, Fr. Claude Group, CSC, were part of the delegation, as was Canadian Ambassador to the Holy See Anne Leahy.

Cardinal Jean-Claude Turcotte, Archbishop of Montreal, discussed the announcement at a press conference at St. Joseph’s Oratory. He said the announcement was “the best thing that could have happened this year for the Church of Montreal.”

“I have always been impressed by this man, both a humble man and a visionary, a man of deep faith. An example of determination, still relevant today in 2010,” the cardinal said of the soon-to-be saint.

Fr. Jean-Pierre Aumont, Canadian Provincial Superior of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, called the announcement a “wonderful gift” that will be received with “delight” by Br. André’s beneficiaries and supporters.

“For the religious of Holy Cross, it represents more than ever a source of inspiration, a model of faith and trust in God and in the human condition. He shows us how to envision great things and how to look toward the future!”

Bishop Pierre Morissette of Saint-Jérôme, speaking in his role as President of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB), said Friday that the bishops of Canada welcomed the Pope’s announcement.

“Brother André lived his life with great humility. Guided by a deep faith and devotion to Saint Joseph, he dedicated his life to praying, serving the poor, welcoming strangers, healing the sick and comforting the suffering,” the bishop commented. “To this day, his memory remains an important witness to all Canadians of faith and love.”

Bishop Morissette cited Pope Benedict’s comments that each saint is unique in his or her own way but all of them have been “impressed with the ‘seal’ of Jesus or the imprint of his love witnessed through the Cross.”

The bishop’s statement closed with the hope that Brother André’s canonization will be “a moment of rejoicing” throughout Canada and that his legacy can remind us of the achievements possible through faith and love.

Bishop Morrissette quoted Brother André’s own words: “It is with the smallest brushes that the artists paint the most beautiful pictures.”

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a Friday statement said he joins Catholics, Quebecers and all Canadians in welcoming the news of Brother André’s canonization.

“Brother André’s life shows us the power of faith and the importance of concern for the sick and others in need. In this solemn act, the Roman Catholic Church is honoring a Canadian who achieved greatness through humility, determination and service to others.

“Brother André’s devotion to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Canada, led to the building of the magnificent Oratory on Mount Royal. Today’s news heightens the inspiration we feel on seeing that religious landmark, a symbol and center of faith in Montreal and all of Canada.”

Blessed André was born Alfred Bessette to a poor Quebec family in 1845, a biography from St. Joseph’s Oratory says. His father died in a work accident when he was nine, and his mother died three years later. His large family was split up and the future Brother André, barely literate and physically weak from birth, moved from job to job for years.

In 1870 he presented himself as a candidate for the novitiate of the Congregation of Holy Cross in Montreal. He was made porter at Notre-Dame College, where his daily tasks consisted of washing floors and windows, cleaning lamps, carrying firewood and working as a messenger.

He welcomed the sick and heartbroken, inviting them to pray to St. Joseph. His reputation grew as people reported that their prayers had been answered. He received visitors regularly for twenty-five years. Out of devotion to St. Joseph, he built a chapel with help from friends and money he earned from giving haircuts to students.

Larger versions of the chapel were constructed as more and more pilgrims came.

Brother André died in 1937. Over a million people attended his wake and burial.

A series of religious and cultural celebrations linked to his upcoming canonization will be announced soon for both Rome and Montreal, the Oratory of Mt. Royal reported.



PapaB83
00giovedì 25 febbraio 2010 16:26
MOLOKAI Feb-24-2010 (850 words) xxxn

Island of Molokai has spiritual connection to priestly fraternity


Father Thierry de Roucy and Father Gonzague Leroux of the Priestly Fraternity of Molokai stand in front of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu by a plaque that notes the priestly ordination of St. Damien of Molokai in 1864. (CNS/Anna Weaver, Hawaii Catholic Herald)

By Patrick Downes
Catholic News Service

HONOLULU (CNS) -- No member of the Priestly Fraternity of Molokai had ever been there. Until January.

Father Thierry de Roucy, founder of the fraternity, and Father Gonzague Leroux visited the island made famous by the ministry of St. Damien of Molokai to leprosy patients there.

Until then, the Molokai connection had been purely spiritual -- but part of something much bigger.

That something bigger is Heart's Home, an international Catholic movement that spreads what it calls a "culture of compassion" to impoverished places around the world through mostly lay volunteers living in prayerful communities.

Father de Roucy and Father Leroux came to Molokai to scout out facilities for a retreat in August for 30 to 35 members of Heart's Home.

Father de Roucy, who has a soft, quiet smile, said he envisioned the organization in a literal "flash" of inspiration.

It came to him on Jan. 4, 1990, more than six years after his ordination as a member of the Congregation of the Servants of Jesus and Mary. The French priest was saying the rosary after lunch outside his monastery. He was on the first joyful mystery, the Annunciation, when the idea "to start a community for the poorest and most suffering in the world" descended upon him like "a light."

The idea was to open "houses of compassion" in destitute areas to serve the poor, particularly children, by visiting them and keeping an open door.

"My idea was not to found schools, hospitals or orphanages," Father de Roucy told the Hawaii Catholic Herald, newspaper of the Diocese of Honolulu, "but to open a simple house and welcome them during the day and be their friend."

Father de Roucy, now 52, opened his first two homes in South America with a dozen volunteers and the help of two bishop friends, one in Sao Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, the other in Parana, Argentina.

The volunteers were mostly young laymen and women in their 20s, recruited mainly by word of mouth for one or two years of service.

The priest described the communities as "contemplative" with a daily holy hour, rosary, evening prayer and Mass.

As Heart's Home grew and drew in more people, some volunteers wanted to make their commitment more permanent than that of a lay missionary.

"They wanted to grow in their faith and intimacy with Jesus," Father de Roucy said. They wanted to take vows, be ordained and dedicate their lives to the movement's mission of compassion.

That led to the development of four new branches of Heart's Home:

-- St. Maximilian Kolbe fraternities live Heart's Home's charism of compassion in their daily lives whatever occupation members have.

-- Permanent members take a vow of celibacy and dedicate their lives to Heart's Home apostolic mission.

-- The Servants of God's Presence are women who live the Heart's Home charism within a religious congregation. A total of 30 sisters live in communities of five or six each.

-- The Sacerdotal Molokai Fraternity is made up of priests who carry out their ministry in accordance with Heart's Home's mission.


Today the movement has 35 houses and two Heart's Home villages in about 20 countries. It has 175 missionaries, 54 permanent volunteers and nine employees. More than 1,200 volunteers have served since 1990.

Financial support comes from sponsors and donations. At some locations, volunteers have part-time jobs.

In the U.S. Heart's Home has one home in the United States, in Brooklyn, N.Y., and is planning another in the San Francisco Bay Area, probably in Oakland, Calif.

Father Leroux, who is also French, is one of the newest members of the priestly fraternity. He said he heard the call to the priesthood while volunteering with Heart's Home in "a very deprived area" of Kazakhstan.

He joined the organization in Argentina in 1996 while studying for a master's degree in biology there. He met Father de Roucy in 1997 and decided to volunteer.

"The experience was very tough," Father Leroux said about Kazakhstan. The former Soviet country was poor, he said, but the real affliction was not poverty but "hopelessness."

Volunteers were treated with suspicion because children left their presence happy, he said, recalling that one man came to the house because he wanted to learn "how to be a father" so he could make his children smile.

Before their visit to Molokai, the two priests had only known about the island through photos and books. They found it beautiful but liked the people more. They found a "great spirit of hospitality" among the residents, Father Leroux said.

"It is a good community," he said. "People support one another a lot."

Father de Roucy said he chose the name "Molokai" for the priestly fraternity after he prayed for a name and what came to him was that of St. Damien of Molokai. But he decided to use the place where the Belgian missionary served.

"I am sure that without Molokai, Father Damien would not be a saint," he said. "The people sanctify us. The people provoke our hearts to give totally. The place provokes us to be a saint, the people of the place."
PapaB83
00domenica 14 marzo 2010 05:00

"One Step Closer"

With sin and scandal dominating the headlines these days, seems a good time to recall those who've done things right.

In recent days, movement's been reported on two causes of sainthood on these shores. And in a unique twist, both have a special import for the nation's African-American Catholics -- a contingent estimated at some 3 million souls.

First, Chicago officials have begun a push for the beatification of the nation's first Black priest, Fr Augustus Tolton (1854-97), who was ordained for the diocese of Quincy (now Springfield) in 1886...
Father Tolton was born into slavery. His parents, Peter and Martha Tolton, were slaves living in Brush Creek, Mo. They were married in a Catholic ceremony and had three children: Charles, Augustine and Anne. Augustine was born into the Catholic faith. His baptismal records at St. Peter’s Church in Sidney, Mo., read “A colored child born April 1, 1854. Son of Peter Tolton and Martha Chisley, Property of Stephen Eliot,” according to “From Slave to Priest,” a biography of Father Tolton’s life by Sister Caroline Hemesath....

When Augustine was 11, his mother enrolled him in St. Boniface School during the winter months when work at the cigar factory dropped off. His mother pulled him from school after only one month when the parish priest and sisters received harassment and anonymous threats because of Augustine’s presence.

His mother enrolled him in public school. But three years later, the pastor of nearby St. Peter’s Church told Augustine and his mother that the boy could attend St. Peter’s School. Here he became an altar server.

It was during this time that Augustine began to feel he had a vocation to the priesthood. Father Peter McGirr, the pastor at St. Peter’s, approached Augustine about the idea and helped him along this journey, a journey that would be difficult and have many roadblocks.

They wrote to all the seminaries in the United States, according to “From Slave to Priest” and received negative responses. They also tried the Franciscans and Josephites to no avail.

Meanwhile, several of the local priests took to educating and training Augustine for the seminary on the side.

After several years, they appealed to the College of the Propagation of the Faith in Rome, a pontifical college that trained and ordained priests for missionary work around the world. They thought Augustine could become a missionary in Africa.

In February of 1880, Augustine left for Rome. After six years of study, he was ordained on April 24, 1886, at St. John Lateran Basilica in Rome. The day before his ordination, which was Good Friday, there was a change in plans. Augustine would not be ministering in Africa. Instead, officials of the college felt he should be a missionary in his own country. They felt it was time America had its own black priest.

According to reports, this devastated Father Tolton because he knew the climate he was going back to and the amount of racism he would face in America. But he went, uniting his future suffering with Jesus. Father Tolton returned to Quincy and celebrated his first Mass at home on July 18, 1886, at St. Boniface Church. He was assigned pastor of St. Joseph Church, a black parish affiliated with St. Boniface.

Despite fervent efforts to minister to his congregation, racism and anti-Catholicism hindered his ministry. Soon it all intensified and Father Tolton appealed to his superiors to accept an invitation from Archbishop Patrick Feehan in Chicago to minister to black Catholics here. His appeal was finally granted. Father Tolton boarded a train for Chicago in December 1889.

At the time, St. Mary Church at Ninth and Wabash was the hub for black Catholics in Chicago. In 1882 they celebrated their first Mass as a congregation in the church’s basement. It became known as St. Augustine Church after the name of the St. Augustine Society, the black Catholic apostolate in the archdiocese.

Once the apostolate had its own priest, their numbers swelled and they needed a church of their own. Archbishop Feehan granted permission for Father Tolton to open a storefront church in the 2200 block of South Indiana in 1891, which would later be known as St. Monica’s Church.

In the early 1890s, Father Tolton and the now-St. Katharine Drexel corresponded and St. Katharine’s community provided financial support for Father Tolton’s Chicago parish.

Father Tolton worked tirelessly for his congregation in Chicago, to the point of exhaustion, and on July 9, 1897 he died of heat stroke while returning from a priests’ retreat. He was 43. His death shocked the black Catholic community of the city and left a hole at St. Monica’s. Father Tolton’s body was returned to Quincy for burial in St. Peter’s Cemetery, where it remains today.
benefan
00venerdì 19 marzo 2010 02:33

MOTHER TERESA SHOWS FAMILIES HOW TO BE HOLY

Interview With Author Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle

By Genevieve Pollock

NEW YORK, MARCH 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Mother Teresa encouraged working with the poor not only in the slums of India, but primarily in our own families, says the author of a new book about the nun.

Donna-Marie Cooper O'Boyle is the author of the recently published "Mother Teresa and Me: Ten Years of Friendship" (Circle Press).

She spoke with ZENIT about her experiences with Mother Teresa, now recognized as Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, and the ways in which the nun taught the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation she founded, and others to love Christ in the poor.

Mother Teresa encouraged O'Boyle, a wife and mother, to live her vocation well and to help other families thrive. Over the years, the author has also written other books with this goal, including "The Heart of Motherhood: Finding Holiness in the Catholic Home," "The Domestic Church: Room By Room," and "Grace Cafe: Serving Up Recipes for Faithful Mothering."

As well, she is a host for Eternal Word Television Network, and will soon be premiering a new series, "Everyday Blessings for Catholic Moms."

O'Boyle has written for several newspapers and magazines, and maintains various personal blogs, including a new saints' Web site for youth.

In this interview with ZENIT, she spoke about the holiness of Mother Teresa, and the ways in which her teachings can be implemented in families today.

ZENIT: In one point in your book, you talk about Mother Teresa's unshakeable faith coupled with a feisty attitude; in another part you mention that she was called extraordinarily ordinary. Yet you also say that you have no doubt about Mother Teresa's eventual canonization. What makes you so certain? How does the normality of your relationship affect your belief that she is a saint?

O'Boyle: My relationship with Mother Teresa was certainly normal but I feel that it was extraordinary as well because I never had a doubt that I was visiting and corresponding with a living saint.

I saw great holiness in everything about Mother Teresa -- in her speech, her posture, her demeanor, the "glow' about her that radiated Christ's love, peace, and joy.

I knew that she truly lived the Gospel of Matthew: "Whatever you do to the least of these that are in my family, you do to me."

She lived her life, her every moment to satiate the thirst of Christ for souls.

She prayed that Jesus would live through her while she also served the Jesus living in all she met, which of course was from that same Gospel message (Matthew 25: 31-46): "You did it to me." Since her life echoed the crux of that passage I just knew that she was an absolute living saint who brought countless souls to God.

I also knew about her deep prayer life centered on the Eucharist as well as her intimate devotion to our Blessed Mother.

And even with all of this holiness, she wasn't an abstract saint from hundreds of years ago and no stranger to the realities of modern life. She met each person right where they were coming from and ministered to them at their unique level and state of life.

ZENIT: You describe how Mother Teresa saw Jesus in the face of each poor person, and this was the reason behind all of the work that she did and taught her Missionaries of Charity to do. How did she teach people to see others in this way? Many of us have a hard time seeing Jesus in our own family members, let alone the social outcasts of the world. Is there something she told you that helped you to understand her secret?

O'Boyle: Yes, the answer is very simple: Jesus taught us all how to see him in others in the Gospel of Matthew.

He taught us that everything we do to others we do to Jesus. Mother Teresa believed this concept wholeheartedly and served Our Lord in everyone.

Mother Teresa often said that it is far easier to serve or love Jesus in strangers and outcasts than it is to serve him in our own families, easier to give a dish of rice to a poor person on the other side of the world or to a complete stranger than to give that "dish of rice" to someone who is starving for love right under our own roof.

In very simple ways, she taught others to do the same as she did. She would simply raise up her hand and holding up each finger she would say, "You-did-it-to- me," in this manner teaching us that we can even be reminded of our duty to love Jesus in others every time we look upon our hands.

ZENIT: So many of us are surrounded by those "creature comforts" that Mother Teresa rejected for herself and her missionaries. Yet, especially when the economy is tough, we could all use her example of trust in Divine providence. Could you say more about the way she lived this virtue, and how modern families can live it as well?

O'Boyle: Blessed Mother Teresa would not own or use anything that she considered to be unnecessary or extravagant in her daily life and would not allow the Missionary of Charity Sisters to either.

She believed that they shouldn't own or use anything that the poor didn't own themselves.

They don't use the things that we might consider to be staple items, such as carpeting, hot water, and fans or air conditioning.

She wanted the sisters to truly understand the plight of the poor and also felt that to be free of belongings would also allow the soul to be free to cling to Our Lord for everything, as well as help one to develop a deeper and more genuine love for God.

Modern day families might consider how they can live with a little less.

If we had less material objects to worry about, we might find that we have more time to tend to essential things and to be more present to one another.

Families today can pray together for an increase in faith, hope, and love. They can pray to offer their lives to God in full surrender, accepting God's holy will in their lives, asking him for all of their needs.

As Mother Teresa and her nuns have felt a deep freedom in giving their lives completely over to God and accepting whatever he gives them, families can strive to emulate that virtuous way of living as well.

ZENIT: Mother Teresa told you that your first apostolate should be to your family, husband and children, and she also placed importance on your writing for mothers, women and families. Why do you think she emphasized this?

O'Boyle: Mother Teresa often said, "Love begins at home."

That's where God puts us -- right in the middle of our family's life, right in the heart of the home. She instructed others to focus on the ones that are in our midst, starting with our families and then to reach out to others in need.

She knew that we shouldn't run off to do charity work when we may have family members at home needing our presence.

Yes, Mother Teresa encouraged me to write for women and families because she was acutely aware of the breakdown of the family in our day and the fact that we need to help and encourage the family -- the vital cell of society.

We need to steer mothers and women in the right direction so that families will be protected from further breakdown.

Mothers and women in general can use much encouragement in a world that tears down the family, promotes killing our own unborn children through abortion and abortifacients, and euthanizing the elderly. We must pray and help the family.

ZENIT: You often brought your children, even at a young age, while following Mother Teresa in different venues around the country. How did you see your children affected by their nearness to holy people? Did they ever protest these religious events?

O'Boyle: I always felt that I should bring my children as near to holiness as possible as I raised them.

I brought my children to daily Mass whenever I could, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and near to any living "saint" I knew!

They never protested. It was their way of life. We must train our children in lives of holiness and prayer so that it will become as natural as breathing to them.

ZENIT: Mother Teresa said that we need to take care of the poor in our own homes first, but it seems easier sometimes to send a monetary donation to Haiti. How would she suggest that we go about taking those steps toward reaching out to the "poor" around us?

O'Boyle: "Love begins at home," she would say.

It is much easier to write out a check or even venture out to do charity work in some far-off land but it would be wrong to neglect our own families in the process.

To reach out to the "poor" around us we only need to open our eyes and hearts to see where there is a need.

Do we have a child that requires more of us, a spouse who feels neglected? Is there someone who is cranky but is really starving for our love? Do we have elderly parents who are lonely and crave a visit or some attention?

We have to trust Our Lord that he knows what he is doing in putting us together with our family members and neighbors. We all help to work out one another's sanctification too.

I believe that it starts first thing in the morning in the words of the Morning Offering, giving everything over to Our Lord so that he will sanctify all of our prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of the day.

We must also respond with love to each person we meet along the way, particularly the ones who contradict us, antagonize us and annoy us!

God calls us to holiness in the here and now of our lives right in the nitty-gritty details.

The_Bood
00venerdì 16 luglio 2010 21:29
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL


O most beautiful Flower of Mt. Carmel, Fruitful Vine, Splendour of Heaven,
Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in this my
necessity. O Star of the Sea, help me and show me herein you are my Mother. O
holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth, I humbly beseech you from
the bottom of my heart, to succour me in this necessity; there are none that can
withstand your power.
Amen



PapaBear84
00lunedì 19 luglio 2010 23:49
Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha ...
Kateri is symbol of enduring tie between Catholicism, native peoples


A prayer for the canonization of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha appears behind a statue of her inside St. Peter's Chapel on the grounds of the shrine dedicated to the 17th-century American Indian maiden in Fonda, N.Y. (CNS/Nancy Wiechec)

By Nancy Wiechec
Catholic News Service

FONDA, N.Y. (CNS) -- Under a rustic pavilion a popular hymn of gratitude for God's creation is being sung at the start of Sunday Mass. Nearby, smoke from burning sweet grass and sage hangs in the air as a powwow gets under way.

At the National Shrine of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, there is an enduring connection between Catholicism and the indigenous people of this land.

Blessed Kateri, the Mohawk-Algonquin woman who would be the first American Indian saint, was born and baptized in the area in the mid-1600s.

Situated on 200 acres of wooded land on the north bank of the Mohawk River, the shrine is a testament to the young Indian maiden, who despite objections from some in her own clan, came to know and love Christ.

"This is the most peaceful place I know," said Marian Sarchet, a Fonda Catholic who frequents the shrine.

The focal point is St. Peter's Chapel, a converted barn adorned with Christian and Indian art and objects. Below the chapel, a museum features American Indian artifacts. On display is a model of the 17th-century village of Caughnawaga, the settlement where Kateri is believed to have lived on a hill above the present-day chapel. A rare image of her painted by her spiritual director following her death is also part of the exhibit.

When American Indians visit, they often drop tobacco leaves at the Caughnawaga site as an offering and sign of respect. At an adjacent spring, the place where Blessed Kateri was probably baptized, Catholics leave prayers, sometimes rosaries and devotional medals.

Conventual Franciscan Brother James Amrhein, acting administrator of the shrine, said many people come here with one burning question: "They want to know when she is going to be canonized."

He said he explains that the sainthood process is usually a lengthy one, and then adds, "Soon, we hope and pray."

Msgr. Paul A. Lenz, vice postulator for Blessed Kateri's cause, is among those waiting for news from the Vatican about a final miracle to be validated before she can be declared a saint.

Documentation supporting a healing through her intercession was sent to the Vatican in July last year.

The case is still pending, but "very hopeful," Msgr. Lenz said.

Kateri Tekakwitha died April 17, 1680, at a mission near Montreal. Records indicate she was about 24 years old.

American Indians have made appeals to the church for her recognition since at least the late 1800s. Documentation for her cause of beatification was sent to the Vatican in 1932. She was declared venerable in 1942 and beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1980.

The memorial to Kateri in Fonda was established in 1938.

Theresa Steele, a Canadian-born member of the Algonquin nation, sits on the Fonda shrine's board of directors. She has known Kateri's story since childhood.

"I grew up thinking of her as a saint, because that's how my people revered her," said Steele. "We've always seen her that way."

Kateri was not the only member of her community to embrace Christianity during a colonial time fraught with conflict and struggle for native tribes. But she was remarkable, even to her older, more educated Jesuit mentors at the Caughnawaga mission.

Her deep faith, joy, spirituality and generosity were well noted by the Jesuit missionaries, said Msgr. Lenz. "She so vividly lived the life of a holy person."

When she worked in the fields, he said, she would carry a cross out as a source for contemplation. Her last words were reported to be, "Jesus, I love you."

Orphaned at age 4 during a smallpox epidemic, Kateri was left pockmarked and nearly blind by the disease. Later, when she embraced Christian meditation and prayer and refused to marry, she was the subject of scorn by other Mohawks. She was taken from Caughnawaga to a Mohawk Catholic mission in Canada for her own safety. There she taught prayers to children and tended to the sick and elderly.

Steele, who portrays Blessed Kateri in a one-woman dramatization, said Kateri viewed her own troubles as minor when compared to the sufferings of Christ.

Blessed Kateri's example is one of "perseverance," she said, "and love of our creator, love of one another, love (of) our mother earth and all of creation."

The U.S. church marks her feast July 14. She is listed as patron of American Indians, ecology and the environment and is held up as a model for Catholic youths.
The_Bood
00martedì 20 luglio 2010 19:44
Thanks for sharing that beautiful article PapaBear. I've always been curious about Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha. [SM=g27811]

maryjos
00mercoledì 21 luglio 2010 22:17


LILY OF THE MOHAWKS

Here is a prayer card of Blessed Kateri. EWTN has a lovely little film about her; it's often used between the main programmes.
maryjos
00martedì 3 agosto 2010 23:52
NOVENA TO SAINT CLARE
Please join us in praying the nine day Novena to Our Holy Mother Saint Clare.

Novena Prayer to Saint Clare

Faithful Saint Clare, daughter of
the Church, friend and confidante
of Popes, intercede for holy Church.
Look graciously from heaven on our holy father Pope Benedict.
Enlighten us to remove from our souls all that hinders the progress
of the Church on earth.
Grant that we may share your great love for the Church of God and
spread His kingdom on earth by a holy life.
You who worked miracles in the
presence of the Popes on earth,
obtain for us the graces we need,
now that you stand in the presence
of the most high God in heaven.
Amen.

Peace and good,

The Spokane Poor Clare Sisters

PapaBear84
00venerdì 6 agosto 2010 06:44
Sta Maria Magiore ...
With flower-petal 'snow,' Cardinal Law leads Mass at St. Mary Major


White flower pedals fall around Cardinal Bernard F. Law as he celebrates Mass at the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome Aug. 5 to mark the feast of the church's dedication. (CNS/Paul Haring)

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Romans and pilgrims, including hundreds of German altar servers in Rome for a pilgrimage, packed the Basilica of St. Mary Major to mark the feast of the church's dedication and to watch "snow" fall from the ceiling.

The Mass was celebrated as normal Aug. 5 by U.S. Cardinal Bernard F. Law, archpriest of the basilica, even though three U.S.-based groups who represent victims of clerical sex abuse had asked the cardinal to step aside and called on Pope Benedict XVI to remove him from office.

The groups made their appeals in a public statement Aug. 4.

Cardinal Law resigned as archbishop of Boston in 2002 amid criticism of his handling of clergy sex abuse cases; Pope John Paul II named him archpriest of St. Mary Major in 2004.

During the singing of the "Gloria" at the beginning of the Mass, two basilica employees hiding in the space between the coffered ceiling and the roof moved one of the ceiling panels and released thousands of white flower petals on worshippers.

The feast of the basilica's dedication is also the feast of Our Lady of the Snows, commemorating the tradition that says Mary indicated where she wanted the basilica built using the miracle of an August snow in Rome.

No protesters were seen at the Mass or outside the basilica, and during the liturgy the cardinal made no mention of the U.S. groups' appeal.
benefan
00martedì 10 agosto 2010 06:22

Australia prepares for Blessed Mary MacKillop's canonization in October

Rome, Italy, Aug 9, 2010 / 02:09 pm (CNA).- Great excitement is emanating from Australia as the date for the canonization of Blessed Mary MacKillop approaches. She will be officially welcomed into the ranks of the saints by Pope Benedict XVI in a little over two months.

Bl. Mary MacKillop, the foundress of the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, will become Australia's first saint when she is canonized in Rome along with five others on Oct. 17. Included among the other five is Blessed Andre Bessette of Montreal.

The Archdiocese of Sydney has acclaimed Blessed MacKillop's canonization as "a milestone in our nation's history" and "an uplifting and celebratory occasion," promoting her influence and legacy on the entire population of the island continent.

"Mary epitomizes the strength of our forebears which made Australia the nation it is today," according to the archdiocese.

Catholics in Sydney will be celebrating a feast day Mass late in the afternoon at St. Mary's Cathedral in the heart of the city before the canonization ceremony is televised there. In traditional Aussie fashion, a "sausage sizzle" will accompany the viewing.

AAP reported that further south, Archbishop of Melbourne Denis J. Hart announced over the weekend that a morning Eucharistic Celebration will take place at St. Patrick's Cathedral and will be followed by a "colorful procession" beginning at Blessed MacKillop's first home.

The Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens, will be the venue for music and entertainment, a prayer service, followed by the live feed of the ceremony from Rome.

The canonization ceremony, which will celebrated in Rome in the morning, is to be broadcast after 7 p.m. Australian time. The ceremony will consist of a brief biography read about each of the candidates for sainthood, the presentation of readings or prayers, and then Pope Benedict XVI will proceed with the Rite of Canonization.

The canonization is also drawing interest from outside the Church. For example, social network www.xt3.com launched an initiative at the end of July called the "Looking for Mary" video competition. From Aug. 18 to Sept. 20, participants will be able to submit a two to three minute video on how they see Blessed MacKillop in the world. A $5,000 cash prize will go to the winner.

benefan
00mercoledì 18 agosto 2010 21:53

MOTHER TERESA WASN'T AFRAID TO DIE

World Commemorates Centenary of Saint

By Renzo Allegri

ROME, AUG. 18, 2010 (Zenit.org).- In many parts of the world events are under way to recall the centenary of Mother Teresa's birth on Aug. 26, 1910.

Great ceremonies are taking place in Calcutta, India, where Mother lived for the greater part of her earthly existence and where she is buried. The little initiatives are very numerous in Albania, where she was born, but everywhere, at the popular level, in parishes and in volunteer workers associations, above all organized by young people to remember this extraordinary figure.

Together with Padre Pio and John Paul II, Mother Teresa was one of the persons who profoundly marked the history of Christianity of our time: Padre Pio, with the flame of his lofty mystical experience; John Paul II with the impetuous wind of action and continuous apostolic journeys; Mother Teresa with love, naked and absolute, towards the least. Their activities, their teachings, their example touched believers and non-believers, and continue to be vivid.

All those who knew Mother Teresa are in possession of extraordinary memories, especially the persons who lived close to her. But also journalists who approached her for work.

In fact, we journalists, thanks to our profession, find ourselves meeting the most disparate personalities. For forty years I was the special envoy of important weeklies and have known and interviewed an endless crowd of famous persons: artists, politicians, scientists, sports champions, stars of the entertainment world, protagonists of news events, murderers and also saints.

Among the saints were Padre Pio, Mother Teresa, John XXIII, but also others whose process of beatification is underway, such as John Paul II, Mother Speranza, Giorgio La Pira, Marcello Candia, Friar Cecilio Cortinovis and others. I have written articles and also books on all of them.

I have special memories of them all, because these persons have an irresistible charism, and once known it is impossible to forget them. They represent life in its essential and eternal meaning, and transmit hopes that go beyond the barriers of time. Above all, the most vivid memory is that linked to Mother Teresa.

By a series of strange coincidences, I had several meetings, long conversations, trips by car with her. I can say that I have profound affection for her, and she showed me such benevolence, which I judged to be friendship, and my superficial vanity drove me at times to take advantage of, asking also for favors which in part I myself already judged to be "impossible." Yet, in her infinite kindness, Mother always found the way to satisfy me.

Incredible. I am certain that all those who approached Mother Teresa witnessed her loving willingness. She certainly was a great saint but also a woman with a most exquisite human sensibility, of a goodness of spirit so great as to feel sad if she did not succeed in satisfying anyone who asked her for something.

I have written so many articles on Mother Teresa, and also some books. Now, for the centenary of her birth, I have gathered in a volume, published [in Italian] by Ancora Publishing House, some memories and above all "the words" that in different meetings Mother gave me.

She did not like to speak much. But when she did, she was extremely fascinating with her essential and incisive way of expressing her thoughts. She spoke preferably through images. Her reasoning was a sequence of facts that bore an inevitable conclusion.

My book is titled "Madre Teresa Mi Ha Detto" [Mother Teresa Has Told Me]. A pretentious title. Perhaps only someone who has lived a long time near the Sister of Calcutta could use such a title for a book, and it's not my case. I knew Mother Teresa; I interviewed her several times, but nothing more. However, as I said, precisely and only because of her benevolence, I felt very close to her and that title, "Mother Teresa Has Told Me," reflects an extraordinary reality.

In 1965, while reading a book of Pier Paolo Pasolini, I found a few lines dedicated to Mother Teresa which the writer found during one of his trips to India. I began to gather information and every new fact made my curiosity increase. I decided that I had to meet and interview that sister. I succeeded after waiting for fifteen years. But it was not an interview. It was the beginning of a series of meetings.

The aspects that struck me immediately in her were a very great human sensitivity and boundless kindness. I was just another journalist, in practice a nuisance that made her waste her time. But even when I went on to ask perhaps useless questions and at times not very pertinent ones, I never saw on her face the slightest sign of annoyance.

When she was in Rome, and I asked to see her, she gave me appointments in the Celio convent, at the motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation she founded. She said: "I expect you tomorrow at 5:30." At that time the Mass in the convent was reserved for the sisters, and Mother wanted us to be united in prayer before speaking with me.

I arrived on time and found, at the door of the convent, a sister who was waiting for me and accompanied me to the chapel. I followed the Mass next to Mother, who was kneeling on the floor in the back of the chapel. For me, instead, she had a comfortable kneeler prepared and also a chair.

From my place, I was able to observe all the sisters and also Mother, who did nothing special. She was huddled up in a ball, and was concentrated in prayer as if she didn't exist. But in fact from that position of even physical annulment, she transmitted a powerful energy and infinite considerations that long conversations would not have been able to suggest.

After the Mass, the sister who received me accompanied me to a small room of the convent, where infallibly, shortly after, Mother arrived with a tray for breakfast.

Mother Teresa served me breakfast. She did not allow one of the sisters to do so, not even the one who had received me at the door of the convent. She wanted to do it herself. The first time I was confused and tried to stop her, saying that I was not hungry, that I never ate in the morning. But she intuited my embarrassment and there was no way of stopping her.

She served me with moving maternal love: coffee, milk, marmalade, slices of toast. She was concerned that I eat. And her attentions spoke more than the interviews. Then, at the end of breakfast, she gave me her time. I took my notes with the questions, turned on the recorder and she answered.

Listening again to these conversations, I realize that my questions at times were stupid, useless, superficial, but she always answered calmly, leading the conversation to important topics or evidencing, of certain events, the aspect in which the teaching was concentrated.

As I said, when I acquired a certain confidence, I also asked her for favors not very pertinent to her religious state.

One day I asked her if she would accept to be the godmother in a baptism. At Christmas of 1985, Al Bano, the famous singer from Puglia, became a father for the third time: a girl, Cristel. We were good friends since the start of his career. I was also a witness at his marriage to Romina Power and he held one of my children at baptism. A friendship that, with time, became almost a kinship.

In May of 1986, Cristel was already five months old and was not yet baptized. I knew that Al Bano had a solid and concrete religious faith. I asked him, therefore, why he had not yet baptized his daughter. He told me that he continued to postpone the ceremony of baptism because he didn't want the religious rite to be transformed in to a hubbub, with photographers and journalists, as happened for his marriage. He was looking for an occasion for a private religious ceremony, and he asked me to help him organize it, perhaps in Rome. I did so gladly.

I spoke with Slovak Bishop Pavel Hnilica, an extraordinary person, also a saint, friend of Mother Teresa, and it was he who introduced me to the sister. I asked the prelate if he could baptize my friend's daughter. And I also asked him if it would be possible to have Mother Teresa as the godmother.

"I don't think it's appropriate," said the bishop, "but I advise you to ask her directly; she is an unpredictable woman." Mother was in Rome. I whipped up my courage and asked her. She looked at me seriously, then she answered: "As a religious, I cannot take on this juridical responsibility. But I can be a spiritual godmother." And so it happened.

The baptism was celebrated in the bishop's private chapel. The baby was given the names Cristel, Maria Chiara and Teresa. Only one photographer was present and the photographs were then circulated freely throughout the world, published everywhere, also in Japan.

Two years later, in August of 1988, some friends told me a very moving story. A young couple of a region near the Bracciano Lake had quintuplets. As often happens in these cases, the little ones were kept in incubators for some time. They were saved by the very great love of the parents and the care of the doctors.

When they finally left the hospital, thought was given to their baptism. "There must be a great celebration," said friends of the couple. One of them asked me to organize something to attract the attention of the newspapers. I thought of Mother Teresa. I was certain that, once she knew the story, she would accept. And it was like that. The ceremony was held in the little old church of Santa Maria di Galeria.

Each one of the quintuplets had a godfather, as the Church establishes, but all had Mother Teresa of Calcutta as their "spiritual godmother." Mother, though full of commitments, dedicated half a day to that baptism. She asked to be accompanied Bracciano Lake and participated in the whole ceremony. The newspapers of course wrote about it, published photographs, and there was a great celebration.

When I think of Mother Teresa, the image that comes to mind immediately is seeing her at prayer. The first time I traveled by car with her, I had the honor of sitting next to her. We had to go from Casilina, on the outskirts of Rome, where there is a house of the Missionaries of Charity, to the Vatican, where Mother was to be received by the Pope. We spoke at length that morning and we were late. We left by car. Bishop Hnilica's brother was driving. The bishop sat next to his brother, and I next to Mother Teresa.

The car left at great speed because we were in a hurry; we were late. The Pope could absolutely not be kept waiting. Mother Teresa looked out of the window. Her face was calm. After a few minutes, Mother asked us to pray with her. We made the sign of the cross and from the pocket of her sari she took out a rosary. She prayed slowly, with a soft voice, reciting the "Our Father" and the "Hail Mary" in Latin. We prayed with her.

The car swerved nervously in the chaotic and intense traffic. At times it stopped brusquely, swerved jerkily, took off again imperiously, went around curves recklessly, was grazed by other cars, impatient and aggressive, which threatened us with piercing honkings of the horn. I grabbed hold of the handle and looked with concern at the driver, very good but reckless. Mother Teresa, instead, was absorbed in prayer and didn't remember a thing.

Crouched on the seat, she was in conversation with God. Her eyes were half-closed. Her wrinkled face, bent over her chest, was transfigured. It seems almost as if it emanated light.

The words of the prayer came from her lips precisely, clearly, slowly, almost as if she paused to savor the meaning of each one. They did not have the cadence of a continuously repeated formula, but the freshness of dialogue, of a lively, passionate conversation. It seemed that Mother was really speaking with an invisible presence.

One day I asked her spontaneously: "Are you afraid of dying?"

I had been in Rome for some days. I met her a couple of times and had gone to greet her because I was returning to Milan. She looked at me almost as wishing to understand the reason for my question. I felt I had done wrong in speaking of death and tried to correct my mistake. "I see you rested," I said. "Yesterday, instead, you seemed very tired."

"I slept well last night," she answered.

"In recent years you have undergone some rather delicate surgical interventions, such as the one on the heart; you must take care of yourself, travel less."

"Everyone says this to me, but I must think of the work that Jesus has entrusted to me. When I can no longer serve, he will stop me."

And, changing the angle, she asked: "Where do you live?"

"In Milan," I answered.

"When are you going home?"

"I hope this very evening. I would like to catch the last flight so that tomorrow, which is Saturday, I can be with the family."

"Ah, I see that you are happy to go home, to your family," she said smiling.

"I have been away for almost a week," I answered to justify my enthusiasm.

"Good, good," she added. "It's right that you are happy. You are going to see your wife, your children your dear ones, your home. It's right that it be so."

She remained again for some seconds in silence; then, going back to the question that I asked her, she continued: "I would be as happy as you if I could say that I will die this evening. Dying I too would go home. I would go to paradise.

"I would go to meet Jesus. I have consecrated my life to Jesus. Becoming a sister, I became the spouse of Jesus. See, I have a ring on my finger like married women. And I am married to Jesus. All that I do here, on this earth, I do it out of love for him.

"Therefore, by dying I return home to my spouse. Moreover, up there, in paradise, I will also find all my loved ones. Thousands of persons have died in my arms. It is now more than forty years that I have dedicated my life to the sick and the dying.

"I and my sisters have picked up from the streets, above all in India, thousands and thousands of persons at the end of life. We have taken them to our houses and helped them to die peacefully. Many of those persons expired in my arms, while I smiled at them and patted their trembling faces. Well, when I die, I am going to meet all these persons. It is there that they await me.

"We loved one another well in those difficult moments. We continued to love one another in memory. Who knows what celebration they will make for me when they see me.

"How can I be afraid of death? I desire it; I await it because it allows me finally to return home."

In general, in the interviews and also in the conversations, Mother Teresa was concise, gave brief and rapid answers. On that occasion, to answer my strange question, she made a genuine speech. And while she said those things, her eyes beamed with amazing serenity and happiness.

* * *

Renzo Allegri is an Italian journalist and author who has published more than 40 books, including the following books in English: "John Paul II: A Life of Grace" (2005), "Fatima, the Story Behind the Miracles" (2002), "Padre Pio: A Man of Hope" (2000), and "Teresa of the Poor: The Story of Her Life" (1999).

benefan
00venerdì 20 agosto 2010 05:17

European Catholics prepare host of celebrations for Mother Teresa's 100th birthday

Rome, Italy, Aug 19, 2010 / 04:42 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The founder of the Missionaries of Charity will be remembered in celebrations all over Europe, and all over the world, on her birthday and feast day coming up in the next three weeks. At least a dozen cardinals will be presiding over Masses across Europe in her memory.

Blessed Mother Teresa was born Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on Aug. 26, 1910 in the city of Skopje, in what is now the Republic of Macedonia. On that same day this year, she will be remembered for what would have been her 100th birthday.

Motherteresa.org, the official site for the saintly sister, details the broad cross-section of principally European celebrations that began earlier this year and will continue until the final days of 2010. The majority of the memorials have been organized for Rome and former Eastern Bloc nations, but Masses, Novenas and art exhibitions and other initiatives are taking place all over the continent.

Many celebrations will take place on the actual anniversary of her birth, Aug. 26. For example, on that day in Skopje, after flowers are laid at the memorial statue of Mother Teresa, the Macedonian Parliament will observe a ceremonial session and award the national "Mother Teresa" prize. That afternoon, Archbishop of Belgrade Stanislav Hočevar will preside over Mass at the city's Sacred Heart Cathedral.

Eucharistic celebrations will be offered for Blessed Mother Teresa in a variety of other countries as well. Among the high-ranking prelates celebrating Masses in her honor on Aug. 26 will be Cardinal Angelo Comastri at the Church of St. Lawrence in Damascus in Rome and the Emeritus Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Friedrich Wetter, who will preside over Mass at the Church of St. Margaret in Munich, Germany.

These two Church leaders will be joined by 10 other cardinals celebrating Masses around her birthdate or for the Sept. 5 Feast of Blessed Mother Teresa, including the prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Cardinal Ivan Dias, and Cardinal André Vingt Trois, who will preside over Mass at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

According to the Mother Teresa website, memorial initiatives will be staged from Switzerland to Bulgaria, Albania and the United Kingdom, with a special Christmas Concert being held in Rome on Dec. 19 to mark the final days of the 2010 centenary celebrations.


maryjos
00domenica 22 agosto 2010 19:09
OUR LADY QUEEN AND MOTHER


In how many Masses today did we hear that it's the Feast of Our Lady Queen and Mother? I certainly didn't! It was just the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C. A great, great pity!

Mary, Queen of Heaven and Mother of Our Lord, keep our Holy Father in your tender care at this special time.

benefan
00martedì 24 agosto 2010 06:39

Mother Teresa left no future plans for her order, recalls Mother Mary Prema

Vatican City, Aug 23, 2010 / 05:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Blessed Mother Teresa, has no set plan for the future, revealed the current Mother Superior. In an interview released on Monday by Fides news agency, she said that Mother Teresa left them only with her constant advice: to become ever more holy.

German-born Sister Mary Prema spoke with Fides as the 100th anniversary of Bl. Mother Teresa's birth, celebrated on Aug. 26, approaches.

Mother Teresa's "only goal" of loving Jesus and transmitting that love to others is the legacy she left to the Missionaries of Charity, said Sr. Mary.

Asked what major challenges the order under her direction expects in the future, she answered that the Missionaries of Charity don't make plans too far in advance. "We try to remain open to what God asks of us," she explained.

"Only Jesus will tell me what is the next step. So, in the spirit of Mother, I'm not the one who controls things. God is the one who decides."

Mother Teresa, she explained, "never gave us any indications of future plans besides the fact that we should always strive to become more holy! This was her constant advice."

As Mother Superior she continues to follow the example of Mother Teresa as the head of the order, making informed decisions based on discussion and considering all the information available, she explained.

In responding to the challenges offered by the world in her day, the founder had a way of listening to Jesus and to the world, recalled Sister Mary. "She was very generous towards God and towards those suffering beside her. In this, we want to imitate her."

Remembering the strong witness of the founder, she said, "Through her life, her work, her charisma, she brought those around her to God. She did not preach, but she testified with her own life."

People continue to approach Sister Mary today to recount their experiences of moments shared with Mother Teresa. Many, she said, Hindus included, were only in her presence for a short time, but "that one moment changed their lives forever."

While they may not have converted, she said, "they began to see their lives and their work with different eyes and have become other people, living in a different way, based on love and mercy, within their own families."

Asked when the blessed might be canonized, Sr. Mary said she didn't think that it was important. "Everyone knows that she is a saint - both Hindus and Christians here in Calcutta and in most places where we are present - this is beyond doubt. Everyone expects a miracle … but Mother Teresa was the same miracle for the world and humanity."


benefan
00giovedì 26 agosto 2010 20:10

PONTIFF SAYS MOTHER TERESA "INVALUABLE" FOR WORLD

Sends Message to Missionaries for Her 100th Birthday

VATICAN CITY, AUG. 26, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Mother Teresa of Calcutta was an "invaluable gift" for the world during her lifetime, and she continues to be so through the ministry of the order she founded, says Benedict XVI.

The Pope affirmed this in a message to the superior-general of the Missionaries of Charity, Sister Mary Prema. The message was made public today, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, the future Blessed Teresa.

The Holy Father's message invites the Missionaries of Charity to continue to follow Blessed Teresa's example.

He said: "Having responded with trust to the direct call of the Lord, Mother Teresa exemplified excellently the words of St. John: 'Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. ... f we love one another, God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us.'"

"May this love continue to inspire you, Missionaries of Charity, to give yourselves generously to Jesus, to all those you see and serve, that is, to the poor, the marginalized, the abandoned. I encourage you to draw constantly from the spirituality and the example of Mother Teresa and, following in her footsteps, to accept Christ's invitation: 'Come and be my light.'"

The Pontiff expressed his trust that the year of the centenary "will be for the Church and for the world an occasion of fervent gratitude to God for the invaluable gift that Mother Teresa was in the course of her life and that she continues to be through the loving and tireless work that you, her spiritual daughters, carry out."

At home

According to AsiaNews, the message was read this morning by Archbishop Lucas Sirkar of Calcutta during a Mass presided over by Cardinal Telesphore Toppo, archbishop of Ranchi, India, in the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity.

Some 1,000 people attended the Mass, celebrated in the center where Mother Teresa's remains rest, UCAN agency reported.

Before the start of the ceremony, a simple homage took place during which Sisters Nirmala Joshi and Mary Prema, Mother Teresa's first and second successors as superiors of the Missionaries of Charity, released a white dove and balloons.

For his part, Cardinal Toppo lit a candle and put it next to the tomb. "In this centenary, we must listen to Mother's message that we have been created for greater things, to love and to be loved," he said.

The Mass was presided over by the cardinal and concelebrated by Archbishop Sirkar, as well as retired Archbishop Henry D'Souza of Calcutta, Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, and by the postulator of Mother Teresa's cause for canonization, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk.

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