ACN Mirror December 2019

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Ch ris t of mas fai gif th ts

No 8 • December 2019 Published eight times per year

www.acnmalta.org

“Mother, help our faith! Help us to be touched by God’s love, that we may touch Him in faith.”

Pope Francis, Encyclical Lumen fidei

Our gift to Syria: Pope Francis blesses the icon of Our Lady of Sorrows, Consoler of the Syrian People.

When we recite the Creed in Holy Mass, the liturgy indicates that at the words “by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary” we should bow (something many people don’t seem to know). And at Christmas we kneel at these words. The mystery of Christmas lies at the heart of our faith. Without the Incarnation of God, without the birth of Christ, Christians would indeed be living in the dark ages (as they were mockingly accused of doing during the Enlightenment) and faith would indeed be no more than dark obscurantism, holding people in ignorance, preventing them from thinking for themselves.

Instead, the opposite is true: our faith is the true Light. It is no mere leap into the dark, in defiance of all reason. Faith can see, hear and touch the truth. Faith enables us to understand the most important thing in all the world: the Light that enlightens all things, which came into the world so that all who believe in Him might not remain in the darkness (cf Jn 12:46). The light of faith is no mere subjective feeling, capable only of

warming the heart for a time or bringing a sense of personal consolation. Faith is a testimony to a real person, Jesus Christ; faith in His deeds and words as God made Man. In our encounter with Him, God grants us His overwhelming love and speaks to us the words of truth that enlighten not only

But might not this claim to all truth perhaps seem suffocating? Does it not deprive us of our freedom? Not at all. Let us simply contemplate the Christmas mystery, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. The faith revealed in Jesus does not prevail by force, but gives itself in service to others and thus speaks to the intel“Faith is no mere leap into the lect, the conscience and the heart. The genuine believer is dark, in defiance of all reason. not arrogant but humble. He Faith can even see, hear and knows that it is not he who possesses love, but rather that it is touch the truth.” love that surrounds and posparticular moments of our lives, but our en- sesses him. tire existence. He has done all this in order to give us the guarantee that His love is ut- Dear friends, Christmas invites us to welterly dependable and that every good thing come the joy of faith once more, so that we has its origin in this love. can share this joy with one another and mutually bestow on one another the rich gifts Hence, our faith is a form of knowledge that of faith. gives new meaning to the whole of reality.

Only the truth of the love of God, who is To all of you, and your families, my grateful faithful to us in all circumstances, can give us wishes for a blessed Christmas, the confidence and courage to approach the future with hope. Faith recognises that love always goes before us, that love is the first gift, the fundamental gift that transforms us and works in us and through us. Faith is the Father Martin Maria Barta great truth that explains all others.

Ecclesiastical Assistant 1

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The white envelope It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so. It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas – oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it – the overspending... the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma, the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special, just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended, and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously

Mass S tipe n ds

could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, saying, “I wish just one of them could have won. They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids – all kids – and

God as gift God Himself is the greatest imaginable gift to us all. It is the Creator giving Himself to His creation.

It is through the hands of our priests that this gift comes down to earth in the Eucharist.

Without priests there would be no Body of Christ on earth, and without their consecrated hands no Real Presence of God among us. Without their “Yes” to God’s call we would not have the continuing miracle of the Divine Presence. When we help our priests, we help the Church to make this presence of God a reality in every situation and need. The words, “This is My Body” can transform the world, they can transform Venezuela and every other country. It may not be immediately apparent to our human eyes, but when Holy Mass is celebrated by Fathers Hernán, Rodolfo, Oswaldo, Pedro, Ramón, Gerardo and the other 24 priests in the diocese of San Carlos, Venezuela, hope is born amid all the misery. Through the Mass, these priests – who share everything with others, though they themselves have barely enough to eat – are giving their people fresh courage and strength to persevere.

Even the elderly among them are doing without almost everything, but never without the Mass.

Your Mass stipends are a sharing in this gift of God. Please help through your Mass offerings for these 30 priests of the diocese of San Carlos – and for some 42,000 other priests around the world.

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There can be no greater gift: called down from Heaven here by Father Alexander.

Any donation you kindly give will go to support these, or similar

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Love is the very first gift, says Saint Thomas Aquinas,

and everything that is given to us, unworthy though we

are , becomes a gift only through Love . he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years.

For each Christmas, I followed the tradition: one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.

The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.

You see, we lost Mike in 1981 due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more. Each of

Supporting Sisters

ACN is giving Christmas presents to thousands of Christian children in Syria – 17,806 of them this year, to be exact. Each small parcel costs around €15. For many Christian families, in Aleppo, Homs, Hassake, Damascus and Houran, it will probably be the only present they receive. That would be one way to fill a white envelope… our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down the envelope.

Nancy W. Gavin, USA, 1982

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Prayer and baking It is a job that nobody sees or thinks about – baking unleavened wafers for the Mass – but it requires special, purpose-made equipment.

The Poor Clare Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in the convent of Saint Michael in Bhatikashor, Bangladesh, bake unleavened wafers for the entire country. Five years ago, we purchased a new baking machine for them, with associated cutting equipment. As enclosed nuns, they rely on this work to support themselves. They pray, and they bake.

Initially, they were doing so for a few dioceses only, but now they are baking for all of them.

At the same time, with the passing of the years, the number of Christians has also grown (to around half a million, or 0.3% of the total population), and so has the demand. So now the Sisters have to work all week, seven hours a day, except on Sundays, cutting and baking the wafers. This constant usage, together with frequent power cuts in Bangladesh, has taken a heavy toll on many of the machine parts. Even the replacement parts we subsequently supplied are wearing out, in particular the heating elements. We want to provide new parts, as well as a new dough mixer, since this machine has finally given up the ghost.

It will cost €4,430 to provide them with this gesture of our shared faith. Would anyone be willing to contribute €50?

The Poor Clare Sisters continue to bake and pray, hidden from the world, like so many other contemplative religious around the world whom we are similarly supporting in this work.

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projects, and enable the pastoral work of Aid to the Church in Need.

Hoping for a new machine: the enclosed Sisters of Saint Michael’s convent.

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Electric M opeds

Recharging their faith “Love is the fulfilment of all our works. There is the goal; that is why we run: we run toward it, and once we reach it, in it we shall find rest” (Saint Augustine).

In the diocese of Santa Clara in Cuba, the Franciscan and Capuchin Sisters have to do a fair bit of travelling on foot in order to carry out their mission of love. Cars are costly, the roads are poor and the places where they work are some distance away. But without regular visits from the Sisters, souls will grow lukewarm and the chapels will decay and collapse. They travel on foot or in donkey carts and have little time to rest.

Bishop Arturo González Amador has a solution: rechargeable electric mopeds. They are freely available in Cuba, and you can easily drive around the big potholes, overtake the donkey carts and carry two people. The rechargeable batteries are good for 50 miles (80 km), presuming a maximum speed of 30 mph. They would be of great value to the Sisters’ mission, says Bishop Arturo, who has long been praying for these mopeds.

The three Capuchin Sisters in Santa Clara could for example travel more often to the town’s outlying settlements to serve the playschool for the children from one-parent families. And the Franciscan Sisters in Sagua la Grande could visit double the number of parishes and mission outstations.

Bishop Arturo’s prayer list includes five of these electric mopeds, each one of them costing €2,020. A gift of faith from you to them?

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Chapels

Will she soon be in the fast lane? Sister Franziska is already looking forward to her electric moped.

A place of God’s presence Do people really need chapels? Can’t they pray outside in the midst of nature, especially in Africa of all places? Of course, but “the Eucharist is God as answering presence”, said Pope Benedict XVI. And there has to be a place for this presence.

Those dwelling in the rural areas of Africa, where there are few permanent churches or chapels, feel very strongly that there should be a worthy place to reserve the Blessed Sacrament. In the village of Shebo, in the Gambella Region of Ethiopia, termites have completely eaten away the wood of their wattle and daub chapel, built some 15 years ago, and the wind has blown off the thatched roof. It is no longer possible to sit and pray there. Instead, the 700 villagers want to build a new chapel. It would be used principally for Holy Mass and Eucharistic adoration, but it would also be a suitable place for catechesis for children and young adults.

Given the high level of HIV/AIDS in the region, there is a great need to educate young people in the Theology of the Body. The number of Christians is growing steadily, and they want to be able to pray and cherish God’s presence in their hearts.

We can fulfil their dream for this presence in this “Place of Eucharistic Adoration”. We have already promised €30,000 for a small church of stone, 46’ x 26’ (14 x 8 metres) in size. That works out at €26 per square yard. It will become the focal point of the whole village, just like the many other chapels we have been able to fund, thanks to your generosity, on every continent.

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Sunday Mass in Gambella: a proper chapel could raise their faith to a new level.

Any donation you kindly give will go to support these, or similar

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Seminary formation

Committed to Christ “And He went up on the mountain and called to Him those whom He desired, and they came to Him. And He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) so that they might be with Him and He might send them out to preach” (Mk 3:13-14).

In Ukraine, in the Greek Catholic seminary of Saint Josaphat in Ivano-Frankivsk, there are 195 young men who wish to commit themselves to Christ and follow His call. They are ready to spend their lives in the service of the Gospel. The seminary in Ivano-Frankivsk is one of the largest in Ukraine, and its seminarians come from five different dioceses. Their formation lasts six years and rests on two foundations: prayer and study. Their day begins at 7 a.m. with Lauds (Morning Prayer) and ends with a spiritual reading at 9 p.m. It includes lectures, praying the Byzantine hours of prayer, the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, silent adoration, sport, singing practice, reading and study. The overall structure of the day helps them to establish a solid rhythm for their future lives as priests. Their formation challenges them on a spiritual, intellectual and human level. And it is thorough, as it is far from easy to be a priest for love of Christ in the secularised world of today. It is something that needs a solid foundation. But this quality comes at a price. The overall cost of running the seminary, including salaries, taxes, transport, board and lodging etc. comes to around €380,000 a year. ACN is covering a good third of this total. Meanwhile, the cost of electricity, water, gas and food is rising due to the continuing economic crisis in the country. And the coming winter will again be a hard one...

We are contributing €600 a year, or €50 a month, for each seminarian. They want to serve, to follow Our Lord always. Your gift will help them, and it will help their living witness to Christ to bear fruit when the time comes for them to be sent Who sings, prays twice – so long as he sings in tune … Singing practice in the seminary. out to preach in His name.

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Reconcilia tion

Opening hearts with a message of love “Respect for minorities is to be considered the touchstone of social harmony.” This simple statement from his Message of Peace in 1989 has become in effect the motto of the Saint John Paul II Youth Pastoral Centre in Sarajevo.

The centre in Bosnia’s capital remains faithful to this motto, with a range of events and meetings throughout the year. The most important among them is taken by the days of spiritual reflection organised for the 300 volunteer helpers and the 5,000 or so young people who visit the centre over the course of the year.

Often this is the first place where they hear the message of love in a region that has been so torn by warfare and crisis, and by hatred and violence. Here for example, in an ecumenical summer camp for Catholics and Orthodox, they learn to overcome prejudices and respect and esteem the individual, and not merely focus on liturgical and theological differences. The same is true of the interfaith seminars – all moderated by experts – which are helping to build human bridges across the religious divides. One of the especially uplifting and engaging events is the “Marijafest”, a music festival attended by several hundred young people.

So the foundations of Christian charity are laid. Respect for others and the awareness that we are all children of God can help to overcome the gulf between us.

Faith in Jesus Christ and in the inexhaustible power of His Love can also give us the strength to forgive.

We are supporting the youth centre’s work of reconciliation with a contribution of €25,000. Would you like to help us, with a contribution of €20, €50 or perhaps €100, to open the hearts of these young people to this gift of faith?

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projects, and enable the pastoral work of Aid to the Church in Need.

Raising their sights … A gathering of altar servers in the Sarajevo youth centre.

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For the future of the Church “Your Mass stipends are not merely a support for us, as formators in this seminary, but also a testimony of faith and solidarity”, says Father Bruno Saleh, the rector of the seminary in Kasongo, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He gives thanks to God first and then also to you for the kindness and help shown to him and his four brother priests in the form of Mass stipends for 20 sets of Gregorian Masses. It is through the Holy Eucharist, precisely, that they feel so closely united with you. Your kindness makes them “conscious of just how lovingly the benefactors have taken us into their hearts and above all how great is their faith in the future of the Church in placing their trust in the future bearers of the New Evangelisation.”

Need, love and thanks − your letters For our priests and their flock Enclosed a little help for our dear priests and their flock. I pray for hope, strength and love for all those who are suffering in Nigeria. I pray for those who are causing the suffering.

May God the Holy Spirit enlighten their minds and fill their hearts to overflowing with love. God bless you.

A religious Sister in Australia Tangible proof My warmest thanks for sending your 2018 report on the work of ACN. I am filled with wonder and admiration at the determination with which ACN is bringing the love of God to so many people through these helping hands. You are tangible proof of the fact that our God is the God of Love and that this love reveals a human face in so many kind hearts.

A bishop from Austria

Heartwarming I have always been convinced that ACN is inspired by God’s grace and that every donation, no matter how small, bears rich fruit thanks to your work in God’s vineyard. What I find so particularly heartwarming about the Mirror, and what has really given new heart to my own life of faith are the many young people about whom you report. Whether it be the summer camps for children, the many young novices in Ukraine or the travels of young people from Belarus to the World Youth Day in Panama, it is all so good to see.

A benefactor in Germany The arm of Divine Mercy ACN is like a powerful arm of Divine Mercy, helping us to save souls and lives through the little offerings we are able to make in love and fidelity!

A benefactor in Brazil

Thomas Heine-Geldern, Executive President, ACN (International)

Dear Friends,

Christmas is coming, and we look forward to it with joy. With the feast of Our Lord’s birth, Mary and Joseph also became a family. Depending on where we are in our lives, we are striving to live, longing to live, or gratefully recalling our lives, as a family. We do this despite the prevailing mentality, which seeks to lead us in the opposite direction.

When we gather around the manger to contemplate the miracle of the Incarnation, we are celebrating a family feast that is often regarded by Christians as the greatest of the year. But what about Easter? Perhaps to our human minds the mystery of a newborn Child and a family is easier to grasp than the mystery of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus.

Both feasts are fundamental to our faith, however, and it is only together that they bring us redemption.

Perhaps we can share this understanding with those we love through a “gift of faith” and in this way help our oppressed brothers and sisters also to experience Christmas as a feast of joy, peace and light.

With my warmest wishes to you all for a blessed Christmastide, together with my heartfelt thanks for your understanding and your generous help.

Editors: Jürgen Liminski & Stephen Axisa Please use the envelope. Aid to the Church in Need, 39B Mdina Road, Publisher: Aid to the Church in Need, 39B Mdina Road, Attard ATD 9038 Attard ATD 9038; Tel: 21487818; Fax: 21586257 APS Bank, IBAN: MT72 APSB 7705 7008 5772 2000 1771 733 Printed in Malta BIC: APSBMTMT De licentia competentis auctoritatis Email: info@acnmalta.org – facebook//Aid to the Church in Need Malta ecclesiasticae Pass this leaflet on to your neighbours, friends or leave it at the Parish www.acnmalta.org Church for others to review.

Where to send your contribution for the Church in Need

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