Aid to the Church in Need
Farms of Hope, Brazil
Good News for the Family 14 - 2
Peace begins in the family - Colombia ‘Listen to this advice: don’t let the sun set without making peace. Peace is renewed each day in the family!’ (Cf. Ephesians 4:26)
to the spirit of love within Christian marriage. The programme includes courses, meetings and weekends of shared living.
In Espinal, Colombia they take this advice from Pope Francis very seriously. Reconciliation within the family, communication among couples, faithfulness and consideration – all these things have to be learnt, and the best way to teach them, as always, is through living examples and exchanging personal experiences. That is why Bishop Pablo Salas Anteliz has established a programme for training married couples, so that they in turn can support other couples and witness
By now 15 couples have completed their training and many other young couples are interested. ‘The family is the source of peace for the family of mankind’ wrote Pope John Paul II for the Year of the Family in 1994. Peace in our societies begins with peace in marriage. We have promised Bishop Pablo our support for the teaching materials, travel and accommodation costs for these weekends: it is a small investment for the upholding of peace within families. •
A blessing for the marriage counsellors. Bishop Pablo and his helpers.
Aid to the Church in Need helping the Church heal the world.
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Contents
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Happy human relationships - Fr. Martin Barta . . . . . .......................................... 2 A new name for ACN? - Johannes Freiherr Heereman ..................................... 3 Where the Church has to start from scratch - Good news for the family ........... 4 The family in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 6 Where to find love - Farms of Hope, Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................... 8 Farms of Hope, Families of Hope - Sr. Maureen O’Connor DMJ...................... 10 Battling wind, waves and whirlpools - Pastoral transport ............................ 14 A LOOK IN THE
A chairde - Good News for the family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................ 15 It is good to remember that Love begins at home - Bl. Mother Teresa ........ 16 The Prodigal Father . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................... 19 A Dutiful Son .......... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................... 20 Anne’s Homecoming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................ 21 Real Stories about Real People - Fr. Dwight Longenecker ............................. 24 Ralph’s Christian Witness - Fr. Dwight Longenecker ........................................ 26 St. Fabiola - Patron Saint for difficult marriages . . . . . . ....................................... 28 The Characteristics of the Saints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ....................................... 30
Editor: Jürgen Liminski. Publisher: Kirche in Not / Ostpriesterhilfe, Postfach 1209, 61452 Königstein, Germany. De licentia competentis auctoritatis ecclesiasticae. Printed in Ireland - ISSN 0252-2535. www.acn-intl.org
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Dear Friends, Being true to one’s word, being able to rely on someone and place your trust in them – these are the basic elements of a happy human relationship. That is why deceitfulness, betrayal, and abuses of trust can cause the most profound wounds in the soul. Love demands the unconditional affirmation of the one we love; it presupposes a binding, absolute commitment and grows only when we perseveringly and faithfully give of ourselves.
episcopal ring after his ordination as a bishop, she suddenly became thoughtful and showed him her own silver wedding ring, worn and tarnished by hard work: ‘But, Giuseppe, you would not have your episcopal ring on your finger were it not for this wedding ring on mine.’
In a fickle world, which can not tolerate This strength to love is nourished at its objective truth, it is becoming ever more roots by our faith in the faithful God and difficult to say ‘I do’, to keep our promises. in His merciful love All the more urgently for us. The whole then, do we need God’s ‘This strength to love is of Sacred Scripture nourished by our faith in the truthfulness and mercispeaks to us of the ful fidelity as a stable faithful God and in His faithfulness of God beacon, in order to merciful love for us’ who, despite the weather the storm of unfaithfulness of His decay and decadence. people, remains unshakeably true to His covenant and tirelessly shows them signs In his diary King Baudouin of the Belgians of His merciful love. If we are united with left behind this beautiful testimony to God, our promises, our pledges and our the faithful love that united him with his vows must never be an empty word. wife, Queen Fabiola: ‘Jesus, I thank You for having inspired in me such a great The faithfulness of God finds its most love for my wife. I thank You for having natural form and expression in the marital given me a spouse who loves me – after union, a union which goes far deeper than You – above everything. Fill Fabiola with mere feelings. The fidelity of married your holiness and give her a more positive people precedes the fidelity of priests image of herself. May she know the trust and consecrated souls. and my admiration I have for her. Teach me to respect her personality, with all its When the mother of Giuseppe Sarto, the contradictions. Strengthen in me the love future Pope Pius X, reverently kissed his for her that comes from You.’ 2
Dear benefactors, our heartfelt thanks go out to you too – for your faithfulness to God, to the Church and to each other, in good times and bad times, which has given so many people throughout the world the courage to stand firm and remain faithful to God’s Word.
My priestly blessing on you all.
Father Martin M. Barta, Spiritual Assistant
Dear Friends, Two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI raised us to the status of a papal foundation. Since then ACN has continued to grow and develop successfully. But there is still one major challenge that we need to address. Within our 17 national fundraising offices we currently have eight different names for our charity – for example Aid to the Church in Need, Kirche in Not, Aide à l’Église en Détresse, Ayuda a la Iglesia necesitada, Aiuto alla Chiesa che soffre…. We fully intend to keep these names and not change them, but at the same time we are trying to find a common, overarching name for our charity that will express its international character and unity in the Catholic Faith. The upcoming generation, whom we must also enlist in support of our work, is accustomed to thinking and acting globally. Above all on the Internet and in such major international gatherings
as the World Youth Days we need this additional, all-embracing name. The best thing would probably be to find a name in Latin. The more suggestions we have, the greater our chance of success. So what could be better than to ask you, our benefactors, for your own suggestions? If you feel you have a good idea, then please e-mail it to me at president@acn-intl.org
Johannes Freiherr Heereman, Executive President of ACN International
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Where the Church has to start from scratch - Family apostolate
Zimbabwe is one of the countries with the highest HIV/AIDS figures in the world. More than a million children are AIDS orphans. They are among the most vulnerable and defenceless in society. The Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Africa take them in and care for them in their Youth Alive centre.
Years of begging and stealing followed, and soon he was addicted to alcohol and marijuana. Then he met the sisters and came into the Youth Alive programme. ‘It changed my life’, he says. He no longer saw himself as ‘worthless and born to suffer’. Today he lives as a trader, earning a wage and has a room of his own, where he lives.
Obert is one of these orphans. Until recently he lived on the streets. After his parents died, an uncle took him in, but he did not get along with his uncle’s three wives. He worked hard in the fields for them, and going to school was only a dream. ‘Ndaishandiswa se dhongi’, he said – ‘they used me like a donkey’. He didn’t find it difficult to leave them; life on the streets seemed to offer him more hope. He was 16 at the time.
Many other children and young people like Obert, aged between seven and 35, attend the Youth Alive programme in the diocese of Mutare, Zimbabwe. Auxiliary Bishop Patrick Mutume who’s its chairman, sees its holistic educational and training work as an effective weapon not only against HIV/AIDS, but also as a way of preventing violence, prostitution, human trafficking and teenage pregnancies. ACN will helps fund this grace-filled initiative.
Loving and joyful – the Daughters of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary in Larantuka, Indonesia run boarding schools for the children of migrant workers from the logging camps of Borneo, and they also care for street children in Jakarta. We are helping them with Aus$12,500. 4
Presov married couples are studying to be trainers for other couples, and courses are held for couples- to-be and also for the spiritual strengthening of divorcees. But now that winter is coming, the wind is blowing through the Church hall’s rotting window frames. ACN has promised to help fund essential repairs.
Learning to love, from their earliest years. Family Mass in Presov.
As the worldwide survey initiated by Pope Francis has shown, knowledge about Christian marriage and the family is very basic. It has all but disappeared among young people in the Former Soviet Republics. These countries are morally devastated and apathetic: abortion is seen by many as just another lifestyle choice. Here the Church has to start from scratch. In Georgia a group of lay people are trying to rebuild a sense of morality, with the help of religious sisters, by teaching young people how to defend human life and the true meaning of married love. It is about dealing with emotions; the psychological differences between men and women; mutual consideration and responsibility – in short the anthropology and the theology of the body. ACN is assisting with the cost of materials.
‘The family is the way of the Church’, wrote Blessed John Paul II. As these projects in Zimbabwe, Georgia and many other countries show, love takes many paths, and sometimes it is the Church who must substitute for the lack of the family, the domestic church. That is where ACN assists. • Love has to be taught – a catechist in Kutaisi, Georgia.
In Slovakia they are providing real, practical help as well. In the family centre near Aid to the Church in Need
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The family in Africa In 12 short years, the African Family Life Federation (AFLF), which was founded on the initiative of Blessed John Paul II, has helped over 1 million people to better understand and live the teaching of the Church on marriage and the family. ACN has supported the AFLF, right from the beginning. We spoke to Christine du Coudray, who heads our Africa section and has also been involved since AFLF was founded. Why does ACN support this Association? It is vitally important for the Church and for the people. During the plenary session of the first Africa Synod in 1994 the Holy Father warned of the dangers that were emerging from international meetings and from such ideologies as feminism and gender theories, which were threatening to destroy the natural family consisting of father, mother and children. They were prophetic words.
Thanks to ACN alone, so far. Christine du Coudray with Foundation specialists.
As a consequence a number of smaller associations for the defence of life and the family were able to join together and – together with the John Paul II Institute for the Family in Cotonou, Benin – establish the first such association for French-speaking Africa. They had no funding; only ACN stood by them. For years the federation has fought a David and Goliath battle against the anti-family, anti-life and abortion-promoting policies of the UN and other massive international organisations.
Defenders of life – young mothers at a Family Foundation course.
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Has David grown since then? Yes. Thanks to the support of our benefactors, the federation is now present in 22 countries of French-speaking and English speaking Africa, and embraces a total of 34 organisations. In the last year alone 141 diocesan and expert groups
have trained tens of thousands of (mainly young) couples in family values and also instructed an additional 21,000 married couples in natural family planning. But these are only figures. The real success lies in the fact that, thanks to the federation, millions of people have come to discover and live the happiness that resides in a respectful attitude to life and sexuality. Above all – and despite the massive pressures from a throwaway consumer society that despises human values – tens of thousands of young couples have learned that fidelity and mutual respect and true love can be lived and truly bring happiness. This is also true for young people generally – and it is the best protection against AIDS. Who is supporting the AFLF? So far, only ACN. In the years since its foundation we have contributed €4 million for a vast number of different projects. But given the number of people helped, that works out at less than €4 to make someone happy and live and love in a manner pleasing to God. We are very much hoping that other organisations will soon get involved. For there is an immense need for teaching materials, pamphlets, handbooks, short films – and also for the teams of experts who have to travel. The demand is immense, the growth of the federation has been remarkable, and the Church in Africa is faithful, but poor. A LOOK IN THE
How do you see the future? I am pinning great faith in the Synod for the Family, in autumn 2014 in Rome. It will put a strong emphasis on John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. This should give a boost to the federation. The current president of the Africa-wide Bishops’ Symposium (SECAM) Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi, from Angola and the president of the pontifical council Cor Unum, Cardinal Robert Sarah both see the Family Life Federation as pivotal for the future of Africa. For thanks to its trans-diocesan infrastructure, it can convey such human virtues as solidarity, fidelity, respect and fraternal charity to every corner of the continent. It is a lynch pin of love. And I am of course hoping that our benefactors will continue to be as generous as before, so that this work of love can still thrive and flourish. •
Archbishop Henryk Hoser, from Poland,who helped set up the Foundation.
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Where to find love - Farms of Hope, Brazil ‘Where you find no love, bring love yourself, and then you will find love there.’ These words of St John of the Cross were the motto for the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Fazendas, the ‘Farms of Hope’, which have now become an international phenomenon. Tens of thousands of young people – the psychologically sick and drug addicts – have found their way back to healing and a normal life through work and prayer in these Fazendas, and are now bringing this love back into the world with them. Here are three examples:
Luciano was a particularly difficult case. 20 years ago he was dealing in drugs and weapons, stealing cars and jewellery. He was made gang leader, as he had a talent for running operations. In the Fazenda he learnt to see life with new eyes. After a year he completed his time there and they heard nothing more of him.
They make these rosaries – and pray with them – in the Fazendas.
Then one day, Frei Hans, the Franciscan priest and co-founder of the Fazenda movement, found a donation equivalent to ten thousand Euros on the books. With large sums like this he usually rings up, to thank the donor personally. It was Luciano who answered the phone. It was a joyful moment; Luciano decided there and then to fly from Rio de Janeiro to visit Frei Hans - in his private jet.
He sat up half the night, telling the priest how after the Fazenda he had done a course of studies, then Alive again and happy – two girls from the built up a clinic for eye Fazenda with the medicine and gathered a founder Frei Hans. team of doctors around him. They were now performing eye operations all over the world. He had succeeded in giving new sight to so many people, not only physically but also spiritually. ‘Just like the Fazendas did for me’, he explained. He was about to travel to Africa,
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since in Mozambique there were just two eye specialists who could conduct the kind of operations he was doing. They wanted him to perform 2,000 operations there in the space of just a few weeks.
paid back his debts to the drug dealers and brought more than 50 other drug addicts to the Fazendas and to the chance of a new life.
Then there was Ricardo. He was adopted as a small child, but when the first major problems started, his grandmother commented, ‘He hasn’t got that from us.’ So he ran away, lived on the streets, joined a gang and slid into crime. There was a shootout, and he was left wounded, the only surviving member of his gang.
They are the outcasts and the despised, the marginalised, the victims who have become perpetrators – and they all have a place in the Fazendas. Many come from broken families, where the father was absent, or perhaps alcoholic, the mother desperate, or perhaps a prostitute. They all come from the icy wastelands of society, from the train stations, bridges or canal tunnels of the big cities. They come from places where there is no love and no hope.
The family courts gave him one more chance. He was allowed to go to a Fazenda. He was just 14 at the time. After a year he decided to stay on; he became a ‘responsible’ (as they call the leaders in the Fazendas), went to school, did his A-levels, studied at university and went into politics. Today he is responsible for combating drugs in one of the federal states of Brazil.
In the Fazendas they rediscover their dignity, and not a few of them even find a religious vocation. Thanks to your help, they find open arms, ready to welcome all the children of God. And they pass on this love to others. •
Or again, the young boy by the name of Washington. A victim of the drugs scene in a Rio slum, he came to the Fazenda addicted and deeply in debt. After a year, he asked Nelson Giovanelli Rosendo, the co-founder of the Fazendas, ‘Where shall I go now?’ ‘Go home’, Nelson told him. ‘You know where I come from...?’ ‘Yes. You have found a new life here. Now you should take it back there.’
Jubilation – over 3,000 young people came to celebrate the anniversary.
Since then Washington has set up a stall, where he earns an honest living. He has Aid to the Church in Need
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Farms of Hope, Families of Hope - Sr. Maureen O’Connor DMJ*
One of my most memorable moments of WYD in Brazil was when we accompanied Pope Francis to Varginha a slum in the poor quarters of Rio. Some 12 million people (and growing) live in Favillas or slums in Brazil. These slums are deeply steeped in the drug culture. Armed gangs roam the streets, drug dealers fight the police in open battles, corruption, insecurity, poverty, violence, inequality coupled with lack of public services, all make for sub-normal living conditions. The Pope’s words on that rainy evening went to the heart of the issue: drug barons in the logic of power and violence dealing in death and destruction to get money at all costs, bringing misery to millions.
A depressing reality gives birth to a future of hope It began in 1983 when a German Franciscan Parish Priest Frei Hans Staple, called a group in the parish to come together and meditate on the Gospel before Mass every day. Young Nelson age 18 was a member of the praying group, when he heard Jesus saying ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brothers you do to me’. In response he decided to reach out to troubled youths in the parish and call them to pray. Thus with the enthusiasm of Nelson, the support of the community and the wise leadership and resourcefulness of Father Frei Hans began the Farms of Hope at Guaratingueta, near the shrine of Our Lady of Aparacida in the Province of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Today there are some 64 Farms of Hope in Brazil with another 24 farms outside Brazil. The first farm outside Brazil was set up in Germany in the outskirts of Berlin in 1988. The impressive growth of the farms in Brazil encouraged other countries to begin similar communities in Paraguay, Uruguay, Colombia, Argentina, Guatemala, Mexico, Mozambique, Angola the Philippians and in Europe, Germany and Switzerland and Portugal.
Sr. Maureen with Frei Hans Staple Founder of the Farms of Hope and chairman of Aid to the Church in Need in Brazil. 10
At present there are more than 2,000 boys and girls in recovery with 20,000 ‘graduates’ worldwide (The Farms of Hope have an 84% success rate for young people overcoming addiction).
A high point of their daily journey is the celebration of the Eucharist, nourishing and strengthening them from their first tentative step towards liberation, to the moment when they can feel strong enough continue the journey back home to their own environment. One year is the recommended stay at the farms. Mother Farm of Hope and chapel at Guaratingueta, house and land donated by one of many generous patrons who have sustained the projects around the world.
I spent almost two weeks on the farm at Guaratingueta in 2013 after WYD and my experience was enriching and grace-filled. I believe that the secret of success on the farms lies in the integrated nature of the approach to treating addiction. The young people live as a family in houses of 12-14 with a volunteer leader. The gospel is the source of life and joy, they listen to the word together and share it a spirit of trust and dialogue. The comforting words of Jesus remain in their hearts and the sense of his close presence invites them to conform their lives to Him. Chapel at Guaratingueta. Tabernacle made from Local stone.
Work is central to the life of the community, it is a source of self esteem and sustenance. Many learn here for the first time the value and dignity of work. It starts early in the morning in tune with the rising sun and the song of the birds. On arriving at the farm the young people, many of whom come from the poorest quarters of Rio and Sao Paulo, are introduced to agriculture, horticulture and the care of animals. Working with the soil promotes an awareness of the processes operating in nature and creates deeper understanding of the interdependence of all life systems as well as the sacredness of food. It was fascinating to watch the boys and girls, who in most cases had never seen a farm tool, digging in fields, planting, watering, caring for animals and rejoicing at the appearance of the first green shoots. This connection with the land is clearly part of the healing process and very therapeutic. The fruits of their labour in the fields are shared with other communities and when families came to visit they are given a share of the produce also. The skills learned here extend to fruit grow-
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ing and processing, jam and juice making, and the breads from the bakery are delicious. All these items are sold locally in the small shops to the pilgrims who visit the farms, and even and as far away as Rio and Sao Paulo the labels can be found. Another adventurous and eco-friendly project they are engaged in is recycling plastics from the city warehouses. Their machines are basic but the end products are furniture, church fittings, doors and windows. The farms have a contract with a company making washing up liquid to make the plastic bottles, fill and package the bottles for delivery to local supermarkets and other outlets. This contract was initiated by the director of the ACN office in Sao Paulo. The young men and women can get an opportunity to learn some of these new skills according to their interest and ability. It is hoped when they leave the farms they will be able to earn a living and support Pope Benedict XVI visiting the Farm of Hope at Guaratinguet in 2007
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a family. Pope John Paul II came to visit the original Farm of Hope at Guaratinguet 1991, his visit was a sign of the Church’s concern for those who are on the margins of society, excluded, not accepted, those who are labeled as thieves, troublemakers and unwanted. In 2007, Pope Benedict XIV visited the mother Farm of Hope at Guaratinguet. For this historic occasion, more than 5,000 friends of the farms from 45 communities in nine countries around the world gathered. The Philippians was able to send a group of 14 patients, ex-patients and volunteers.
The Holy Father was deeply moved by the testimonies of the young people , sharing how through God’s grace and the love of the community, they were able to find a way out of addictions to enjoy a new life in freedom again.
The same message of concern for the marginalised was conveyed by Pope Francis during WYD at the inauguration of a drug rehabilitation clinic in Sao Francisco hospital in Rio. He hugged former addicts and listened to their stories. The Pope offered words of comfort, while at the same stressing that we cannot close our eyes to the lack of opportunity, to the drugs trade, to criminal organizations, robberies, murders the destruction of homes, family structures and the dreams of the young.
An essential part of the Farms of Hope is the ‘Family of Hope’ the community running the Farm centres around the world. It received the approval of its statutes from the Pontifical Council of the laity in 2010. Thanks to this community and the generous support given towards this apostolate by Aid to the Church in Need and other donors over many years, thousands of young people, lost in a world of drugs are regaining life and becoming in turn ambassadors of hope as Pope Benedict expressed it. Fazenda da Esperanca in Brazil celebrated it’s 30th anniversary in 2013 as some 2,500 members from the 88 communities around the world gathered in Guaratingurta Sao Paulo to give thanks to God for the marvels He is doing among his people. • * Sr. Maureen O’Connor DMJ(Daughters of Mary and Joseph), is a returned Missionary Religious Sister and the Lead Co-ordinator of Aid to the Church in Need. (Ireland)’s diocesan preaching programme.
The Church has always been on the side of the poor, this is her vocation and the life at the farms of hope is a living witness to God’s love, offering a spirituality which is the foundation for moral living and leads to a change of mindset and behaviour in the young people who come seeking new hope and freedom. Aid to the Church in Need
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Battling wind, waves and whirlpools - Pastoral transport Cars, minibuses, motorbikes and motor boats all serve as means for conveying the Gospel message. Without them many missions and missionaries would be brought to a halt and many regions of this earth would be left in darkness.
They’re already waiting for him by the lakeside – Bishop Philippe Nkiere.
Mai-Ndombe Lake in the west of the Democratic Republic of Congo is bewitchingly beautiful, but at the same time treacherous. Whirlpools, winds and waves claim dozens of lives each year; more than 200 in 2009. But there is no other way of reaching the parishes except by crossing it. And so Bishop Philippe Nkiere Keana sets out, following our Lord’s words, ‘duc in altum’ (‘put out into the deep’), to visit the people of his diocese – which is larger than Portugal – and bring them the Good News. Every year he covers more than 5,000 kilometres in his little boat. One of his predecessors had already capsised on one occasion and was saved only thanks to some fishermen in canoes. But the reason the diocese is turning to us now is because ‘the fuel prices are enough to make you tear your hair out’, as Father Laurent put it. In this region 80% of the thoroughfares are waterways. When the bishop comes, it is an inspirational visit for many people. They listen to him attentively. A small and economic motor boat would be a blessing for his pastoral work, we have promised to help. 14
In Indura, Belarus, very little would be running at all if it were not for the two sisters of the congregation of the Handmaids of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Every day they manage to visit three different villages, caring for young people and children, providing religious instruction and tending to the church. But it is too much for just the two of them and other sisters cannot get visas to come and help. In such a situation the car is a vital necessity. But it is old, and liable to break down at any time. So a new and reliable car is needed if they are to be able to provide pastoral and social care in the many different places. We will help them. •
A new car in Tanzania It was a joyous occasion. The people of the parish of Saint Charles Lwanga in Mpepai, Tanzania were already waiting for the car on the outskirts of the village, and when it arrived, they ran alongside it, dancing and singing, all the way to the church. ‘It was a day of joy and happiness’, writes Father Pichai Pillai, the parish priest. He himself was astonished at the joyful way the people celebrated the arrival of the car, and for him it shows just how eagerly the people had been waiting for it. ‘This joy and this happiness is your doing; through it you have brought a real big smile to the faces of all the faithful in my parish’, he writes, adding that this gift is ‘a great blessing, above all now, before the rainy season’. •
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A chairde, It is from within the small ‘domestic churches’ of our families that we learn to love and serve others for the love of God. In truth Evangelisation begins at home, a reality which is easily understood when one appreciates ‘Evangelisation’ to mean teaching someone ‘the Art of Living’.1 ‘Broken’ families are of course an uncomfortable and widespread reality. Indeed there is not a family anywhere in the world which is not in one way or to some degree ‘broken’. This collection of short articles is a reflection on the issue of ‘broken’ families, the ‘broken’ lives which ensue and the Hope and Healing that is readily available to them and to all of us. Fr. Michael Shields, ACN Ireland’s Evangelist-at-Large considers all of us to be ‘broken’ and those of us who have the Faith, to be blessed. He is not wrong. Beir Beannacht
J F Declan Quinn 1 Cardinal Ratzinger J. a.k.a. Pope Benedict XVI
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It is Good to Remember that Love begins at Home - Blessed Mother Teresa t is good to remember this, especially nowadays when there’s so much fear, so much pain, so much suffering, so much distress. It is good to remember that He will not forget you, that He loves you, loves me, and that Jesus has come to give us that good news. When we look at the cross, we will understand how He loved us, and how He wants us to love one another as He has loved each one of us. And when He came into the light of Mary, the most pure virgin, she accepted Him as the handmaid of the Lord, and she did not speak, but what did she do? Immediately, in haste, she went to her cousin’s home to do what? Just to serve, to do the small works of a handmaid. And something very strange happened: the unborn child in the womb of Elizabeth, six months old, leaped with joy. Strange that it was an unborn child, the child that has become the target of so much evil is who was the first human being to recognise Him, to give Him a welcome, to rejoice that God’s son Jesus has come. And today, [it is] unbelievable that the mother herself murders her own child, afraid of having to feed one more child, afraid to educate one more child: the child must die. This is one of the greatest poverties. A nation, a people, the family that allows that, that accept that, are the poorest of the poor. They are afraid. The 16
fear of that child. And so we see that. That impossible thing has happened today, and you and I have been taught to love, to love one another, to be kind to each other, not in words, but in life. To prove that love in action as Christ has proved it. That’s why we read in the Gospel that Jesus made himself the Bread of Life to satisfy our hunger for love. For He says: ‘Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me.’ How wonderful it is! We all long, we all want even the disbeliever wants to love God in some way or another, and where is God? How do we love God, whom we don’t see? To make it easy for us, to help us
to love, He makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one. And you will, I’m sure ask me: ‘Where is that hunger in our country?’ Yes, there is hunger. Maybe not the hunger for a piece of bread, but there is a terrible hunger for love. There is a terrible hunger for the word of God.
the loss of that virginity that was the most beautiful thing that a young man and a young woman can give each other because they love each other, the loss of that presence, of what is beautiful, of what is great this is nakedness.
I never forget when we went to Mexico, and we went visiting very poor families. And those people we saw had scarcely anything in their homes, and yet nobody asked for anything. They all asked us: Teach us the word of God. Give us the word of God. They were hungry for the word of God. Here, too, in the whole world there is a terrible hunger for God, among the young especially. And it is there that we must find Jesus and satisfy that hunger.
omelessness is not a lack of a homemade of bricks, but the feeling of being rejected, being unwanted, having no one to call your own. I never forget, one day, I was walking down the streets of London and I saw a man sitting there. He looked so sad, so lonely. So I went right up to him. I took his hand and I shook his hand and my hands are always very warm. And he looked up at me and he said: ‘Oooh, after such a long time I feel the warmth of a human hand.’ It was so small that little action was so small and yet it brought a radiating smile on a face that had forgotten to smile, who had forgotten what is the warmth of a human
Nakedness is not only for a piece of cloth. Nakedness is for the loss of that human dignity, the loss of that respect, the loss of that purity that was so beautiful, so great,
‘Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home’ Blessed Mother Teresa
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hand. And this is what we have to find in our country, in all other countries around the world, everywhere. And where do we begin? At home. And how do we begin to love? By prayer. By bringing prayer into your life, for prayer always gives us a clean heart, always. And a clean heart can see God. And if you see God in each other, naturally you will love another. That’s why it is important to bring prayer into the family, for the family that prays together stays together. And if we stay together, naturally we will love one another as God loves each one of us. So it is very important to help each other to pray. nd where do our sisters get that strength to do what they are doing to take care of lepers, to take care of the sick and the dying and pick up people from the streets, not only of Calcutta, but everywhere? Where is that strength coming to the sisters to take care of the poor of New York and that other place in London and Calcutta and all these places? It is the proof of their union with Christ that comes from the Bread of Life that Eucharist. Jesus has made Himself to feed, to give us life. And my advice to you is: make it a point in your life at least once a week to go and be alone with Jesus in the Eucharist, and you will find the strength and the joy and the love that your heart is hungry for.
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Love, to be true, has to hurt. Some time back in Calcutta, we had difficulty getting sugar, and I do not know how a little boy, four years old, had heard ‘Mother Teresa has no sugar,’ but he went home and he told his parents: ‘I will not eat sugar for three days. I will give my sugar to Mother Teresa.’ After three days, the parents brought this little one to our house. They had never been before; they had never given anything. But this little one, with a little bottle in his hand, brought his family to our house. And from that little one I learned how he loved with great love. Not because he gave so much. For God it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. And that love begins at home, right there. •
The Prodigal Father any years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. Capone wasn’t famous for anything heroic. He was however notorious for enmeshing the Windy City in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a lawyer nicknamed ‘Easy Eddie.’ He was Capone’s lawyer for a good reason. Eddie was very good. In fact, Eddie’s skill at legal manoeuvring kept Big Al out of jail for a long time. To show his appreciation, Capone paid him very well. Not only was the money big, but Eddie got special dividends, as well. For instance, he and his family occupied a fenced-in mansion with live-in help and all of the conveniences of the day. The estate was so large that it filled an entire Chicago City block. Eddie lived the high life of the Chicago mob and gave little consideration to the atrocity that went on around him. Eddie however did have one soft spot. He had a son that he loved dearly and Eddie saw to it that his young son had clothes, cars, and a good education. Nothing was withheld. Price was no object. And, despite his involvement with organized crime, Eddie even tried to teach his son right from wrong for Eddie wanted his son to be a better man than he was. He knew however that despite all his wealth and influence, there were two things he couldn’t give his son; he couldn’t pass on a good name or a good example. A LOOK IN THE
One day, ‘Easy Eddie’ reached a difficult decision. He wanted to rectify wrongs he had done so he decided he would go to the authorities and tell the truth about Al ‘Scarface’ Capone, clean up his tarnished name, and offer his son some semblance of integrity. To do this, he would have to testify against The Mob, and he knew that the personal cost would be great. Within a year, ‘Easy Eddie’s’ life ended in a blaze of gunfire on a lonely Chicago Street. But in his eyes, he had given his son the greatest gift he Al Capone had to offer, at the greatest price he could ever pay. Police removed from his pockets a rosary, a crucifix, a religious medallion, and a poem clipped from a magazine. The poem read: he clock of life is wound but once, And no man has the power to tell Just when the hands will stop, At late or early hour.
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ow is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. Place no faith in time. For the clock may soon be still.’
N
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A Dutiful Son orld War II produced many heroes. One such man was Lieutenant Commander Butch O’Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific.
dove at the planes, trying to clip a wing or tail in hopes of damaging as many enemy planes as possible, rendering them unfit to fly. Finally, the exasperated Japanese squadron took off in another direction.
One day his entire squadron was sent on a mission. After he was airborne, he looked at his fuel gauge and realised that someone had forgotten to top off his fuel tank. He would not have enough fuel to complete his mission and get back to his ship. His flight leader told him to return to the carrier. Reluctantly, he dropped out of formation and headed back to the fleet.
Deeply relieved, Butch O’Hare and his tattered fighter limped back to the carrier. Upon arrival, he reported in and related the event surrounding his return. The film from the gun-camera mounted on his plane told the tale. It showed the extent of Butch’s daring attempt to protect his fleet. He had, in fact, destroyed five enemy aircraft.
As he was returning to the mother ship, he saw something that turned his blood cold; a squadron of Japanese aircraft was speeding its way toward the American fleet. The American fighters were gone on a sortie, and the fleet was all but defenceless. He couldn’t reach his squadron and bring them back in time to save the fleet. Nor could he warn the fleet of the approaching danger. There was only one thing to do. He must somehow divert them from the fleet. Laying aside all thoughts of personal safety, he dove into the formation of Japanese planes. Wing-mounted 50 calibre’s blazed as he charged in, attacking one surprised enemy plane and then another. Butch wove in and out of the now broken formation and fired at as many planes as possible until all his ammunition was finally spent. Undaunted, he continued the assault. He 20
This took place on February 20, 1942, and for that action Butch became the Navy’s first Ace of WWII, and the first Naval Aviator to win the Medal of Honour. A year later Butch was killed in aerial combat at the age of 29. His home town would not allow the memory of this WWII hero to fade, and today, O’Hare Airport in Chicago is named in tribute to the courage of this great man. Butch O’Hare was ‘Easy Eddie’s’ son. Good parenting matters and it carries a price.•
Butch O’Hare
Anne’s Homecoming ’m a ‘revert’, and I can say without reservation I believe God’s greatest blessing in my life was placing me in a Catholic family. Like many post Vatican II Catholic families, we attended Mass on Sundays and most Holy Days of obligation, but we had very little involvement with the Faith beyond that. While in public school I attended CCD (Catholic Church Doctrine), and went to our Parish school for a couple of years, but only two of the four of us children were confirmed and that only because we were attending Catholic school when the time came for confirmation. I never understood the Mass, I never understood the “Good News” that one of the Sisters who taught me in middle school spoke of, we never learned to pray the rosary, though Dad did teach us to pray the big three, Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be, along with the “Bless us o Lord” before meals. I don’t ever recall my parents going to confession, and we kids only did because it was available at school. In many ways we were cultural Catholics more than anything, I certainly did not understand the Real Presence, and I assume no one in my family did, in as much as it was never spoken of. So not having much of a foundation in the faith, and being rather an angry child anyway, I bolted from the Church at the first available opportunity, that being my leaving for the University of Michigan. A LOOK IN THE
What followed is about 20+ years of floundering around in new age nonsense with the anger turning into full blown depression. I functioned in spite of my melancholy outlook on life, graduated college, got married, and earned a Public Administration Masters at the University of Southern California. y Husband and I are entrepreneurs, and have been involved in several successful businesses, really the American dream. All the trappings of a successful life, and yet the depression and anxiety, the vague sense of being lost, the occasional moments I would pause on a Christian radio broadcast and ponder. Not for too long of course, we University-educated sophisticates need endure such things. Then came the shoulder injuries. I hurt both my shoulders so badly that I could not dress myself. Not yet 40 years old, I thought I might not ever be able to move without pain again in my life, and all I had on hand were the ‘Our Father’, ‘Hail Mary’, and ‘Glory Be’ prayed with Dad as a child. I cried out to God with these three prayers and my elementary school comprehension of the things of God, and He being the patient, kind loving Father that He is, met me where I was, and answered my prayer. For relief of pain in my shoulders and for the gentle guidance He has pro21
vided ever since I have nothing to offer other than the daily prayer of my life lived for Him, consecrated to His Sacred Heart, through the Immaculate Heart of His Beloved Mother and mine, Mary. Interestingly enough, as I prayed and asked God for guidance, I was not immediately led back to the Catholic Church. I was led to an Evangelical Church where the Gospel is presented at an elementary school comprehension level, the perfect place for someone such as myself who’s comprehension of the Gospel was almost non-existent. Evangelicals tend to spend a great deal of time studying scripture, and so I read and read the bible, reading almost nothing but for over two years. My depression lifted, never to return, and I came to understand that Christ’s atonement for our sins is Good News. Indeed, Satan is a defeated foe, that a life lived with Jesus in eternity as He originally intended trumps any piddling little problem I may encounter here in Satan’s realm on earth. owever, I gradually became uncomfortable with some inconsistencies between what I was reading in the scripture and the doctrine taught in the Evangelical church. Probably even more importantly, in scripture I came to recognise the practices and Sacraments of the Church, something I had never understood. And I was yearning for the Eucharist, though oddly enough I still did not comprehend the Real Presence. 22
The clinchers for me were John’s Gospel, Chapter 17, Christ’s Unity prayer in the garden, and Matthew 16:18 when Peter is given the keys to the Kingdom. As I pondered disunity among Christians and the somewhat constant attack on the Church of Rome, it occurred to me Jesus did not abandon His people and His Church for the first 1,500 years of Christianity, after all He tells us He will be with us until the end of the age. Gee the Church has it all wrong for 1,500 years and then the reformers came along and got it all squared away? I think not. So without the prejudice of a lifetime of being told the Catholic Church was wrong, and with the immeasurable blessing of Grace I received at my Confirmation, I began to read the Catechism and learn the faith Christ has given His people, and I knew I had to come home to Rome.
est of the story, after 14 years, our marriage was con-validated December 2004, my Husband was received into the Church at Easter Vigil 2005, and we live our lives in gratitude to the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, begging each day for the salvation of the souls of all those with whom we have contact. Praying to our Savior that just as Sister Mary planted those little seeds of faith back in middle school, we through the prayer of our lives lived for Christ, and our witness to His unfathomable Mercy and Grace, plant the seeds of the message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ and the Grace he pours out to His people through His Church here on earth. Alleluia, Amen. •
‘How precious is the family as the privileged place for transmitting the faith’ Pope Francis
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Talking about our Faith with Real Stories about Real People - Fr. Dwight Longenecker ow is the gospel best spread? By talking about how the faith has changed you. It is by telling faith stories. It is by sharing the amazing, simple and real experiences of the faith.
say tonight except that I love my wife Flossie’, and then he’d reach down to take her hand and start to weep a bit. ‘The Lord has given us to each other and not a day goes by that I don’t thank him for Flossie.’
What is a “faith story”? A faith story is a shared event in which the faith actually did what it was supposed to do: save people, heal people, change lives and change the world.
When all the theologians, scholars, philosophers and professional religious people are done, this is the down-home, heart-to-heart, rubber-meeting-road kind of evangelisation. We don’t follow Christ for what he can do for us, but we do expect our faith to work.
I am a convert to Catholicism from Evangelical fundamentalism. I grew up in an atmosphere where it was natural to share our faith stories. The Christian folk in our church shared their faith with one another all the time. They spoke freely about answered prayer, prayer requests and the daily communication with God. On Wednesday evenings we would meet for fellowship and a prayer meeting. Part of this weekly meeting was the pastor inviting anyone who wanted to stand up and share what God had done for them that week. Housewives would give a brief answer to prayer. Businessmen would recount an experience sharing the faith. Children would stand up and say what they were thankful for. Every week one dear old saint named George would stand up, and in a trembling voice say, ‘Well pastor, I don’t have much to 24
The problem with so many Catholics is that they don’t really expect their religion to DO anything for them. They have been taught to fulfil their duties and say their prayers, and they give lip-service to the beliefs That Confession really absolves them of their sins and heals them That the Eucharist infuses supernatural love into their lives and That Anointing brings healing. But they don’t expect the daily surge of God’s power in their lives. This is where faith stories become so important. As we share faith stories people are inspired, faith grows. People come more and more to believe, trust and expect God to do great things. This is one of the reasons why I try to weave at least one faith story into every homily. In teaching
confirmation class I tell faith stories so the children not only learn the facts of their Catholic religion but also how faith works and how God can touch their lives. Faith stories should be at the bedrock of our lives as Catholics. We are sometimes so intent on learning the Catechism or the arguments for the Faith or apologetics, but we neglect the real stories of real people whose lives are transformed by God. Faith stories make up the heart of Sacred Scripture. Indeed the Bible is in large measure a long and ancient collection of faith stories: real stories of real people who made a transaction with God, who set out on the great adventure and changed the world. Why do we tell and re-tell the lives of the saints? Because they are our faith stories. Pope Benedict XVI said that the saints are ‘lived theology’ and ‘the sacred Scriptures can only be interpreted through the lives of the saints.’ It is in these faith stories that the Catholic religion lives and we should not be ashamed to tell our stories, and if we don’t have a faith story to tell? Then we better get one soon! Evangelisation takes place as real people first live the faith, then share their experiences. As others see the example and hear the stories they will be attracted and inspired to follow the way and embark on their own great adventure. • A LOOK IN THE
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Ralph’s Christian Witness - Fr. Dwight Longenecker ne of the sweet things about being a priest is being able to minister at a person’s deathbed. The veil between this world and the next is very thin at that point, and you can see so much. When I say you can ‘see’ so much what I mean is that so much is revealed. At that point the person who is dying is usually very vulnerable and open. Their worldly facade is fading. Their accomplishments and pride are forgotten. They realise that all the stuff of this world will soon be left behind. Often the person is quietly sleeping. The family is gathered around and there is no response as the Last Rites are given. On the other hand, sometimes the process is very conscious. More than once I’ve been called to visit a man or woman who has called the parish office specifically because they know they are dying and they want to see a Catholic priest. So it was that I once made my way to a small apartment in a not-so-good part of town. I was admitted to find a man in his sixties with a haggard expression gasping for air. Call him Ralph. ‘Are you a Catholic priest?’ ‘I am.’ ‘It’s about time. I’ve been calling all around town for the last three weeks trying to get hold of a Catholic priest.’ ‘I’m sorry. It looks like you’re pretty sick.’
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‘Yep. I’m dying. Doctor says only a few more weeks. They can’t do anything for me.’ ‘What’s the problem?’ ‘Lung cancer. It’s my own damned fault. I couldn’t give up smoking,’ ‘Uh huh. Why haven’t you seen a priest up til now?’ ‘I was in the hospice and when I asked they sent some old guy around wearing a blue shirt. That made me suspicious so I asked him and he said he was a Methodist. So a few days later I asked again and they sent a woman.’ ‘So why didn’t you send for your parish priest? What church do you go to?’
Memento Mori Remember, Dear Christian You have but one soul to save, One God to love and serve, One eternity to expect. Death will come soon, Judgment will follow, And then Heaven or Hell forever. Therefore, O child of Jesus and Mary, Avoid sin and all dangerous occasions of sin. Pray without ceasing. Go frequently to Confession and to Holy Communion
Amen
asked and he laughs, then starts coughing, really bad. I think he’s going to cough his lungs up or what’s left of them. Finally he stops laughingcoughing and says, ‘Hell, Father I haven’t been to church for fifty years.’ ‘Then why start now?’ ‘Because the nuns told me when a Catholic is dying you’re supposed to call the priest. Right?’ ‘Right.’ ‘And I’m a Catholic and I’m dying so I called a priest. What next?’” ‘Well, are you prepared to make your confession and receive the sacrament of healing?’ ‘Is that the same as the Last Rites?’ ‘Yes. Do you want to make your confession?’ ‘That might take a long time…’ and he tarts laughing-coughing again. ‘I’ve got as much time as it takes.’ o I began to hear his sad old confession of a wasted life and tragic losses. There were tears on his side first, then on mine. I gave him absolution and promised to bring him Communion the next day, and that Communion was one of the sweetest things I can remember. He was like a little child. He had faith. In fact he had nothing but faith. Then after Communion and a blessing he lit up a cigarette. ‘You shouldn’t smoke.’ I said. ‘Those things are going to kill you.’ He thought that was hilarious. A LOOK IN THE
week later his carer called and I went to see Ralph again. This time he was in bed in a darkened room. There were no family members there. He’d screwed his friends, alienated his kids and divorced his wife. He was alone. I sat by his bedside. ‘Ralph, who is with you right now?’ ‘Nobody Father. Nobody, and it’s my fault. I admit it.’ I took out my rosary. ‘Do you remember this?’ ‘Sure. The nuns taught me to say the rosary.’ ‘That’s who is with you now. Mother Mary.’ I give him the rosary. ‘You’re going to die soon, but I want you to hold on to this rosary as you go. She and your guardian angel will see you across the river. Are you good with that?’ He whispers, ‘Sure I’m good with that.’ Do you want me to say the prayers for passing? He nods. I pray. He goes to sleep, and a few days later at his funeral his people are surprised to see a Catholic priest show up. Nobody knew Ralph was a Catholic. When I tell them how Ralph died there was total silence and reverence, and in some strange way Ralph, who was a pretty lousy Catholic in life, bore a radiant witness to Christ the King in his death. •
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St. Fabiola - Patron Saint for difficult marriages2 n his introductory letter to the Mirror Fr Martin makes reference to the great love which united King Baudouin (1930-1993) of the Belgians to his wife Queen Fabiola (born 1928). Over 1,500 years earlier in the latter years of the Western Roman Empire, a rich young Roman lady who was to become the future St. Fabiola, was not nearly as fortunate in marriage. The author Thomas J. Craughwell in his book ‘Saints Behaving Badly ‘included St. Fabiola in his collection of 28 ‘cutthroats, crooks, trollops, con men and Devil worshippers’ who subsequently became saints. Craughwell terms St Fabiola a ‘bigamist’ and here is how he tells her story. abiola was a Christian and a patrician. No doubt her (first) husband came from a distinguished family as well, but we do not know if he was a Christian. We do not even know his name. We do know that he made Fabiola miserable, cheating on her on an epic scale. St. Jerome says the man’s adulteries were so numerous, so flagrant “not even a prostitute or a common slave could have put up with them”. There came a point when Fabiola would tolerate it no longer. She divorced her husband.
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J Henners’ portrait of St. Fabiola
While a Catholic may separate from a spouse, he or she is forbidden to divorce and remarry. Christ himself forbade it in St. Matthew’s gospel, yet Fabiola defied this law. She was still a young woman. She found it too hard to live without the company of a man, so she obtained a civil divorce from her first husband and, in a civil ceremony, married another, better man. The Church could not recognize Fabiola’s divorce or her civil marriage. Her actions, although understandable, placed Fabiola in the category of a persistent sinner and barred her from receiving the sacraments. For a prominent Christian patrician to flout the laws of the Church caused a public scandal.
hen the unexpected happened: Fabiola’s second husband died. She already placed herself outside the Church; she could have married for a third time if she wanted. But grace touched Fabiola’s heart. One Sunday she appeared among the penitents outside Rome’s Lateran Basilica, the Church that is the Pope’s cathedral. In the fourth century repentance and absolution were much more public than they are today. Sinners did not slip into a private confessional; they came to Sunday Mass dressed in miserable clothes, unwashed and unkempt, so everyone in the congregation would know that they repented the wickedness they had done. St. Jerome describes the scene, saying noble Fabiola appeared before the throng of Christians with “dishevelled hair, pale features, soiled hands and unwashed neck”. That Sunday, the pope absolved her of her sins. ow that she was restored to the Church, Fabiola devoted herself to good works. She sold her jewels, her land, everything she owned. With the money from the sale of her property she opened the first hospital in the West, nursing, washing, and feeding the patients herself. Her wealth was so extensive, however, that Fabiola could expand her work, endowing monasteries and convents, clothing the poor of Rome, and supporting invalids. With her hospital up and running, Fabiola decided to make a pilgrimA LOOK IN THE
age to the Holy Land. That is how she met St. Jerome: he had settled in Bethlehem, where he was working on the authoritative Latin translation of the Bible that has come to be called the Vulgate. Fabiola charmed Jerome, who could be thinskinned, cantankerous, and difficult to get along with. She lingered in Bethlehem, and they became good friends. Jerome thought Fabiola might stay in the Holy Land permanently, but when the Huns invaded Syria and Palestine, Fabiola fled back to Rome. Soon afterward she died. er funeral was more like an old Roman triumph for a conquering hero than a requiem. The churches were thronged with mourners praying for her soul, and as her body was carried through Rome to its tomb, “the streets, porches and roofs from which a view could be obtained were inadequate to accommodate the spectators.” Her friend St. Jerome wrote what could be her epitaph “Where sin hath abounded, grace hath much more abounded”’. St. Jerome, the fourth century Doctor of the Church who knew St. Fabiola well and penned the most inspiring of eulogies which can be read at www.acnireland. org/index.php/mirror or by scanning the code. • 2 Craughwell Thomas J: ‘Saints Behaving Badly’, Doubleday, 2006
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The Characteristics of the Saints3 All saints are filled with the love of God. hey have chosen God above all others and made a definite commitment to God. In her book Saint Watching (Viking Press), Phyllis McGinley writes that saints are human beings with an added dimension. “They are obsessed by goodness and by God as Michelangelo was obsessed by line and form, as Shakespeare was bewitched by language, Beethoven by sound.” All saints love other human beings. t cannot be any other way. In the First Letter of John (4:20) we read: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” McGinley also says that, although saints may be different in many ways, they are always generous. You will never find a stingy saint. All saints are risk-takers. hen God called, they answered. For some it was taking a chance on a new way of life in a new place. In the Old Testament, we have the example of Abraham, called at an old age to leave his country and to go to the place God had selected for him. Even today, it is difficult for older people to leave their level of comfort and to face the new and unknown. 30
Abraham’s story is a marvelous example of trust in God, but even more so of a decision to plunge into the unknown. Like Abraham, saints responded to the graces that were given to them. Some were called to be popes, bishops, abbots or abbesses. Others found their calling in a quiet, reserved life, far away from the center of activity. St. Julian of Norwich lived in a small cell attached to a church. She was even walled in, but that did not keep people away; they came to her and asked for her spiritual advice. St. Catherine of Siena lived at home, not in a convent, as a person dedicated to God. People flocked to her, but not because she wanted them to. Others, whose names are not well-known, lived simple lives among their families and friends, serving God with all their hearts, but never making a splash in the world. The saints are humble, willingly and lovingly attributing to God all that they have and all that they will ever be. Humility has always had a poor press; many people think that humility means saying derogatory things about oneself. Far from it! The saints showed their humility by using whatever gifts they had to perfection, but never attributing these gifts to themselves.
St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas were brilliant men and they did not go around saying how stupid they were. They did acknowledge, however, that all they knew was as nothing compared to the infinite wisdom of God. Saints are people of prayer. ome, especially members of religious orders, had entire days of prayer. Others found their time with God in other ways. Dorothy Day—not canonised but recognized by many as a truly holy person— started her day with prayer but said that she met God daily in the crowds of the poor who came to her hospitality house. None of the saints saw prayer as a waste of time or as an activity for only the weak or naive. The saints are not perfect. ach of the saints had human flaws and faults. They made mistakes. Even at the end of their lives, they still found themselves in need of contrition, pardon and reconciliation. St. Jerome, it is said, had a fearful temper. When another scholar of his time, a former friend, Rufinus, questioned his conclusions, St. Jerome wrote pamphlet after pamphlet blasting him.
St. Augustine A LOOK IN THE
St. Aloysius apparently had bad timing in his spiritual quest; the other novices were just as happy when he was not there. He was the kind of saint who did not seem to 31
know how to enjoy the things of this life. Some saints misunderstood their own visions. When St. Francis of Assisi was told to rebuild the Church, he thought it meant the local church building. It is interesting and amusing to note that Jesus did not clarify the request for him until after he had exerted a lot of sweat and energy repairing an old church. St. Joan of Arc was coerced into signing a retraction of her visions, although she later retracted that retraction. St. John Vianney, “the Curé of Ars,” did not believe the children of La Salette concerning their visions of the Virgin Mary. During the time of the Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy at the end of the 14th century and beginning of the 15th, when one pope resided in Avignon and another pope in Rome, saints found themselves on opposite sides of the rival popes, as confused as many of the common people were. The saints are people of their times. ne wonders how anyone escapes being of his or her time. There were injustices around the saints that they did not speak out against. St. Paul did not condemn slavery but encouraged slaves to obey their masters. When we look at the lives of all the saints, we can find faults, this should encourage us! • 3 Adapted from http://catechesisinthethirdmillennium.wordpress.com/2012/08/21/7-characteristics-of-the-saints/
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Prayer for peace in our Family O Lord, we humbly beg, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God and St Joseph, You would firmly, establish our families in Your Peace and Grace. Lord Jesus, make us to follow continually, the example of Your Holy Family, so that in the hour of our death, Your glorious Virgin Mother and Saint Joseph may come to us and find us worthy to be received by You into Your eternal dwelling place. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with You.
Amen
So many in need...
...Thank you
For those in greater need than me I am 92 years old; I live alone and suffer from various illnesses. I often think of your work and I regularly pray the Holy Rosary for the Church in Need. I am enclosing a small donation, for I know that there are people who are in much greater need than I am. A benefactor from Italy
Dear Friends,
So many in need There are so many dear people in need, and you help so many of them. ACN has grown into a huge, Christ-centered organisation begun by Fr. Werenfried van Straaten so many years ago. God must have given him a crown of glory for his filial love and love for the poor, hungry and destitute. You and ACN are in my daily prayers. I ask Jesus to stretch out His loving hands over all of you and that He will give you His enduring love. A benefactor from the USA A birthday gift in gratitude Today I shall be 89 years old. I never expected to reach this age, but having done so has made me re-evaluate a few things. I know that I am extremely fortunate having reasonable health; 4 lovely children and grandchildren, and even great grandchildren! I was blessed with a lovely wife, who shared with me 50 happy years. I have a good occupational pension, and living alone, not a lot to spend it on, so in gratitude for all these things I enclose a cheque for £3,000. Even that seems a bit cautious, I suppose we are, not knowing the future, but I hope eventually to leave a larger legacy to the wonderful work of ACN. A benefactor in England
Each year thanks to the • Donations • Legacies and • Mass offerings of its benefactors in Ireland and around the world, ACN is able to: • Provide sustenance and the means of survival for approx. 20,000 priests • Support approx. 18,000 seminarians and religious and • Distribute approx. 1.5 million catechetical books for children in over 170 languages. Heartfelt thanks for all your prayers and support provided to Christ’s Suffering and Persecuted Church. May the Good Lord continue to bless you and your family, past and present, now and always.
J F Declan Quinn Director Aid to the Church in Need (Ireland) 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.
Stand firm in the faith, be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13)
‘This strength to love is nourished by our faith in the faithful God and in His merciful love for us.’ Father Martin M. Barta, ACN Ecclesiastical Assistant.
‘In the case of the family, the weakening of these bonds is particularly serious because the family is the fundamental cell of society, where we learn to live with others despite our differences and to belong to one another; it is also the place where parents pass on the faith to their children’ Setting out on a journey of lifelong faithfulness: Pope Francis with a newly married couple.
Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter ‘Evangelii Gaudium’
Aid to the Church in Need helping the Church heal the world. 151 St. Mobhi Road, Dublin 9. TEL 01 837 7516 EmaiL info@acnireland.org
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