Tuesday,
the Holy Father Pope Francis wrote a letter to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas,
the apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, marking the 1,000th day since the Russian
invasion.
On
Wednesday, the Holy Father, visibly moved, read a letter a Ukrainian student had sent to him. The student, whose name was not announced, expressed the desire for the Pope and all
pilgrims at the Wednesday audience to know of the faith, and not just the
sufferings of the people of Ukraine.
Pope
Francis announced today that Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed
Pier Giorgio Frassati, two of our favorite young Catholics beloved for
their vibrant faith and witness to holiness, will be canonized during two major
jubilee celebrations dedicated to young people 2025.
Blessed Carlos will be canonized during the Jubilee of Teenagers, from April 25 to 27, and Blessed Pier will be canonized during the Jubilee of Youth, taking place from July 28 to August 3.
BL. MALGORZATA LUCJA (Margaret Lucy) SZEWCZYK was born in 1828 in
Szeptówka in Volyn, Ukraine (now Poland)
to a noble family. Orphaned at an early age, she was cared for by her
half-sister. In the difficult situation of partitions and
persecution of the Church at the age of 20, she made her tertiary profession in
the Third Order of St Francis.
With the aid of her confessor Bl Honoratus (Capuchin priest), she founded the Congregation, which with time came to be known as the Daughters of the Sorrowful Mother of God – Seraphic Sisters.
After 10 years, she moved to Galicia. She built a convent in Oświęcim (Auschwitz) which became the General House of the congregation whose aim is to bring help to the deserted and sick, as well as to educate the children of orphanages and shelters. She died on 5 June 1905.
She was then beatified together with another religious and founder of the congregation, Zofia Czeska-Maciejowska, on June 9, 2013, in the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the ceremony on behalf of Pope Francis .
Her feast day is June 5.
The main theme of this Blog is sanctity- that of others, as well as our own. How you may ask can we ever hope to be like someone who reached perfection in this life? We tend to forget that they were human with all the negative traits we possess. Some knew sin before a conversion, some experienced depression, discouragement, hopelessness. Others dealt with hatred, lack of care of others, selfishness. For every problem we experience in our own life, there is a saint who experienced the same suffering in their life.
In April 2019, we considered the life of a young nun who died in an earthquake in Ecuador. She, along with an American Benedictine nun, is now being considered for canonization. In her short life she knew sin, hated in her Irish town, and had a major conversion, even though she thought she wanted to be “famous”.
SISTER CLARE CROCKETT’s early life was like so many teenagers today – caught up in the fast pace, fun loving world, oblivious of where they were being led.
For more on her life, I highly recommend the 90 minute movie "All or Nothng" which can be viewed on Youtube.The postulator of the cause of Sister Clare is Sister Kristen Gardner, a member Sister Clare’s order, the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother. In 2020 she wrote a biography about Sister Clare titled "Sister Clare Crockett: Alone with Christ Alone".
Father Gerard Mongan, parish priest of Sr. Clare’s native parish of St. Columba’s, in Derry, said she is already credited with bringing many back to the faith through her conversion story.
Perhaps a less typical, hopefully soon to be saint, is the Benedictine nun, SERVANT OF GOD SISTER ANNELLA ZERVAS (see Blog June 24, 2017) from Moorhead, Minnesota., She was born in 1900, the second of six children into a devoutly Catholic family.
After her death, people began to report receiving favors and miracles through her intercession.
Patrick Norton, a Minnesota man, born in 1962 in India, was rescued from the streets of Mumbai by sisters from the Missionaries of Charity, the congregation of (St.) Mother Teresa. He was adopted by a wealthy couple from Fairfield, Connecticut, and raised Catholic along with 13 adopted siblings.
.jpg)
She certainly is one to pray to for any skin ailment.
Sister Clare and Sister
Annella’s short lives can be an inspiration on how each of us can pursue
holiness in our own life, reminding us that God calls each of us to sanctity in
a unique way- no two saints are alike!
In the previous Blog, we mentioned ST. LUIGI ORIONE, who was instrumental in Bl. Teresa Grillo Michel’s work in South America.
St Luigi was born in Piedmont, Northern Italy, at Pontecurone, a village near Tortona in 1872. His father was a road digger and his mother was a woman of deep faith and well-educated.
The
young Luigi felt he wanted to be a priest and joined the Franciscans, but had
to leave due to ill health. He was welcomed by St. John Bosco, but left the
Salesians after a few years to become a seminarian in his own Diocese of
Tortona.
While still a student, he started his lifelong work for those he loved most, namely the poor. He catechized a small group of boys who readily followed him. Dom Orione drew people to himself throughout his life. They came to be with him; some to help him, others to be helped.
Dom Orione loved everybody but the poor, the young, the elderly, the sick and
people with disabilities were his special friends.
At just 20 years of age, he had great insight into the problems and needs of his age. “There is a supreme need and a supreme remedy for healing the wounds of this poor country that is so beautiful but so unfortunate! Take hold of the hearts and affections of the people and enlighten the youth: pour into everyone the great idea of Catholic redemption with and for the Pope. Souls! Souls!"
At
his first Mass in 1895, he prayed that those who came to him would always be
granted “bread, peace and paradise”.
He established a number of religious and lay groups, each with a different charism. The Hermits of Divine Providence followed the motto of St. Benedict Ora et Labora, staffing agricultural schools in rural areas.
After the December 1908 earthquake that left 90,000 dead among the ruins, Dom Orione went to Reggio Calabria and Messina to help, especially the orphaned children and became a promoter of civil and religious works of reconstruction. At the express wish of Pope Pius X he was appointed Vicar General of Messina diocese.
Three years later he left Sicily, dedicating himself to the formation and development of the Congregation. In December 1913, he sent the first expedition of missionaries to Brazil. He again carried out heroic activity aiding those affected by the earthquake of January 1915 that shook Marsica and left almost 30,000 victims.
During the early years of the First world War, Dom Orione travelled the length and breadth of Italy many times to support various charitable activities, to give spiritual and material aid to people at all levels of society, and to support and nurture priestly and religious vocations.
His
feast is March 12.
.jpg)
They say we are known by the company we keep. The next two Blogs show us once again, how saints influenced one another in the same time frame. Unlike so many of our modern-day “heroes” whom we admire from afar, the saints challenge us and in many cases they show us how they influenced one another, showing them the way to holiness.
BLESSED TERESA GRILLO MICHEL was born in Spinetta Marengo, (Sardinia) Italy, in 1855. She was the fifth and last child of Giuseppe, the head physician at the Civil Hospital of Alessandria, and of Maria Antonietta Parvopassau, a descendent of an illustrious family of Alessandria. At Baptism she was given the name of Maddalena.
After the death of her father, the family moved to Turin, where Maddalena attended elementary school and her mother supervised the university studies of Francesco, her elder brother. When Maddalena finished elementary school, she was sent to a boarding school run by the Ladies of Loretto in Lodi, where she passed her final exams at the age of 18.
After leaving school, she returned to Alessandria, where under her mother's guidance, she was introduced to society. It was here that she met her future husband, Giovanni Michel, a cultured and brilliant captain of the Bersaglieri. After their wedding on 2 August 1877, they moved first to Caserta, then to Acireale, Catania, Portici and, lastly, Naples.
Nevertheless, the solidarity and affection of the poor, of generous persons and of the women who worked with her were evident. Following many requests to the ecclesiastical authorities, in 1899 Teresa Grillo was clothed with the religious habit in the small chapel at the Little Shelter, together with eight of her co-workers, founding the Congregation of the Little Sisters of Divine Providence.
In her remaining 45 years, her primary concern was to spread and build up the institute. In fact, immediately after its foundation, her community opened houses at various places in Piedmont, and soon spread to the Veneto, Lombardy, Liguria, Apulia and Lucania.
In 1900 the institute was extended to Brazil, and in 1927, at the request of St. Luigi Orione, she established houses in Argentina. Our blessed also knew and befriended Bl.Clelia Merloni (see Blog Nov. 2018), supporting her initiatives and encouraging Bl. Clelia after she was ousted from her own religios order. The two would meet whenever Bl. Teresa was in Rome.
Sparing no effort, Bl. Teresa inspired and encouraged her sisters with her caring and charismatic presence in the community. As many as eight times she crossed the ocean to visit Latin America, where at her request numerous foundations sprang up with nurseries, orphanages, schools, hospitals and homes for the elderly. She made her eighth voyage in 1928, at the age of 73.
On
8 June 1942 the Holy See granted the Congregation of the Little Sisters of
Divine Providence apostolic approval. Hard to imagine in the middle of a world war!
Her feast is celebrated January 25.
“For the Saints are sent to us by God as so many sermons. We do not use them, it is they who move us and lead us, to where we had not expected to go.” Charles Cardinal Journet (1891-1975)
ALL SAINTS DAY
Blessed are they whose baby-souls are bright,
Whose brows are sealèd with the cross of light,
Whom God Himself has deign’d to robe in white—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they who
follow through the wild
His sacred footprints, as a little child;
Who strive to keep their garments undefiled—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they who
commune with the Christ,
Midst holy angels, at the Eucharist—
Who aye seek sunlight through the rain and mist—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they—the
strong in faith and grace—
Who humbly fill their own appointed place;
They who with steadfast patience run the race—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they who
suffer and endure—
They who through thorns and briars walk safe and sure;
Gold in the fire made beautiful and pure!—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they on
whom the angels wait,
To keep them facing the celestial gate,
To help them keep their vows inviolate—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they to
whom, at dead of night,—
In work, in prayer—though veiled from mortal sight,
The great King’s messengers bring love and light—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they whose
labors only cease
When God decrees the quiet, sweet release;
Who lie down calmly in the sleep of peace—
Blessed are they!
Whose dust is angel-guarded, where the flowers
And soft moss cover it, in this earth of ours;
Whose souls are roaming in celestial bowers—
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they—our
precious ones—who trod
A pathway for us o’er the rock-strewn sod.
How are they number’d with the saints of God!
Blessed are they!
Blessed are they,
elected to sit down
With Christ, in that day of supreme renown,
When His own Bride shall wear her bridal crown—
Blessed are they!
Ada Cambridge, later known as Ada Cross,
was an English- born Australian writer (d. 1926)
In 1595, the Orthodox bishop of Brest-Litovsk in present-day Belarus and five other bishops representing millions of Ruthenians, sought reunion with Rome. Our saint was to dedicate his life, and die for this cause.
Born in what is now Ukraine, John Kunsevich, who took the name (ST.) JOSAPHAT in religious life, went to work in Wilno and was influenced by clergy adhering to the 1596 Union of Brest. He became a Basilian monk, then a priest, and soon was well known as a preacher and an ascetic.
At a relatively young age, upon becoming both bishop of Vitebsk and archbishop of Polotsk, Josaphat faced a difficult situation. Most monks, fearing interference in liturgy and customs, did not want union with Rome. By synods, catechetical instruction, reform of the clergy, and personal example, however, Josaphat was successful in winning the greater part of the Orthodox in that area to the union.
But the next year a dissident hierarchy was set up, and his opposite number spread the accusation that Josaphat had “gone Latin” and that all his people would have to do the same. He was not enthusiastically supported by the Latin bishops of Poland.
Despite warnings, he went to Vitebsk, still a hotbed of trouble. Attempts were made to foment trouble and drive him from the diocese: A priest was sent to shout insults to him from his own courtyard. When Josaphat had him removed and shut up in his house, the opposition rang the town hall bell, and a mob assembled.
The priest was released, but members of the mob broke into the bishop’s home. Josaphat was struck with a halberd, then shot, and his body thrown into the river. It was later recovered and is now buried in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. He was the first saint of the Eastern Church to be canonized by Rome.
In 1964, newspaper photos showed Pope Paul VI embracing Athenagoras I, the Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople. This marked a significant step toward the healing of a division in Christendom that has spanned more than nine centuries. May this saint intercede for his modern day people that they may once again know unity in their homeland.
In 1856, during the Puget Sound War, Kiki is said to have conveyed a warning from her father to the citizens of Seattle regarding an imminent attack by a large native coalition force. Thanks to this warning, the settlers and neutral native tribespeople were able to protect themselves during the resulting Battle of Seattle.
The
1855 Treaty of Point Elliott required that
all Duwamish Indians leave their land for
reservations, but Kikisoblu remained in Seattle in a waterfront cabin on
Western Avenue between Pike and Pine Streets, near what is now Pike Place
Market and earned a living doing laundry, making baskets and
collecting shellfish along the shores of Puget Sound.
She
got a lot of attention as Chief Seattle’s daughter and many photographs were
taken of her and used on all kinds of souvenir items. In photos, Kikisoblu most
often appears wearing a red bandana, shawl, and many layers of clothing. She
was photographed by many famous people such as Edward S.
Curtis. She would get a dollar when someone took her photo.
Chief
Seattle was confirmed in 1864 and married in the Catholic Church in 1865. When
he died in 1866, he was buried at St. Peter’s cemetery at Suquamish. But his
baptismal record wasn’t found until 2018, when Joan Byrne, an archives
volunteer, was translating sacramental registers written in French by
missionary priests. The record shows he was baptized Noé (Noah) Siyatle on
March 17, 1857, when he was about 71 years old.
Princess Angeline seemed quite a “character” and was known for always having a cigarette, but not so well known for always carrying her rosary and crucifix. Showing her crucifix to people, she would say, “this is my friend”.
She was buried (in a canoe-shaped coffin) in Lake View Cemetery on Capitol Hill, next to her friend, founding father, Henry Yesler. Years later, Seattle schoolchildren raised money for a headstone.
The Chronicle
of Holy Names Academy reported:
"May 29, 1896. With the death of Angeline Seattle died the last of the direct descendants of the great Chief Seattle for whom this city was named. Angeline—Princess Angeline—as she was generally called, was famous all over the world… Angeline was a familiar figure of the streets, bent and wrinkled, a red handkerchief over her head, a shawl about her, walking slowly and painfully with the aid of a cane; it was no infrequent sight to see this poor old Indian woman seated on the sidewalk devoutly reciting her beads. The kindness and generosity of Seattle's people toward the daughter of the chief… was shown in her funeral obsequies which took place from the Church of Our Lady of Good Help. The church was magnificently decorated; on the somber draped catafalque in a casket in the form of a canoe rested all that was mortal of Princess Angeline."
Due
to the close relationship between Seattle's indigenous population and the
region's orca population, one of the Southern
resident orcas, J17, was nicknamed Princess Angeline after
Kikisoblu. J17's
fourth calf, J53 Kiki, was also named after Kikisoblu.
Two
years ago, a rosary that belonged to Princess Angeline, was gifted to the
Duwamish Tribe by the Archdiocese of Seattle.
“Because
she is the daughter of our chief … to have that little rosary coming back to
the tribe, that is so moving. To me, it’s really spiritual,” said Cecile
Hansen, Chief Seattle’s great-great-grandniece who is a lifelong Catholic and
the longtime chairwoman of the Duwamish Tribal Council.
She
appears to have been eccentric, but how many saints were called so in their
lifetime and even today, by us lesser mortals?
Photos:
Top
& Bottom. Edward Curtis
Middle:
Her "shack with her dog and walking in Seattle
It never ceases to amaze me how many women of the past were great contributors to science, the arts and other fields, but only now are receiving recognition. Of late we find four nuns who were recruited by the Vatican to measure and map stars from plate-glass photographs. They cataloged the brightness and locations of almost half a million stars during their years of hard work.
All four sisters were originally expected to work as nurses. However, at the request of Jesuit Father John Hagen, who had previously headed the observatory at Georgetown University, USA, they joined the Vatican Observatory's star mapping project in the early 1900s. The nuns worked between 1909 and 1929, and their discoveries were published in a 10-volume catalog.
In 1909, Father Hagen approached the Superior General of the Suore di Maria Bambini, as he needed "two sisters with normal eyesight, patience and an aptitude for methodical and mechanical work". With reservations on the part of the General Council of the order, which specialized in nursing and education, two and later four sisters were sent.
And while the sisters were received and honored by Popes Benedict XV (1914-1922) and Pius XI (1922 to 1939), their work fell into oblivion.
Father Sabino Maffeo, a Jesuit priest who works at the Vatican Observatory, found their names while organizing papers for the archives. Today, the project to which the nuns contributed is as obscure as the nuns themselves, but at the time it was one of the largest scientific undertakings in history.
In honor of their accomplishments, Vatican Observatory astronomers suggested asteroids be named after them. All were approved and now have stars named for them.
The asteroids are named: (627981) Ponzoni, (634659) Colombo, (709193) Concettafinardi, and (714305) Panceri.
Tomorrow, October 24, Pope Francis will release his fourth encyclical.“DILEXIT NOS” - Encyclical Letter on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ,” centers around the SACRED HEART of JESUS. Its release coincides with the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1673) that led to devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These apparitions, which took place at the convent of Paray-le-Monial in Burgundy, continued for 17 years.
During these apparitions, Jesus revealed His heart, which was crowned with thorns and surrounded by flames. He gave St Margaret Marythe mission to share His love, especially, His love for sinners.
In 1956 Pope Pius XII, wrote his own encyclical on the devotion, Haurietis aquas, which emphasized the devotion's importance for the Church's needs and its potential as a “banner of salvation” for the modern world.
Pope Benedict XVI, in a letter commemorating the 50th anniversary of Haurietis Aquas, reinforced this sentiment, saying, “This mystery of God's love for us is not only the content of devotion to the Heart of Jesus; it is also at the heart of all true Christian spirituality.”
In a past Blog (June 2019), I wrote of my Jesuit spiritual director, Father Alban J. Dachauer at Creighton University, who wrote The Sacred Heart: A Commentary on Haurietis Aquas (1959).
“Mother of Christ,
help me to be willing
to accept the suffering
that is the condition of love.
Help me accept
the grief
of seeing those whom I love suffer,
and when they die
let me share in their death
by compassion.
Give me the faith
that knows Christ
in them,
and knows that His love
is the key
to the mystery of suffering.
Help me,
Blessed Mother,
to see with your eyes,
to think with your mind,
to accept with your will.
Help me to believe
that it is Christ
who suffers in innocent children,
in those who die in the flower of life,
in those whose death is an act
of reparation,
in those who are sacrificed
for others.
Remind me
that their suffering
is Christ’s love
healing the world,
and when I suffer for them
and with them,
I too am given the power
of His redeeming love.”
Caryll Houselander
SERVANT OF GOD FATHER
BERNARD J. QUINN, was born in 1888 in Newark,
New Jersey, to Irish immigrant parents, one of seven children. The father, (also Bernard) supported his family as a longshoreman. They were poor but deeply
religious and happy
Father Bernard was the founding pastor of St. Peter Claver Church, the first parish established for Black Catholics in the Diocese of Brooklyn in 1922. Ten years later, in 1932, he opened the Church of St. Benedict the Moor in Jamaica, New York. Father Quinn was also the founder of Little Flower House of Providence Orphanage in Wading River, New York, the precursor of Little Flower Children’s Services. This was an enormous undertaking at the time, in an era when racism and prejudice were facts of life. In his first pastoral letter to his parishioners’ on June 1, 1922, Father Quinn pledged to”…willingly shed to the last drop, my life’s blood for the least among you.”
Bernard attended St. Michael’s school where his elementary
school teacher, Sr. Modesta, D.C. had an enduring influence on him by teaching him
how greatly Jesus loved him. Bernard would feel the love of the Lord as
an intimate friend for all his life.
Inspired by the example of his parish priest, Fr. William Richmond, Bernard showed a strong interest in the priesthood and entered St. Charles College, a high school and college preparatory seminary in Ellicott City, Maryland.
Upon his graduation he was not lucky to be provided a place in a seminary to continue his studies for the priesthood in his diocese and was recommended to the Brooklyn Diocese where he entered St. John’s Seminary in 1906, directed by the Vincentian priests. While Bernard was very sociable and athletic, his love for Jesus grew deeper..
In the course of preparing two Black women for Baptism in the Church, Father Quinn was inspired to begin an apostolate to Blacks, who he lamented, were neglected by the diocese. He expressed his interest to Bishop Charles McDonnell, but he could not give Father Quinn an attentive ear, since he was very pre-occupied in recruiting chaplains to serve the American forces fighting overseas in the First World War.
Returning to the diocese in 1919, Father Quinn received permission the following year from Bishop McDonnell to begin his mission to the Black people of Brooklyn, and he took to the streets in search of his flock. The Colored Catholic Club joined forces with him in raising funds to start their church. A former Protestant church that had been converted into a warehouse depot was bought by Father Quinn and restored.The building was blessed and dedicated to St. Peter Claver, February 26, 1922.
With the growing state of homelessness among Black children in the late 1920’s prior to the 1929 Depression, Father Quinn responded by buying land in Wading River, Long Island and setting up an orphanage there for them in 1928. The local Wading River residents were however enraged by his opening a home for Black children in their community. The KKK led the residents in a firestorm of opposition against the orphanage and burnt it down to the ground. Father Quinn was not intimidated by his hate-filled opponents and quickly built a second structure but that too was totally incinerated. He did not buckle under the forces of hate and courageously stood up to the KKK and their followers, in his unflinching determination to keep the orphanage where it was.
Soon after the dedication of the new orphanage, Father Quinn completed his new Parish Institute, a multi-purpose building encompassing the parish school, convent and parish center. The latter contained a gymnasium with a stage for performances. There was also an indoor running track, basement bowling lanes, doctor’s clinic, and meeting and storage rooms. The Beaux-Arts citadel type building was not only prized by the parish but it was the pride of all Brooklyn, receiving a bronze plaque in 1932 from the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for being "the most distinguished building of matchless proportions to be erected in the borough" in 1931.
Father Quinn succeeded in achieving high academic standards for his parish school, comparable to the best schools of the diocese. The sports program at the parish center also excelled in city-wide championships, particularly baseball. With is open door policy in admitting people to the parish, irrespective of their race or religion, Blacks flocked to the parish center from all parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan to play basketball and other sports. White youths played there as well. The parish institute became a Mecca for entertainment for the Black community of the area.
A man of prayer, Father Quinn spent free moments during the day before the Blessed Sacrament. He found fulfillment in his daily celebration of the Eucharist, which nourished him spiritually and provided the stamina which he bore valiantly for his work. The rosary was very much a daily prayer and he had a most profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Father’s own heart, like the heart of Christ, flowed over with endless outpouring of God’s love for those who were down-and-out, the hapless sinner and all who needed his services.
Father
Quinn died at 52 years of age on April 7, 1940. Thousands of people at the
funeral mourned his death but celebrated his passing into everlasting
life.
