Miracles approved for Bl. Damien of Molokai to be canonized and for St. Therese's parents to be beatified.
Recently in Mary and the Saints Category
I was thinking about doing a post on the Pauline Year, but I don't think one can beat Amy Welborn's post here.
This weekend marks the start of "The Pauline Year" declared by Pope Benedict XVI to deepen the Church's devotion to and understanding of St. Paul. This H2O News report interviews the Archpriest of St. Paul Outside the Walls Basilica in Rome and includes video of the basilica, my favorite church in Rome.
Zenit has an interview with Missionary of Charity Father Joseph Langford, author of a new book about how Mother Teresa's faith sustained her during decades of darkness.
Q: How would you describe Mother's periods of darkness, and what do you think about the recent controversies over her "dark night?"
Father Langford: Contrary to reports in the press, Mother Teresa did not suffer a "crisis" of faith. In fact, her struggle was not with faith at all, but with the "loss of feeling" of faith, with the loss of a felt sense of the divine. As she stepped out of the convent and into the slums of Calcutta, what had been her usual consolation in prayer abruptly ended.
Though she would not understand it until later, she was being asked to share the same inner darkness, the same trial of belief suffered by the poor and destitute -- and to do so for their sake, and for the love of her Lord.
She was allowed to feel as though God was absent, and at first she agonized at the disconnect between her emotions and her belief -- though never did her lack of feeling become lack of faith.
In fact, her dark night revealed the hidden depth of Mother Teresa's faith in a way that any lesser challenge could not. Her darkness not only allowed her to exercise her extraordinary faith to the full, it allowed us -- modern disciples too often of "little faith" -- to discover the true dimensions of which faith is capable, even under duress, even in the night.
She would want to encourage us to do the same in our own Calcutta, in our own dark night: Instead of allowing our trials and pain to become a prison, we can, as she did, make our pain a bridge into the pain of others, a bond of solidarity, a catalyst for charity.
Q: How did her relationship with Mary assist her in these times of trial?
Father Langford: Just as the Israelites were given a column of fire to lead them by night, so Mother Teresa was given her own guiding light through the night of faith, in the person of the Virgin Mary.
The gift of Jesus' mother -- given to St. John on Calvary, and to disciples and saints through the ages -- strengthened Mother Teresa in carrying her own pain, and in tending to the pain of the poor.
Our Lady would help her to not only believe in the night, but to love in the night -- to transform the mystery of the cross, both within her and around her, into seeds of resurrection.
As it was Our Lady who brought St. John, alone among the Twelve, to stand faithfully at Calvary, so it was Our Lady who would bring Mother Teresa through the sea of suffering opened before her, that she might shine the light of God's love on the poor.
Fr. Mark blogs this magnificent prayer.
Instead of looking at each other, Clare and Francis looked in the same direction, and we know what "direction" that was in their case. Clare and Francis were like two eyes always looking in the same direction. Two eyes are not just two eyes, I mean, not just one eye repeated. Neither of the two eyes is just an extra or a spare eye. Two eyes looking at an object from different angles give depth and relief to the object, enabling us to enfold it in our gaze. That is how it was for Clare and Francis.
From this beautiful homily by Fr. Cantalamessa, preacher of the papal household.
The cause for beatification for Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân is officially open.
Today, the Holy Father received officials from the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which Cardinal Van Thuân headed after being expelled from Vietnam. Zenit translated his address. Here's a snip:
Cardinal Van Thuân was a man of hope; he lived hope and spread it among everyone he met. It was because of this spiritual energy that he resisted all his physical and moral difficulties. Hope sustained him as a bishop when he was isolated for 13 years from his diocesan community; hope helped him to see beyond the absurdity of the events that happened to him -- he was never put on trial during his long imprisonment -- a providential plan of God. The news of his sickness, a tumor, which led to his death, reached him almost at the same time as his elevation to cardinal by John Paul II, who held him in great esteem and affection. Cardinal Van Thuân loved to repeat that the Christian is a man of hour, of the now, beginning from the present moment to welcome and live with Christ's love. In this ability to live the present moment his intimate abandonment in God’s hands shines through as does the evangelical simplicity which we all admired in him. Is it possible -- he would ask -- that he who trusts in the Father would refuse to let himself be embraced in his arms?
Dear brothers and sisters I welcomed with profound joy the news that the cause for beatification of this singular prophet of Christian hope has begun and, while we entrust this chosen soul to the Lord, we pray that his example will be for us a valuable teaching. With that, I bless you all from my heart.
I first found out about the struggle that she had in a yoga school, there in MA, actually, because somebody made a reference to it, and ever since then I've been very interested in hearing more about her as a human being so that this book is out, I really, really am looking forward to having it. I'm not Catholic and actually I'm pretty much non-religious altogether, but this, just the knowledge of this and now hearing this discusion, this legitimizes to me more the Catholic faith and God, actually, so... I.. it's so... I'm a litle but emotional about it because it really is like a blessing that this has been made public.
Arisulus (sp?) from Rhode Island, near tears, on this radio show.
One of the best analyses of Mother Theresa's long, long dark night comes from "gay and somewhat skeptical Catholic" Richard Rodriguez in this interview with The Nation.
The other thing is that America is a deeply Protestant country founded by Puritans who believed that financial success was a sign of God's favor... Americans have always breathed in this value: The best thing to be is middle-class. There is something shameful about being poor... And self-inflicted. We discuss poor white people as "trash."
The preoccupation with the illegal immigration and the price that the middle class is paying for these peasants coming from Latin America--because that's what they are: peasants. They are a drag on our national identity and a burden to us. Yet we sing our songs on Sunday because we are good pious Americans who believe in the middle-class God.
We are presented with an Albanian nun who spends her life--tormented by doubts--nonetheless serving the very poor, the people we will not touch....
We mock a life like this because we do not understand it. We do not understand the life that is given to poor people, because we are given only to the middle-class fascination and we have told ourselves that we--the middle class--are God's select. So what do we do when we meet a woman of great doubt, great faith, great durability, who spends her life on her knees, wiping the faces of the dying and dead?
The whole article, even his lamentations against Church teaching, is interesting and thought-provoking.
Happy Feast Day to Me!
I have to run, so here's a link dump to celebrate Saints Monica (yesterday) and Augustine (today):
- Classic holy cards featuring Augustine
- From Amy Welborn: The Holy Father's address last year on St. Monica's feast
- Mike Aquilina: Monica the Mom and You go Gus
- Fr. Z on Monica's tomb, relics of both saints and Augustine's bones
- Fr. Mark: St. Monica and St. Augustine
- Daniel Mitsui has some gorgeous 16th century images
- The Scriptural Root of St. Augustine's Spirituality
- Fr. Victor Brown: St. Monica and St. Augustine
- Lee of A Thinking Reed points us to a series on Augustine's Enchiridion he wrote earlier this year
Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio has a pleasant little article in the May/June issue of Lay Witness on Our Lady of Guadalupe. It's not very long - it's just a brief witness of his own devotion to the Virgin of Tepeyac and a call for all of us to take her as a patroness.
Forgive me while I state the obvious:
When Archangel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive and bear a child, this should not have been a big deal. Obviously the part about "Son of the Most High" would have filled her with awe, but not the part about actually getting pregnant. After all, Mary was engaged, so that is pretty much the normal course of things: get married, have sex, make babies. But to Mary, there was something wrong in all of this. She asks the angel, "How can this be since I do not know man?"
If, prior to this encounter, Mary had planned on having marital relations with Joseph, her question would make no sense. The angel had told her she was about to conceive, not that she already had conceived. The only way her response to Gabriel makes sense is if Mary does not plan on having sex with Joseph.
Now, surely most people who have read Luke closely already knew this, but somehow this evaded me for about 5 years after (re-)becoming Catholic. It's not that I didn't accept Mary's post-nuptial virginity, just that I never read this passage in that light - and I surely read it many times on my own, not to mention the several times I would have heard it in the liturgy or encountered it written meditations or lectures.
But maybe it's not so obvious. Many of our Protestant brethren, many of whom accept Scripture as inerrant, castigate us Catholics for denying that Jesus had full blood-siblings. What gives?
Anyway, what brought this to mind is that Edward Sri addressed this very issue at greater length in this essay from a recent issue of Lay Witness Magazine.
To use an analogy: If someone said to me, "You will die of lung cancer in the future," and I replied, "How can this be since I do not smoke?" my response would not simply describe a present circumstance ("I don’t happen to be smoking right now"). Rather, it would indicate a long-term intention on my part to avoid smoking ("Smoking is not something I ever intend to do"). Analogously, Mary’s expression "I do not know man"—when seen in the wider context of the Annunciation account—further suggests her commitment to remain a virgin for the rest of her life.
Zenit has a brief biography of Charles of St. Andrew, who will be canonized on Sunday, making PF very happy.
During May, Fides News is going to celebrate by publishing a series of 18 articles on Mary's apparitions at Lourdes followed by 6 articles on Marian shrines in Africa.
John Bosco's mother has been decreed to be venerable. Check out the story from Zenit.
Margaret Occhiena was born on April 10, 1788, in Caprigli, Italy. She lived at home until she married Francis Bosco. Later she moved to Becchi.
After her husband's premature death, Margaret, 29, had to raise her family alone at a time of starvation.
She took care of her husband's mother and of the latter's son Anthony, while educating her own sons, Joseph and John.
She supported her son John in his journey toward the priesthood. At age 58, she left her little house of Colle and followed her son in his mission among the poor and abandoned boys of Turin.
There, for 10 years, mother and son united their lives in the beginnings of the Salesian Work. She was Don Bosco's first and principal cooperator. She contributed her maternal presence to the Preventive System. Thus she became the "co-founder" of the Salesian family.
What a beautiful story!
Thanks to Father Z for reminding me that today is St. Crispin's Day. Stop by Father Z's place if you wish to take in the Agincourt speech in text format.
And here, thanks to some blessed copyright-infringing YouTuber is video of the speech:
And here, reposted from last year, is the Non Nobis, which closes out the Battle of Agincourt.
I'll admit to having no particular affinity for the British, but a strong devotion to Henry V as scribed by Shakespeare. So guess what I'll be watching while Mama-Lu and the kids are away this evening?
I know one already exists, but I think we can agree that St. Teresa of Avila speaks for us all:
May You be blessed, Lord, who put up with me so long! Amen.
Amen.
John Allen's new it's-not-a-blog-style "column" (note the "blog" int the URL) at the NCReporter is up and running, and in one of his first daily updates (but it's not a blog, remember), Allen mentions that "A miracle attributed to Blessed Damian of Molokai, the famed Belgian priest who worked with lepers in the Hawaiian Islands in the late 19th century, is under examination. If approved, it would clear the way for canonization. Damien was beatified by John Paul II in 1995."
Happy Feast Day, Matthew Boniface!
Party at my parish after mass this evening!
A miracle involving a Champaign woman has been submitted in support of the cause for beatification of the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The miracle involves a Champaign woman whose husband invoked Sheen's aid to heal a tear in her main pulmonary artery.
Catholic News Agency reports:
"Fulton Sheen is one the shining gems of the diocese [of Peoria]," said Msgr. Stewart Swetland, director of homiletics and pre-theology at Mount Saint Mary’s Seminary in Emmitsburg, Maryland, at the signing Sunday.
"Sheen was a pioneer in the use of social means of communication and predated (the Second Vatican Council document) Inter Mirifica and was in some ways a forerunner for the work that Karol Wojtyla [later Pope John Paul II] was able to do in the vast social communications of his pontificate."
Msgr. Swetland said the way Archbishop Sheen delivered the truths of the faith have an impact to this day. "I am constantly amazed that, even with the great increases in the sophistication of media technologies, so many still enjoy listening to or watching his recordings from the 1950s and 60s."
I wish the Carmelites of the Most Sacred Heart of Los Angeles (at least one of whom I know visits here on occasion) as well as all those consecrated and/or devoted to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, including all who wear the brown scapular, a joyous and blessed (though belated) feast day. The feast fell yesterday, Sunday July 16. For most of us the feast was trumped by the weekly celebration of the Lord's resurrection, but I'm sure there were good times in Alhambra.
Here are the words of the Holy Father before and after praying the Angelus on this feast of Our Lady:
By a happy coincidence, this Sunday is July 16, day in which the liturgy remembers the Most Holy Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel. Carmel, high promontory that rises on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, at the altitude of Galilee, has in its folds numerous natural grottoes, favorites of hermits.
The most famous of these men of God was the great prophet Elias, who in the 9th century before Christ, courageously defended the purity of the faith in the one true God from contamination by idolatrous cults. Inspired in the figure of Elias, the contemplative order of Carmelites arose, a religious family that counts among its members great saints such as Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Therese of the Child Jesus and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (in the world, Edith Stein).
The Carmelites have spread in the Christian people devotion to the Most Holy Virgin of Mount Carmel, pointing to her as a model of prayer, contemplation and dedication to God. Mary, in fact, before and in an unsurpassable way, believed and felt that Jesus, the incarnate Word, is the culmination, the summit of man's encounter with God.
Fully accepting the Word, "she happily reached the holy mountain" (Prayer of the Collect of the Memorial), and lives forever, in soul and body, with the Lord. To the Queen of Mount Carmel I wish to commend today all the communities of contemplative life spread throughout the world, especially those of the Carmelite Order, among which I remember the convent of Quart, not far from here. May Mary help every Christian to meet God in the silence of prayer.
[After the Angelus, the Holy Father said the following words:]
In recent days the news from the Holy Land is a reason for new and grave concern for all, in particular because of the spread of warlike actions also in Lebanon, and because of the numerous victims among the civilian population. At the origin of these cruel oppositions there are, sadly, objective situations of violation of law and justice. But neither terrorist acts nor reprisals, especially when they entail tragic consequences for the civilian population, can be justified. By such paths, as bitter experiences shows, positive results are not achieved.
This day is dedicated to the Virgin of Carmel, Mount of the Holy Land that, a few kilometers from Lebanon, dominates the Israeli city of Haifa, the latter also recently hit. Let us pray to Mary, Queen of Peace, to implore from God the fundamental gift of concord, bringing political leaders back to the path of reason, and opening new possibilities of dialogue and agreement. In this perspective I invite the local Churches to raise special prayers for peace in the Holy Land and in the whole of the Middle East.
