FLIGHT from the MODERN WORLD

Saincilus Ismael-  Haiti

All through the Christmas season, we find cultural differences in the art for this joyous and grace-filled  time.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Saincilus Ismael was born in Petite Riviere de l’Artibonite, Haiti in 1940. He was educated by the Friars of St. Mark and at Antenor Fermin High School. 

 Ismaël led a full and rich life. An agonomist as well as an artist, he was also a political activist. He spent seven years in prison for opposing the Duvaliers, Papa and Baby Doc. Even so, thanks to the popularity of his art, he died a relatively wealthy man by the standards of his homeland: his estate included a Volkswagen.

   The artist spent most of his creative life in Deschapelles as director of an art center associated with an American medical and religious mission. He trained scores of students and exerted a powerful influence on artists working in the 'Artibonite style,' two features of which are elaborately decorated clothing and backgrounds.

   Ismaël has been exhibited worldwide and appears in most surveys of Haitian art published since the 1970s

He was closely associated with Doctor and Mrs. Mellon at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in Deschapelles where he supervised the Ceramics Center. Ismael developed a style that was instantly recognizable, scenes of Haitian peasant life rendered with the intricacy and precision of a Byzantine icon. In an Ismael painting, every garment of a subject's clothing would be a different geometric pattern, as would the houses and the trees.  It is said in Haiti that Ismael's output grew tenfold after his death. 

Gebre Merha was born and raised in the ancient holy city and former imperial capital of Axum (Aksum).  He learned iconography in the traditional manner, passed down for generations in his family of distinguished artists.  He now lives and works in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 

His family provides him with wood for his carvings and paintings from the mountains surrounding Axum, where the trees are still felled by hand-axe. His icons are painted in glue-based distemper paint and acrylic on un-gessoed wood.  In addition to traditional icons, Gebre paints African designs in acrylic

An almost shocking piece of art, is Louis Kahan's
Flight, with its modern escape from what looks like a city in ruins  (representing our present age?) with the protective Joseph at the wheel of a jalopy. Mary is in the back with the Child, protecting Him.  On top of the vehicle are a saw and hammer (to show Joseph's trade) a spinning wheel, and various pieces of luggage.  The car is obviously breaking through barbed wire, which symbolizes (?) the tyranny under which they are escaping.  It is a bold work of art, very expressive for our day and age.

Louis Kahan (1905- 2002) was an Austrian-born Australian artist whose long career included fashion design, illustration for magazines and journals, painting, printmaking and drawing. He is represented in most major collections in Australia as well as in Europe and USA. He won the Archibald Prize in 1962 with a portrait of Patrick White. 

He enlisted in the French Foreign Legion in 1939 and was sent to Algeria, North Africa as a war artist, although he had never received any formal art training. He had an exhibition at Oran in 1942. He was a voluntary artist for the Red Cross between 1943 and 1945. During this time, photography of soldiers was not permitted. Louis made over 2,000 drawings of wounded soldiers being cared for in the hospital at Oran and these were v-mailed (an early form of microfilm) to the families of soldiers. When he found that the originals were being destroyed after transmission Louis began to save them and over 300 were later given by him to the Red Cross Museum in Washington, USA.   

In his paintings, prints and drawings Louis explored many interests and themes, including dreams, death, and his own life. Childhood games, portraits and nudes were ongoing subjects. Symbolism particularly characterizes his later works. Later, dreamlike prints and paintings often show his tools of the trade: palette, brushes, tailor's scissors and tape. These represent a kind of metaphorical self-portrait and life history.

HOLY INNOCENTS - SORROW AND JOY

Sarah Hempel Irani- USA

Our Lady of Guadalupe Abbey

Pecos, New Mexico

“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more”.

(Jer. 31:15)

Today we have the feast of the HOLY INNOCENTS, a disturbing incident in salvation history. It is as if the Lord wants to remind us that even in the midst of rejoicing there can be sorrow. In our time the slaughter of innocents goes on through abortion and war. At this holy time, our prayer must be for all who perish due to sin and ignorance.

NATIVITY ACROSS THE GLOBE

Culture is what holds us together, preserving language, thought patterns, ways of life, attitudes, and symbols. It  is celebrated in arts, music, drama, literature and life.  It constitutes a collective memory of the people, a collective heritage which will be handed down to generations to come. ( The World Council of Churches-Vancouver Conference in 1983)

One of my favorites is by the  Lithuanian artist Antanas Kmieliauskas (b. 1932), which shows people surrounding the Mother and newborn Child, most probably people he knew well.   I love the subtle, almost pastel colors. Antanas was a professor of Vilnius Academy of Arts, National Prize winner of Lithuania, and one of the most comprehensive Lithuanian  painters of the 20th C.  He worked in many media from painting and sculpture to graphic art.

The bulk of his art, particularly the works of his religious art, has been undeservedly ignored over a long period of time. The artist's original creation based upon both fundamental classical and Modern European art traditions is a significant part of the fine arts of Lithuania as well as of Lithuanian culture on the whole.

Another interesting and very different work is by the Aboriginal artist  Greg Weatherby (b. 1942).  “A daring, original work that sets Jesus Christ’s birth in the Central Australian outback. In bold, earthy colors native emus, goannas (lizards), kangaroos and Dreamtime Beings pay homage to the new-born Child. Millions of stars illuminate the Great Ancestor’s omnipresent hands while presenting the divine Gift to Aboriginal Spirit parents near legendary Uluru”.

Greg is one of the most renown of Aboriginal painters. His work uses a kind of hatching and dot painting that is very common there and was traditionally painted onto skin for ceremonial reasons. The method itself is significant, as it reputedly withholds or encodes information in the dot patterns.

Greg’s Aboriginal heritage is Walbanga from the far south coast of New South Wales, and his tribal totem is the shark.

The Japanese artist Yo (Hiroshi) Iwashita (b. 1917)  was basically a stencil and wood block artist known for his rich textile patterns of a type of folk art, often using humor. I love how the Virgin Mary seems to have her hand on Joseph, as if acknowledging his protection of her and the Child.

Cesar Torrente Legaspi (1917-94) was a Filipino National Artist in painting. He was also an art director prior to going full-time in his visual art practice in the 1960s. A pioneer “Neo-Realist” he is remembered for his singular achievement of refining cubism in the Philippine context. Legaspi belonged to the so-called “Thirteen Moderns” and later, the “Neo-realists”. 

C. Legaspi

His distinctive style and daring themes contributed significantly to the advent and eventual acceptance of modern art in the Philippines. He made use of the geometric fragmentation technique, weaving social comment and juxtaposing the mythical and modern into his overlapping, interacting forms with disturbing power and intensity.

S. Raj

Solomon Raj  from India (b. 1921) uses batik and woodcuts, cheap materials that are readily available. He depicts Jesus amidst the refugees and suffering people.

Rooted in his love for the Gospel and his appreciation for his Indian heritage, he has spent a lifetime telling us to see and to believe. He is a master at intercultural communication taking stories buried in his heart of faith and openly sharing them through his unique creative vision.

He has written:  We know that the concept of culture is very complex indeed and it includes many things such as the community's language, its religion and ritual, its arts and crafts etc.  Culture is a  community's world view, of its hopes and fears, its expectations and shared values.  Culture is like a mass of computer data into which every individual of that community can draw from.  It is a community's collective memory and its stored heritage which every generation passes on to the next.

UNIVERSAL CHILD

 

Ethiopia- Unknown

The various works of art from across the globe show us great unity in the mystery of the Incarnation and on the other hand  great diversity around the new born King.

These artists take the Christ Child to them and reflect it in their own understanding, their own tradition, their own culture. Because the Incarnation is for all people in all places, then it should become cultural and have different expressions in different cultures. The birth of Jesus is where God meets everyone of us!

Sawai-Chinnawong - Thailand

JESUS BORN FOR ALL PEOPLES

Erland Sibuea- Indonesia

One of the wonders of art today around the world, is we get to see how different cultures view the coming of Christ.  “Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10)

When an artist tries to convey what is in his/her heart as a message to us, they are not usually worried about historical accuracy, but rather how does the art speak to people here and now.

For Christmas  week  we present some contemporary portrayals of the Nativity which  open up to us the fact that Jesus Christ was born for all people of all ages. 

            A  BLESSED CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

THE SEASON OF THE GOD-SEEKER

Pregnant Virgin- Hungary

During these weeks of Advent, we prepare for the celebration of Christ’s birth through prayer and reflection. Amid the last minute flurry of Christmas preparations, we must look for practical ways to observe the holiness of this time.  The contemplative experience is not only for nuns and monks but for all Christians.

"Advent is the season of the God-seeker. . . . May God help us to wake up to ourselves and in doing so, to move from ourselves toward Him."
                          Alfred Delp, S.J.  Advent of the Heart, Seasonal Sermons and Prison Writings

Last Monday was the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The reading was Mary hastening to visit Elizabeth, as she has just heard she too is with child.  What always flies into my mind when I I hear this Gospel reading is Thomas Merton’s poem “The Quickening of St. John the Baptist (On the Contemplative Vocation)”.

You have trusted no town with the news behind your eyes.
You have drowned Gabriel's word in thoughts like seas
And turned toward the stone mountain
To the treeless places.
Virgin of God, why are your clothes like sails? 

I have often thought if I was an artist I would paint this image of Our Mother flying with sails!

In this last week of Advent, many feel the weight of things to still be done, baking, last minute shopping, meal planning, etc. Yet the Church summons us to stop and be still for a while with the Mother of the Lord. While we rush around, in celebration of the birth of our Savior, there is an irony in the fact that Mary herself was most tranquil. Yes she did fly off to meet her cousin in the early days, with the intent of sharing the good news for both and to care for Elizabeth in her last days.  She who is to be the Mother of God, only has a care for someone else.

Let us take example from Mary, and focus our attention in quiet, even for a few minutes each day this week, as we prepare to celebrate His Love for us!

ADVENT- THE WILL OF THE FATHER

“Consecrated life is a gift to the Church, it is born of the Church, it grows in the Church, and it is entirely directed to the Church,” Pope Francis said October 28. 

"Bishops should be particularly attentive to communities of contemplative sisters. These are “torches to guide men and women along their journey through the dark night of time,” and “sentinels of the morning, heralding the dawn.”

The contemplative life is not a special kind of life, but should be the Christian life, nothing more and nothing less. It is life formed by the Father’s  revealing Word, who is Christ. This Word must be read and heard, meditated and prayed.

The contemplative tradition emphasizes that God is mindful of us and continues to show us our place in salvation history, which is nothing less than doing His will.  We learn to be attentive to the Father and His gift to us of His Son through the Virgin Mary. Mary’s song exemplifies the contemplative tradition because it celebrates the activity of God in human life. While she is initially troubled by God’s plan for her, she agrees to become the Mother of the Savior, thus carrying out  the Will of the Father, which will effect all of humankind. This Advent we celebrate that very reality in our own lives. 

Prayer of Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), a widely acknowledged English scholar and mystic:

Lord! Going out from this silence, teach me to be more alert, humble, expectant, than I have been in the past: ever ready to encounter you in quiet, homely ways: in every appeal to my compassion, every act of unselfish love which shows up and humbles my imperfect love, may I recognize you: still walking through the world. Give me that grace of simplicity which alone can receive your mystery. Come and abide with me! Meet me, walk with me! Enlighten my mind! And then, Come in! Enter my humble life with its poverty and limitations as you entered the stable of Bethlehem, the workshop of Nazareth, the cottage of Emmaus. Bless and consecrate the material of that small and ordinary life. Amen.

ANOTHER BLESSED IN CANADA

BLESSED VASYL VELYCHOCSKY was born in 1903 into a priestly family in Western Ukraine. His father was a priest, as were both his grandfathers. After serving as a rifleman in the First World War, Vasyl entered the Major Seminary in Lviv, Ukraine. During his diaconal year, in 1924, he joined the Redemptorist Congregation. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1925, in Stanislaviv. Early on, his gift of preaching was recognized and he was assigned to give parish missions in the Volyn region.

During this period, the region was under Polish control and there was strong pressure for the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church to become polonized. Father Vasyl refused to do this. Instead, he strived to unite the faithful under Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky. Because of this, he was forced to leave Volyn in 1935. He returned to Stanislaviv where he spent the next several years giving traditional Redemptorist two-week-long missions. In June 1940, with the Soviets occupying Western Ukraine, Father Vasyl led a procession of some 20,000 people through the streets of Stanislaviv on the occasion of the feast of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

In 1942 he became abbot of the monastery in Ternopil. Because of religious persecution by the Soviet Government he was arrested in 1945 by the NKVD and sent to Kyiv. The punishment of death was commuted to 10 years of hard labor. He was given the opportunity to join the Russian Orthodox Church and be released. Father Vasyl refused. With an authoritative voice he replied: “No, never! Under any circumstances . . . I have said NO once and for all; and you can shoot me, and kill me, but you shall get from me no other word.”

Over the next 10 months Father Vasyl was tortured until he confessed to crimes he never committed. He was interrogated 11 times. Usually these were conducted at night and lasted up to 12 hours. Sleeplessness, isolation, food deprivation, physical and moral abuse helped to breakdown his willpower until he finally confessed to anti-Soviet activity.

His trial was held on June 26, 1946. Without representation or witnesses, he was quickly found guilty and sentenced to execution by firing squad. He spent the next three months on death row, but even there preached, heard confessions and help prepare fellow prisoners for death. One day his name was called. He left his cell ready to give up his life for his beliefs. However, his sentence was changed to 10 years of hard labour in the Soviet laager camps, working under the worst possible conditions. During this time Father Vasyl heard confessions, preached and even celebrated the divine liturgy daily, using a large tablespoon as his chalice and wine made from raisins.

 On release in 1955 he went back to Lviv, and was secretly ordained in 1963. In 1969 he was imprisoned again for three years for his religious activities. Released in 1972, he was exiled. Stricken with a heart disease stemming from his imprisonment, the metropolitan told a Canadian audience, "The prisons and camps ruined my health and my strength, but this was my fate; the Lord God placed this cross on my shoulders." 

He died two weeks later in Winnipeg on June 30, 1973.

Thirty years after his death, Vasyl Velychkovsky's body was found to almost incorrupt. On June 27, 2001, Bishop Vasyl was beatified by Saint Pope John Paul II in a ceremony in Lviv. Then, in September 2002, Bishop Vasyl’s body was transferred to a shrine built in St. Joseph’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Winnipeg. Upon exhumation, it was found that his body remained fully intact, considered a sign of sainthood.

Today, the Blessed Vasyl Velychkovsky Shrine is visited by thousands of pilgrims annually, with many denominations represented. His story is a source of inspiration and his relics have become a source of healing. Moreover, in no small measure, Bishop Vasyl’s faith, enthusiasm and courage ensured the life of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in her homeland during a time of fierce persecution.

With Ukranian  Redemptorist Martyrs (Nicholas, Zenon, Ivan)

ADVENT- CONTEMPLATING BIRTH AND HOPE

As the world  longs for Advent, we are reminded why Jesus was born in Bethlehem. This preparation time reminds us of the state we were in before that miracle birth happened, and what would have become of us if God hadn't done the unthinkable and become man.  Humankind was at its

Bradi Barth

darkest hour, the light was all gone. The distance between us and God was insurmountable. How could we ever bridge the chasm that separated us? But we were not without hope. As we continue through this Advent let us keep in mind our struggle to remain faithful to our call as lights in the world, be it through the active or cloistered life.

On September 8, 2016, Pope Francis received in audience some 250 participants in the congress of Benedictine abbots and abbesses gathered in Rome to reflect on the monastic charism received from St. Benedict and their faithfulness to it in a changing world.

This theme acquires special meaning in the context of the Jubilee of Mercy since, as Pope Francis affirmed, “if it is only in the contemplation of Jesus Christ that we perceive the merciful face of the Father, monastic life constitutes a privileged route to achieve this contemplative experience and to translate it into personal and community witness.”

"Today’s world clearly demonstrates the need for a mercy that is the heart of Christian life and “which definitively manifests the authenticity and credibility of the message of which the Church is the depository, and which she proclaims. And in this time and in this Church, called to focus increasingly on the essential, monks and nuns safeguard by vocation a peculiar gift and a special responsibility: that of keeping alive the oases of the spirit, where pastors and faithful can draw from the wellsprings of Divine Mercy.

With the grace of God and seeking to live mercifully in their communities, monks and nuns “announce evangelical fraternity from all their monasteries spread out in every corner of the globe, and they do so with that purposeful and eloquent silence that lets God speak out in the deafening and distracted life of the world.”

Therefore, although they live separated from the world, their cloistered life “is not barren: on the contrary, an enrichment and not an obstacle to communion.”

May the  lovely poem of the Carmelite nun, Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit  (Jessica Power) inspire us to seek the Child and hold Him in our hearts and keep Him nestled within as Our Lady did.

In Mary-Darkness

I live my Advent in the womb of Mary
And on one night when a great star swings free
From its high mooring and walks down the sky
To be the dot above the Christus i,
I shall be born of her by blessed grace.
I wait in Mary-darkness, faith’s walled place,

Italian

With hope’s expectance of nativity.
I knew for long she carried me and fed me,
Guarded and loved me, though I could not see,
But only now, with inward jubilee,
I come upon earth’s most amazing knowledge:
Someone is hidden in this dark with me.

BLESSED IN CANADA

Our neighbors to the north have some new saints added to their list of very holy men.
BL. FREDERIC JANSSOONE, O.F.M.,was a popular preacher who re-established the Order of Friars Minor in Canada.

The greatest desire and prayer of Bl. Frederic was to help others come closer to God. His ministry as a Franciscan took him to many places, from Europe, to the Holy Land and then to North America, where he died.

He was born in Flanders in 1838 as the youngest of 13 children in a wealthy farming family. Frederic was nine when his father died, and he dropped out of school to work as a traveling salesman in order to help support his family. His mother died when he was 23. He completed his studies and then entered the Franciscans. He was ordained in 1870, and served as a military chaplain during the Franco-Prussian War.

He was then sent to the Holy Land, where he reinstated the Stations of the Cross in the streets of Jerusalem, built a church in Bethlehem, and negotiated an accord among the Roman, Greek and Armenian Christian churches concerning the sanctuaries of Bethlehem.

He first came to Canada in 1881 on a fundraising tour, but eventually moved permanently to the country seven years later. He helped to develop the popular shrine of Our Lady at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec. He wrote biographies of the saints, newspaper articles and sold religious books door to door.

He died of stomach cancer in Montreal in 1916 and is buried in Trois-Rivieres, Quebec, a city close to the Marian shrine he helped to develop. Pope John Paul II beatified Frederic in 1988.

ADVENT- THE CLOISTERED LIFE

Pope Francis has set Nov. 21, the Feast of the Presentation of Mary in the Temple, as a day to pray for and support cloistered and monastic religious. It is called WORLD DAY of CLOISTERED LIFE, also known as Pro Orantibus Day (“For Those Who Pray”).

Since this coming Sunday starts the beginning of ADVENT  (yes, it is very early this year) I thought it appropriate to use this as our theme this year- focusing on the Contemplative life, which should be for all Christians who strive to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

We must all make a place for the Christ-child who is to come into our hearts. Advent is that time of silence and the sense of wonder and waiting that is necessary to prepare our hearts for His birth. 

What do we mean by the Cloistered life? Many, especially in our un-churched Northwest ask what we do all day with our lives, behind these walls.

Cloistered religious embody lives “hidden with Christ.” Within our monastery walls we offer prayers and sacrifices that go unnoticed to most of the world. “By their lives of silence, solitude and sacrifice they obtain the graces needed for countless souls to experience the merciful love of God in ways we can only imagine! In Our Lord’s revelations to St Faustina, Jesus speaks of “chosen souls” who are invited to share in His mission of mercy. Our Merciful Savior states that these special souls “fill my Heart with joy. They bear My features; therefore the Heavenly Father looks upon them with special pleasure....Their number is small. They are a defense for the world before the justice of the Heavenly Father and a means of obtaining mercy for the world. The love and sacrifice of these souls sustain the world in existence” (Diary, 367).”

In his recent Apostolic Constitution, Vultum Dei Quaerere, Pope Francis reflects upon the vital importance of cloistered contemplatives in the life and mission of the Church. He notes that the contemplative monastic life “is rooted in the silence of the cloister; it produces a rich harvest of grace and mercy.” The Holy Father also reminds those who embrace such a sublime calling that “the Church greatly esteems your life of complete selfgiving” and “counts on your prayers and your self-sacrifice to bring today’s men and women to the good news of the Gospel.”

OLR Chapel on a Winter Night

As we celebrate World Day of Cloistered Life, let us remember these contemplative religious who in convents, monasteries and hermitages give of themselves selflessly to God in hidden sacrifice and in silent work. Let us always assist these dedicated souls by our spiritual and material support, in whatever way we can, even if it is like the poor widow who offers two small coins. We are aware that God is never outdone in generosity and that we each will be judged not on the amount we give to others, but on the intensity of love that is behind the gift. 

Let us invoke Our Lady who gave of herself totally to the Lord and shares intimately in her Son’s mission of Mercy. She, who dedicated herself to God in the Temple as a young girl and who the Church as always looked upon as the summa contemplatrix, demonstrates for all believers the need to immerse ourselves in the Lord so as to see things with spiritual eyes and to respond generously by faith, hope and love.

CHRIST THE KING of MERCY

This past week many of us saw the supermoon, not seen since 1948, and not to be seen again till 2034. This image of Christ the Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro) is one of those "pictures worth a thousand words"!

As today ends the Jubilee Year of Mercy, let us journey into a new year with continuing faith and hope in the Lord’s Mercy for us now and always.

MEXICAN MOTHER of MERCY

As we near the last weeks of this Year of Mercy, we present

VENERABLE MARIA de JESUS GUIZAR BARRAGAN, the second Mexican to recently be named venerable by Pope Francis. She could be called a modern day saint of MERCY.  She was the  5th of 16 children born to Don Emiliano Guizar y Valencia and Lucia Barragan Guizar in 1899 in Cotija, Michoacan. She was a teacher of catechism in her early teens, showing the children the gentle face of the Father. She visited the sick and imprisoned showing the tenderness and mercy of God. The dying she told not to be afraid to go to the presence of such a good Father who gives mercy to all who are sorry for their sins.

As a young woman

At age 15 she suffered from a near fatal illness, leading to serious reflection, which led to her dedicating herself to God.

In 1961 she founded the Guadalupan Handmaids of Christ the Priest to care for elderly and sick priests.  About the priests she would say, if they have given everything for the Church our mother, then we must take care of them with love and mercy.Till her dying day she dedicated her life to the sanctification of priests.

She died in 1973.  At the centenary of her birth (1999)  the  Apostolic Nuncio Justo Mullor in his homily said: She is one of those voices that the Holy Spirit wants to be felt with urgency and insistence inviting all believers in the Church to purify not only our miseries and sins, but also superfluous cultural adhesions and to focus our personal and community lives in all that is essential and to put our wills in tune with the will of God.”  

Ministering to the poor

With her Community

She showed the tenderness and mercy of God to others and is a great example to the Mexican people.

NEW SAINTS FOR MEXICO

One of the new updates for sanctity announced recently by the Holy Father is VENERABLE PAUL MARIA GUZMAN FIGUEROA, founder of the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Holy Trinity. He was one of those people who left his mark, challenging fate amid adversity, while helping others to follow in the footsteps of Christ.

Venerable Paul was born on September 25, 1897, in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico.

In 1909 he moved to Queretaro, working as a telegrapher for two years and contemplating marriage. He went to school to become a pharmacist, even opening his own pharmacy, but then he met the Venerable Servant of God Father Felix Jesus Rougier, founder of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit. His life took a 180 degree turn and in1919, he entered the novitiate. 

In 1923 he was ordained, becoming a missionary in Mexico and in other Latin American countries. In 1936, he felt called to found the Congregation of the Eucharistic Missionaries of the Holy Trinity. The following year, he started the Missionary Auxiliary Daughters of Soledad de Maria, opening the doors to lay women who wanted to join his work. The two foundations live the Spirituality of the Cross.

Because he was interested in Catholic education, he opened several colleges along with Mother Enriqueta Rodriguez Noriega. Taking advantage of modern travel, he transversed the world spreading the faith and making new foundations.

 He was always grateful to God for the gift of priesthood. He was a priest close to the people, frequently visiting their homes and encouraging them with his infectious joy. He sought holiness in the simple things every day.

On February 17, 1967, in Mexico City, he died with a reputation for holiness. The slogan that marked his priestly life was "God and souls."