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Wake up the World 15 - 2
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oor lare isters Prayer for the Year of Consecrated Life O God, throughout the ages you have called women and men to pursue lives of perfect charity through the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience. During this Year of Consecrated Life, we give you thanks for these courageous witnesses of Faith and models of inspiration. Their pursuit of holy lives teaches us to make a more perfect offering of ourselves to you. Continue to enrich your Church by calling forth sons and daughters who, having found the pearl of great price, treasure the Kingdom of Heaven above all things. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen
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Aid to the Church in Need
CONTENTS
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Wake up the World...................................................... J F Declan Quinn................................. 2 Consider the consecrated life ................................ Fr. Martin Barta .................................. 4 What is consecrated life? ......................................... Fr. Cereda SDB..................................... 6 Leading others to God ............................................................................................................... 10 Serving God in the jungle......................................................................................................... 12 Showing the authentic face of Christ ................................................................................ 14 Engine of providence .................................................................................................................. 16 Waking up the World ................................................. Fr. Roger Landry .............................. 18 St Alexius - Confessor ................................................................................................................. 24 God help me .................................................................... Fr. Michael Shields .......................... 28 Keeping the faith alive ............................................... Johannes Freiherr Heereman ..... 32
Editor: JĂźrgen Liminski. Publisher: Kirche in Not / Ostpriesterhilfe, Postfach 1209, 61452 KĂśnigstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
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WAKE UP THE WORLD A chairde,
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id to the Church in Need (ACN) exists in order to help ‘strengthen Christ’s suffering and persecuted Church’ throughout the world and in particular in those places ‘where God weeps’. In which regard even the quickest review of today’s headlines suggests that in these days God has cause to ‘weep’ in every place: The murderous rampaging of militant fundamentalists, The wholesale exploitation of human misery by violent criminal organisations (trafficking of people, of body parts, of narcotics).
Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists reset the hands of ‘Doomsday clock’ by two minutes to 11:57 p.m. According to their reckoning the world is now closer to disaster than at any time since the 1950’s.
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iewed with non-Christian eyes the world is broken. Indeed one gets the sense that the belief is growing that the world is not only broken, but broken beyond repair and as a consequence it is now time to look after one’s own immediate interests and ‘abandon ship’ to whatever extent this may be possible.
The commercial exploitation of human weakness, (legalised ‘loan-sharking’, the legitimisation of ‘the sex industry’ and its increasing cultural acceptability). The widespread breakdown in trust of every form of authority, political, legal, executive, educational, scientific, local, familial and ecclesial. The deep and deepening disregard mankind shows towards mankind and the natural ecology. The truth is that the headlines that relentlessly accost us make for bleak reading. So it therefore came as no great surprise when on 22 January 2015, the Science and 2 +e215ei_print.indd 6
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hile Christian eyes see this same impoverished reality they realise that what they see is not all of reality. This difference in perspective was highlighted by Pope Francis in his 2014 Lenten address when he clarified the difference between Poverty and Destitution. Destitution is Poverty without Hope.
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works and sufferings’. In short each of us are required to personally, privately and continuously consecrate ourselves to the Lord, in the full knowledge that while we on our own cannot fix our broken lives and our broken world, He can: for ‘nothing is impossible for God’.
In his address Pope Francis proceeded to identify three types of poverty: Material Poverty Moral Poverty and Spiritual Poverty.
hrist founded His Church to heal the world. Aid to the Church in Need exists to help the Church in its God-given mission. Helping individuals consecrate their lives to God both privately and in community is an essential part of what we do (see the various articles contained herein).
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n our world today it is true to say that all three types of poverty (and they are not entirely unrelated) are widespread and growing. The evidence for this we see on our own doorsteps not to mention what we hear and read coming out of Iraq, Syria, Mexico, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Africa, the Mediterranean basis, Ukraine and beyond. However what the world does not see and what we perhaps don’t adequately appreciate, is that the Catholic Church has the mission and is equipped with the moral teachings as well as the spiritual resources required to respond to the global crisis of despair which is enveloping our world. In proclaiming the Year for the Consecrated Life Pope Francis is asking each of us to go forth and ‘Wake up the World’ to the beauty, the truth and the joy of the Gospel. All of us through our baptism are adopted children of God and as such we are required each day to offer up to God ‘all our prayers,
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The world may not appreciate the value of such consecration but God does and it was for this reason that he sent His only Son, to save the world from its worldliness.
Beir Beannacht
J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) PS. Please pray for the suffering and persecuted around the world. And remember that God will not forget to reward you for any material help you can provide through a donation or a legacy. God bless, Declan
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CONSIDER THE CONSECRATED LIFE Dear Friends,
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e that is able to receive it, let him receive it’ – so Jesus concludes the difficult debate about marriage and virginity, showing us that human reasoning alone is not enough: these two states of life have a grandeur that can only be understood by faith. Every vocation is a question of wholehearted commitment, of undivided love. In marriage such love seems obvious at first. ‘No one and nothing can part us’, is the credo of those in love. But daily life quickly reveals each other’s limitations and failings.
Selfless service to the poorest of the poor, working in schools and hospitals for the love of God alone, praying for the world, hidden away in a convent enclosure – all this is praiseworthy, but for most young people today it no longer seems to hold any particular attraction.
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ut what really draws people to the consecrated life? Is it living our lives in service of our neighbour? Going on mission to far distant lands? Finding silence in the vocation is contemplative life?
Every Married love also lives by grace. Through the a question of power of God’s love it Mother Teresa told undivided love. can become something her sisters quite great, but it takes a clearly: ‘Your vocagreat deal of sacrifice and self-mastery. This is where mar- tion is not a matter of caring for the sick riage and virginity have a great deal in in hospital, or teaching, or whatever… Our vocation is to belong to Jesus with common. the conviction that nothing and no one life lived in celibacy, poverty, can separate us from the love of Christ. and obedience is initially seen The work that we do is our love for Jesus, as difficult and not according to translated into living deeds.’ nature. The word ‘monk’ or ‘nun’ tends nd so, forsaking everything for the to conjure up an image of strict rules sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and high walls, designed to shut out the does not mean serving our fellow joys of life. men or fighting for Christian values. That
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would not be enough to move a person to renounce marriage, possessions and even his or her own will. No, as in marriage, the soul consecrated to God is first and foremost a soul in love, a soul who, by the power of God’s grace, desires to live for Him alone, to belong to Him, to give everything to Him.
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ear Friends, in this, the Year of Consecrated Life, in each edition of the MIRROR we will introduce you to selfless and courageous men and women of God who need your help to serve the Church. Their true mission and strength is their love for Jesus and their fidelity to his call to ‘follow Me’. Those who understand this vocation are becoming fewer and fewer. So we need marriages where couples put the love of God at the centre of their life together. We need fathers and mothers who know how to pray and say, ‘Lord, our children belong to You. Give us the grace to be able to offer You a spiritual vocation.’ With my grateful blessing on you all
Father Martin M. Barta, Spiritual Assistant Blessed Mother Teresa
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WHAT IS CONSECRATED LIFE? by Fr. Cereda SDB
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ithin the Church, there are a certain number of Christians who choose to follow Christ publicly and be identified openly as his disciples. They are taken up by the mystery of Christ’s whole life centred on the love of God the Father. They devote themselves entirely to bringing mankind to experience God’s love and respond in love. The Church and her mission are part of this ‘mystery’ of love and have as their ultimate goal the establishment of God the Father’s reign over all. So, attracted by the person of Christ and by the experience of God’s love in their own lives,
these Christians feel called to give their lives over to imitating and following Christ more closely, centring their lives on God the Father and devoting themselves entirely to the service of his Kingdom.
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o achieve this total dedication of themselves to God and his Kingdom in imitation of Christ, they choose to give up the way most people live out their lives in forming a family. Instead, they embrace a life of poverty, chastity and obedience, and embark on a different kind of life together with those brothers or sisters of theirs who have felt called the same way, beginning with the inspired Founder of the different Orders or Congregations. These are those whom the Church calls ‘consecrated persons’. Consecrated life, therefore, more than anything else, is essentially a loving relationship with Christ, with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, which leads one to love the brothers with whom he lives and whom he has been sent to serve. Each Founder lived this fundamental reality, bringing to it his own characteristics and accentuations, and in this way formed his Institute’s charism, which basically is his particular way of following Christ more closely.
Saint Don Bosco
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eing a consecrated person today has a beauty and importance all its own. As Vita Consacrata says, ‘the Church and society itself need people capable of devoting themselves totally to God and to others for the love of God’1. There are many individuals and groups in society who devote their entire lives to a particular value. For example, musicians to music; teachers to education; doctors and nurses to the health of people; policemen to peace in society. All these individuals centre their lives on those particular values and they serve to keep alive those values in the entire population. ‘Keeping alive’ means many things, like: stirring up interest, creating a sense of concern, and reminding others of their own responsibility. Society needs all these people.
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Saint Anthony
n a similar way, when consecrated persons centre their lives on the supreme value, God, they become pointers to people of how much God loves each one and how each one ought to love God in return. Mother Teresa, for instance, became a sign of God’s tender compassion for poor, suffering humanity. 1 Vita Consecrata 105.
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nd so, consecrated persons open up a whole new horizon for people:
- in total availability to the Holy Spirit they live the spiritual life and receive the gift of holiness;
- they remind people to give God the first place in their lives, and show how they can find true joy and freedom in him;
- they demonstrate what it is to be Church and how we can all live as brothers and sisters, notwithstanding our inevitable differences of origin, language or culture;
- they make Christ present and active in the world today as they go about their teaching and healing, preaching and praying: through them Christ reaches out and touches people’s lives; they reveal the beauty of ‘falling in love’ with Christ and how his love can truly fill a person’s life so that he does not need anything else for his happiness and fulfilment;
- they invite everyone to raise their eyes to higher things, e.g. to be convinced: • that chastity is possible and necessary for genuine human love; • that being is more important than having, and sharing more satisfying that hoarding; • that doing God’s will, not individualism and self-sufficiency, brings happiness and fulfilment; - they remind everyone of the fullness of life that lies beyond this one, and that holiness is the highest realization of every human being.
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s one can see, consecrated life is not only a gift of Christ’s love to a person for his own holiness and happiness, but it is a gift to the Church and to mankind. ‘To some for the sake of all, God gives the gift of a closer following of Christ in his poverty, chastity, and obedience’2. • Padre Pio
2 Essential Elements in the Church’s Teaching on Religious Life 7.
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THESE TEACHINGS ARE AVAILABLE TO READ ONLINE AT
WWW.ACNIRELAND.ORG
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LEADING OTHERS TO GOD
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orldwide, some 900,000 Catholics belong to a religious order or institute of consecrated life. Almost four fifths are women. ACN helps these religious throughout the world, including Sister Nune Titoyan. Her parents were teachers – her father, a headmaster – and both of them were communists. They lived in Georgia. Nune fled her home because her parents would not accept their daughter’s religious vocation to the consecrated life. She went to Moscow, then on to Poland, where she saw the life of Catholic sisters and entered the congregation of the Missionaries of the Holy Family. Finally, she ended up in Belarus.
This is where she lives her vocation today, in Ashmyany, where she has found a new family in the spirit of Christ’s words: ‘Whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother’ (Mt 12:50). Together with three other sisters she cares for the 12,000 Catholic faithful in the parish of Ashmyany.
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ast year they had 600 Confirmations. Here in a country that is still very much overshadowed by a communist mindset, baptisms and confirmations continue to be a challenge; as Sister Nune knows well, simply administering the sacraments is not the end of the matter. Grace helps them to remain true to the Faith, but in daily life it is a struggle to live out their Christian calling.
Catechist, sister, mother: Nune Titoyan, with one of her little charges.
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Everything depends on how well their preparation for the sacraments has been carried out. Sister Nune has also written catechetical books that she uses alongside the officially approved catechisms such as the Youcat and ACN’s little catechism, ‘I Believe’.
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or the sisters this work means many journeys into the various different towns and villages. If the people cannot come to them, they must go to the people… We have promised Sister Nune and her companions support for a car, so that their mission can maintain its momentum. The Holy Eucharist Sisters in SambirDrohobych Diocese, Ukraine, were founded under communism, in 1957. At that time their charism was one of Perpetual Adoration; indeed the state would not
let them to do anything else. Today the sisters – who now number around twenty – also run an orphanage, teach the catechism in Sunday schools, organise pilgrimages and retreats for young people and, during the school holidays, care for young people from East Ukraine.
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ut their work is growing, so they need more space. That is why, for the past six years, they have also been renovating their former Mother House near Sambir. But they don’t have enough money for the roof. Roughly a third of the sisters survive on a meagre income. The diocese is too poor to support them. They pray, teach, console and care for others. They lead others to God and are surely earning a heavenly reward – but no earthly payment. We have promised them our help to finish roofing their convent. •
Ecuador: ‘The encounter with Christ will lead you to the poor.’ (Pope Francis).
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SERVING GOD IN THE JUNGLE
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ver 120 years ago the first missionaries arrived in the Amazon region of Ecuador that today is the Apostolic Vicariate of Mendez. The nuns followed ten years later. Today there are 90 sisters working here, from nine different congregations. It is a vast region, and there is no end to the work in this particular vineyard of the Lord’s. Half of the inhabitants are indigenous people and many of them live in the mountains or in the rainforest. So the sisters bring the love of Christ to them. ‘For they too are children of God’, says Mother Victoria. She comes from Italy and first came to the missions in Ecuador as a young sister of 21. That was back
in 1956. Since then she has devoted her entire life to working among these children of God.
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he learned the language of the Shuar people, set up a boarding school for girls, and rode into the mountains on a mule – always with her rosary in her hand, ‘so that the Blessed Virgin would protect me from the wild beasts, the cloudbursts and the snakes’. She brought them the Word of God and shared their food and living conditions. These people have lost out as the modern age has borne down upon them. In the clash of cultures the young people quickly lose their old customs and traditions, and with them a part of their own identity. Joyful in the Lord: Sisters in Ecuador making wafers of unleavened bread for the Mass.
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Often all that is left is an empty shell. Mother Victoria and her sisters are working so that the girls in particular can get an education and not fall into the hands of the drug dealers and people traffickers. ‘They must be allowed to experience the warmth of God’s love’, she explains. In this way their spiritual wounds can heal and the girls can regain their dignity. It is all part of the order’s missionary work today.
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nly with ACN’s help can this allimportant work continue. The Sister’s mission serving their fellow men and women – which includes catechesis as a natural and integral part – is supported by ACN, which provides subsistence aid for their life and ministry. We have promised the 90 sisters in Mendez our support. •
In the margins: The sisters care for everyone – the elderly, the sick, the children...
‘Leave your snug homes and go out into the margins, to the people of today.’ Pope Francis or these sisters in Egypt the Pope’s appeal is daily life already. You are helping various congregations here, for example with training courses for their mission work.
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SHOWING THE AUTHENTIC FACE OF CHRIST he Prayer of Jesus’ – ‘the Our Father‘ – ‘is my favourite prayer’, says Mother Marie Catherine. ‘It unites us.’ And she also loves praying ‘the Angelus’. ‘For then I can see within my heart how God came to us as man.’
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Living in unity is part of the charism of the Servants of Christ. Their congregation was founded by Mother Marie Catherine nine years ago. Previously she had been the General Superior of the Daughters of the Blessed Heart of Mary for the whole of West Africa, an extremely demanding task that carried with it a great deal of responsibility.
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uring an extended period of rest and recovery in France she attended a seminar on Islam. While praying she experienced the call of Christ: ‘Show my real face in the Islamic world’. She pondered on what this might mean. She knew West Africa, as she lived in Senegal. But she sensed that God wished to entrust her with a mission elsewhere. ‘Build me a house, so that my love can take visible form among the Muslims.’ Then, again in prayer, she understood that it was to be in Niger. A pilgrimage to Lisieux to the shrine of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Doctor of the Church and Patroness of the Missions, confirmed her in her call. ‘Why it should be Niger, I do not know’, she said. But she knew that this was the path to follow. And she remembered hearing about a bishop in the desert region of Maradi.
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Called to Niger – Mother Marie Catherine Kingbo.
ishop Ambroise had already been praying for some time for help. In his vast diocese there were scarcely any religious sisters. Here Christians do not make up even half a percent of the population, and grinding poverty and hunger are everyday realities. When they started, the Servants of Christ were just two women. Today there are ten of them – and eleven novices as well. They go into the villages, distributing food, particularly to mothers with malnourished children.
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They organise courses in hygiene, health and education; they teach the people to read and write and show them how to manage their homes – not to mention providing microcredit. They are now serving some 150 villages, which have over 25,000 people. No one would have come here if God had not sent the Servants of Christ. ‘The people have confidence in us; they can see what we are doing’, says Mother Marie Catherine. What she does not say is that in their work of love the people can see the authentic face of Christ. or some time now people in some of the villages have wanted to learn more about Jesus. ‘The village elders organised a meeting and asked
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us how one could become a Christian.’ The bishop is taking care of this. The sisters continue to show the authentic face of Christ through practical deeds. Where there is hunger, the sisters give food; where there is thirst, the sisters give drink. They visit young women, many of whom have fled from forced marriages – often as young an age as 11 – and into prostitution. They are fighting for the dignity of women; and they also visit people suffering from leprosy.
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ithout the sisters, life would be bleak on the plains of Maradi The emblem of the congregation is the washing of the feet. ‘We wish to serve in humility’, Mother Marie explains. Relations with the Muslims are also good. ‘We also live in poverty; that is a bond between us’, she adds. Nonetheless, even here the influence of fanaticism can be felt. ‘The cross that our girls wear around their necks disturbs some people’. But the Sultan of the region and the village elders are all behind Mother Marie, and indeed are immensely grateful to her. Close to the church the sisters have built their mother house, with an annex for the novices. You have already helped.
Defending the dignity of the women – whether in the home or in the fields. All part of the sisters’ apostolate.
But more will be needed. The need is great in Maradi – but then so too is the Sisters’ love. •
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ENGINE OF PROVIDENCE
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he challenge is to help the whole human person: mind, body, soul and spirit. Many political and ideological systems seek to subject the human person and dominate culture, but Faith in Christ sets us free.
TUNISIA
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he Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará – originally from Chile – strive to proclaim the love of the Gospel in a spirit of freedom and service to others. These sisters have been in Tunisia since 2005. They have seen for themselves the turmoil of revolution and the radicalisation of many among the population. Safety and security is a particular concern, as it is dangerous to use public transport as the vehicles are mostly occupied by men, just as it is dangerous to walk alone through Tunis and its suburbs, or even to travel by taxi. But the children in the parishes are waiting for the sisters to come and teach them the catechism, while the sick and elderly are expecting them to bring them consolation and joy.
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uch pastoral duties are difficult enough in themselves, but in a cultural climate so hostile to Christianity they can also be dangerous. We have promised the sisters our financial support so that they can buy a new car. Then they can serve the people in safety and bring the truth that sets them free. •
Carthage (Tunis). Empires come and go; the Kingdom of Christ remains – thanks also to the sisters.
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LEBANON
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he Missionary Sisters of the Most Blessed Sacrament teach 1,200 girls from 30 villages in the surrounding country region in their school in Byblos. However, their biggest challenge is the orphanage, attached to the school, which accommodates 80 girls. ‘We depend on the providence of God’, writes the Superior, Mother Laura Trad. Were it not for the sisters, these girls would have no schooling, no education, no love. But the sisters themselves could not provide this service without the help of others. This is where providence has introduced ACN into the equation.
‘THANKS TO YOU, WE CAN STAY ON’
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n many parts of Syria the Christians are venturing to return to their villages and homes, as they say ‘it is our homeland’. In Nebek, near Homs, they found nothing but ruins and burned out houses. Rebuilding ‘would have been impossible without your solidarity’, writes Sister Huda Fadoul. Above all, they could not have survived the winter without heating oil, warm clothing and medicines. Instead, entire families were able to survive, thanks to the emergency aid provided by ACN. Your generous support has also enabled them to buy the essential materials they need to rebuild.
We are, so to speak, the engine providence, as we help the Sisters fulfil their many-sided pastoral apostolate – for these girls, for the refugees, for the old people in the countryside and for the poor in Byblos – the sisters need to have a strong and reliable vehicle. We are helping them get one. •
The gift of hope – the sisters draw strength in prayer and pass it on with love.
And although shots are still fired here and there in the neighbourhood, nevertheless they are planning to stay. Sister Huda is filled with a sense of profound gratitude. She writes: ‘Thanks to your generosity we are also able to persuade others to stay on and to hope in a better future. You have given us back our dignity.’ •
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WAKING UP THE WORLD by Fr Roger Landry
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ach year on February 2nd, the Church marks the World Day of Prayer for Consecrated Life. St. John Paul II established this observance in 1997 on the feast of the Presentation to thank God for the great gift of consecrated life, to promote greater knowledge of and esteem for it and to give consecrated persons the opportunity to renew fervently their total self-offering to God.
The Presentation was chosen because, on this feast, traditionally called Candlemas, Mass begins with a procession of blessed, lit candles, evocative of Simeon’s description of Jesus at the Presentation as a ‘light of revelation to the nations.’ Those in consecrated life, St. John Paul stressed, are those who reflect the light of Jesus’ total consecration to the Father and who, like the wise bridesmaids in Jesus’ parable, burn like lamps lit for the embrace of Jesus, the Bridegroom.
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his year’s celebration has special resonance because it is occurring during the first Year for Consecrated Life in the history of the Church. Pope Francis inaugurated this holy year in November, on the First Sunday of Advent, and announced that it will extend to next year’s feast of the Presentation. It’s fitting that one of only 20 successors of St. Peter from religious orders and the first since 1846 would be the one to call and guide this 14-month observance. In all of this there is a practical genius and aim behind the proclamation of ecclesiastical holy years, because they focus the attention of the Church on an important aspect of Christian faith and living that needs to be more deeply understood, valued and lived.
Saint Terese of Avila
3 Father Roger Landry is pastor of St. Bernadette Parish in Fall River, Massachusetts, and national chaplin of Catholiv Voices USA
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t. John Paul II, who witnessed the importance of holy years in forming and strengthening people in faith under communist oppression in Poland, convened holy years to celebrate and give greater attention to Our Redemption ................. 1983 Mary ................................... 1987 Jesus Christ ......................... 1997 The Holy Spirit .................... 1998 God the Father.................... 1999 The Incarnation................... 2000 The Rosary .......................... 2002-3 & The Eucharist ...................... 2004-5 Pope Benedict continued the practice, convoking holy years dedicated to St. Paul ................................ 2008-9 The Priesthood ................... 2009-10 & The Christian faith as a whole........................... 2012-3
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Saint John Paul II
n proclaiming the holy year to sustained applause at the end of November 29th, 2013, meeting with the general superiors of communities of religious, Pope Francis noted that consecrated persons are called in a special way to help the entire Church ‘wake up the world’ by showing everyone that there is a different, better, more radical and joy-filled way of thinking, acting and living — in short, a more Christ-like way of life — than most in the Church and in the world have adopted. Aid to the Church in Need
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n his apostolic letter to all consecrated persons at the beginning of this holy year, Pope Francis said that this year has a triple aim of looking to the past with gratitude, living the present with passion and embracing the future with hope. We need this Year for Consecrated Life first to thank God for the gift of consecrated life and for the vocations God has given to so many men and women throughout the centuries to build up the Church and to call us to a greater following of God.
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here would the Church be
without Sts. Augustine, Benedict, Francis, Dominic, Ignatius, Vincent de Paul, Alphonsus Liguori and John Bosco? Or without Sts. Scholastica, Clare, Bridget, Angela Merici, Teresa of Avila, Jane de Chantal, Louise de Marillac, Elizabeth Seton, Frances Cabrini and Blessed Teresa of Calcutta? Or without the ceaseless prayer and the educational, medicinal and charitable works of so many consecrated men and women in every generation, including our own? Saint Vincent De Paul
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his year is an occasion to say thanks not only to God but to all those who have said Yes to God’s call to dedicate themselves to him as contemplative monks and cloistered nuns, as religious brothers, sisters and priests, as members of secular institutes and societies of apostolic life, as consecrated virgins, hermits and widows, and in so many new expressions of consecrated life by which the life, virtues and values of Jesus are daily made more visible, drawing us from the superficial to the sacred and from the ephemeral to the eternal.
Pope Francis, in his apostolic letter at the beginning of the year, said that he wants the whole Church to experience it as a ‘grace’ by which we can all become more aware of the gifts we have received. ‘The Year for Consecrated Life concerns not only consecrated persons, but the entire Church,’ he stressed.
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t. John Paul II gave us, in Vita Consecrata, his profound 1996 exhortation on the consecrated life and its mission in the Church and in the world, the fundamental reason why this year should be a real grace for all of us.
We also need this year to bring about, in some areas, a passionate and muchneeded renewal of consecrated life and a greater attentiveness to God’s calling others to embrace this way of life. Without this, Pope Francis’ aim of ‘embracing the future with hope’ would remain sterile, saccharine optimism.
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ut this holy year is also needed as well to help the entire Church rediscover the essence of the Christian life and the meaning of our baptismal consecration. It is meant to startle all of us out of our spiritual stupor, so that we may, in turn, together with those in consecrated life, wake up the world.
Saint Francis
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t is because the consecrated life ‘is not something isolated and marginal, but a reality that affects the whole Church,’ he underlined. ‘The consecrated life is at the very heart of the Church as a decisive element for her mission, since it manifests the inner nature of the Christian calling and the striving of the whole Church as Bride towards union with her one Spouse.’
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he consecrated life reveals, he accentuated, both the essence of the Christian vocation in this world and the next. To understand the nature and purpose of the Christian life, to know the meaning of our baptismal consecration, discipleship and mission and to enter and live in God’s kingdom so as to live in it forever, we do well to turn to the consecrated life. he Church needs this Year for Consecrated Life. We all need it. Let us pray for consecrated men and women and for all of us in the Church, that we may experience it as a ‘grace’ and live it radically. •
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The Good Samaritan
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ST. ALEXIUS - CONFESSOR
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he life of St. Alexius parallels the biblical story of the Prodigal Son found in the gospel of Luke. Some of what we know about this man is fact – and some of what we know is legend. Much of the legend could very well be true though as the story and veneration of St. Alexius has been brought to us via the oral tradition primarily in the 9th and 10th centuries.
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t. Alexius was the son of a wealthy Roman who was of the senatorial class. There is a church dedicated to St. Alexius in Rome that was built on the site of his father’s mansion. The parents of Alexius arranged a marriage for him – but on day of the wedding ceremony, Alexius fled this arranged marriage and left everyone in his wealthy home, including bride, family, household and all in attendance to follow God.
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e went as a pilgrim to an area near Edessa in Syria where he ministered to the poor and the sick. He lived in poverty as a beggar near a church dedicated to Our Lady. After many long years he returned to his father’s house in Rome and due to the time of his absence and total change of appearance, his own father did not recognise him. Since his father was a Christian man, he accepted this beggar man into his house out of pity and provided him shelter. For seventeen years Alexius lived as a beggar under the stairs in a darkened corner of his father’s
house. He would venture out only to pray in church and to teach catechism to children. He always shared his alms with his fellow poor. Legend has it that a vision or image of Our Lady revealed to some townspeople that this beggar was indeed very holy and that he was a ‘Man of God.’
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pon his death from hunger and neglect, his family found a note on his body that revealed his true identity. It also told how since the day of his arranged marriage, he lived for God and God alone. Since he travelled to Syria and died a beggar, he is a patron for pilgrims and beggars. He is also a patron of nurses, belt makers and travellers. In Christian art St. Alexius is represented as wearing ragged clothing and/or as a man lying underneath stairs. Under the date of July 17, in the Roman Martyrology, it is said of St. Alexius, ‘At Rome, in a church on the Aventine Hill, a man of God is celebrated under the name of Alexius, who, as reported by tradition, abandoned his wealthy home, for the sake of becoming poor and to beg for alms unrecognised.’ The Catholic Encyclopedia article regarding St. Alexius states: ‘Perhaps the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic at Edessa lived the life of a beggar and was later venerated as a saint.’
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THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE CONGREGATION OF THE ALEXIAN BROTHERS
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he Alexian Brothers ministry began in the Middle Ages, as Europe slowly emerged from centuries of ignorance and superstition. In the Low Countries and along the Rhine, small groups of men and women banded together to carry out Christ’s commands. They would tend the sick, feed the hungry and bury the dead. In the 12th Century these were dangerously unorthodox activities. Most people, out of fear, shunned the sick and dying, forcing them outside the city gates, to subsist on the leavings of the more fortunate.
of these communities evolved from the word ‘Algignese’ which means ‘heretics.’ These communes of celibate men and women were looked upon as unorthodox or heretical because of the type of life they lived. Gradually, these communes became more organised. By the middle of the 13th century, many received support from the Franciscan order. But some among them maintained their independence. It was from these handful of dedicated laymen along the Rhine that the Congregation of the Alexian Brothers grew.
The first written account of the Brothers is dated 1259 in a document referring to the Beguines and Beghards. The name
n 1346, the Black Death struck Europe. Between 30% and 60% of the continent’s population is estimated to have been killed by the Plague and the very foundations of European society were under-minded. Family ties became worthless as the healthy fled in terror from their stricken kin. The Brothers however remained, risking their lives, to nurse the victims of the plague, to care for them and bury them when they died.
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When the Plague passed, the men chose St. Alexius, a fifth century saint who was devoted to the poor and sick, as the patron of their first chapel. With the passing of time, the people they served began to refer to them as ‘Alexian Brothers’.
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he crest of the Alexian Brothers reflects their history, the shield of which is divided into three fields with each field symbolically representing one facet of the work of the Institute. • The upper half shows on a red background the Pelican nourishing its young with her heart’s blood - a symbol of the self-consuming sacrifice of Christian Charity. • The two spades on the black background, in the lower half, is a remembrance of a former activity of the Alexian Brothers in burying the dead in time of calamity. • The flying raven on a silver-gray background represents the feeding of the destitute, a virtue the Congregation has practiced for centuries.
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cross, signifying the cross of salvation projects from behind the shield and around it is suspended a band with the words of St Paul and the motto of the congregation: St. Alexius
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Congregation of Alexian Brothers Alexian Brothers originated in the 12th Thecentury to care for those afflicted by the plague.
Today, as followers of Jesus, they dedicate their lives to serving the sick and those on the margins of society. They do this with the support of prayer and community life.
Night Prayer of Saint Augustine
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atch thou, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ. Rest your weary ones. Bless your dying ones. Soothe your suffering ones. Pity your afflicted ones. Shield your joyous ones. And all for your love’s sake.
Amen
Is Jesus calling you? Alexian Brothers Community Churchfield, Knock, Co. Mayo, Ireland Phone 094 937 6996 Email stalexius@eircom.net
www.alexianbrothers.ie
‘The Love of Christ Compels Us’
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‘The Love of Christ Compels Us’
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he charism of the Alexian Brothers reflects the life of St Alexius and entails providing a ‘daring response of a faith community to the gospel of Jesus’.
It is a charism which calls every Alexian to daily conversion and total self-giving in continuing the healing and reconciling mission of Jesus in collaboration with others. The world and the work of the Alexian Brothers like the saint from whom they have taken their name is focused upon providing joyful service of healing, hospitality and witness ‘in communion with Christ and with one another’ to a broken world, a world in need of God’s love, ‘Caritas Christi.’ •
It is a charism which is rooted in prayer and simple life style. In discipleship with Jesus, the Alexian response involves reaching out to the poor, sick and dying, especially the marginalised and the powerless.
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Congregation of Alexian Brothers
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Alexian Monastery
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Blessed Sacrament Chapel
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Knock Museum
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‘The Love of Christ Compels Us’
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Map of
Knock Shrine Co. Mayo, Ireland
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‘GOD HELP ME’
by Fr. Michael Shields, ACN Evangelist-at-Large
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ave you ever said or prayed these words?
How can I get through this? I am in crisis I don’t know what to do. I have lost hope. I have lost faith.
My time in Russia has been a time of great faith-building and a time of great faith-testing. I have been in a faith crisis a number of times and each time the Lord has shown me a way through it. I bless the Lord for this knowledge and want to share some with you because I know that there are many of you who are: in a crisis, coming out of a crisis and/or about to go into a crisis and have no idea what to do. Many times I have cried out these words: God help me! My dear friends do you know that place of crisis?... Where you sense you lost your faith. When you sense there is no hope? When you believe there is no way out of the darkness?
The spiritual name term for this place is ‘desolation.’
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t. Ignatius in his renowned Spiritual Exercises writes that desolation is:
darkness of the soul, turmoil of the mind, inclination to low and earthly things, restlessness resulting from many disturbances and temptations which lead to loss of faith, loss of hope, and loss of love. It is also desolation when a soul finds itself: completely apathetic, sad, and separated as it were, from its body.
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esus wants to give us a way through the darkness. Not a way out of the darkness. Why? Because, Jesus knows sometimes the moments of spiritual suffering can be moments of great grace. The deepest conversions in my life and the greatest closeness to Jesus happened when I was in the darkest time in my spiritual life.
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Here are the two basic principles Jesus teaches us on how to live through a spiritual crisis. Look back and see how God worked in your life. You have sometime in the past already experienced troubles. How did God work then? Your faith is in God, his ability and his willingness to help you. Looking back you see God is the same today as yesterday, he helped you then and he will help you now. The Bible says ‘Jesus is the same today, yesterday and forever’. The other principle is you look ahead: what we believe about the future will determine how we live today.
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n this regard let me give you an illustration. Two men were put in prison unfairly and it is a great suffering to feel the injustice from another person. Both men were to be in prison for 10 years. One man survives the other man did not. Why? One man heard that his whole family had died and there was no one waiting for him. He died of hopelessness. The other man however, heard his family was waiting and praying for him. He lived each day in the hope of seeing them in the future. He survived because of what he believed was to be his future.
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Do you see? There are two futures. One road is a dead end. The other road leads to life and for us Christians eternal life on high with Christ Jesus.
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o you believe in the future of your soul? Here you need to check where your hope is founded. If it is only in this life you will not withstand the fire of desolation. But if you have an eternal perspective you can live through the suffering and darkness with a difference. How you see your future will determine how you live right now. We need to look back and we need to look forward as we learn to live through the spiritually hard times of faith. When you are in spiritual crisis know that God will not abandon you.
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ow let me give you some basic principles that we can apply to our lives and which can help us while we are desolate. I know some of you won’t need them now but I assure you if you are not in crisis now someday you will be.
St. Paul
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WHEN IN DESOLATION by Fr. Michael Shields 1 When In Desolation, Stay The Course. If you have made a decision don’t change it. If you have made a resolution don’t change it. Trust God he will help you fulfill it.
2 In Desolation, Remember God Is Really There. We Christians cannot endure testing by ourselves. God has given all Christians sufficient grace to endure desolation and not be destroyed.
3 The Most Important Thing in confronting
Desolation Is Patience. Patience is a virtue we need the most in a crisis. And it seems to leave quickly. Yet patience is the most necessary virtue for persisting in desolation.
4 In Desolation and Spiritual Trials, think Long-Term. It is very difficult to say but it will pass. You are given a gift of persistence through your suffering.
5 Starve Desolation with Increased Spirituality. It will be hard but pray more, cry out to God with all your strength. Be open to reading the bible more. Speak with a friend and pray with a friend don’t be alone in your crisis. Paul’s advice from Ephesians 5:19-20 “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
6 Remember the times God worked in your life, the joys and deep faith you had.
7 Know your Enemy and realise that Satan will tempt you to give up.
8 Consider the reasons for your Desolation and Spiritual crisis. There are many reasons we find ourselves in a Spiritual crisis. Here are three: We have sinned. And we need to repent. We have not sinned but god gives us a time to test our faith. We have not sinned but God gives us an invitation to grow spiritually and it happens only in deep spiritual suffering.
Here it is good to remember that St Paul once prayed to be released from the thorn in the flesh before he realised that suffering was a deep grace and how much more he depended on God because of his weakness.
9 Know that God will never abandon
you. St Paul says ‘“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.’4 • 4 (vv. 9-10, NIV).
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KEEPING THE FAITH ALIVE Dear Friends,
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n the diocese where I live there are 270 active priests today. By the year 2022 there are likely, on present trends, to be no more than 120. The number of seminarians is also falling. This disturbing trend is to be observed throughout Western Europe. And things are no different when it comes to vocations to the religious life. Yet in Africa and Asia the number of vocations is growing, and thanks to your donations we are able to help with the construction and extension of seminaries and convents. It is no longer possible to ignore these two contrasting developments. Certainly, God calls those in the wealthier countries, but fewer people heed his voice. Both parents and parishes find
themselves increasingly overwhelmed as they struggle to pass on the Faith.
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ome of A C N ’s national offices employ the slogan ‘Keeping the Faith Alive’. This is also appropriate for our work in those places where the Church is in need because her message is no longer listened to and where spiritual poverty is spreading ever further. That is why we are supporting the promotion of modern catechetical materials, such as the Youcat, and before very long a new children’s catechism as well.
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hanks to your great generosity and to the growing number of our benefactors, we will be able to achieve this without cutting our existing aid for the Church in need around the world. The faith must be kept alive – everywhere.
Johannes Freiherr Heereman, Executive President of ACN International
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GOD MOVES US... Transfer of energy I am so happy to see the ways in which ACN has been an instrument of God in my life. I first heard about you through an appeal on the television, calling for help for the poor and neglected of this world. I began to get involved. I see your work as being like a power cable, which makes a connection from the socket – the person with living energy – to those who need it in order to do good in the world. But it doesn’t just stop there; the energy received at the end of the cable comes back to the socket in the form of thanks and prayers and unites both ends together in a single body. My conclusion is that God moves in both directions providing His living energy, regardless of which end we stand at. You can count on my prayers, together with a modest contribution, in the name of Jesus Christ.
A benefactor in Brazil
...THANK YOU Dear Friends,
AMDG
As ever our heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support. Last year thanks to your • Legacies • Donations and • Mass offerings We were able to: • Support the formation of over 15,000 consecrated religious and • Provide sustenance and the means of survival to over 40,000 priests • Distribute more than 2 million catechetical books and Bring hope to many thousands who live in destitution. May the Good Lord continue to bless you and your family, past and present, now and always. In Christ,
Moved by the Mirror I’m often moved by stories of people in the Mirror. The interview with Mgr. Jeanbart was deeply moving. I would like to think that the agony Christians and others are going through in Syria and Iraq will pass. I hope to pick the story up in 5 years time and reflect on how much things have improved for Christians in these lands. If things do improve it will be due to the courage and fidelity of people like Mgr. Jeanbart. Please find attached a donation for the Christians of Syria and Iraq.
A benefactor in Australia
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J F Declan Quinn Director, Aid to the Church in Need (Irl) Where to send your contribution for the Church in Need: Please use the Freepost envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9. TEL (01) 837 7516. EMAIL info@acnireland.org WEB www.acnireland.org Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.
If you give by standing order, or have sent a donation recently, please accept our sincere thanks. This MIRROR is for your interest and information.
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Stand firm in the faith, be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13)
‘EVERY VOCATION IS A QUESTION OF UNDIVIDED LOVE.’ ACN Spiritual Assistant
‘We are called to know and show that God is able to fill our hearts to the brim with happiness; that we need not seek our happiness elsewhere.’
Gift and Grace – with God at the heart of it all.
For the Year of Consecrated Life (November 2014 – February 2016)
Aid to the Church in Need
151 St. Mobhi Road, Dublin 9.
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