MIRROR
‘The Great Commission’ St. Peter the Apostle Cathedral, Honduras.
DOING GOD’S WORK
THE GREAT COMMISSION
MIRROR GIVE JOY, GIVE HOPE
CONTENTS PAGE Our Great Commission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Michael Kinsella. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 The Goal of Every Mission. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Martin Bartha.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Teaching the Truths of Faith and Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Eastern Europe.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Little Miracles for the Fishers of Men. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dem. Rep. of Congo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Doubling their Missionary Impact .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Burkina Faso. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Without Your Help, We Could Not Keep Going. . . . . . . . . . . Cuba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Go and Make Disciples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Pope Francis.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Future Depends on How and What We Teach .. . . . Albania. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A Beacon of Humanity.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Benin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 To Evangelise is to Defend Humanity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marty Dybicz. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Get Up We Have to Finish This .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Philip Kosloski.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The Art of Living – In Giving We Receive .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cecilia Zinicola . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Jesus’ Very Last Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kristina Robb-Dover .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Walking With Jesus. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Let’s Journey Together. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Thomas Heine-Geldern. . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
‘ The entire Mission of the Church, is concentrated and manifested in Evangelisation’ POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, CHRISTIFIDELES LAICI, NO. 33 Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: ACN International, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
THE GREAT COMMISSION
OUR GREAT COMMISSION Dear Friends,
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o commission someone is to entrust them with a task, a responsibility. In life all of us are given tasks to do. Sometimes these are small. Sometimes they are big and sometimes they are really a very great undertaking. So what determines whether a particular commission is great or not? Two things… The person who it is that is awarding the commission and The importance of the task itself: how significant is it.
When the Church speaks of THE GREAT COMMISSION it is referring to that one specific task which JESUS CHRIST, Son of the Living God entrusted to His Apostles, His Church, His People in his final words before He ascended into Heaven. So the Church’s Great Commission has been given to Her by the highest possible authority, there is no higher. As to the importance of the task, St. Matthew in the concluding words of his Gospel quotes Christ the Redeemer Himself as saying: ‘All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, Baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age’.
Can there be a more significant task? Surely there is no greater responsibility that one can be given than to teach all nations (‘always and everywhere’) how to know, love and serve the One True God who became Man, who suffered, died and conquered death in order to open up the gates of eternal life to all mankind. Jesus Christ Himself, has commissioned the Church (as a whole) and each of us (in particular) to continue through time and until the end of time His Work of Saving Humanity. That’s right, each of us by our Baptism has been personally entrusted with a particular role in Salvation History. Dear Friends, we are not alone in this great task, we are not alone in our sufferings. We are not alone in our persecutions. We are Christians, sinners all who struggle each day to become and to help each other become better witnesses to that Great and Eternal Truth that Christ Has Died, Christ Has Risen and Christ Will Come Again. We are an Easter People and all of us have been commissioned to carry the Light of Christ into our dark world. Your brother in Christ,
Dr. Michael Kinsella
DIRECTOR, ACN IRELAND
(Matt. 28: 18-20) 1
DOING GOD’S WORK
THE GOAL OF EVERY MISSION Dear Friends,
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t must surely have seemed like an impossible mission when, after His Resurrection, Jesus sent His Apostles out into all the world to proclaim the Gospel to all men. For what must then have seemed quite beyond them, given the lack of modern communication, technology and modes of travel, was achieved by the Holy Spirit through His own power. Today we have innumerable technological means of communication available to us. With our technical resources, mass media and air travel, we can reach the remotest corners of the world with the message of Christ
in hours or even seconds. However, all this is to no avail if we lack the motivating power of the Holy Spirit. Consequently, our ‘First Mission’ is an invisible and entirely spiritual one. It is this: ‘Remain in me; then you will bear much fruit’ (cf Jn 15:5). This ‘First Mission’ is something we can only achieve in silence, in the personal encounter with God. St. Teresa of Kolkata writes in her spiritual testament, ‘I am concerned, because some of you have not yet truly encountered Jesus – face to face – just you and Jesus. Have you truly perceived, with the eyes of your soul, with what great love He gazes upon you? Unless you hear Jesus speaking in the stillness of your heart, you cannot hear Him saying to you in the hearts of the poor: “I thirst”.’
Bishop Arturo Gonzales distributes the Child’s bible ‘God speaks to his children’ in the chapel after Sunday mass. Cuba.
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The ‘Second Mission’ also has something of a hidden character, for it takes place within our families and communities, among our circles of friends, our acquaintances, our school friends or work colleagues, in the places where we live and work. It consists in the striving for mutual love, reconciliation and unity.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
Again, this is what Jesus prays to the Father: ‘May they be one in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me…’ (cf Jn 17:21). Only this unity can give us the strength and the necessary credibility for our ‘Third Mission’: that of proclaiming the Gospel to all the world. Dear friends, not everyone has the vocation to travel to foreign lands and proclaim the Gospel publicly. However, the universal mission of the Church is impossible without the underlying mission of prayer and unity, to which we are all called. Hence, the missionary is not alone, for his mission is borne by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no more noble a goal in life than to bring Redemption to all nations. Hence, your donations not only serve a useful
purpose but also help bear the fruit for eternity. For they carry within them the power of your prayer and your love. This is something we owe one another (cf. Romans 13:8). What gift can be greater than the power to pass on the gift of eternal life? Thus, the quintessence of love, the goal of all and every mission is this: ‘I want you to never die; I want you to live!’ With my grateful blessing on you all
Father Martin M. Barta ACN ECCLESIASTICAL ASSISTANT
SRA Sister in Mangalore Province, India.
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DOING GOD’S WORK
TEACHING THE TRUTHS OF FAITH AND LOVE EASTERN EUROPE
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he most profound Truth of the Gospel is this: God is our Father, and we are His children. This thought from Pope St. John Paul II belongs at the beginning of every work of mission and New Evangelisation. In Eastern Europe, above all in the region of the former Soviet Union, people need to be made aware once again of this and other such fundamental truths of Faith and Love. In his new parish, not quite two years old, in Hrodna, Belarus, Father Henryk Jablonski is starting with young families with children.
Until the church is built, Father Henryk must continue to celebrate Holy Mass in the open air.
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They are being drawn in from the countryside, into the city outskirts, close to where there is work and schools. His parish, named after St. John Paul II, is currently in the process of building a parish centre with a large chapel and small flat for the priest, so for the time being Sunday Mass is usually celebrated in the open air, while the catechetical sessions take place in the family homes. Father Henrik himself is living for the time being in a room in a tower block some 10 km away from his parish. Every day he travels to the hospital to celebrate Holy Mass and visit the sick. Often he also helps out in neighbouring parishes.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
He regularly travels to Poland to raise money for the church and for a car. But it is still not enough. And the young families are poor, and the sick and elderly are happy simply to be able to get by somehow. The New Evangelisation can be a challenging task. We have promised him €10,000 for a car. In Ukraine the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary are also working in support of the New Evangelisation. They organise catechesis with the young people, offer pastoral care in the workplace, visit children’s and old people’s homes, offer retreats for adults – in short, an all-round programme. One particular problem for the families is when one, or even both, of the parents goes abroad to work, thereby dividing the family. Months of separation like this can burden the relationship, and doubts can creep in. To walk faithfully through time is the name of Love, according to Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.
God that can burden a relationship. The Sisters have asked our help (€4,000) for their retreats, so that they can help couples to make a new beginning in their marriage, find the grace of loving forgiveness and give rise to a new dawn of love for themselves and their children.
‘ The Future of Humanity passes by way of the family’ POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II
Not all couples hold out against the inevitable temptations. When this happens, strength is needed to forgive. What sounds so simple can be extremely difficult in practice. Through their retreats for married couples, the Sisters are striving to help the spouses to find this strength. Ultimately, it is the strength of trust in God. ‘If we accept that God’s Love is unconditional,… then we will become capable of showing boundless love and forgiving others’, writes Pope Francis. Sometimes, however, it is simply the daily routine, the absence of romance in life, the bad habits that creep in, the lack of communication and the living without thinking about
Blessed by unconditional love: a new beginning for couples during the retreat in Ukraine.
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LITTLE MIRACLES FOR THE FISHERS OF MEN DEM. REP. OF CONGO
The Magnificat before the storm.
After the accident and repairs in the dockyard.
Duc in altum! ‘Put out into the deep!’ (Lk 5:4). Christ does not demand the exceptional, still less the impossible, in order for miracles to happen.
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owever, He does demand faith and sometimes a little effort. In the diocese of Lisala, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the catechists and missionaries regularly travel down the broad Congo River in an old river boat called the Magnificat in order to reach the communities on the banks and Riverine islands. Last autumn on such a journey, a sudden squall, as on Lake Genasereth, tossed the boat about violently. Driven by the wind, it veered off course and hit a tree on the bank. A large branch went straight through the stern, causing the hold to fill with water and the boat to capsize. Miraculously, no one was hurt but the Magnificat was unable to go any further.
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Despite Bishop Ernest Ngboko Ngombe’s best efforts, the boat’s recovery and repair swallowed up the last of the diocese’s financial reserves. Now the faithful are hoping for another miracle – in the form of our help. The diocese needs this boat. Bishop Ernest is asking for €8,700, so that the Magnificat can once again sail forth with its ‘fishers of men’ aboard.
‘And he taught them from the boat’ (cf. Lk 5:3): Bishop Ernest Ngboko on one of the islands on the River Congo.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
DOUBLING THEIR MISSIONARY IMPACT BURKINA FASO
‘Go into all the world…’ (Mk 16:50): Christ’s mission to the disciples.
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ll the world – especially Burkina Faso, where Christ’s poorest live. The Sisters of Annunciation of Bobo, a local congregation, work here caring first and foremost for women and girls. The town of Orodara, in the Bobo-Dioulasso archdiocese, lies in a mountain valley and many of its 12,000 or so Christians live in the surrounding remote mountain villages. Three of the Sisters work in the youth apostolate here whilst also visiting the sick and elderly, with one moped between them.
‘WITHOUT YOUR HELP, WE COULD NOT KEEP GOING’ CUBA
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heir guardian angels were surely working hard... In the diocese of Matanzas, Cuba, the driver of the minibus carrying the Sisters of the Servants of Mary had a stroke, lost consciousness and collided with a lorry.
Now Mother Lea Belemsaga is asking for a second moped so the Sisters can bring Christ’s Love to twice as many people. It will lend wings to their proclamation of the Gospel. ACN have agreed to help the Sisters double their missionary impact with a donation of €2,000.
Help lend wings to their mission: Sister Josephine, on their one and only moped.
transport the sick and elderly to Holy Mass. But they had no money to pay for the repairs. Thanks to your generosity, we were able to help. Sister Brunilda sends her heartfelt thanks to all involved in this ‘wonderful charity, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, who moves your hearts to missionary love’. She adds, ‘Without your help, we could not keep going here.’ And still less care for the poorest and most needy.
The driver survived, the bus suffered only superficial, though extensive, damage. But there is no car insurance in Cuba – and the Sisters urgently needed the minibus for their work with the sick. They even drive out at night to care for their patients, and on Sundays and Holy days they 7
DOING GOD’S WORK
GO AND MAKE DISCIPLES
Where does Jesus send us? There are no borders, no limits: He sends us to everyone. The Gospel is for everyone, not just for some. It is not only for those who seem closer to us, more receptive, more welcoming. It is for everyone.
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Do not be afraid to go and to bring Christ into every area of life, to the fringes of society, even to those who seem farthest away, most indifferent. The Lord seeks all, He wants everyone to feel the warmth of His Mercy and His Love.
POPE FRANCIS1
o and make disciples of all nations’. With these words, Jesus is speaking to each one of us. What is the Lord saying to us? Three simple ideas: Go, do not be afraid, and serve.
‘GO’. Faith is a flame that grows stronger the more it is shared and passed on, so that everyone may know, love and confess Jesus Christ, the Lord of life and history (cf. Rom 10:9). Careful, though! Jesus did not say: ‘go, if you would like to, if you have the time’, but he said: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’ Sharing the experience of faith, bearing witness to the faith, proclaiming the Gospel: this is a command that the Lord entrusts to the whole Church, and that includes you; but it is a command that is born not from a desire for domination, from the desire for power, but from the force of love, from the fact that Jesus first came into our midst and did not give us just a part of Himself, but He gave us the whole of Himself, He gave His life in order to save us and to show us the love and mercy of God. Jesus does not treat us as slaves, but as people who are free , as friends, as brothers and sisters; and He not only sends us, He accompanies us, He is always beside us in our Mission of Love.
In particular, I would like Christ’s command: ‘Go’ to resonate in you, the whole world needs Christ! Saint Paul says: ‘Woe to me if I do not preach the Gospel!’ (1 Cor 9:16).
‘Do Not Be Afraid’. Some people might think: ‘I have no particular preparation, how can I go and proclaim the Gospel?’ My dear friends, such fear is not so very different from that of Jeremiah when he was called by God to be a prophet. ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth’. God says the same thing to you as he said to Jeremiah: ‘Be not afraid ... for I am with you to deliver you’ (Jer 1:7,8). He is with us! ‘Do not be afraid!’ When we go to proclaim Christ, it is He Himself who goes before us and guides us. When He sent His disciples on mission, He promised: ‘I am with you always’ (Mt 28:20). And this is also true for us! Jesus never leaves anyone alone! He always accompanies us .
1 Adapted and edited from Pope Francis’ Homily given at Holy Mass on the Waterfront of Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, 28 July 2013. The Holy Father’s complete and original text can be accessed at: http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2013/documents/papafrancesco_20130728_celebrazione-xxviii-gmg.html
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THE GREAT COMMISSION
And then, Jesus did not say: ‘One of you go’, but ‘All of you go’: we are sent together. Dear friends, be aware of the companionship of the whole Church and also the communion of the saints on this mission. When we face challenges together, then we are strong, we discover resources we did not know we had. Jesus did not call the Apostles to live in isolation, He called them to form a group, a community. Go forth and don’t be afraid! The final word: Serve. Psalm 95:1 opens with the words: ‘Sing to the Lord a new song’ (Psalm 95:1). What is this new song? It does not consist of words, it is not a melody, it is the song of your life, it is allowing our life to be identified with that of Jesus, it is sharing His sentiments, His thoughts, His actions. And the
life of Jesus is a life for others. The life of Jesus is a life for others. It is a life of service. In Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians he writes: ‘I have made myself a slave to all, that I might win the more’ (1 Cor 9:19). In order to proclaim Jesus, St. Paul made himself ‘a slave to all’. Evangelising means bearing personal witness to the love of God, it is overcoming our selfishness, it is serving by bending down to wash the feet of our brethren, as Jesus did. Three ideas: Go, do not be afraid, and serve. If you follow these three ideas, you will experience that the one who evangelises is evangelised, the one who transmits the Joy of the Gospel receives more joy. Dear friends, do not be afraid to be generous with Christ, to bear witness to His Gospel. Sacred Scripture tells us that when God sends the prophet Jeremiah out, He gives him the power to ‘pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant’ (Jer. 1:10). It is the same for you. Bringing the Gospel is bringing God’s power…
‘ Dear friends go and make disciples of all nations’. POPE FRANCIS
to pluck up and break down evil and violence, to destroy and overthrow the barriers of selfishness, intolerance and hatred, so as to build a new world. 9
DOING GOD’S WORK
THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON HOW AND WHAT WE TEACH In her private diary, St. Teresa of Kolkata writes: ‘Once, I was speaking with a priest about the kind of friendships that can take us away from God. He confessed to me: ‘Mother, for me Jesus is everything. I have neither time nor space for any other friendships.’ For me this was the explanation why this particular priest had brought so many people to God. He was always united with Him’. This is the Secret of the Saints. They are always closely united to God. Filled with the spirit of this relationship, they are able to perform Works of Mercy.
Coming close to God: catechism and prayer session with Padre Rolando.
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ALBANIA
Don Luigi Orione, the founder of the ‘Little Work of Divine Providence’ (‘Piccola Opera della Divina Provvidenza’), was, in the words of Pope John Paul I, ‘a strategist of mercy’. He himself saw himself as the ‘servant of Divine Providence’. He did not ask many questions, but simply acted. His guiding motto was this: ‘Do not ask who he is, what he is, or what he believes. Ask only about his pain.’ In this spirit he founded orphanages and vocational schools. For he knew that the future of the young (and abandoned) depends on how and what we teach them. Inspired by this same spirit, and for over 20 years now, the congregation of Don Orione has been running mission stations for hundreds of Catholic families in Bardhaj, at the foot of the mountains in the diocese of Shkodra, in northern Albania.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
After the collapse of the Communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, they had emerged from the craggy mountain villages, where they had hidden away from the tyranny of the atheist regime, and come down into the valleys – in rags and tatters, emaciated, but with God in their hearts. Today three missionaries, Don Rolando, Don Dorian and Don Giuseppe, care for these four thousand or so souls. They also run four other mission stations in the mountain regions, all of them inaccessible without an all-terrain vehicle. ‘We travel around 400 km (250 miles) a week’, they tell us. They do not ask questions, they act. …they ease the bodily pain with medication, still the thirst for God with catechesis, satisfy the physical hunger with bread, and fill the spiritual longing with prayer.
Canonised 15 years ago: Don Luigi Orione, the founder of the “Little Work of Divine Providence”.
They bring God to the people and the people to God. Roughly 60% of Albania’s close on 3 million inhabitants are Muslims. Catholics make up around 10%. They have maintained their faith throughout the decades of atheist dictatorship. One of them, of course, was St. Teresa of Kolkata. Many of these Catholics hardly know their catechism. But, up in their mountain villages, they eagerly look forward to the visits of Padres Rolando, Dorian and Giuseppe. However, when they are late – since the roads here are really barely worthy of the name – they begin to fear that the old Jeep has broken down again, as it has so often in recent years. Without a vehicle, the mission and its work would grind almost to a standstill, and that would be painful for everyone. We have promised them €14,000 for a new vehicle.
Looking to his future: an orphan in one of Don Orione’s vocational workshops.
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A BEACON OF HUMANITY
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BENIN
s many Popes and Saints have told us, whoever wants to change the world must first start with his own Heart. For it is in the Heart that our real life decisions are made; the Heart is the true Place of Faith.
Lumière Mission school, originally founded in France by Father Daniel Ange. The idea is that by the witness of their lives, these young people should become prophets for their own generation.
Scripture similarly sees godlessness not as a matter of the intellect, but of the heart. ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God’, as Psalm 14 tells us.
For Father Cyrille Miyigbena, the head of the school, it is above all a programme of humanity.
Wisdom of Heart is not something we learn, like Mathematics. It is a question of the Inner Life. This is why the one-year formation course for young people aged 18 to 30 at the Jeunesse Bonheur School in Cotonou, Benin, rests on the four pillars of Contemplation, Education, Community and Mission. It is the first school of its kind in Africa and is based on the principles behind the Jeunesse
Patrons of the school: Mgr. Roger Houngbédji, Archbishop of Cotonou, and Père Daniel Ange, the founder of the Jeunesse Lumière.
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‘You can learn anything’, he says: ‘joy, a smile, respect for others, punctuality, love for work well done, justice, a sense of community, cleanliness, tidiness, patience, forgiveness, self-control – in short, all the virtues the lack of which is so painfully obvious in today’s society. All these things are learnt in the School of Christ, the true Master of the interior life.’
Angelica, one of the first students: with a deeper understanding of the value of marriage and family.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
Consequently, it is hoped the young people graduating from this school will take these virtues into society, through their Christian Way of Life. At the end of her year in Cotonou, Vicentia is firmly convinced. ‘I have realised that by abandoning ourselves totally to the Spirit of Love, we can come to see other people as a Gift of God, with all their strengths and limitations.’ Fabrice now sees their mission in the following light: ‘Just as a scientific experiment proves the validity of a thesis, so our mission testifies to the Truth of the Gospel. Without this testimony, the Christian is lacking an essential dimension.’
The fruits of the school are self-evident. Just three years after opening its doors to students, the school has seen 12 young men enter the seminary, whilst five others have discerned vocations to religious life and a number of others now work in various dioceses across the country. The school is growing at such a rate it needs to relocate and is now set to leave the minor seminary in Cotonou. Young people from Malawi, South Sudan, Burkina Faso, Mali and Ivory Coast are already applying for places. The school has become a Beacon of Humanity for Africa. The land is available and the plans are ready, so now they need financial assistance to start building. ACN has pledged to provide €50,000.
Pupils and their teacher: joy and light for the young people of Africa.
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TO EVANGELISE IS TO DEFEND HUMANITY MARTY DYBICZ2
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uman experimentation is being widely conducted today both in the narrow, scientific sense, such as in the CRISPR gene editing program, and in the broader, cultural sense, such as in raising children ‘gender-neutral.’ More than ever before... We need to be sure about what it means to be human and to be a person. We need to articulate what we might easily take for granted. We need to be philosophical and to learn the history of ideas because ‘Ideas have consequences.’
THE CLASSIC VISION ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’ (Proverbs 29:18). So many people are perishing, even as they feel good about themselves, because they do not have the vision, what I will call the ‘Classic Vision.’ It was formulated before modern times, and sharing this vision is one of the best forms of ecumenism. The Classic Vision tries to get to the objective truth about everything, including religion and morality, by connecting the two primary ways by which humans know reality: Faith and Reason.
Faith is the supernatural knowledge that has come from God’s Revelation, which began with Abraham and culminated in Jesus Christ. Reason is natural knowledge that comes from systematic human investigation, which began with the pagan philosophy of Socrates, Plato, and especially Aristotle, and which continues to develop. An example of Reason is science. The fullness of the Classic Vision is found in Catholicism. The most complete synthesis of Faith and Reason is one of the great gifts Catholicism has given the world. The giants of the Catholic intellectual tradition — St. John the Evangelist, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Bl. John Henry Newman, G. K. Chesterton, St. John Paul II, and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI — have shown that Reason and Faith do not contradict each other. We in the Church need to get better at distinguishing our knowledge by Reason from our knowledge by Faith so that we can use both the language of Reason and the language of Faith to invite people to the Truth. One language will be more effective than the other in different circumstances.
2 Adapted and edited from Marty Dybicz ‘On being and becoming Human’ accessible at https://www.catholicstand.com/on-being-and-becominghuman/ On Being and Becoming Human. Marty is a retired high school Theology teacher with a Master’s Degree in Religious Education and was raised by devout Catholic parents on the Near South Side of Chicago.
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MODERN IDEAS
THE CLASSIC VISION OF HUMAN NATURE
Modernism and Postmodernism both reject the Classical Vision.
The human being has attributes that make him (and her) different from the three other categories of the natural world: mineral, plant, and animal.
Modernism is the welter of philosophies that began springing up with the ‘Enlightenment’ around 1600 AD. Its champion, Scottish atheist philosopher, David Hume, saw morality as subjective, but he saw religion as either objectively true or objectively false. Another atheist, Karl Marx, saw moral systems as either objectively true or objectively false, but he saw all religion as objectively false. Postmodernism, on the other hand, is a 20th Century philosophy that sees everything as subjective, including Maths, Science, and History. Why is there polarisation in our society, political or otherwise? This choice, or rivalry, between the Classic Vision on the one hand and Modernism and Postmodernism on the other, is the root of our society’s polarisation. Any discussion of polarisation is superficial if it does not take into account this rivalry. The Sixties slogan, ‘Don’t trust anyone over thirty’ has become ‘Don’t trust any idea over 300-400 years old.’ What started out as the ‘generation gap’ in the Sixties has widened from a gap to a chasm or rift between values and convictions that is cross-generational.
What makes humans different from the mineral world are the attributes of nutrition, growth, reproduction, the five senses, instinct, emotions, memory, will, and intellect. And while humans and animals have nutrition, growth, and reproduction in common with plants, humans are distinct from both in the realms of will and intellect. Will is the attribute of wants or desires that are freely chosen (as opposed to instinct, which is the attribute of wants or desires that are not freely chosen). Intellect is the attribute of actively thinking about things by forming concepts or definitions, combining concepts to make statements, and combining statements to be logical.
‘Our own time must be increasingly marked by new hearing of God’s Word and a New Evangelisation’ POPE BENEDICT XVI, VERBUM DOMINI, NO. 122
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As a result of intellect, only humans can…
ask questions, tell jokes, conduct scientific experiments, design cathedrals, play video games, and pretend that gender is assigned.
Why is only a human being a person? Why are rocks, plants, and animals not persons? The answer is that only human beings have free will and intellect. Only humans, therefore, can freely choose to use their intellects to control their emotions and instincts and not be controlled by their emotions and instincts.
‘Faith and Reason are like two wings on which the Human Spirit rises to the contemplation of Truth; and God has placed in the Human Heart a desire to know The Truth in a word, to know himself’ POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, HOMILY IN PERTH, AUSTRALIA, NOVEMBER 30TH, 1986
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In more personal terms, we may ask: Who am I? I am an individual human being, an individual person. I am not exactly the same as every other human being, but at the same time, I share a common human nature with other individual persons. We can use Reason alone to know and talk about this. OTHER ASPECTS OF OUR ATTRIBUTES Each attribute is weak. Our weak bodies gets tired, sick, and injured; it gets old and dies. Our weak emotions both over-react and under-react. Our weak wills make destructive and self-destructive choices. Our weak minds has difficulty knowing the truth. Furthermore, there is disharmony among these attributes. The will, mind, emotions, and body are often in conflict with each other. St. Paul plaintively summarizes this reality in Romans 7:19, 24: ‘For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?’ There are other disharmonies: between people and nations, between humans and Nature.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
To resolve these disharmonies Modernists and Postmodernists propose the following solutions: counselling, diet and exercise, technology, social justice. Often they appear Utopian and exhibit a kind of religious fanaticism.
created by God in His image and likeness, which is especially found in our soul, namely, our emotions, memory, will, and intellect. God gives each person a soul at the moment of conception, which means that every person has these faculties at conception, although in potential. These spiritual attributes become actualized over time just as physical attributes start in potential and grow and mature over time. Animals are not created in the image and likeness of God.
WHAT WE CATHOLICS KNOW FROM FAITH Faith always agrees with Reason and never contradicts it. The human nature we have identified using Reason was created by God. Faith gives knowledge that is beyond Reason’s ability to know. Each of us has been
Along with all the disharmonies we have identified, we know from Faith that there is disharmony between humans and God. Our weak human nature is a fallen human nature due to Original Sin. There is no better explanation than Original Sin for what is wrong with the world and with each person.
‘ Evangelising is the Grace and Vocation proper to the Church, Her deepest identity. She exists in order to Evangelise’ POPE ST. PAUL VI, EVANGELII NUNTIANDI, NO. 14
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Again we ask: Who am I? The answer is that what most identifies me is my relationship with God. Is it good or bad?
There are four basic moral virtues, called the CARDINAL VIRTUES.
lect; makes good applications of moral doctrines to particular cases.
THE NEED FOR VIRTUE We transcend our fallen human nature by growing in virtue; that is, by developing good habits. We desperately need to re-discover virtue, which began to be ignored in the Sixties when American society and even many in the Church began to replace religion and philosophy with psychology and sociology. Instead of trying to learn the truth and do the right thing, our culture has emphasized ‘being true to yourself,’ ‘following your heart,’ and other forms of emotional and spiritual narcissism.
PRUDENCE is the virtue of the intel-
JUSTICE is the virtue of action; it gives to others their rights.
TEMPERANCE is the virtue of the will; it moderates desires and physical and emotional pleasures.
FORTITUDE is the virtue moderating
emotions; it is constancy in the pursuit of the good.
There are INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES.
UNDERSTANDING is grasping the first principles of thinking.
Michael Asks What are my strongest Virtues? What do my family and friends consider to be my strongest Virtues? What Virtues do I need to be concerned about and work upon? What Virtue in particular am I going to work upon over the next three months?
Would you like to comment? Please email: mk@acnireland.org
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SCIENCE (in the classical sense of the word) is knowledge of a particular field.
ART is skill in creating.
WISDOM is seeing reality as God sees it.
There are also THEOLOGICAL VIRTUES.
FAITH, again, is the acceptance of Divine Revelation.
HOPE is trust that the Kingdom of God will come, that Good will ultimately conquer Evil, that God will have the last word.
LOVE is the greatest of all virtues, and it is so greatly misunderstood.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
OUR GREAT PROJECT Acquiring virtue is the work of a lifetime. It takes sowing good thoughts to reap a good act, sowing good acts to reap a good habit, sowing good habits to reap a good character, and sowing a good character to reap a good destiny.
The best laws, regulations, social structures, systems, and policies will not work without personal virtue. Even if we re-distributed all the wealth in the country so that everyone had an equal amount, how long would it take for there to be inequality again due to imprudence, lies, and theft? An hour? A minute? A second? The virtues coalesce in the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s FOUR PILLARS OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH.
One virtue needs the other. Without the other virtues, what starts as a virtue ends as a vice. For example, justice without prudence becomes injustice. G. K. Chesterton was right in Orthodoxy: The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered (as Christianity was shattered at the Reformation), it is not merely the vices that are let loose. The vices are, indeed, let loose and they wander and do damage. But the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. . . . Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.
CREED is knowing God as He really is
and not making Him in our own image and likeness, and it is best expressed in Catholic Doctrine.
WORSHIP is gathering for sacred rites, especially the Seven Sacraments.
MORALITY is acting as God wants us to act.
PRAYER is personal communication with God.
Truly Catholic worship, morality, and prayer never contradict Catholic Doctrine. To grow in virtue is to know the Art of Living and when we Evangelise properly, when we give effective witness to the Good News which we proclaim and witness, we are teaching the authentic Art of Living. Because of this
The World is better Our Communities are better Our Family Life is better & We ourselves are better.
Indeed all is better because we are doing God’s Work.
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DOING GOD’S WORK
GET UP WE HAVE TO FINISH THIS PHILIP KOSLOSKI3
A
fter colliding into a fellow runner during a 5,000-metre qualifying heat of the Rio Olympics. United States runner Abbey D’Agostino could have kept on running. Her coach even told her before the race, ‘If you go down…get up, dust [yourself] off, have a quick look around and then get right back to running.’ Instead she turned around and helped New Zealander Nikki Hamblin stand up and encouraged her to finish the race, saying, ‘Get up. We have to finish this.’ Before that moment Hamblin had never met D’Agostino and was shocked by the selfless concern she had in the middle of an Olympic race. Hamblin said later about the encounter, ‘That girl is the Olympic spirit right there… I’ve never met her before. Like I never met this girl before. And isn’t that just so amazing. Such an amazing woman’. Hamblin and D’Agostino continued to race together side-by-side, as it turned out D’Agostino was more severely injured than Hamblin and was struggling to finish the race. Hamblin wanted to return the favour and offered encouragement to the grimacing D’Agostino.
Despite running in absolute pain, D’Agostino finished the race behind Hamblin and was taken away in a wheelchair. Both runners were advanced to the final, but after an MRI D’Agostino discovered she had completely torn her Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) and would not be able to carry on. The awe-inspiring event was described as the definition of ‘true Olympic spirit’ and a wonderful example of ‘sportsmanship,’ but really it is better described as an expression of D’Agostino’s deep and abiding Christian Faith. She said in a statement to the media, ‘Although my actions were instinctual at that moment, the only way I can and have rationalized it is that God prepared my heart to respond that way… This whole time here He’s made clear to me that my experience in Rio was going to be about more than my race performance — and as soon as Nikki got up I knew that was it.’ D’Agostino has always been outspoken about her Faith in God, sharing it frequently on social media. She credits her Faith in being a driving force behind her athletic career, explaining its role in an interview:
3 Adapted and edited from Philip Kosloski “God prepared my heart to respond that way,” says U.S. runner who helped rival’ https://aleteia. org/2016/08/18/god-prepared-my-heart-to-respond-that-way-says-u-s-runner-who-helped-rival/
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THE GREAT COMMISSION
‘I felt the peace that comes with acknowledging that I’m not going to run this race with my own strength. And I think that acknowledging those fears before God is what allowed me to feel that peace and I was drawn to it and I wanted to know a God who would work that way in my life.’ Besides keeping a rigorous training routine, D’Agostino wakes-up each morning listening to worship music, reading her Bible and journaling about the many graces she has received. Resting on Sunday has also been a big part of her spiritual and physical life, allowing her body to heal and her soul to be lifted up in prayer. She often feels God’s presence
while she runs and it pushes her forward to do her best. D’Agostino’s simple act of kindness will not earn her any Olympic medals and the episode may not be officially transcribed in the record books. However, her self-sacrificing act of charity will continue to inspire the world for years to come; it will endure much longer in the hearts of all than the gold medals that were given out that night. In the end, D’Agostino showed the world that winning isn’t everything. As St. Teresa of Kolkata once said,
‘God does not require that we be successful, only that we be faithful.’
New Zealander Nikki Hamblin helps fallen U.S. athlete Abbey D’Agostino.
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THE ART OF LIVING – IN GIVING WE RECEIVE
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achel Lapierre has always liked helping others. After managing her own modelling agency and working as a nurse, she wanted to dedicate her life to charity. The great opportunity to fulfil her dream finally materialized when Lapierre won a million dollars in the Canadian lottery in 2013. She did not hesitate. She knew that for rest of her life, she wanted to do something she loved: help others.
4 Adapted and edited from Cecilia Zinicola ‘She won a million dollars — and Mother Teresa helped her spend it’. Cecilia’s original article is accessible at https://aleteia.org/2018/08/14/she-won-a-milliondollars-and-mother-teresa-helped-her-spend-it/
Coming close to God: catechism and prayer session with Padre Rolando.
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CECILIA ZINICOLA4
In the early 1980s, Lapierre had joined a modelling school where she was encouraged to compete in the Miss Quebec beauty pageant, which she won in 1982. ‘I thought modelling was for tall blondes with blue eyes, and I was short and dark,’ she shared in an interview for the BBC. This inspired her to create her own modelling school to help other young women get their foot in the door, until she decided to close the business and dedicate herself to raising her four children.
THE GREAT COMMISSION
It was then, as a result of the volunteer work that had been a constant in her life, that she began to venture into nursing and take trips with humanitarian organizations to places like India and Haiti. After winning the lottery, it took Lapierre two months to quit her nursing job and launch her own charitable organization: Le Book Humanitaire, a non-profit organization that uses social networks to connect people in need with those who can help them. Some of its projects have included obtaining necessities for refugee families, furnishing apartments for needy people, and collecting toys for children, as well as offering services such as driving a sick patient to a doctor’s appointment or finding a home for a homeless mother who has just given birth.
Lapierre loves her work, which she’s able to do with a team of volunteers, it ‘feeds your soul’. Her life today is a far cry from the glamorous world of modelling, and she has less money than before hitting her jackpot, but she doesn’t care. Living simply by detaching from things and sharing them with others has helped her find true Happiness and Joy.
‘Happiness comes from the heart. It’s nice to have a new house, a new car, or whatever, but you do not need them to be happy. When you do something good for others, it fills your heart and your soul’.
Joy of the Gospel
The
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Available to read at
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DOING GOD’S WORK
JESUS’ VERY LAST WORDS KRISTINA ROBB-DOVER5
‘Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ Matthew 28:16-20
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Last words are important at other times, too— not just at death. Before a long trip, maybe. Or a new season of life. When I was heading off to college, my father’s one requirement was that I take a self-defence course. My dad was sending me a message: I needed to be able to protect myself in that great, big, dangerous world into which I was heading. In his last appearance to the disciples before ascending into heaven, Jesus sends a different sort of message, and it’s really a two-part message: part command, part promise and assurance.
t’s not just coincidence that Jesus’ very last words in Matthew’s Gospel are what they are. Last words tend to carry extra weight. Last words— last acts—are memorable. When we’re aware that something we’re about to say or do will be the very last thing we say or do, we usually tend to value our message more, don’t we?
First, a command that issues from Jesus’ authority over all heaven and all earth: ‘Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.’
As a hospice chaplain, I see this sort of thing play out all the time at the bedsides of dying patients. They, and their family members, want their final words to mean something lasting: to encapsulate their love in a way that endures beyond the grave.
It’s a command that has been played and replayed by the Church across the centuries, so much so that while we might not forget these famous words, we can find it easy to overlook how terrifying they would have been to hear in their original context.
5 Adapted and edited from an original sermon prepared by Kristina Robb-Dover, an ordained Presbyterian minister who lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and two children. Kristian holds degrees from Yale and Princeton and is a published author. Her original article can be accessed at: https://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/fellowshipofsaintsandsinners/2014/06/famous-last-words-a-k-a-the-greatcommission-a-sermon.html
To contextualize that terror a bit more, let’s recap what has just happened to the disciples leading up to this mountaintop farewell. A strange prophet and teacher, with an other-
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THE GREAT COMMISSION
worldly authority to do all sorts of miracles and a knack for raising the ire of the religious types of His day, shows up one day, calling these men to leave everything and follow Him. The disciples do just that, and in the process are transformed. But just when they’ve come around to believing that Jesus is in fact their Messiah, the Saviour of their people, Jesus ends up dead on a cross. Naturally, the disciples scatter and flee only to discover three days later that their Messiah is not dead but alive and in fact rose from the dead. Understandably, such events could be discombobulating and even traumatic for the average person. (And Scripture suggests that Jesus chose very average—maybe even belowaverage—people to follow Him.) Imagine, then, that after undergoing these things and beginning to see in them the very in-breaking of God
Himself in the flesh, you were next told, shortly thereafter, that this God in the flesh would be off now, leaving you to take up His business. I’m guessing shivers might run down your spine. You might think twice. You at least might have a few questions for Jesus, don’t you think? There would be plenty of questions, the most fundamental of which probably would be, Why exactly are we standing here on this mountain now saying goodbye to our Messiah? Which is why I am grateful for that little clause that precedes Jesus’ command: ‘but some doubted.’ If you want proof that Christianity is not a made-up cult all you need to do is quote back to people that phrase, ‘Some doubted’. That says it all. No cult would allow room for doubt.
One of the scenes from the deadly attacks in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday.
‘We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery – the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!’ POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, FIDES ET RATIO, 1
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And I’ll say it right now: if I were in this story, I’d be among them—the doubting disciples, I mean. With a big, open-mouthed look of wonder that a guy who had been my saving hope was now taking off into the great, blue sky without abandon. Because the messianic party had only really just started, and now the host and the star of the party was taking off. The Messiah’s new triumphant order of things, of a world made right, of a people restored, was just starting to settle in when bing, Jesus was pressing the elevator button leaving me behind. Leaving me to do the talking before chief priests and angry mobs and Roman tribunals, all of whom would prefer my head on a platter to hearing about a Messiah named Jesus. So I can readily imagine that for the first disciples, or at least for some of them, Jesus’ Great Commission could have sounded a whole lot more like this: ‘Gotta run, but keep the party
going for me!’ Or worse, ‘It’s been fun. Don’t forget about those dirty dishes!’ And maybe today Jesus’ ‘Great Commission’ still sounds a bit like dirty dish duty for many of us. In a day and age when so many people are leaving church and not looking back, when the church itself and its leaders can fail us, when we ourselves are among the doubters, how can we not be chastened— if we’re at all honest with ourselves—by a sense of our own failure? Surely most of us can appreciate by now that we, like the first disciples, are pretty incompetent when left to our own devices. Baptising the whole world in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? Teaching them to obey all God’s commands?
‘Remember that you are never alone, Christ is with you on your journey every day of your lives! He has called you and chosen you to live in the freedom of the children of God. Turn to Him in prayer and in love. Ask Him to grant you the courage and strength to live in this freedom always. Walk with Him who is “the Way, the Truth and the Life”!’ POPE ST. JOHN PAUL II, ADDRESS AT BAPTISMAL VIGIL AT WORLD YOUTH DAY, PARIS, FRANCE, AUGUST 23RD, 1997
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THE GREAT COMMISSION
These are not small requests. Jesus is entrusting us with a great responsibility, one of witnessing to the whole world about the whole story of God’s Love for us. Baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, isn’t really as simple as sprinkling a few drops of water in a church service. No, ‘Baptism,’ when paired with the teaching of Christ’s commands, is about letting God work out in us and in the communities in which we find ourselves, or to which God sends us, the same Love of God that bleeds through the lines of Jesus’ story. It’s a sacrificial love, a love that puts others first and is not afraid to die for another, or, in Jesus’ case, for a whole world. Nor is such love afraid, in an age of political correctness, to say why it is so lavishly and foolishly for the world God created. We the church can often do a poor job at this task. Most of the time… we prefer to stay in our comfort zones rather than risk a journey that might just change us. Or… we judge others rather than love them, choosing the safety of self-righteousness over the adventure of learning from another human being. Or… we cling to our money and time as our own possessions rather than give these away with the recognition that they were not really ours to begin with.
In short, we can’t fulfil Jesus’ command on our own or in our own power. When left to our own devices, we like the first disciples, pretty quickly desert anything that remotely resembles the love of God in Christ Jesus. Which is why we so desperately need the second part of Jesus’ last message to us, which technically and thankfully are Jesus’ very, very last words as recorded in Matthew: ‘And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’ We will doubt. We will stumble. We will fail. But Jesus’ command here ultimately does not depend on us, even if it asks for our all. Jesus’ command ultimately will prevail because Jesus, who is God Himself, will be with us always. And because Jesus will be with us always, we will have all the grace we need to share God’s Love in word and deed.
Michael Asks What would I like to be my dying words? What would I like to be my last request to the ones I love most? What would I like to say to those people who have injured me most during my life time? What would you like to be your last thought?
Would you like to comment? Please email: mk@acnireland.org
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DOING GOD’S WORK
WALKING WITH JESUS THE CHURCH – STILL WALKING WITH JESUS
PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS – SAINTS OF TODAY
ACN’s work is inspiring. It is about loving God above all things and our neighbour as ourselves. Many people criticise the Church or no longer believe in it, but ACN is living proof that the Church is still walking with Jesus, and that the Holy Spirit Himself is guiding you.
Many thanks for your letter. For some years now I have been concerned about the sufferings of persecuted and oppressed Christians, and so I was very pleased to hear that your charity is active in Slovakia and keeps Christians in our country informed about this topic.
A Volunteer Helper in Brazil
I think it is important for more people to realise just how many Christians are suffering today because Jesus matters more to them than their own life. For me they are heroes – Saints of Today. Who knows if we would have the courage, when put under pressure, to witness to Christ? May God bless you!
RIGHT TO THE END I was delighted to receive the birthday card from ACN. My heartfelt thanks to you all for your kind wishes and prayers. I am 83 years old now, but I promise you that ACN can always count on me, just as long as I live!
A Benefactor in Slovakia
A Benefactor in Switzerland LITTLE SACRIFICES, FOR OTHER CHILDREN This donation comes from Timothée (aged 6 ½), who has decided to turn on the lights only when necessary, use water very sparingly and save on heating, so that he can save up a little money to share with the children in Syria. He says: ‘Sometimes, when I don’t want to, I think of the children. That helps me.’ A Family in France
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‘’We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our Song!’
THE GREAT COMMISSION
LET’S JOURNEY TOGETHER Dear Friends,
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t is very much a part of the living tradition of our charity to help those priests, religious and laity who work above all for the spread of the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ, by providing them with motor vehicles and means of transport of various kinds. This represents a sensible form of material aid that actually makes it possible in the first place to reach those who have not yet been touched by or have barely heard the Gospel. We need only think of the rucksack priests sent out on their motorbikes by Father Werenfried, or of the chapel trucks and chapel boats, the ‘Flotilla for God’. Today – thanks to your generosity, dear benefactors – we can
help, with cars, bicycles and boats, to ensure that the appeal of the Holy Father to go out in mission to the remotest regions can actually be responded to. In post war Germany, Hans von Lehndorff, a Protestant doctor working with the refugees, wrote a hymn with the following line: ‘Those who live secure, forget that they are still journeying.’ Please continue to help us, so that we can support all those in the pastoral ministry, as they journey out to all those who are not yet on their journey. Thank you for your prayers, your wonderful support and your understanding.
Thomas Heine-Geldern EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT OF ACN INTERNATIONAL
WHERE TO SEND YOUR DONATION TO AID THE CHURCH IN NEED Please use the Freepost envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 151 St. Mobhi Road, Glasnevin, Dublin 9.
(01) 837 7516
info@acnireland.org www.acnireland.org
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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. Registered Charity Numbers: (RoI) 9492 (NI) XR96620.
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‘The universal mission of the Church is impossible without the mission of prayer and unity.’
ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant
Father Pedro, travelling up the Amazon on the ‘Padre Werenfried’.
‘ It was the hardest and most beautiful journey of my life. The hardship is already almost forgotten – the burning heat, the murderous roads, our Jeep stuck fast in the water, an improvised sea journey, the rocket fire in Saigon… But the beauty remains – heroic priests, rocklike faith, courageous seminarians, Mother Teresa, grateful missionaries, the young child saved, thanks to your help.’ Father Werenfried van Straaten, recalling a missionary journey in 1973.
THE MIRROR IS AVAILABLE TO READ AT ACNIRELAND.ORG/MIRROR 19 - 4