May 2016 by St. Anthony Messenger

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ST. ANTHONY MAY 2016 • $3.95 • FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

Pope Francis

and Abraham

Lincoln Awakening to God through Our Senses Holy Family Mysteries Blessed Mothers The Joys of Ushering

Messenger

NEW foor Spring “A lifee-changing book.”

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Pope Francis

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CONTENTS

ST. ANTHONY Messenger

❘ MAY 2016 ❘ VOLUME 123/NUMBER 12

ON THE COVE R

28 Abraham Lincoln: Model of Faith

On the surface, Abraham Lincoln and Pope Francis would seem to have very little in common. But a deeper look shows that, in many ways, they are not all that different.

When he addressed the US Congress last September, Pope Francis cited four individuals for their virtues. One of them was Abraham Lincoln. By C. Walker Gollar

Photo © DHuss/iStockphoto

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 Holy Family Mysteries

2 Dear Reader

A wife and mother offers five new mysteries of the rosary, inspired by family life. By Dolores Francis

3 From Our Readers 4 Followers of St. Francis Melinda Paterson

20 Belonging to God God speaks through all creation. Our challenge is to learn how to listen—and to respond with a resounding “Yes.” By Brother David Steindl-Rast

6 Reel Time Miracles from Heaven

8 Channel Surfing The Armor of Light

10 Church in the News

34 Tips for Grandparenting This deacon and his wife are helping others meet the challenges of life as grandparents in the 21st century. By Sue Stanton

13 Year of Mercy Nourishing Body and Spirit

26 Editorial

40 Blessed Mothers This mother and daughter found a lifelong connection through their devotion to the Virgin Mary. By Colleen Shaddox

Pope Francis’ Lesson on Compassion

49 At Home on Earth The World of Magic

50 Ask a Franciscan

42 The Joys of Ushering

Unsolicited Religious Materials

Being an usher is so much more than finding empty seats. By Brian Doyle

52 Book Corner Merchants in the Temple

44 Fiction: The Crane

54 A Catholic Mom Speaks Are You Social-Media Savvy?

Love’s unfolding is always a surprise. By Alicia Yoder

56 Backstory

DEAR READER

ST. ANTHONY M essenger

Basilica of St. Francis On the Franciscan calendar, the dedication of the Basilica of St. Francis is celebrated on May 24. This church was begun at the direction of Pope Gregory IX, a longtime friend of Francis; Gregory laid this basilica’s cornerstone the day after he canonized Francis in 1228. What was once known as “the Hill of Hell” (where criminals were executed) soon became known as “the Hill of Paradise.” Francis had been originally buried in Assisi’s St. George Church; he was reburied here on May 25, 1230. The basilica (a Gothic church atop a Romanesque church over a crypt) was solemnly consecrated in 1253. Giotto, Cimabue, Simone Martini, and other prominent artists decorated its walls and ceilings. St. John Paul II’s historic 1986 World Day of Prayer for Peace concluded in the piazza outside the lower basilica. So did his follow-up January 2002 gathering and Pope Benedict XVI’s 25th-anniversary event. Pope Francis celebrated Mass in that piazza seven months into his pontificate.

Publisher/CEO Daniel Kroger, OFM Chief Operating Officer Thomas A. Shumate, CPA Editor in Chief John Feister Art Director Jeanne Kortekamp Franciscan Editor Pat McCloskey, OFM Managing Editor Susan Hines-Brigger Associate Editor Christopher Heffron Assistant Editor Daniel Imwalle Editorial Assistant Sharon Lape

Click the button on the left to hear Father Pat’s further reflections on the Basilica of St. Francis. Click here for a virtual tour.

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(U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 123, Number 12, is published monthly for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-6498. Phone (513) 241-5615. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, P.O. Box 189, Congers, NY 109200189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8. To subscribe, write to the above address or call (866) 543-6870. Yearly subscription price: $39.00 in the United States; $69.00 in Canada and other countries. Single copy price: $3.95. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. See St AnthonyMessenger.org for information on your digital edition. Writer’s guidelines can be found at StAnthony Messenger.org. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts or photos lost or damaged in transit. Names in fiction do not refer to living or dead persons. Member of the Catholic Press Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright ©2016. All rights reserved.

2 ❘ May 2016

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

FROM OUR READERS

Cover Image an Affront to Saint I want to start my letter by noting that I love St. Anthony Messenger. It was a staple in my mom’s house when I was growing up. You have always had beautiful covers on the magazine every month. The March issue’s cover, however, was a disappointment. There are so many better images of St. Patrick that you could’ve used. I can’t understand why you would use a cartoon character depiction of him. I feel it was disrespectful to a great saint. With that said, I thoroughly enjoyed John Feister’s article, “Liam Lawton on St. Patrick.” I hope I don’t see more of these ridiculous pictures

What’s on Your Mind? Letters that are published do not necessarily represent the views of the Franciscan friars or the editors. We do not publish slander or libel. Please include your name and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity and space. Mail Letters, St. Anthony Messenger 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 Fax 513-241-0399

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on the cover. Yours is a great magazine. You don’t have to lower your standards just to increase circulation. Kathy Garlock Dunedin, Florida

The Definition of Coincidence I was reading Phyllis Hanlon’s article “Siloam: A Safe Haven” with a great deal of interest and came upon the sentence of how volunteer Susanne Cassidy met Sister Bernadette “by coincidence.” My older sister, Lil, once shared with me an interesting definition of this word. “Coincidence is merely a miracle in which God wishes to remain anonymous,” she told me, quoting a famous saying. I have shared that tidbit of wisdom with many people and now with a few more, I hope. George Lee Beck Vernon Hills, Illinois

Keep an Open Mind on Megachurches I read with interest the reactions to Dr. Brennan Hill’s “5 Lessons from Megachurches” in March’s “From Our Readers.” I was disappointed that the responses were so negative. These churches are providing spiritual homes to persons who would otherwise have none. I am Catholic and treasure the liturgy. However, there are many good Christians for whom the Mass and sacraments have no meaning. I would not have them left outside of the body of believers. I applaud their seeking to have their spiritual needs met. Go to your local megachurch and participate. You will see that you are surrounded by good, sincere, prayerful brothers and sisters, often called to ministry

in their churches and in the community. Many accomplish a sense of community, which some parishes struggle with. I recognize that an environment such as a megachurch can provide teaching and attitudes that we may disagree with. I recognize that there are special gifts which are not available in the same way as in the Catholic Church. However, I think you would recognize the moving of the Spirit in a different way in these congregations and see God working in the lives of these sincere and dedicated Christians. Dan Thomas Miami, Florida

Leave Judging to God As a reader of St. Anthony Messenger, I have always enjoyed not only the articles, but the professional manner in which they are presented. I’m writing in response to Anthony Stockus’ letter from the February issue, “Be Careful Not to Mislead Your Readers.” I feel very bad for Mr. Stockus, and I find it alarming that he thinks your magazine is overly soft on its view of same-sex attraction and divorced and remarried Catholics. It was Jesus who came to heal sinners. He doesn’t come only for those who commit minor sins. He loves all of us no matter what. I would hope that all people, regardless of their persuasion, would also remember what Jesus said: “Judge not lest ye be judged.” I find myself in agreement with those polled in Daniel Imwalle’s October 2015 article, “Readers Speak Up on Catholic Family Issues,” that we need to be more accepting in our Church. I believe that the judging should be left to God, not to imperfect human beings. William McCarthy Portland, Connecticut M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 3

F O L L O W E R S O F S T. F R A N C I S

‘Here to Serve, Not to Judge’

man stands on a Denver street corner holding a piece of cardboard with the message “25 cents helps, God bless” scrawled on it with permanent marker. A dozen or so people walk by without even a pause to read his sign or make eye contact. So often, homeless men and women become faceless and anonymous to the communities in which they live. At Father Woody’s Haven of Hope, however, they are treated with respect, and every effort is made to restore their dignity and sense of belonging in the world. A group of Secular Franciscans, called the Franciscan Friends of the Poor, started providing basic services to Denver’s homeless in 1998, operating out of a small house. To meet the needs of their clients, a building was erected in 2007 and named Father Woody’s Haven of Hope. The name honors the memory and service of Msgr. Charles Woodrich, affectionately known as “Father Woody,” who devoted his life’s work to reaching out to homeless individuals in Denver, until his death in 1991. “We serve anyone who walks through our door, without asking any questions of

Melinda Paterson

them,” explains Melinda Paterson, executive director of Father Woody’s since May 2009. The organization’s motto is the same one Father Woody used four decades before, when he operated the Samaritan House Homeless Shelter: “We are here to serve, not to judge.” The way the staff and volunteers interact with their guests is proof that they take their motto very seriously. There are only four paid staff members at the organization. However, Father Woody’s has around 125 volunteers. Many of the volunteers are retirees, members of church groups, or high school and college students. When guests are fed breakfast and lunch at the day center, you won’t likely see a long line out the door of people waiting their turn for soup. That’s because they are seated at tables and the food is brought to them. Laundry facilities are available and, again, staff and volunteers take care of guests by washing their clothes for them. “It gives them a sense of dignity. We have a very homelike atmosphere,” Melinda shares. Further in line with its Franciscan roots, the Haven of Hope pays special attention to

STORIES FROM OUR READERS Learn more about St. Anthony and share your story of how he helped you at AmericanCatholic.org/ Features/Anthony.

Tickets, Please

4 ❘ May 2016

A few years ago, I was blessed to travel with my son in Japan. The day of departure, we had to change trains several times to reach the airport. Train tickets were all pre-purchased. Next to the last train, when the conductor came by to punch tickets, my son couldn’t find his. We checked every bag, searched the restroom, and all around his seat on the train. No ticket. The policy there is that if you lose your ticket, you have to buy another one. The price for another ticket was $140 American! I prayed fervently to St. Anthony while we obsessively searched. We had almost arrived at the station, and something prodded my son to look under the seat cushion. There was his ticket, dangling on the metal frame between the seats. Minutes later, the conductor approached on his final pass. We were all smiles and nearly cheering as my son held up his ticket. Thank you, St. Anthony! —JoAnne C. Hickey, Crossville, Tennessee

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Click here for to visit the Haven of Hope website. Click the button on the left to hear an interview with Melinda Paterson.

ST. CLARE OF ASSISI

‘Do Not Be Afraid’ The San Damiano Monastery was at least a 20-minute walk down the hill from Assisi. That left it exposed if soldiers were fighting in the area. In 1230, Muslim troops working for Frederick II scaled the walls of the monastery. Sister Francesca relates that Clare called the nuns to their dining room and had the Blessed Sacrament brought there. After they all prayed, Clare urged them not to be afraid. The soldiers left them unharmed. This incident helped the citizens of Assisi convince the nuns to move into the city in 1260. –P.M.

PHOTO BY FRANK JASPER, OFM

caring for the whole person. Beyond filling an empty stomach, haircuts, hygiene items, and free access to telephones and the Internet are provided. Staff and volunteers help guests build their résumés and obtain ID cards and birth certificates—documents that are crucial to their job search. Eight consultants, who are homeless, work for the Haven of Hope in various capacities. They are paid for their work, and Melinda says the goal of the consultant program is to “act as a step up for our homeless friends. Many of our consultants have gone on to obtain housing and a job.” Thus, Father Woody’s seeks to help break the cycle of poverty. “Our biggest challenge is space,” says Melinda. “We are seeing up to 300 new homeless guests each week.” As Melinda and her team figure out the logistics of caring for such a large group, their passion to keep serving their guests is powerful and sustaining. “We must take care of our homeless community,” says Melinda. “They are all children of God. We aren’t here to judge them, but to help them—no matter what their needs are.” —Daniel Imwalle

tal Digi as Extr

To learn more about Franciscan saints, visit SaintoftheDay.org.

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Send all postal communication to: St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

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The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation. The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below. Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week. To post your petition online, please visit stanthony.org, where you can also request to have a candle lit or a Mass offered; or you may make a donation to the Franciscans or sign up to receive a novena booklet.

REEL TIME

W I T H S I S T E R R O S E PA C AT T E , F S P

Miracles from Heaven

CNS PHOTO/COLUMBIA PICTURES

SISTER ROSE’S

Favorite

Movies about Mary Full of Grace (2015) The Song of Bernadette (1943) The Nativity Story (2006) The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima (1952) Guadalupe (2006)

6 ❘

M ay 2 0 1 6

Jennifer Garner, Queen Latifah, and Kylie Rogers star in the heartwarming true story Miracles from Heaven. Annabelle “Anna” Beam (Kylie Rogers), 10, is afflicted with intestinal pseudo-obstruction disorder. This means her intestines do not function properly and there is no cure. As her pain increases, her parents, Kevin (Martin Henderson) and Christy (Jennifer Garner), seek medical help but are frustrated at every turn. Finally, Christy locates a doctor in Boston and takes Anna there, even though an appointment is impossible. This is when the miracles wrought by the goodness of human beings start happening. Anna is hospitalized, and it seems death is near. But she gets well enough to go home. One afternoon, Anna is outside with her older sister, Abbie (Brighton Sharbino), who encourages her to climb a 30-foot tree. When a branch starts to give way, Anna plunges headfirst to the ground. She survives, but what happens next is unexplainable. Miracles from Heaven is based on the 2015 book of the same name by Christy Beam.

The film recounts Anna’s encounter with God during the time she lost consciousness. The film is lovely and takes its visual and musical inspiration from the watercolors of Monet that Anna and her mom see while visiting a museum in Boston. This is a moving and inspiring story (warning: bring tissues), and director Patricia Riggen brings out the best in her actors. The scene where Anna asks her mother to let her go to God because the pain is so intense will break your heart and give you hope. A-2, PG ■ Some peril.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Kim Baker (Tina Fey) is a television journalist in her early 40s who is asked to cover the war in Afghanistan because she is not married and has no children. She accepts the three-month assignment in the hopes that it will energize her career, but it stretches to three years. Kim arrives in Kabul and joins a St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

FRANK MASI/ PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Tina Fey shines as an American journalist in Afghanistan in the comedy/drama Whiskey Tango Foxtrot.

MELINDA SUE GORDON/ BROAD GREEN PICTURES

group of international journalists, including the only other female reporter, Tanya Vanderpoel (Margot Robbie), to cover the war. Kim is embedded with a Marine squadron even though General Hollanek (Billy Bob Thornton) is unimpressed with her. The journalists party hard: Kim and the womanizer Iain MacKelpie (Martin Freeman) begin a casual relationship that becomes more personal when he is kidnapped. Despite the objectionable behavior of many of the characters, the film has depth and makes a statement about war and the media’s addiction to it. When Kim interviews a young Marine who says he doesn’t even load his gun because they are trying to do good things for the people of Afghanistan, he is transferred after the piece airs to a more dangerous zone, where he loses both legs in an explosion. Kim blames herself. She visits him to apologize in a scene of grace and forgiveness. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is based on Kim Barker’s 2011 memoir, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan. I was impressed by an interview I heard with the real Kim Barker. When she was asked if the film reflected the truth of her book, she replied with a smile that it was “truthy.” O, R ■ War violence, language, sexual content, drug use.

comes from a tarot card, it ends in an interestingly Christian way, and the use of superstition is new for the famed director. A knight of cups is a romantic wanderer, which describes Rick (Christian Bale), the main character. Rick is a screenwriter who sleepwalks through his life and marriage—succumbing to the hedonism of Los Angeles and Las Vegas. His younger brother died years before, but he cannot get over it. Rick’s life is in pieces: he is unable to find meaning in what goes on around him, nor can he deal with his father’s disappointment in him. Rick is a success, but has no idea what to do next. Knight of Cups, which will not be everyone’s cup of tea, made me wonder if poor people have the luxury of existential crises as rich people seem to have. In one sense, I didn’t care about Rick’s introspective inability to find himself as a man. In another, the conclusion of the film offers Rick a way forward out of selfishness and sin through beauty and faith. Not yet rated, R ■ Nudity, sexuality, language.

Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale star in Terrence Malick’s smart, if flawed, Knight of Cups.

Catholic Cl assifications A-1 A-2 A-3 L O

Knight of Cups In what might be called the final film of director/writer Terrence Malick’s trilogy— The Tree of Life in 2011 and To the Wonder in 2012—Knight of Cups explores the existential dimensions of a man’s life in an experimentally artistic film. Though the title Fr anciscanMedia.org

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

■

The Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. See usccb.org/movies.

■

For additional film reviews, go to americancatholic.org/movies.

M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

CHANNEL SURFING

WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

UP CLOSE

May 10, 8 p.m., PBS According to the National Institute of Justice, over 400,000 people are the victims of gun violence in the United States each year. In 2012, 17-year-old Jordan Davis was one of them. He was shot and killed by Michael David Dunn in Jacksonville, Florida. Dunn used the stand-your-ground defense in his trial. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but there was no joy in that verdict. A life was lost; others were upended. Our nation’s fervor for firearms may be the heart of Abigail E. Disney’s documentary The Armor of Light, but its soul is the invisible wounds that gun violence inflicts. The film follows the Rev. Rob Schenck, an Evangelical minister, and Lucy McBath, the mother of Jordan Davis. Schenck, an antiabortion activist who is horrified by our nation’s escalating gun violence, asks his conservative home base if the pro-gun and pro-life movements are compatible. McBath, still mourning the loss of her son, is the portrait of strength and righteous anger brimming just beneath a paper-thin surface. Their personal histories differ, but they are unified in promoting gun safety at all costs. Disney, a bold new voice in documentary filmmaking, dares to ask tough questions here. Audiences are left with no certainties, save one: The Armor of Light is one of the best documentaries of the year so far.

Heartbeat

PHOTO BY JEFF HUTCHENS

Wednesdays, 8 p.m., NBC Channel surfers on the prowl for a smartly constructed hospital drama in the vein of St. Elsewhere or ER should keep looking. Heartbeat, a laughable look into the personal and professional life of renowned heart surgeon Dr. Alex Panttiere (Melissa George), is hobbled by clichéd plotlines and lifeless casting. Dr. Panttiere, a single parent trying to maintain a healthy balance at home and at work, sabotages these efforts by engaging in reckless behavior in her off hours—as well as flirting with risky medical practices. But it’s the show’s more absurd moments that are its downfall: in an early episode, she performs in-flight heart surgery on a patient using the sharpened edge of a credit card. And it doesn’t get any more believable after that. In a television landscape where female-driven shows are in short supply, Heartbeat wants to present a three-dimensional heroine, but Dr. Panttiere is so cartoonish that it’s impossible to find inroads there. Audiences who want dynamic female characters should change the channel to CBS or Showtime, where Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder) and Claire Danes (Homeland) rise to dazzling new heights each week. The Australian-born Melissa George, always a compelling actor to watch, has the depth and dramatic chops to carry a series, but not this one. Heartbeat is DOA.

The Rev. Rob Schenck and Lucy McBath are the subjects of the stirring new documentary The Armor of Light. 8 ❘

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO BY MICHELLE FAYE/ NBC

The Armor of Light

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Pope Appeals for Peace after Attacks

CNS PHOTO/CHRISTIAN HARTMANN, REUTERS

Thursday service, when he washed the feet of 12 men and women. “All of us here, [coming] together—Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Copts, Evangelicals—but [being] brothers, sons of the same God who want to live in peace,” the pope said. “In this moment, when I do Jesus’ same gesture—to wash the feet of you 12—all of us are making this gesture of brotherhood. And all of us can say: We are diverse, we are different, we have different religions and cultures, but we are brothers and we want to live in peace.”

A man prays during a March 23 memorial gathering in Brussels following the bombing attacks that occurred the previous day. Three nearly simultaneous attacks claimed the lives of dozens and injured more than 200 people.

1 0 ❘ May 2016

that this has all happened on the threshold of Holy Week, the most sacred time for Christians, when we are about to mark Good Friday and Easter. In the face of such madness, we should adopt the courageous attitude of Mary, who remained at the foot of the cross in silence.” In the days following the attacks, Archbishop Josef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels, president of the Belgian bishops’ conference, thanked Christians for the many gestures and words of support. “We must stay faithful to our message of peace and go on promoting a discourse which appeals for acceptance, brotherhood, and coexistence. This type of attack shows how anyone can be affected and the great danger that fear will appear everywhere. There’s a temptation to react by turning against migrants and refugees, who’ll become victims once again,” he said. Pope Francis once again acknowledged the attacks during his Holy

Canonization Date Scheduled for Mother Teresa The Vatican announced on March 15 that Blessed Teresa of Kolkata will be canonized on September 4, reported CNS. The canonization will take place on the eve of the 19th anniversary of her death.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

CNS PHOTO

In the wake of the deadly attacks in Brussels which left at least 32 dead at Zaventem airport and the city’s Maelbeek metro station, Pope Francis condemned the acts and prayed for the conversion of those who adhere to violent fundamentalism, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). The Islamic State group claimed credit for the attacks. At the end of his weekly general audience on March 23, the pope said, “I renew an appeal to all people of good will to unite in the unanimous condemnation of these cruel abominations that have caused only death, terror, and horror.” He then led the people in the square in praying a Hail Mary for those affected by the terrorism, followed by a moment of silence for “the dead, the wounded, the families, and for all the Belgian people.” Brussels Auxiliary Bishop Jean Kockerols told the Church’s Cathobel news agency, “It’s a great mystery

N E W S B R I E F S N AT I O N A L A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L The Archdiocese of Seattle reached a settlement of $9.1 million in March with eight women who were sexually abused by former priest Michael Cody from 1968 to 1974. The victims were abused by Cody, a former archdiocesan priest, while he was serving in Whatcom and Skagit County parishes. Cody, who is deceased, had not served as a priest in the Archdiocese of Seattle since 1979. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2005.

CNS/OCTAVIO DURAN

Father Virgilio Elizondo, a nationally known professor of pastoral and Hispanic theology at the University of Notre Dame and founder of what is today the Mexican American Catholic College in San Antonio, was found dead at his home on March 14. The Bexar County medical examiners ruled his death a suicide, confirming that the priest had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A new smartphone app, “Imagine a Sister’s Life,” is now available from the Sisters of Bon Secours USA. The

Pope Delivers Message to the World on Easter

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US Vice President Joe Biden and former Speaker of the House John Boehner have been named as recipients of Notre Dame University’s Laetare Medal. The two will be honored during the university’s May 15 commencement ceremony. The Laetare Medal has been given annually since 1883 to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity.” For more Catholic news, visit AmericanCatholic.org.

to thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square. The theme of mercy was one which

the pope emphasized throughout the celebration of Holy Week, often expressing concern for the fate of refugees and migrants fleeing violence and poverty, and for Christians facing persecution in the Middle East and other parts of the world. During the Easter Vigil, Pope Francis told those in attendance that the Holy Spirit “does not remove evil with a magic wand. But he pours into us the vitality of life, which is not the absence of problems, but the certainty of being loved and always forgiven by Christ, who for us has conquered sin, death, and fear.” He CNS/PAUL HARING

Following Mass on Easter morning, Pope Francis delivered his annual Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) message, in which he urged people to pray for and assist those who suffer, reported CNS. The risen Jesus “makes us sharers of his immortal life and enables us to see with his eyes of love and compassion those who hunger and thirst, strangers and prisoners, the marginalized and the outcast, the victims of oppression and violence,” the pope said

In April, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 89, but the Vatican says, despite the fact that he is growing frail, there are no particular concerns regarding his health. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, issued a statement March 25 in response to an interview in which Archbishop Georg Ganswein, the retired pope’s personal secretary, said Pope Benedict was slowly “fading.”

CNS/STEFANO SPAZIANI, POOL

The popular photo-sharing site Instagram gained another user on March 19, when Pope Francis opened an account under the name @Franciscus. The social media department of the Secretariat for Communications will be responsible for the management of the pope’s Instagram account, which will post not only photos but also short videos.

app includes links to blog posts from members of the congregation, spiritual reflections, virtual retreats, and prayer that anyone can use, but that especially speak to young adults, says Sister Patricia Dowling, vocation director. It is available for both iPhones and Android phones at lifeasasister.org.

Pope Francis delivers his Easter message and blessing Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) from St. Peter’s Basilica March 27.

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went on to say that unless Christians awaken the same hope in the hearts of others, the Church risks becoming “an international organization full of followers and good rules, yet incapable of offering the hope for which the world longs.”

Pope Marks Third Anniversary with Talk on Mercy

Among Christians, women are more religious than men on all measures; gender gaps among Muslims are less consistent Christians |

+7% 53% 46% Weekly attendance Muslims | +28% 70%

Women

+10% 61% 51%

Daily prayer Women

Men +7% 68% 61%

Importance of religion Men

+2% 72% 71%

76% 76%

Daily prayer

Importance of religion

Belief in heaven

94% 93%

+1% 78% 76%

+Î% 88% 84%

Belief in hell

Belief in angels

88% 88%

+1% 86% 85%

Belief in hell

Belief in angels

42%

Weekly attendance

Belief in heaven

Note: Values of difference are calculated based on unrounded numbers. Source: Pew Research Center surveys, 2008-2015

Founder of EWTN Dies

CNS PHOTO/COURTESY EWTN

Mother Angelica, founder of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), died on March 27 at the age of 92, following a long illness,

Mother Angelica, founder of Eternal Word Television Network, died at age 92 March 27 at the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. 1 2 ❘ May 2016

+2% 91% 89%

reported CNS. She was a member of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. An often controversial figure, Mother Angelica built EWTN into a network that transmits programs 24 hours a day to more than 230 million homes in 144 countries via cable and other technologies. It broadcasts in English and several other languages. Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that Mother Angelica “reflected the gospel commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. Like the best evangelists, she used the communications tools of her time to make this happen. She displayed a unique capacity for mission and showed the world once again the vital contribution of women religious.” A funeral was held on April 1 at Our Lady of Angels Monastery in Hanceville, Alabama. Following the funeral, Mother Angelica’s body was interred in the shrine’s Crypt Chapel. A St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

CNS/LIZ AGBEY, THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS

With a simple tweet of “Pray for me,” Pope Francis marked the third anniversary of his election to the papacy. In his usual Sunday recitation of the Angelus, the pope did not reference the anniversary, but revisited the message of God’s forgiveness and mercy, just as he did in his first Angelus address in 2013. Speaking on St. John’s account of Jesus and the woman who was caught in adultery, the pope reminded the crowd that Jesus told the Pharisees, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” The pope then added, “How good it would be for us, too, to be aware that we are sinners. How good it would be if we had the courage to let fall to the ground the stones we have for throwing at others and rather to think about our own sins.”

Who’s more religious?

YEAR OF MERCY

❘ BY BRONWEN DACHS

Nourishing Body and Spirit The Corporal Works of Mercy ■ Feed the hungry ■ Give drink to the thirsty ■ Clothe the naked ■ Shelter the homeless ■ Visit the sick ■ Visit the imprisoned ■ Bury the dead

CNS PHOTO/AARON UFUMELI, EPA

The Spiritual Works of Mercy ■ Admonish the sinner ■ Instruct the ignorant ■ Counsel the doubtful ■ Comfort the sorrowful ■ Bear wrongs patiently ■ Forgive all injuries ■ Pray for the living and the dead Villagers in Harare, Zimbabwe, gather food at a distribution point. With poverty on the rise and a drought compounding Zimbabwe’s problems, people are struggling to make ends meet there.

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ing together and supporting each other,” Sister Diana says. “People work hard to generate income,” she asserts, “and when they make money through the project, they repay the initial amount that they were given. This money is then used to help someone else start up.” A

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Click here for a longer version of this article.

Bronwen Dachs, a Catholic News Service freelance journalist, has covered southern Africa for 25 years.

POPE FRANCIS ON MERCY “Jesus was not content merely to teach the crowds, but he was concerned for their welfare, especially when he saw them hungry.” —World Day of Peace Message, 2016

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CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

n Zimbabwe, where drought adds to the problems of an unemployment rate that tops 80 percent, people are looking for ways to survive. At St. Peter’s Church, outside Harare, parishioners are involved in more than 20 projects that enable them to put food on their tables: sewing school uniforms, raising chickens to sell, and grinding peanuts into paste. Sister Diana Kanyere, a member of the Little Children of Our Blessed Lady, who started the income-generating program, also runs eight homes for orphans. She says the peanut butter project provides much-needed nutrition. “Some of the children are HIV-positive, and so they need extra vitamins and minerals to boost their immune systems,” she says, adding, “We will make extra peanut butter and sell it at schools and other places.” The projects “are successful on a social as well as an economic level, with people work-

Holy Family Mysteries A wife and mother offers five new mysteries of the rosary, inspired by family life. BY DOLORES FRANCIS

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PAINTING BY LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER/IMAGE CREATED BY ROMAN STASUIK, ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS, WARSAW

T RECENTLY OCCURRED TO ME that my daily 20-minute exercise routine has a good deal in common with my daily rosary. While one stretches my physical muscles, the other flexes my spiritual muscles. Neither activity is absolutely essential to my health and well-being; many people, far healthier and holier than I am, get along fine without them. Still, the physical exercise each morning energizes me for whatever the day may bring. The rosary each evening helps me accept and put in perspective the joys and trials of the day. It was not always so. As a young mother, I found it difficult to relate to Mary as the ideal wife and mother. She raised the Son of God, making her the Mother of God. She lived in a different time and culture and did not have to face many of the choices that bewildered me. Years passed, and I began to see that, although our experiences differed, Mary’s life, like mine, was centered on family and homemaking, that oldest and most honorable profession. I began to pray the rosary and, eventually, to pray mysteries of my own devising, mysteries that helped me see the Holy Family as a model for my own. Children of all times and cultures need love; parents of all times and cultures love and care for their children. Mary did not have a special “pipeline” to God, but she trusted in him as we also must do. Mary always leads us to Jesus, and these family mysteries especially can guide us in the everyday moments that never seem momentous but, nevertheless, are so important.

(Left) German painter Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s “Flight into Egypt” poignantly captures a moment along the Holy Family’s path as refugees.

PAINTING BY JULIUS SCHNORR VON CAROLSFELD/GOOGLE ART PROJECT

(Below) Many families in the United States and across the world are immigrants. And, like the Holy Family, many face closed doors and unwelcoming communities.

he Flight into Egypt

“Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod . . .” (Mt 2:14-15).

Click the button above to hear an interview with the two musicians of the Rosary Tour.

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My husband and I used to joke that if we had a few dollars ahead, we should not talk about it within hearing of the car or the plumbing. One of them was sure to develop a problem that would eat up the extra and then some. Did Mary and Joseph marvel at the wealth the Magi presented? Did it seem that God was smoothing the path before them? That this parenting the savior of the world was a pretty good gig? Whatever their plans for this unexpected largesse, I doubt they included the cost of travel to Egypt or the expense of settling in a foreign land. The Holy Family were immigrants in Egypt— living, working, and worshiping in a strange land with little knowledge of its language and customs. A lot of us at one time or another are immigrants. Most of us do not move to a foreign land, but even a move from one part

of our own country to another can leave us feeling alone and alien. Far from family and friends, we can ask Mary and Joseph to help us adjust and make a loving home wherever we are. This mystery also serves to remind us of those who, voluntarily or involuntarily, have left their homes to make new lives in another land. If we would welcome the Holy Family into our midst, we must also be a welcoming presence to those who come to our areas from other cultures and communities.

esus Is Lost for Three Days

“. . . but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him” (Lk 2:45). What terror must have filled the hearts of Mary and Joseph when they discovered that Jesus was missing from the caravan! At 12 years of age, he was old enough to watch out for himself, but what parent has ever believed that when a child is lost? God had entrusted the savior of the world to them, and they blew it. We parents, too, lose our children. SomeSt A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

As children get older, mature, and take on new responsibilities, parents have to learn how to let go. Mary and Joseph faced the very same challenge as they raised Jesus.

times physically as Mary and Joseph did, but there are other ways to lose children. They can stray from us emotionally, culturally in their lifestyle choices, and spiritually by drifting from the faith we shared with them. We turn to Mary and Joseph who experienced and understand our pain. They will help us entrust our children to God’s loving care.

esus Leaves Home

“. . . ‘Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.’ But he said to them in reply, ‘Who are my mother and brothers?’” (Mk 3:32-33). They knew it had to come. This child had been born to leave them and to fulfill his destiny. Did Mary and Joseph, like many Israelites of their time, expect the Messiah and Son of the Most High to be a powerful earthly ruler, restoring the nation to former glories? Did they question, worry, and ponder when Jesus took up with fishermen and tax collectors? How poignant for Mary, in company with family, to have her son look at the crowd seated around him and declare, “Here are my mother and my brothers” (Mk 3:34). Surely one of the hardest parts of parenting is letting our children go, allowing them to make mistakes. The need to give advice, to Fr anciscanMedia.org

keep them from repeating our own errors, to push them to become all they can be is almost impossible to resist, but God gave them the same free will he gave us. (I have sometimes joked that this is how we know it’s God the Father; if it were God the Mother, she would know better!) We can look to Mary and Joseph as models of being supportive but not overbearing.

he Death of St. Joseph

“For a father’s blessing gives a family firm roots . . .” (Sir 3:9). Did Joseph feel he had completed his life’s work? Perhaps he worried about leaving Mary with an only son, who roamed the land preaching, teaching, healing, doing all manner of good, but with Click here for more on Mary no steady income. Did he, perand praying the rosary. haps, wonder if he had done right by this unique and special child? Certainly, he must have felt that his friends and neighbors considered him less than successful in his parenting. Good sons were supposed to marry well and continue the family line. I am sure Joseph was proud of Jesus even though he did not conform to the commuM ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

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PAINTING BY ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN/GOOGLE CULTURAL INSTITUTE; © PHOTOGRAPHY33/FOTOSEARCH

(Right) Mary, in accepting the care of St. John, is a shining example of how to embrace the winding road of life with grace, gratitude, and patience. (Far right) Life’s changes can arrive quickly and unexpectedly. With an attitude of graciousness, we can be at peace when others offer their help.

nity’s idea of a good son. Joseph knew he could trust Jesus to fulfill his destiny, as well as to care for his mother—just as all of us can trust him with those we love. Joseph is often pictured dying in the arms of Mary and Jesus, which makes us think that Jesus left home after Joseph’s death; but since the Bible does not tell us the story of Joseph’s death, I prefer to believe that Mary and Joseph had some time for themselves. Not selfish time, not leisure time, just time to let go and let be.

ary Accepts the Care of St. John

“Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother’” (Jn 19:27). Change—it comes to all of us. Some thrive on it; some tolerate it with equanimity; others fight it. Mary not only faced the loss of her son to a horrible, scandalous death, she had to make a life-changing move. Two such extraordinary upheavals in a short period of time would send a modern woman to a psychiatrist’s couch. Even Mary may have gone to her knees, but she knew it had to be. She accepted her new situation graciously and gratefully, as she did with so many other circumstances of her life. We may want to consider this another way: 18 ❘

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Accepting the care of John could mean that she took care of him, that she went back to making a home for someone, listening when he needed to talk, helping when he was perplexed, soothing when he was sad. We should remember that we may have retired from a job, but we never retire from life. Regardless of our age or circumstances, God has work for us. Both ways of looking at this situation are valid, and we can gain encouragement from contemplating how Mary accepted situations she could not control. I’m not sure how long it was after my husband’s death that I realized how appropriate this instance in Mary’s life could be to my situation. I have not had to accept the care of another—well, at least, not full-time. I have made more than a few calls for help to sons, daughters, and neighbors; and, to quote A Streetcar Named Desire, “I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.” Giving up our independence, relying on others to do what we once did so easily—and so much better!—can test our patience and theirs. We look to Mary for help in doing what we can and in graciously accepting help with what we cannot do. A Dolores Francis is a retired human resource manager and a mother of eight who enjoys traveling, singing in a local choir, quilting, and gardening. She lives in Bloomington, Indiana. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

LIGHTEN UP

“Great! Now do behind my ears.”

“Put it under something.”

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“Is it OK to pray for good luck at church bingo?”

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Belonging

od G

God speaks through all creation. Our challenge is to learn how to listen— and to respond with a resounding “Yes.”

BY BROTHER DAVID STEINDL-RAST

W PHOTOS FROM FOTOSEARCH: (TOP-BOTTOM) © COBALT88, © IKOPHOTOS

hen someone asks me about my personal relationship to God, my first spontaneous reply is a question: What do you mean by God? For decades, I have been speaking about religion with people all over the world, and I have learned one thing from this experience: the word God ought to be used with utmost caution if we want to avoid misunderstandings. On the other hand, I find far-reaching agreement among human beings, once we reach that mystical core from which all religious traditions spring. Even those who cannot identify themselves with any organized religion are often deeply rooted in mystical experiences. This is where I find my own reference point for the meaning of the term God. It needs to be anchored in that mystical awareness upon which all humans agree before they start talking about it. In my best, my most alive moments—in my mystical moments, if you want—I have a profound sense of belonging. At those moments, I am aware of being truly at home in this universe. I know that I am not an orphan here. There is no longer any doubt in my mind that I belong to this Earth household, in which each member belongs to all others— M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

God’s inexhaustible poetry comes to me in five languages:

seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and

tasting.

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bugs to beavers, black-eyed Susans to black holes, quarks to quails, lightning to fireflies, humans to hyenas and humus. To say “yes” to this limitless mutual belonging is love. When I speak of God, I mean this kind of love, this great “yes” to belonging. I experience this love at one and the same time as God’s “yes” to all that exists (and to me personally) and as my own little “yes” to it all. In saying this “yes” I realize God’s very life and love within myself. But there is more to this “yes” of love than a sense of belonging. There is always also a deep longing. Who has not experienced in love both the longing and the belonging? Paradoxically, these two heighten each other’s intensity. The more intimately we belong, the more we long to belong ever more fully. Longing adds a dynamic aspect to our “yes” of love. The fervor of our longing becomes the expression and the very measure of our belonging. Nothing is static here. Everything is in motion with a dynamism that is, moreover, deeply personal. Where love is genuine, belonging is always mutual. The beloved belongs to the lover, as the lover belongs to the beloved. I belong to this universe and to the divine “Yes” that is its source, and this belonging is also mutual. This is why I can say “my God”—not in a possessive sense, but in the sense of a loving relatedness. Now, if my deepest belonging is mutual, could my most fervent longing be mutual, too? It must be so. Staggering though it is, what I experience

as my longing for God is God’s longing for me. One cannot have a personal relationship with an impersonal force. True, I must not project on God the limitations of a person; yet, the Divine Source must have all the perfections of personhood. Where else would I have gotten them? It makes sense, then, to speak of a personal relationship with God. We are aware of this—dimly at least—in moments in which we are most wakeful, most alive, most truly human. And we can cultivate this relationship by cultivating wakefulness, by living our human life to the full. The Bible expresses these insights in the words, “God speaks.” Having been brought up in the biblical tradition, I am comfortable with its language, though I would be reluctant to impose it on anyone else. What matters is that we come to a shared understanding of what this, or any other, language wants to express. “God speaks” is one way of pointing toward my personal relationship with the Divine Source. This relationship can be understood as a dialogue. God speaks, and I am able to answer.

Wake Up Our Senses But how does God speak? Through everything there is. Everything, every person, every situation, is ultimately Word. It tells me something and challenges me to respond. Each moment with all that it contains spells out the great “yes” in a new and unique way. By making my response, moment by moment, word by word, I myself am St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTOS FROM FOTOSEARCH: (L-R) © MEOITA, © BILLBERRYPHOTOG, © HALFPOINT, © AMMENTORP, © KENISHIROTIE

becoming the Word that God speaks in me and to me and through me. This is why wakefulness is so preeminent a task. How can I give a full response to this present moment unless I am alert to its message? And how can I be alert unless all my senses are wide awake? God’s inexhaustible poetry comes to me in five languages: seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting. All the rest is interpretation—literary criticism, as it were, not the poetry itself. Poetry resists translation. It can be fully experienced only in its original language. This is all the more true of the divine poetry of sensuousness. How then could I make sense of life if not through my senses? When and to what do your senses respond most readily? If I ask myself this question, I think immediately of working in the garden. The hermitage where I am privileged to live for the better part of each year has a small garden. For fragrance, I grow jasmine, pineapple mint, sage, thyme, and eight different kinds of lavender. What abundance of delightful smells on so small a patch of ground! And what variety of sounds: spring rain, autumn wind, all year round the birds—mourning dove, blue jay, and wren; the hawk’s sharp cry at noon and the owl’s hooting at nightfall—the sound the yardbroom makes on gravel, wind chimes, and the creaking garden gate. Who could translate the taste of strawberry or fig into words? What an infinite array of things to touch, from the wet grass under my bare feet in the morning, to the sun-warmed boulFr anciscanMedia.org

ders against which I lean when the evening turns cool. My eyes go back and forth between the near and the far: the golden metallic beetle lost among rose petals; the immense expanse of the Pacific, rising from below the cliff on which this hermitage is perched to the far-off horizon where sea and sky meet in mist. Yes, I admit it. To have a place of solitude like this is an inestimable gift.

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Grateful living is a celebration of the universal give-and-take of life.

ANSWERS TO PETE AND REPEAT 1. The chimney on the house is shorter. 2. Pete is wearing a belt. 3. The clouds are visible behind the house. 4. A white tulip has disappeared. 5. Scruffy has joined Pete and Sis. 6. Two of the tulips have switched colors. 7. There is now a walkway to the house. 8. Sis is holding a flower.

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It makes it easy to let the heart expand, to let the senses wake up, one by one, to come alive with fresh vitality. Yet, whatever our circumstances, we need to somehow set aside a time and a place for this kind of experience. It is a necessity in everyone’s life, not a luxury. What comes alive in those moments is more than eyes or ears; our heart listens and rises to respond. Until I attune my senses, my heart remains dull, sleepy, half dead. In the measure to which my heart wakes up, I hear the challenge to rise to my responsibility.

Stay Alert We tend to overlook the close connection between responsiveness and responsibility, between sensuousness and social challenge. Outside and inside are of one piece. As we learn to really look with our eyes, we begin to look with our heart also. We begin to face what we might prefer to overlook, begin to see what is going on in this world of ours. As we learn to listen with our ears, our heart begins to hear the cry of the oppressed. We might begin to smell that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” We might sit down at table and taste the sweet and salty tears of the exploited which we import together with coffee and bananas. To be in touch with one’s body is to be in touch with the world—that includes the TwoThirds World and all other areas with which our dull hearts are conveniently out of touch. No wonder that those in power, those interested in maintaining the status quo, look askance

at anything that helps people come to their senses. In my travels I notice how easy it is to lose attentiveness. Oversaturation of our senses tends to dim our alertness. A deluge of sense impressions tends to distract the heart from singleminded attention. This gives me a new appreciation for the hermitage, a fresh understanding of what solitude is all about. The hermit—the hermit in each of us—does not run away from the world, but seeks that Still Point within, where the heartbeat of the world can be heard. All of us—each in a different measure—have need of solitude, because we need to cultivate mindfulness.

The Practice of Gratefulness How shall we do this in practice? Is there a method for cultivating mindfulness? Yes, there are many methods. The one I have chosen is gratefulness. Gratefulness can be practiced, cultivated, learned. And as we grow in gratefulness, we grow in mindfulness. Before I open my eyes in the morning, I remind myself that I have eyes to see, while millions of my brothers and sisters are blind—most of them on account of conditions that could be improved if our human family would come to its senses and spend its resources reasonably, equitably. If I open my eyes with this thought, chances are that I will be more grateful for the gift of sight and more alert to the needs of those who lack that gift. Before I turn off the light in the evening, I jot down in my pocket calendar one thing for which I have never St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Click here to watch Brother tal Digi as Steindl-Rast’s TED talk on tr gratefulness. Click the button Ex on the right to hear a story about a miraculous healing. © COBALT88/ FOTOSEARCH

before been grateful. I have done this for years, and the supply still seems inexhaustible. Gratefulness brings joy to my life. How could I find joy in what I take for granted? So I stop “taking for granted,” and there is no end to the surprises I find. A grateful attitude is a creative one, because, in the final analysis, opportunity is the gift within the gift of every given moment. Mostly this means opportunities to see and hear and smell and touch and taste with pleasure. But once I am in the habit of availing myself of opportunities, I will do so even in unpleasant situations creatively. But most importantly, gratefulness strengthens that sense of belonging which I mentioned at the very beginning. There is no closer bond than the one which gratefulness celebrates, the bond between giver and thanksgiver. Everything is gift. Grateful living is a celebration of the universal give-and-take of life, a limitless “yes” to belonging. Can our world survive without it? Whatever the answer, one thing is certain: to say an unconditional “yes” to the mutual belonging of all beings will make this a more joyful world. This is the reason why Yes is my favorite synonym for God. A Brother David Steindl-Rast has been a Benedictine monk, since 1953, of Mount Saviour Monastery, in New York. He has written numerous books and articles, produced videos and audios, and is well known for his TED talk on gratefulness. He is cofounder of Gratefulness.org. This article is an excerpt from his new book, The Way of Silence: Embracing the Sacred in Daily Life (Franciscan Media). Fr anciscanMedia.org

YOUR PETITIONS to St. Anthony include help in ﬁnding anything that is lost — from misplaced rings or keys, a lost love or a pet that has strayed. Let us pray with you for your intentions.

www.stanthony.org Post your prayer request, light a candle or have a mass offered at www.stanthony.org or call us at 513-721-4700. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

EDITORIAL

Pope Francis’ Lesson on Compassion The pope’s trip to Mexico had bearing on Catholics in the United States, too. When Pope Francis visited Mexico in February, he arrived as an Argentinian and fellow Latin American, someone who has seen his fair share of poverty and strife in his home country. In Mexico, the pope reflected on how economic hardship and drug violence are interwoven and facilitated by political corruption. The impact of Francis’ visit was a tremendous cultural and spiritual event, and his insights on the country’s challenges struck a chord with the Mexican people. The ripple effect of his visit could be felt north of the Mexican border, as well.

A Vicious Cycle Forty-two percent of Mexico’s citizens live under the national poverty line. (That figure in the United States is around 14 percent.) It’s been reported that one man, Carlos Slim, has a net worth that is equivalent to 8 percent of Mexico’s gross domestic product. The poverty of many Mexican citizens stands in stark contrast to the excess of a few, like Slim. “Poverty becomes the best breeding ground for the young to fall into the cycle of drug trafficking and violence,” Pope Francis said in a speech to a group of Mexican workers and employers. Political corruption, the pope said, is deeply embedded in Mexico. Speaking to Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and other government officials, he said, “Experience teaches us that each time we seek the path of privilege or benefits for a few to the detriment of the good of all, sooner or later the life of society becomes a fertile soil for corruption, the drug trade, the exclusion of different cultures, violence, and also human trafficking, kidnapping, and death.” Whether escaping poverty, drug violence, or both, many millions of Mexicans and other Latin American refugees have sought asylum in the United States. Often, due to our backlogged and broken immigration sys2 6 ❘ May 2016

tem and the urgent desire to escape poverty and violence, many immigrants have resorted to illegally making the dangerous crossing into the United States.

Bridges, Not Walls Concerning isolationism, Pope Francis has repeatedly called for compassion and dialogue as ways for us to respond to the issue. In January 2014, at a Mass in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta, the pope asked Saint Francis de Sales to help all of us accept “the grace to build bridges, and never walls.” He echoed this very sentiment aboard the papal plane on his return trip to Rome. Looking at issues facing humanity—such as the plight of refugees—through a moral lens is the pope’s sacred duty as leader of our Church. Though Church and Francis is asking for dialogue State are indeed and Christlike compassion to separate, there is be built, and for us to see Jesus in others instead of a moral dimension closing doors in their face. It to everything in life, wouldn’t be fair to ask the politics included. pope to say which candidate US Catholics should vote for. After all, there are issues supported by candidates on all sides that shouldn’t sit well with Catholic voters. But the pope did weigh in on the values that should drive our political decisions. To say that someone “is not Christian” is to say that a person is not living, or attempting to live, like Christ. We’ve all failed on that front. Jesus, a refugee himself during his early childhood in Egypt, was full of compassion for the marginalized in society. How might Jesus treat immigrants and refugees across the world today? Perhaps the best we can do as Americans and Catholics is to discern which candidate aligns most closely with our vision of a better nation, vote accordingly, and pray that he or she corrects the moral shortcomings we perceive. Though Church and State are indeed separate, there is a moral dimension to everything in life, politics included. —D.I. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

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OPE FRANCIS mentioned four prominent Americans during his address to Congress on September 24, 2015. Three of these Americans— Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, and Martin Luther King Jr.—seemed to be obvious choices as all three were significant religious leaders. Why Francis selected the fourth person, Abraham Lincoln, is less clear. Lincoln may be the most popular American of all time. More books have been written about him than all other presidents combined. Yet Lincoln hardly was religious. Rivals denounced him as an atheist. He was not much of a churchgoer. Historians claim that Lincoln thought of God only after the burdens of the country and the horrors of the Civil War drove him to his knees. Lincoln certainly seems to be an odd choice for Pope Francis. A close look into their lives nonetheless reveals that in at least three areas, Pope Francis and President Lincoln may share the same spirit: both men bore pain in a similar way, both allowed themselves to be surprised by God, and both responded to suffering with mercy.

Abraham

Lincoln Model of Faith

When he addressed the US Congress last September, Pope Francis cited four individuals for their virtues. One of them was Abraham Lincoln. B Y C . WA L K E R G O L L A R

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Both Lincoln and Francis endured hard times. Lincoln lost his mother when he was 7. The sight of any pain, especially when inflicted upon slaves, moved Lincoln deeply. Lincoln fell into significant debt early in his career, suffered painful political losses, and endured turbulent mood swings throughout his life. And Lincoln married the graceful, witty, and intelligent, yet also unpredictable, volatile, and even hysterical Mary Todd. By all accounts, Mary Todd Lincoln was a rather difficult spouse. She once chased Abraham Lincoln out of their Springfield, Illinois, home with a butcher knife. “Marriage is neither heaven nor hell,” Abraham Lincoln concluded. “It is simply purgatory.” When Lincoln’s 3-year-old son Eddie died of tuberculosis on February 1, 1850, both parents were devastated. Mary Todd Lincoln cried for weeks before seeking consolation at Springfield’s First Presbyterian Church. Abraham Lincoln sometimes sat beside her, but never joined this or any other church. Lincoln disliked the overly emotional, fire-and-brimstone, heavenversus-hell theologizing he all too often heard. He seems to have preferred to mourn in silence. After 11-year-old Willie, the most promising of the Lincoln children, fell ill from drinking dirty White House water, Abraham Lincoln St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PAINTING BY GEORGE PETER ALEXANDER HEALY/ THE WHITE HOUSE HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Painful Lives

(Above) The marriage of Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd, was, by all accounts, difficult and at times contentious. (Above right) Lincoln certainly knew the pain of loss. Three of his four children died before the age of 18, including son Tad, seen here with Lincoln. Only his oldest son, Robert, survived to adulthood.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER GARDNER/GOOGLE ART PROJECT

PHOTO BY NICOLAS H. SHEPHERD

teetered between life and death for three days before doctors diagnosed severe pneumonia. After an upper part of his right lung was removed, he began to recover, but the pain remained. Some well-wishers tried to encourage him by assuring him that all would be well. Bergoglio better appreciated the advice of a nun who suggested he confront the pain in a Christian manner. “Pain is not a virtue in itself,” he came to understand, “but you can be virtuous in the way you bear it.” Bearing pain means first of all allowing yourself to feel the pain. Bergoglio felt the pain of this early brush with death, along with whatever subsequent suffering he has endured. Francis insists that pain should not be rationalized away by complex and sophisticated theological reasoning. Human nature includes intellect and emotion. For Pope Francis both head and heart, but especially the heart, must be honored. Lincoln undoubtedly would agree. Both men surely believed that suffering people need to grieve. When asked how he handles news of someone’s death, Pope Francis illustrated the depth of his heart when he once responded, “I stay silent.” Lincoln did the same.

(Right) The suffering Pope Francis endured as a young man when he lost half his lung following a bout of pneumonia affected him both physically and emotionally.

CNS/CLARIN HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

Be Surprised by God

stayed up all night long for two solid weeks caring for his son. On February 20, 1862, Willie died. Mary Todd Lincoln again cried for weeks. Abraham Lincoln mourned for the rest of his life. Like Lincoln, Pope Francis seems to feel deeply. When he was 21 years old, and just before he entered the Jesuits, Jorge Bergoglio 30 ❘

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When Pope Francis was 17 years old, God “surprised” him, as he recalled, catching him “with my guard down.” While confessing his sins to a priest he had never met, Francis felt called to the priesthood. “It was a surprise,” Francis explained, “the astonishment of a chance encounter.” Francis did not enter the seminary for a few years, but the course of his life was forever changed. The pope might well suggest that God similarly surprised Lincoln. Lincoln had all but given up on any kind of political career when Senator Stephen Douglas spoke at the Illinois State Fair on October 3, 1854. Douglas favored the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed citizens of Kansas and Nebraska to choose their own social institutions, including slavery. As Lincoln listened to Douglas speak, something began to stir in Lincoln. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTOS BY (L-R) ALEXANDER HESLER, ABRAHAM BYERS

Lincoln’s writings show that he had thought about slavery quite a bit, and through the night after Douglas’ address, Lincoln’s thoughts gained new meaning. Lincoln emerged the next day with powerful convictions. In an address responding to Douglas, Lincoln spoke for more than three hours, with the crux of his argument undermining the fundamental principle of slavery: Lincoln insisted that African Americans were human beings. And “No man,” Lincoln proclaimed, “is good enough to govern another man, without that other’s consent.” Newspapers disagreed over who had won the Lincoln-Douglas debate, and Congress eventually passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Lincoln nevertheless had made an impression. Eight times in 1858 Lincoln again debated Douglas. God’s power now surfaced more evidently than ever before. Frequently quoting Jesus’ contention that “a house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln threw aside personal ambition in favor of a monumental cause, the end of slavery. Based on a careful study of the Bible, Lincoln concluded that God uses imperfect humans to mold history. And Lincoln began to think of himself as an instrument of God’s will. Perhaps Pope Francis had in mind the kind of spiritual transformation that Lincoln was experiencing when Francis once asserted that “great politics [are] born of the Commandments and of the Gospel.” Sometimes God calls us to strong convictions, as evidently had been the case with Lincoln. God just “springs it on you,” Francis explained. It can be like slipping on a banana peel and falling, Francis added. Lincoln seemed to have slipped on God. In taking such a strong stand against slavery, the alleged atheist Abraham Lincoln, thereafter, surely spoke about God like no US politician had before him. The popularity of the Lincoln-Douglas debates raised Lincoln to a national stage. In

Fr anciscanMedia.org

February 1860 Lincoln spoke at New York’s Cooper Union Institute, where he argued convincingly that the Founding Fathers had marked slavery as “an evil not to be extended.” After artful negotiation, and a few twists of fate, Lincoln won the 1860 Republican nomination for president. He then defeated Douglas by half a million votes to become the 16th president of the United States. Confederates meanwhile threatened to take Washington and invalidate Lincoln’s election. As Lincoln supporters gathered at the Springfield train station to send him off to the Capitol, Lincoln was not deterred by the Confederate threat. He raised his hand and proclaimed, “Without the assistance of that Divine Being . . . I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail.” Pope Francis often speaks about the importance of a personal connection with God. Faith in God gives meaning to all religious activity, including prayer and the celebration of the sacraments. Without faith, religion can be meaningless. As president of the United States, Lincoln went to church probably more often than he had gone previously. But more important, as friends in the White House later reported, many evenings Lincoln withdrew to his private chambers to talk with God.

Respond with Mercy Lincoln was the first president to speak openly about his faith, often invoking God as the means to reconciliation. Amid the Civil War, Lincoln surely aimed to defeat the Confederacy and end slavery. He opposed the South. At the same time, however, his fundamental orientation was neither North nor South, but God. When repeatedly asked if God was on the Union’s side, Lincoln consistently responded by saying that what was really important was for all people to be on God’s side. After victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg the summer of 1863, in which the tide of war turned to favor the North, Lincoln called for an annual celebration of Thanksgiving. Though originating in colonial days, Thanksgiving had been celebrated only sporadically since. Lincoln made it an annual holiday, the last Thursday of November. God had called the United States to service, Lincoln believed. God had called the United States to prayer. All believers, whether in the North or South, should give thanks.

(Left) In 1858, Lincoln was defeated by Stephen Douglas in the Illinois state Senate race. In debates between the two during the campaign, Lincoln repeatedly denounced the institution of slavery, often citing God and the Bible. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

(Right) Lincoln meets with his intelligence service chief Allan Pinkerton and Major General George B. McClellan at Antietam— site of the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War.

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER GARDNER/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

We must “confront every form of polarization” which might divide us into two camps, Pope Francis insisted before Congress.

Days before the first annual Thanksgiving, Lincoln spoke at the battlefield of Gettysburg, concluding his remarks not by boasting victory, but by looking forward to peace and reconciliation. “We here highly resolve,” Lincoln said, “that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government

of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Lincoln’s use of “under God,” an uncommon expression for his day, is commemorated every time schoolchildren recite the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag. The words “In God we trust,” moreover, were first used during Lincoln’s administration. Lincoln did not coin

Gettysburg Lectern Two days after addressing Congress, at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Pope Francis stood behind the same lectern that Lincoln had used at Gettysburg. At 5 feet 9 inches tall, Francis may have better suited the piece. Lincoln’s 6-foot-4inch frame towered over the simple walnut structure. Francis did not mention Lincoln at this time, or refer to the lectern. By focusing on religious freedom and immigration, Francis, like CNS PHOTO/ PAUL HARING

Lincoln, nonetheless addressed, as one of the sponsors of the event put it, “the most important issue[s] of his time.”

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

this phrase (which became the nation’s motto nearly 100 years after his death), but he clearly supported the idea that citizens of the United States should be on God’s side. Historians claim that Lincoln is the most admired, though least understood, president. How much Pope Francis actually knows about Lincoln’s life is unclear. Did some speechwriter provide suggestions for these American models for Pope Francis? That’s not clear, either. But Pope Francis seems to understand the heart of Lincoln, even if his remarks on Lincoln before Congress were brief. When Francis spoke before Congress, he rightly proclaimed that Lincoln was “the guardian of liberty who labored tirelessly that ‘this nation, under God, [might] have a new birth of freedom.’” Francis went on to bemoan today’s violence, hatred, and brutality just as Lincoln had lamented the horror of the Civil War. Both Francis and Lincoln also warned against extremism, with Francis denouncing the “simplistic reductionism which sees only good or evil; or, if you will, the righteous and sinners.” Similarly shunning such extremes, Lincoln adamantly had refused to demonize the South. Lincoln chose mercy over punishment. We must “confront every form of polariza-

tion” which might divide us into two camps, Pope Francis insisted before Congress. Instead of pitting one side against another, like Republicans versus Democrats, or illegal immigrants versus legal citizens, or brother against brother, as in the Civil War, Francis called for “hope and healing . . . peace and justice” directed toward the common good. “A culture of cooperation” had helped Cardinal Bergoglio’s Argentina during its recent period of national reorganization. Lincoln, likewise, had Click here for more on sought reconciliation as the the pope’s visit to the American Civil War came to United States. an end. Could there have been a connection among men who had experienced the tragedy of fellow citizens divided? Lincoln prided himself on being a peacemaker. Pope Francis is devoted to mercy. Perhaps this shared spirit is why Francis chose Lincoln for his address to Congress. A

tal Digi as Extr

C. Walker Gollar is a professor of Catholic history and theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati. He holds a PhD in historical theology from the University of Saint Michael’s College, Toronto. His writings include American and Catholic: Stories of the People Who Built the Church (Franciscan Media).

POETRY Season of Verdure

Trinity

Spring morning dew,

Father, Son, Spirit— Dynamic Relationship: Each other and us!

nature’s fabric softener,

—Jeanette Martino Land

new world rendered

Rainbow from fresh breeze. By-product, hope makes my heart sing praises to the green Emperor.

Rising up toward the heavens shielding the world with its beauty is an arc of pastel splendor. The blue sky is overjoyed for it caused grey clouds to scatter lingering rains to take their leave. Like a treasure it enchants, filling the soul with glad tidings and assurance of lasting good.

—Susan L. Taylor

—Herman Bush Fr anciscanMedia.org

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Tips for Grandparenting This deacon and his wife are helping others meet the challenges of life as grandparents in the 21st century.

S A LINK BETWEEN PAST and future, it is the grandparents who plant the seed, knowing full well they may not see the fruit of their harvest. They plant anyway. Sue and Marv Prins have grandchildren in Milwaukee—an eight-hour drive from home. Facebook and phone calls help shrink the distance, but Sue, who lives with a chronic illness, reasons, “I probably won’t live to see my grandchildren as adults. So what I do is show them, whenever I get the chance, that I’m not afraid to try new things simply because I may be limited. I feel that is the most important thing for me to pass on to them. As Jesus says, ‘Do not be afraid.’ So I’m not. It sends a message to my kids, too.” For grandparents Ken and Anne Recker,

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COURTESY OF THE AITCHISONS

B Y S U E S TA N T O N

grandparenting means travel—logging thousands of miles crisscrossing the Midwest as they visit their eight grandchildren. They help with sickness when flu season hits, or cook meals and clean house if there are hospitalizations. They are cheerleaders during baseball season and worry about injuries during soccer games. Through these experiences, they have learned they can be indispensable to all three of their married children. And to foster a new level of family connection, the Reckers use social media and share stories of past generations. The walls of their home are covered with black-and-white photos, visual reminders of where both sides of the family came from. “We feel it is important that we’re involved with their lives as much as possible,” notes Anne, who loves sharing vivid childhood memories of her grandparents.

(Left) Grandparents can offer “time, talent, and treasure to their grandchildren,” says Deacon Gary Aitchison of the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa—pictured here with his wife, Kay.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Reflecting on memories of grandparents— what they valued and how they lived those values—is one important way to begin looking at the role of grandparenting. These memories can show how grandparents give witness to life, serving as a model for the next generation. They face increasing challenges, giving them the ability to leave a legacy of resilience, acceptance, faith, and love. Additionally, the love of a grandparent is unconditional and total. At no other time in life would adults uproot themselves—sell a home, relocate their job, leave friends and possibly other family members—except for the powerful, consuming love of a grandchild who they feel needs them. As one laughing grandmother admits, “I simply lost my mind when my first grandchild was born. I left everything I had and moved to be near them.” Fr anciscanMedia.org

Grandparents are vital to a child’s identity, research shows. Therefore, it is important to keep the lines of family communication open and strong between grandparents and grandchildren through e-mail, Skyping, texting, blogging family news, cell phone calls, family vacations, or snail mail. As grandchildren grow out of some activities, they no doubt grow into others, and those interactions—ongoing and changing—allow for enriching life on both sides of the age gap.

(Above) Technology has opened new ways for grandparents to stay connected to their children and grandchildren, allowing for these special family relationships to continue to flourish.

One Couple Offers Help While grandparenting can be rewarding, the path is not always rosy, especially in today’s society. Deacon Gary and Kay Aitchison from the Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa, have seen a transformation in the family structure, working as a diaconate couple throughout their M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

It might not seem like it at first, but being a grandparent is a calling, one with practical and spiritual dimensions that touch future generations with knowledge and wisdom.

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lives. They saw people struggling to meet the challenges of life as grandparents in the 21st century and being totally unprepared for this new role in their lives. The Aitchisons have had ample opportunity to witness the growing diversity in families through their involvement with the Christian Family Movement (CFM) since 1966. Having the roles of national presidents of CFM from 1981 to 1985, and international presidents from 2010 to 2013, they have headed an organization that serves over 100,000 families in 48 countries. Observing their own family of six children, and hearing increasing anxieties from the numerous married and single parents they have met during their ministry, Deacon Gary and Kay identified many hurdles: a rising divorce rate, single parenting, changing family structures, and a lagging commitment to religious traditions. Due to these issues, they noticed that many aging married couples were being called upon to raise their grandchildren—assisting in the day-to-day care from infancy to adulthood. Grandparents were having to step up to share in transportation needs, emotional investment, counsel during a family crisis, and occasionally serving as live-in help as well as a financial resource.

The Aitchisons began to interact with new grandparents to help them look deeply into the ongoing and changing roles of family life, and at their own history to find the hidden gems there. They wanted to try to break open the mindset families have concerning aging parents, as well. “Grandparents have much to offer in time, talent, and treasure to their grandchildren, and it is more important than ever to do,” explains Deacon Gary. “Part of the problem lies in one word, elderly, as opposed to grandparent. These people do not think of themselves as elderly or frail. They are people with health and vitality, [which they] place at the disposal of their families. Many of them work hard, if not harder than they did when they were raising their own kids. “Grandparents don’t usually see it as a calling at this time of life, but it’s really the beginning of a new spiritual path. Most feel they’ve raised their children. But does it really end once their children are grown? Not really. It never ends.”

Addressing Changes in Family Dynamics The 2010 US Census shows that over onefourth of the total US population is between St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PLANTING THE

Seeds of Faith How does a grandparent begin a spiritual journey of faith with a grandchild? Below are 10 tips that may get you started.

Don’t forget that your actions will always speak louder than your words. Little ones are taking their cues of how to proceed in life from you! If you’d rather whine about it, they will, too. Always give children hope in the future.

Along with learning a value such as “patience is a virtue,” your grandchildren will also learn attitudes from you such as impatience, intolerance, and discrimination; or respect for others, kindness, and empathy.

Help teach children age-appropriate skills and tasks such as baking, sewing, or helping to clean. These activities will provide moments of interaction that can be filled with stories.

Great conversations can take place during car rides. It allows a reluctant or shy child to ask difficult questions or express feelings without having to do it face-to-face.

PHOTO BY BILL WITTMAN

Short trips to your church can be a great outing with a small child when the church is quiet. Children do enjoy the mysterious. Allow them to ask questions and talk out loud. Tell them how you are a friend of Jesus and how you respect his house when visiting.

Walk in nature. Explain how God is present in all things. Try looking for God in a plant, and if that sounds funny to your grandchildren, they’ll remember you doing it.

Make sure you always have plenty of time to spare when speaking of faith matters with a grandchild. Rushing an encounter can turn a child off to further discussion in the future.

Family reunions are a good time for children to meet relatives from across the country and understand where they fit in the larger family structure. Fr anciscanMedia.org

Provide a designated wall for pictures of family and point out family members as you tell their life stories. You’ll be surprised at how children don’t seem to be listening, but they actually are. The best thing a grandparent can do is to listen first, speak when needed, and always love everyone. At this stage of life, there is no time for hurt feelings. Be open and welcoming like Jesus. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

A Grandparent Blessing

God, our heavenly Father, we ask your blessings on these grandparents gathered here today. We recognize their treasured gifts to their families and to the parish family. They are valuable links between the past and the present. May they be surrounded with the love, respect, and support of their

recognition to the grandparents of Jesus with a prayer written by Kay. Her prayer has been used in several parishes through-

families as they embrace their unique vocation. May they be strong models for their families and for our parish community. May they be anchors that provide stability and a firm foundation.

out the United States on the feast day of Sts. Joachim and

May their witness to their faith guide and strengthen us.

Anne (July 26), but can be used at any time. Kay wrote the

Lord, bless and empower these grandparents. Help them share

prayer so that parishes can use

their distinct gifts with their families and all whom they encounter.

it as a special blessing just for

Keep them in your love. Give them your joy and peace each day so

grandparents.

that they may always follow your son, Jesus. Amen.

the ages of 45 and 64. More than one in every four adults is a grandparent, and as parents are torn in more directions for their jobs, it is falling to grandparents to pick up the slack. Kay Aitchison sees this in her own family. “Young families, especially, are too busy to get everything accomplished. Two careers pull them in all different directions,” she points out. “So there are lots of things getting missed, not being done, not covered.” “Grandparents are concerned about this,” Deacon Gary adds. “They tell us they are worried about passing down the faith, teaching kids manners, and a large number we hear from are concerned over the lack of teaching values.” Here, grandparents are powerful role models. They have a life of accumulated experiences—both good and bad—along with a skill set to share. However, the biggest obstacle the Aitchisons have discovered when speaking with grandparents is that they hesitate to get too deeply involved out of fear. 38 ❘

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The Aitchisons give special

More than

1 in every 4

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

“If you don’t share with your children and grandchildren your own life of faith and hope in the future,” Deacon Gary tells them, “the culture will teach them for you.” And that outcome gives many grandparents pause. “Most of all, grandparents don’t want to interfere or cause trouble within the family,” he continues. “This is where we can help them explore new ways to enhance the grandparent/grandchild relationship. This like-to-like ministry gives grandparents support and friendship, while it empowers them in their new vocation.”

The Value of Grandparents Deacon Gary and Kay give talks to groups on grandparenting called “The Grand Adventure.” They begin by reminding audiences of the earliest tradition in Christianity of grandparenting—the lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne, grandparents of Jesus. According to the Greek Orthodox tradition, Mary’s parents moved with her from Nazareth to Jerusalem where they dedicated their daughter to God as a consecrated virgin at the age of 10. Not long after this, St. Joachim died at age 80. St. Anne, a widow wishing to live close to her daughter, bought land for a tomb where she could be buried with her husband. The spot she chose? Near the gates of the Garden of Gethsemane. One can easily imagine Mary taking her son by the hand to visit and pray at the tomb of his grandparents throughout his early life. This makes his choice of the Garden of Gethsemane for his own final hours on earth steeped with tenderness and relevance for any grandparent’s meditation and prayer. “Along with self-confidence and family pride,” Kay says, “family stories teach the faith, ethics, and values of a family. Our faith stories help us to see how God has worked in the family story and brought us to where we are today. They link us to the good and saintly people who have been part of the family chain, and these people provide models for newer generations. Children need heroes with whom to Fr anciscanMedia.org

identify, and they are greatly enriched if [those heroes] can be in their own families.” “And it is the actions of grandparents that show their grandchildren how to be good citizens and witnesses to the faith,” says Deacon Gary. “They are ultimately models for aging—not only to their grandchildren, but also to their children.” A

Click here for more resources on grandparenting.

tal Digi as t Ex r

Sue Stanton is a freelance author from Des Moines, Iowa. She has authored six faith-based books for children and adults.

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Blessed Mothers

font of holy water hung in the day nights for eucharistic adoration and praydoorway of my childhood bed- ing the rosary. We’d kneel side by side and room. Above the bowl, a ceramic murmur the prayers that we knew like favorite Blessed Mother looked down songs. She’d begun working as a maid when with serene love at her baby— she was 12 years old. Mom had spent a good and at me. In our house of shouts and tears, part of her life on her knees scrubbing floors, Mary was always watching over me. and by old age those knees hurt. I would urge My mother had a deep devotion to the her to sit for the devotion. She’d smile at me. Blessed Virgin, as did all the “I’m fine, Sweetie. I want to,” women in our family. When she’d say. she gave me my first rosary, I The rhythm of the rosary, was inducted into an adult those Hail Marys, Our Fathers, sisterhood. I’d seen them cry and Glory Bes repeated bead out to Mary in the midst of by bead, it comforts. It’s like disappointing marriages, kids being curled up in a mother’s sent off to Vietnam, and pastlap as breath goes in and out. due bills. She helped them: You’re not sure if you’re hearthis woman calmly smiling ing your breathing or hers. in her blue mantle, eternally Or if there is even a difference. BY reassuring. They were all so With each cycle of 10 Hail COLLEEN SHADDOX strong, and that strength had Marys, the faithful are called to come from somewhere. upon to meditate on an event I wore out that rosary with praying. The from the life of Mary or Jesus, events we call thin metal links connecting the beads broke, “mysteries,” a word I have always loved. This producing a shower of tiny pink beads that small, tactile thing, a string of beads, takes rolled toward cracks in the floor and scattered you out of this world. Every Catholic child to unseen places, as prayers do. hears the stories of Jesus and Mary, from the As an adult, I’d pick my mother up on Thurs- Annunciation to the Assumption, over and

This mother and daughter found a lifelong connection through their devotion to the Virgin Mary.

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

over. But the rosary invites you to privately imagine those stories and thus make them your own. I know Jesus and Mary better for praying it. As I grew, I stopped seeing Mary as the immovable lady in blue. Today, I prefer to think of her as a girl who said yes when God asked her to do an impossible thing, and who kept saying yes through all the glories, joys, and sorrows that made up her life. Mary’s life reminds me that you can be a fighter and still be at peace. This is the thing I most need to know now. So this centuries-old devotion has grown with me, or I with it. In my mother’s last days, those beads connected us. She did not speak. I’m not sure she knew me. Alzheimer’s had taken so much of what she was. But when I prayed the rosary at her bedside, her grimace relaxed. I prayed it aloud every time I was with her, because it was the one thing that seemed to reach some part of her. Shortly before she died, a miracle happened. There’s no better word. She spoke to me, calling me by name. This woman, who had been bedridden and silent for a year, was smiling and animated. She told me about visiting a magnificent church where everyone was clean Fr anciscanMedia.org

and polite—two qualities my mother valued above all others. Mom only peeked into the church from an outer room, she said, where she’d been talking with Great-Aunt Mae, a woman dead 20 years. “Would you like to go inside?” I asked. “Yes, but you can’t come,” she answered sadly. “You’ve got to take care of Charlie [my son].” “Someday,” I told her. “You go now, if you’re ready. And I’ll see you when my work is done.” She mumbled, “Mary, Mary, Mary, grace, grace, grace,” as I prayed. After a while, she handed me her rosary. “You give these to somebody who needs them. In my church, we don’t need them,” she said. Then she grabbed my hand and said, “You’re a good girl. You’re praying all the time. In my church, we hear your prayers.” It was the last thing she said to me, though her body hung on for another month. I never did give her rosary beads away, because I can’t imagine anyone needing them more than I do. A

Click the button above to hear more about the Virgin Mary, Patroness of the Americas.

Colleen Shaddox is a freelance writer from Hamden, Connecticut. Her work has appeared in this magazine—“Lessons from Rosa,” February 2013—and also The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Woman’s Day. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

The

Joys of

Ushering Being an usher is so much more than finding empty seats. BY BRIAN DOYLE

N MY PARISH, as perhaps in yours, there are two cool, calm, efficient souls who lurk around the last pews on either side of the church at the last crowded morning Mass. Their task, these two brisk and gently commanding souls, is to direct stragglers to unoccupied seats, so that the stragglers do not just slouch around in the rear of the church, obstructing the doors, crowding the corners, and clogging the sight lines of the weary young parents in the crying room. Instead, they are seated as full members of the congregation, participating in the ancient beloved ritual of the Mass, and not slogging around, hugging the walls like teenagers at a dance, as one of the two calm, efficient souls said to me after Mass yesterday. I asked her what she thinks about as she does her work at Mass and she said, “First and foremost, silence. I never say a word. I try to use gentle gestures. I try to remember that I am a servant of the faithful here, and you cannot bark or snap at someone even though you very much want to do just that sometimes. Second, I am very sensitive to not being in the way. The Mass is sacred, and I don’t want to distract anyone. I would feel awful if that happened. “The job is to slip people into open spaces as quickly, quietly, and courteously as possible. People tend to sit at the ends of the pews and

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leave big empty spaces in the middle; people also have personal space bubbles, you know, so that a group will leave at least two spaces between them and the next group, if they can. I suppose it’s some ancient mammalian thing, to leave defensive space or something. “And then families sprawl. Young families sprawl the most. Young families start out with the parents at either end of the group and the children in the middle, until the wrestling or complaining starts, and then the dad will insert himself between kids. It’s always the dad on defense. You notice a lot, watching people. “The busiest time is the first 10 minutes of Mass, as you would expect, but people do drift in for the first 20 minutes. Yes, there are a few people who come in just before the consecration and leave just after, but I don’t try to seat them. They don’t want to sit. With them and with people who are really late, I try to remember that, hey, they made it to Mass, and who knows why they are late? Maybe they had a very good reason indeed to be late, and they are at Mass because they need Mass desperately. Who am I to get sniffy about their punctuality? “It’s interesting to me that an awful lot of people still prefer to sit in the back of church rather than even in the middle, let alone up front. I think it’s left over from when they were kids in school and the back of the room St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Fr anciscanMedia.org

PHOTO BY BILL WITTMAN

was farthest from the teacher. Some people want to sit right up front, either for hearing purposes or sometimes, to be honest, maybe to show off a little, but people who want to sit up close will do so on their own and they don’t need my help. “I focus on helping people find seats quickly and calmly so they can focus on Mass. Mostly, I am just looking to get people seated quickly and smoothly; but, yes, sometimes I suggest seats based on other factors. If there’s someone alone in a pew I try to put other people in the pew with them. This is not a dating service, but sometimes I have put singles in with singles. Do I know of any marriages resulting from my help? No. “After the first 10 minutes or so, most of my work is done, other than the collection. My fellow usher and I have picked out a family to bring up the gifts, and after that we are essentially finished, although both of us keep an eye out for anyone who needs help—a medical emergency, or a loose toddler, that sort of thing. You would be surprised how often there’s a freerange toddler. “Being an usher doesn’t get in the way of me savoring Mass. Oddly, I feel like I am more attentive and more appreciative since I started serving as an usher. I am more engaged. There’s something . . . well, poignant is a good word, about being so involved with people. I see the congregation in a different way—tall, short, old, young, having trouble walking, shy, troubled, maybe brand-new to this church and this Mass. We use words like congregation and community of the faithful, but it’s just all of us, you know? It’s just us. “So when I find room for a young couple with their two little kids in a pew between families I know have been coming for 30 years, somehow that’s a good thing, that they’ll all shake hands and smile at the sign of peace, maybe chat a little after Mass, and be able to recognize each other next week. Isn’t that what we mean by community and congregation, that we’re all basically teammates? “Occasionally, people say thanks after Mass, but mostly not, and, as my fellow usher says, that’s the way it should be. We should be an invisible service, just helping people savor Mass. The Mass is a great thing. We take it a

little for granted, I think. We take for granted that it’s available all day every day, somewhere. I try to remember that there are still places where Mass is a crime and you can be imprisoned and executed for it. Even in those places, people will do incredibly brave things to be able to witness Mass. It’s a shocking miracle, the Mass. We forget that. “I forget it sometimes, and find myself going through the motions, and I’ll snap awake and remember that this is a mysterious and amazing thing that can heal and save people, really and truly. I know people who have been starving for something, and they came to Mass and found what they were starving for. Fact. That’s what I try to remember when I am ushering—that my job is not really to find seats; it’s to silently and gently help bring people closer to the miracle of the Mass. Pretty cool job.” A

Whether it’s helping people into church or corralling a loose toddler, serving as an usher provides a unique and blessed experience of the Mass.

Brian Doyle is the editor of Portland Magazine at the University of Portland, Oregon. His most recent book is Grace Notes, a collection of spiritual essays, published by ACTA Publications. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘

The

Crane Love’s unfolding is always a surprise. FICTION BY ALICIA YODER

RIS TURNED OFF THE IGNITION and leaned her head back. She glanced over at the prescription bottle sticking out of her purse on the passenger seat. It was her daughter who’d insisted she see the doctor this morning about her dizziness and the pain in her feet.

The breeze outside made it difficult to open the car door,

but she used both hands to swing it out. Testing her weight on the asphalt parking lot, she winced. Surely getting out of the house and escaping the company of talking news heads on TV was worth the pain. Crossing the lot to the sidewalk, she passed a playground swarming with shouting children. She smiled at the two moms who looked her way, glad some parents still pulled their children away from things that had to be plugged in or charged. A dark-haired girl bounded over. “Mama, that lady looks like she’s a thousand years old.” Iris met the mother’s apologetic look with a wink. She took left to play before you get old like me.” The girl’s eyebrows disappeared underneath her bangs, and she hurried back to the slides. Iris spotted a bench overlooking the pond. A breeze blew through her permed curls, and she pulled her jacket tighter, 4 4 ❘ May 2016

ILLUSTRATION BY NICOLE WONG

a step toward the girl. “Just think how many years you have

determined to stay out in the fresh air. Someone was sitting on the bench in front of her, so she decided to search for an empty one farther down the path. She was about to pass by when her toe caught on a rut. Stumbling, she threw out her hands and managed to stay on her feet. Pain shot through her toes, and she hobbled over, easing onto the opposite end of the occupied bench. The elderly man kept his focus on the pair of ducks swimming across the far edge of the pond. “Are you all right?” He turned his head slowly toward her. Iris pressed her lips together. She hadn’t realized she’d been seen. She nodded. He glanced at her feet before returning his gaze to the ducks. Iris saw that her stocking had slipped down, revealing her blotchy calf. She felt heat creep up her neck. She wouldn’t have been embarrassed like this in front of the talking heads. Even when Gary was still alive, his face disfigured by the stroke, she’d tried to look her best. She bent over to pull up the stocking, and some items fell out of her purse. The man grabbed her prescription before it rolled down to the pond and held it out to her. He was Asian, short white hair peeking out from under his flat cap—clean-shaven, just like Gary had been. “I’ve seen Dr. Bennet, too,” he said, glancing at the bottle. “Great doctor, though his hands are always too cold.” Iris stuffed the pill bottle and a halfused Kleenex back in her purse and held it to her chest, nodding quickly. She glanced around to make sure she had gotten everything. Hopefully, the man hadn’t noticed anything else about her. It seemed burglaries were reported more and more on the local news. She scooted to the front edge of the seat, hoping her knees would work this time. But before she could concentrate on standing, she saw the man’s hands out of the corner of her eye, fiddling with something on his lap. He was still watching the ducks, but his fingers folded a tiny paper. 4 6 ❘ May 2016

Moments later, a perfect origami crane sat perched on his knee.

ris inched back until her body was again fully supported by the bench. She studied the lines wrinkling his face. He was much older than she’d first thought. “It’s beautiful.” The man gave her a close-lipped smile. “I’m Steve Nakamura.” “Iris Jones.” She held out her hand a few inches, but instead of shaking it, he turned her hand up and placed the tiny crane in her palm. Iris brought it close to her face. “Where did you learn to make these?” Steve shifted on the bench, crossing his legs. “When we were forced from our home in Seattle, waiting to be relocated. I was sitting in the empty horse stall with my mother, and she showed me how. She told me that if I folded a thousand of them, it would bring good luck and a long life.” Iris continued to study the crane, not wanting to meet his eyes. She’d never thought about what the war had been like for the Japanese living in America. But why should she have? She’d been only a schoolgirl at the time. “Would you teach me how to make one?” she asked. Had she really just said that? She heard a jingle and saw Steve fishing around in his pocket. “I used my last square. I can unfold it.” “No.” She dug through her purse. “Let me see here.” All she could find was an old dry-cleaning slip. He took it, carefully ripping it into a perfect square. Scooting closer to her, he laid the paper on her lap and guided her through the steps. When she had trouble with the fold that looked like a kite, he moved to help her, brushing her fingers. His hands were warm. She felt a bit flustered by his closeness. “So you were born here?” He rested his hands in his lap. “My parents emigrated in 1935. Six months later, they had me.” He smiled. “Made in Japan, but born in America.” Iris ran her fingernail along the fold. “And what did they call you?” Steve chuckled. “Soshi. They named

me Soshi. Though it feels odd on my lips. I’ve always been known as ‘that Japanese guy Steve.’” “So, you’re still working on your thousand cranes, Soshi?” She pursed her lips, hoping he wouldn’t mind her trying out his name. Soshi took off his cap, running a hand over his short sprinkle of hair. “I finished those a long time ago. It didn’t get us out of the camp any faster, but I’ve certainly had a long life.” “So why keep doing it? Are you trying to set a Guinness world record?” “I’m making them to remember days like today. Every day I have left is another day to find something to enjoy. Or in today’s case, someone.” Iris set the unfinished bird down and touched her curls. When was the last time someone actually said they enjoyed being with her? What would Gary say if he saw her now, with this man whose people had killed his brother at Pearl Harbor? She felt a burst of nausea. “Thanks,” she said quietly, avoiding his eyes. She hadn’t gotten all the creases perfect, but when she’d finished the last step, the folded paper did resemble a bird. “Maybe if the weather’s nice tomorrow, I could teach you to fold a swan.” Iris dropped the crane in his hand and slung her purse onto her shoulder. “I think it’s calling for rain.” He stood, helping her to her feet. She stepped back. “I’ll probably be too busy anyway.” She turned before she could babble anymore. Maybe she’d drive the long way home, just to be on the safe side. As she approached the playground, she glanced back long enough to see him raise his hand. “Good-bye, Iris.” “Bye,” she called over her shoulder, trying not to walk too quickly. In the car, she felt guilty as she dug around for her wallet. Was she really that paranoid? Everything was in the same squashed place in her purse, except for the perfect crane resting on the lip above the zipper.

he next afternoon, Iris found herself sitting on the same bench, watching leaves float St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

down into the pond. Last night, she’d found some colored paper and cut a few squares while watching the local news. Her eyes had drifted above the TV to the photograph of their 50th wedding anniversary. Gary had been such a wonderful partner and provider, and she’d always trusted his opinions. She pulled out the album her daughter had made for that special occasion, flipping through decades in a matter of minutes. He wouldn’t have wanted her to be alone, would he? She’d never met Steve before yesterday, but to Gary, Asians were all the same. She’d thrown the colored squares in the wastebasket and tried to sleep. But here she was again, smoothing the crumpled paper on her lap. The pair of ducks from yesterday was gone. Leaves swayed in the wind. She could wait a little longer. Her breath caught when she heard footsteps. She turned to see a young woman in a sweatshirt and leggings, pulling a dog along behind her. “Let’s go, girl. I’ll never be ready for that marathon if you investigate every pinecone.” Iris watched the woman yanking her dog until they disappeared around the bend. She ran her tongue along the top edge of her false teeth. Maybe she should get a dog. Gary had never wanted to spend the money on a pet, but he did always scratch the neighbor’s collie behind the ears. Yes, she’d look into it tomorrow. Some old dog without a lot of maintenance. She moved to stand, but then touched her temple, feeling a wave of dizziness. She was a bit hungry. Gathering the papers into a neat stack, she unzipped her purse. The little crane seemed to peer up at her between the tissues and bottle of lotion. “Oh, what do I have to get home for, anyway?” she muttered. “Dinner can wait.” She plucked a blue square off the top of her stack. The first fold created a triangle, and so did the second. But what came after that? As the triangle wrinkled with more and more creases, she set it aside and started with a new sheet. Each attempt made it a little further until her halfFr ancisca n Media .org

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M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 4 7

folded messes started to look identical. Maybe if she unfolded the crane Soshi had given to her, she’d remember. Peeling it open, she tried to memorize the folds in reverse. After she got it to look like a kite, she was stuck. She turned the paper around in her lap, but still couldn’t get any further. She grabbed Soshi’s crane and tried to refold it. Hands trembling, she threw the wrinkled mess to the ground and stood up, leaving the papers huddled on the bench. Stepping onto the path, she felt like someone had filled her pockets with rocks. The surrounding trees started to spin, but she closed her eyes a moment and kept walking. At the edge of the parking lot, she saw a park ranger driving toward her in a go-kart. Raising her hand toward him, she sank to her knees. She felt his hands on her shoulders. “Ma’am, I’m going to call for some help.” Iris tried to bring his face into focus. “My name’s Iris Jones. I think I’d better see Dr. Bennet.” She saw the ranger pull out his phone, but his words turned to gibberish as she felt herself falling forward.

“

hat made you wait so long to come in?” The young doctor looked at Iris as if she were a child. “Your numbers are so low I can’t believe you didn’t pass out earlier.” Iris nibbled on the saltines, feeling guilty. She hadn’t realized it was so late when she’d started to leave the park. “So are you writing up my excuse for skipping gym class? When can I go home?” The doctor raised his eyebrows. “You’re not going anywhere until we get some more tests done. I’d like to keep you overnight at least.” Iris tried to cross her arms, but the tube and wires started to get tangled, so she rested them on the bed. Before she could argue or ask any questions, the doctor had disappeared. The nurse came in a few minutes later and asked if she’d like to call someone. Iris shook her head. No use

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bothering her daughter. She’d have to take off work and find a sitter for the kids. Iris was sure she’d be out before that could happen. She flipped on the TV and tried to pretend she was at home. In the past few years, she’d come to think of the newscasters as her friends. She’d actually cried when Peter Jennings died. Gary had told her in his slurred speech that he was glad he wouldn’t be around to see her when he kicked the bucket. Even now, she couldn’t smile at the joke. When the food tray arrived, Iris forced herself to eat at least half of everything. Satisfied she’d fulfilled her requirements, she tried to relax. Being in the hospital was like a vacation, really, with people taking care of your every need. So why did she feel so lonely? Iris brought her napkin to her mouth, but instead of wiping the crumbs from her lips, she pulled it back. It was a perfect square. Clearing a space on her tray, she decided to try one more time. First a triangle fold. Then another one. She let her mind forget what her fingers were doing, and within a few seconds, a lopsided crane perched on the edge of her plate.

“

knew you’d remember.” Iris jumped at the soft voice, slapping her hand down on the tray to keep it from toppling off the bed. “What are you doing here?” She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to fluff it up a bit. Soshi pulled a chair up next to her bed. “Three years ago I would have died if my son hadn’t found me collapsed on the living room floor. I was hoping you weren’t as stubborn as I was.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of folded paper, setting out each shape along the bottom of her tray. Iris drew in her breath when she saw the colored cranes, wrinkled and creased, but still appearing perfect. “You fixed them. “ Soshi put his flat cap on his knee. “No, I finished them. When I arrived at the park this evening, I saw the little pile and knew you’d waited for me.”

Iris tried to keep her cheeks from coloring. “But how did you know I’d be here?” “The park ranger came to tell me the park was closing, and when I mentioned your name, he said you’d been taken by ambulance to Cascade Medical Center.” Iris scanned the stark white walls, disrupted only by the TV and the “Rate Your Pain” whiteboard. Why did everything feel so homey all of a sudden? She met Soshi’s eyes. “Gary was wrong about you.” Soshi crossed his legs but didn’t look away. “Would you like to watch the ducks?” Iris held up her hands. “Can’t you see I’m a little tied up at the moment?” Soshi tapped his phone screen a few times and scooted his chair until it was right by her head. He smelled like mothballs and mint. She liked it. He pushed the play button, and together they watched the mama duck emerge from the cattails, trailing a line of five ducklings—no, six, Iris saw, as the last one swam to catch up. They looped the video a few times before the nurse came in to get Iris’ tray and check her blood pressure. “I need to ask you to leave, sir. We don’t allow visitors during quiet hours.” Iris wished the nurse had taken longer to come or maybe forgotten about her altogether. She looked at Soshi, who was nodding. He turned and put his hand over hers, careful not to bump the IV. “Would you like to make our cranes together tomorrow?” Iris quickly flattened out the napkin crane and wrote down her number. “Let’s make sure we don’t miss each other again.” Soshi smiled. “You’ll have to make two tomorrow since you unfolded the one you made today.” Iris handed him the napkin, clasping his hand between hers. “I think I’m up for the challenge.” A Alicia Yoder is a freelance writer from Greenwood, Delaware. She writes regularly on her devotional blog, “Considering the Lilies,” (aliciayoder.com) about staying close to Jesus amid the busyness of life and family. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

AT HOME ON EARTH

❘ BY KYLE KRAMER

The World of Magic

remembering that in a Catholic sacramental imagination, every bit of creation is drenched in spirit and points to its Maker? What if, for example, we looked at a tree with new eyes and saw not just lumber, but angels perching in the branches? Could we harm the world so thoughtlessly if Bask in the we began to see it as a place Earth’s Splendor of magic and wonder? And what about the May is a perfect month to “deeper magic” about which get your bicycle out of C.S. Lewis wrote in The storage. How often might Chronicles of Narnia? This is you take your bike instead the magic, written in the fabof your car this month? ric of the universe before the dawn of time, by which Most farmers’ markets start Aslan the lion defeats the operating in May. It’s a White Witch. To my mind, great way to get fresh, local the deeper magic is the paraproduce. doxical power of God to turn despair into hope and to bring new life where there seem to be only death and destruction. To believe in the deeper magic is to believe that the hand of Providence (not the invisible hand of the market) is mysteriously guiding all of creation toward fulfillment—that “all manner of thing shall be well,” as St. Julian of Norwich put it. I do think it’s going to take magic to begin to live rightly in our common home: the magic of an enchanted world and the still deeper transcendence of the God revealed in Jesus, who sustains our precious and precarious lives. A

Kyle Kramer is the executive director of the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

Rediscovering the magic and wonder of the environment is a wonderful way of praising God’s creation. Fr ancisca n Media .org

tal Digi as Extr

Click here to explore further resources on this topic. Click the button to the right to listen to an interview with Kyle. M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 4 9

or our son Eli’s 9th birthday, we got him an honest-to-goodness magic kit: a top hat, wand, red sequined vest, black cape, and a number of props. One of the best parenting memories I have is of Eli— with the help of his 12-year-old twin sisters—performing a laugh- and mistake-filled magic show for my wife and me, in front of a makeshift curtain rigged out of an old blanket. We watched, rapt, as he made handkerchiefs disappear and even pulled a stuffed bunny out of his hat, with the panache only a 9-year-old can muster. At least when it comes to how we inhabit our environment, most of us grown-ups are still fascinated by magic. We tend to believe, on some level, that we can make all our waste magically disappear, or to assume that science or big business will pull a solution out of its hat. That kind of magical thinking is just an illusion, of course, but another kind of magic might actually help us create a more sustainable and beautiful world. What if we found a way to reenchant our landscapes,

ASK A FRANCISCAN

❘ BY FATHER PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM

Unsolicited Religious Materials I recently received mailings from five Catholic organizations that included some type of “free” spiritual gift or Mass cards for healing or memorial Masses. These all come with a request for a donation to support the work of that religious community. I haven’t asked for any of these cards, medals, pins, or booklets! I have my own well-worn prayer leaflets. At my age

and on a fixed income, I cannot send money to every group. Also, when an organization sends a request—and a donation envelope—to join them in a novena, I feel that I am being asked to pay for prayers for the intentions that I send them. That doesn’t seem right. I sometimes receive up to 10 such mailings every month. What is the best way to handle them?

Forgiving the Sin of Abortion

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

In this Holy Year of Mercy, the pope has given all priests permission to absolve the sin of abortion. I always thought that as long as you are alive and your sorrow is genuine, there is no such thing as an unpardonable sin. Why was this new policy instituted? I thought this is the way that it has always been. There is no unpardonable sin; there are only sins that people refuse to surrender to God’s mercy, but which can certainly be forgiven when a person repents. The Church designates a very small number of sins as reserved sins, ones for which a confessor needs specific permission to forgive a person. Most bishops in the United States long ago delegated permission to forgive the sin of abortion (at least for the first time) to every priest who has faculties in that bishop’s diocese. Because that is apparently not the case worldwide, the pope gave this permission. At the Ash Wednesday Mass in St. Peter’s, Pope Francis asked the newly commissioned Missionaries of Mercy to be “signs and instruments of God’s mercy.” He prayed that they “help to open the doors of hearts, to overcome shame, not to avoid the light. May your hands bless and lift up brothers and sisters with paternity; through you may the gaze and the hands of Priests who are Missionaries of Mercy during the God rest on his chilHoly Year attend Pope Francis’ celebration of Ash dren and heal them of Wednesday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. their wounds.”

5 0 ❘ May 2016

You are under no obligation to pay for any unsolicited materials—religious or otherwise. The organizations sending you these items know that such mailings will generate only a small percentage of positive responses and donations. The people who head these offices factor that into their fund-raising budgets. The unfortunate fact that you receive so many appeals indicates their hope that you will be part of this small percentage. Feel free to ignore their offer. Donations in order to be part of a novena are a separate matter. Prayers cannot be bought or sold. God cannot be pressured by the prayers of an individual or group. If people have some reason to support a particular religious organization, shouldn’t its members pray for the benefactors who make their work possible? If you ask an organization to remove your name from their list, they are obliged to do so. Use your best judgment and live without guilt for whatever you decide.

What’s the Difference? In Eucharistic Prayer 2, the celebrant prays: “Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection, and all who have died in your mercy: welcome them into the light of your face.” What does this distinction mean? The first group refers to Christians, those who believe in the Resurrection. The second group includes everyone else. All have died in God’s mercy. We pray that all may be reunited with God. Eucharistic Prayer 1 refers to those “who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

peace.” Then it immediately adds, “Grant them, O Lord, we pray, and all who sleep in Christ, a place of refreshment, light, and peace.” The second group cannot be restricted to Christians. Many deceased nonChristians were certainly pleasing to God when they died. In Eucharistic Prayer 3, the presider says, “To our departed brothers and sisters and to all who were pleasing to you at their passing from this life, give kind admittance to your kingdom.” Eucharistic Prayer 4 asks God to “remember also those who have died in the peace of Christ and all the dead, whose faith you alone have known.” Similar wording is repeated in each of the four Eucharistic Prayers for Various Needs. Eucharistic Prayer 1 for Reconciliation refers to “our deceased brothers and sisters, whom we humbly commend to your mercy.” Eucharistic Prayer 2 for Reconciliation requests that just as God has gathered this congregation “at the table of your Son,” so God may join all of us with Mary, the saints, and “with our brothers and sisters and those of every race and tongue who have died in your friendship.” Indeed, only God truly knows the heart of each one of us when we die. In these prayers, the Catholic Church is not saying that every person will certainly be saved, but they affirm that God wishes each one to be saved. Human freedom can always choose another path. It’s wonderful that you take the Church’s prayer so seriously!

‘What Can I Do?’ A couple I know has twin babies 11 months old but will not go to any Church to baptize them. What can I tell them or do for them? Perhaps you should say nothing but content yourself with praying for this couple and their twins. Baptism is not an expression of good manners; it is a statement of faith—in this case, the parents’ faith. It is also Fr ancisca n Media .org

a recognition that no one grows as a Christian apart from other Christians. If these parents do not identify as Christians, perhaps they are simply being honest about what they are prepared to do—or not do—for the religious formation of these twins. The twins’ eternal salvation is not dependent on whether this couple has them baptized now—or ever. In answering the question above this one, I quoted the Catholic Church’s recognition that a deceased person’s faith is known to God alone. Of course, it would be a great gift to these twins to have them baptized if the couple is prepared to follow through on their responsibilities to be the children’s “best teachers in the faith” (Rite of Infant Baptism). These twins will inevitably learn someone’s values as they grow up. This couple may eventually need more than their own wits and best judgments about which values to propose to these children and how best to reinforce those values. Keep praying for all four of them. A

Click the button above to hear Father Pat’s insights on Catholic topics.

Father Pat welcomes your questions! Send them to: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or Ask@FranciscanMedia.org. All questions sent by mail need to include a selfaddressed stamped envelope. This column’s answers can be searched back to April 1996 at StAnthonyMessenger.org.

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M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 1

BOOK CORNER

❘ BY CAROL ANN MORROW

Merchants in the Temple

What Our Friends and Followers on

Social Media

Recommend Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul Maria Faustina Kowalska The Pilgrim’s Progress John Bunyan Songs of Innocence and of Experience William Blake Salt to the Sea Ruta Sepetys Consoling the Heart of Jesus: A Do-It-Yourself Retreat Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Michael E. Gaitley

5 2 ❘ May 2016

Inside Pope Francis’s Secret Battle Against Corruption in the Vatican By Gianluigi Nuzzi Henry Holt and Company 225 pages • $28 Hardcover/E-book Reviewed by PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM, Franciscan editor and columnist for this publication, who served as director of communications at the international headquarters in Rome of the Order of Friars Minor (1986-92). Peace and Good: Through the Year with Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media) is his latest book. Father Pat once had a small account at the Vatican bank. Provocatively titled and based on stolen documents, Merchants in the Temple chronicles intrigue. Although author Gianluigi Nuzzi and the author of a second book on Vatican finances have been charged in a Vatican court, that case is unresolved at press time. A monsignor and two other Vatican employees have been charged in connection with this theft. While the book provides ammunition for Church critics, it also offers a partial plan for reforming the Holy See’s finances and addressing a decades-old scandal. Nuzzi says his book is “not a defense of the pope but rather a journalistic analysis of the serious problems afflicting the Church today, caused by an ecclesiastical leadership and power circles hostile to change.” The scandals touch mainly on whether monies collected by the Holy See’s offices have always been used according to the donors’ intentions, and whether the Holy

See has in place reasonable safeguards to prevent money laundering or wasteful spending. Nuzzi provides this story’s necessary context. In the March 2013 pre-conclave meetings and during informal talks, many cardinals called for reform of the Roman Curia and especially the Institute for the Works of Religion; IOR is the Italian abbreviation for the Vatican bank. One month after his election, Nuzzi explains, Pope Francis named a commission of eight cardinals (later enlarged to nine) from five continents to advise him on reforming the Roman Curia and governing the worldwide Church. The C9 commission has held 16 meetings with another four scheduled this year. In a detailed, blow-by-blow description, the author explains how, in June 2013, the pope appointed a Pontifical Commission for Reference on the Institute for Works of Religion (COSEA, according to its Italian acronym). Soon after five lay auditors began auditing Vatican finances, they experienced major difficulties in obtaining records from several offices. Pope Francis delivered a blistering report in July 2013 to the 15 cardinal members of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. The following month COSEA froze 400 bank accounts at IOR. How did Nuzzi get such detail? In February 2014, Pope Francis briefed the cardinals in consistory about what COSEA had found; he named Cardinal George Pell as the first Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, reporting directly to him. In March 2014, documents were stolen from the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See. The finances connected with saint making, Peter’s Pence, and the Holy See’s underfunded pensions are presented in separate chapters. Four months after this book was published, Pope Francis issued new norms about handling monies collected for beatification and canonization causes, specifying annual budgets, expense reports, and who is responsible for reviewing those reports. Nuzzi’s journalism is anything if not controversial. But all of the details are in this book. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

BOOK BRIEFS

Welcoming the Holy Spirit Breath of God Living a Life Led by the Holy Spirit By Dave Pivonka, TOR Ave Maria Press 160 pages • $14.95 Paperback/E-book

Believers, Thinkers, and Founders How We Came To Be One Nation Under God By Kevin Seamus Hasson Image Catholic Books 210 pages • $20 Hardcover/E-book Reviewed by JAMES A. PERCOCO, the Teacher-inResidence for both the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership and the Civil War Trust. He is a member of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. Kevin Seamus Hasson’s new book is a tidy compendium to help with faith-based choices when it comes to religion and politics. This small book packs a lot of punch, particularly with his ardent defense of what he deems to be the “Philosopher’s God.” This is not the God of Abraham or other religions, but the God of Aristotle and Einstein. It is the God recognized in the Declaration of Independence, the “Creator” who has endowed citizens with “certain unalienable rights.” Reason, for Hasson, is the root of faith in God. Hasson traces the American notion of God through a careful construction of various court cases. He also examines the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, in which the Knights of Columbus played a significant role in getting the phrase “under God” inserted in 1954. While not specifically arguing that the United States is a Christian nation, Hasson does defend the idea that we are a Godbased nation. He traces that idea to our founding charters and subsequent documents, specifically pointing to Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Readers who wrestle with the notion of religious liberty will really enjoy this book as it gets to the heart of just what that means. Fr ancisca n Media .org

Franciscan priest Dave Pivonka encourages readers to allow the power of the Holy Spirit to enrich and energize their faith lives. Drawing on his experience in the charismatic movement, Pivonka offers a Scripture-based guide to pursuing a life in the Spirit, complete with questions for reflection and “Try this . . .” suggestions for ways to invite the Spirit into everyday life.

A Biography of the Spirit By John C. Haughey, SJ Orbis Books 224 pages • $25 Paperback/Kindle Informed by science and infused with a poetic voice, Jesuit priest John C. Haughey sets out on a faith-based exploration of the natural world. Written in the form of diary entries, Haughey’s book finds the Holy Spirit in all manner of places in nature—even a single bird sitting on a windowsill.

Fruit of the Spirit Pauline Mysticism for the Church Today By Michael H. Crosby, OFM Cap. Orbis Books 336 pages • $24 Paperback Capuchin Franciscan Michael H. Crosby brings both a scholarly thoroughness and a popular voice to this study of the “fruits of the Spirit,” which St. Paul writes about in his Letter to the Galatians. Nurturing these “fruits” can help to heal divisions in our Church today.—D.I.

Books featured in Book Corner and Book Briefs can be ordered from

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply 1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604 www.stmarysbookstore.com • stmarysbookstore@gmail.com M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 3

A CATHOLIC MOM SPEAKS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Are You Social-Media Savvy? have them. As a mom, social media really scares me. Sometimes it seems there is a constant stream of negative situations related to the online activities of teens. Things like bullying have taken on an entirely new form—even leading to suicide sometimes. For some, the anonymity and expanse of the Internet make being mean seem much more acceptable. The potential pitfalls and dangers of social media seem endless. Kids always seem to be one step ahead of the game when it comes to adults staying in the know. That is why I currently have more accounts than I can often keep track of.

Parental Reality Check

tal Digi as Extr Click here for more tips on online safety.

5 4 ❘ May 2016

love social media. It is a great way for me to stay connected and caught up with people I don’t get to talk with very often. I can easily find new recipes on Pinterest. Twitter keeps me up to date on the day’s news. Instagram lets me see pictures of my friends’ lives, and share my own. Yes, for this busy mom of four it is a lifeline to the outside world that too often fades into the background amid school, extracurricular activities, and other day-to-day family obligations. And while all those accounts provide some form of enjoyment, there is another reason I

Not long ago, our parish school held a presentation on social media for both the students and us parents. Experts in the field of social media, as well as our county’s district attorney, provided a hard and very real gut check on the vast number of apps and programs of which kids are taking advantage. Chalk up one more thing for me to worry about, regarding my kids. I got another insight into this earlier this year, when I had the chance to hear Sister Helena Burns (hellburns.blogspot.com) talk about Teens and Social Media at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress. In her presentation, Sister Helena made the comparison of a car and social media. Would we just hand over the keys to the car and tell our teenagers to figure it out? she asked. Well, she added, the same thing goes for social media. In his 2016 message for World Communications Day, Pope Francis even chimed in on the subject: “e-mails, text messages, social networks, and chats can also be fully human forms of communication. It is not technology which determines whether communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal. Social networks can facilitate relationships and promote the good of society, but they can also lead to St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

WHAT’S A PARENT TO DO? The American Academy of Pediatrics offers some helpful tips for parents on dealing with kids and social media. Treat media as you would any other environment in your child’s life. The same parenting guidelines apply in both real and virtual environments. Set limits; kids need and expect them. Know your children’s friends, both online and off. Know what platforms, software, and apps your children are using, where they are going on the web, and what they are doing online. Be a good role model. Teach and model kindness and good manners online. And, because children are great mimics, limit your own media use. Know the value of face-to-face communication. Create tech-free zones. Keep family mealtimes and other family and social gatherings tech-free.

further polarization and division between individuals and groups,” he said. Anyone who has been online during this election year can certainly attest to that.

Look in the Mirror Teens and kids are not the only ones addicted to being online. Raise your hand if you’ve been out to eat or hanging out with friends or family and they’re all paying more attention to their mobile devices than to their actual company. I suspect a lot of people raised their hands. Have you texted or called someone and grumbled when they didn’t either answer or text back in what you felt was a timely manner? For many of

Do your homework. Look to organizations like Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.org) for reviews about age-appropriate apps, games, and programs to guide you in making the best choices for your children. It’s OK for your teen to be online. Online relationships are now part of typical adolescent development. Social media can support teens as they explore and discover more about themselves and their place in the grown-up world. Just be sure your teen is behaving appropriately in both the real and online worlds. Remember: kids will be kids. Kids will make mistakes using media. Try to handle errors with empathy and turn a mistake into a teachable moment. But some indiscretions, such as sexting, bullying, or posting self-harm images, may be a red flag that hints at deeper problems.

us, our electronic devices have almost become an extension of ourselves. Perhaps it’s time we take a look at our own behavior regarding social media and try to find a way to disconnect—at least for a while—and reconnect personally. As Sister Helena reminds us, “Your online life is not your real life.” A

Do you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see addressed in this column? Send them to me at “A Catholic Mom Speaks,” 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or e-mail them to CatholicMom@FranciscanMedia.org.

Click the button above to listen to Susan’s “Marriage Moments.”

PETE AND REPEAT These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two. So look and see if you can name ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GREENE

Eight ways in which they’re not the same. (Answers on page 24)

Fr ancisca n Media .org

M ay 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 5

BACKSTORY

Communicating with Love

very year, on the Sunday before Pentecost—May 8 this year—the Church celebrates World Communications Day. The pope publishes a message for the celebration (months earlier), striking a theme for

the day, calling to mind how we can celebrate communications, with both its challenges and its opportunities. It’s a day, and a message, that we in

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

Catholic media take very seriously. It’s not a shocker that, in this Jubilee of Mercy, this year’s theme is communications and mercy. We hope and pray that St. Anthony Messenger is a messenger of mercy, in every year. The editors of your magazine consider frequently—daily, in fact—how we can communicate the good news, and its challenges, in a merciful, gracious way. We spend a lot of time trying to set a welcoming, thoughtful tone. It’s the Franciscan spirit to meet people where they’re at and to meet them with open arms. Not every publication is like that, as you well know. As the political season ramps up in the coming months, you can depend upon us to be never partisan, sometimes challenging, always welcoming. Much of what Pope Francis says about this bears repeating, because it really points to our whole approach in creating media for you. “The Church’s words and actions are all meant to convey mercy, to touch people’s heart, and to sustain

We come to the table every month trying to imagine what will inspire or inform you, what might challenge you, what might bring a word of hope.

them on their journey,” one of Christian fullness, “so that Jesus may be known and loved.” That’s serious business, but at the same time joyful. We love what we have been called to do. Pope Francis, in his message, wishes aloud that “our own way of communicating . . . may never suggest a prideful and triumphant superiority over an enemy. . . .” Like Moses, he says, we have to consider that, when communicating with one another, we stand on holy ground. Here’s a commitment from us to you: this magazine will always be suffused with a respectful, Franciscan spirit. Contact us; we’ll listen. Inform us. Inspire us. Every time we get together to plan this magazine, we seek to do the same for you.

Editor in Chief @jfeister

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St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

JEANNE D’ARC BY HENRI CHAPU, PHOTO BY SIREN-COM/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS, BACKGROUND FROM INGIMAGE

REFLECTION

“

f I am not, may God

put me there;

and if I am,

may God

so keep me.”

—St. Joan of Arc

ST. ANTHONY M 28 W. Liberty Street Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

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