ANOTHER ARGENTINE

 

 

As we just bured our Holy Father Pope Francis, we have another young man from his native land. Amazingly, he comes fom the same area in Argentina as  Victor Schiavoni (past Blog).  SERVANT OF GOD CARLOS RODOLFO YARYEZ also was born in Paraná, earlier than Victor (1977) and both young men died of the same dread disease. He was the son of Clotilde Zunino and José Angel Yaryez, and brother of José Luis Yaryez. His parents and his only brother provided a Christian environment for his childhood, filled with mischief and games, but also with a marked spiritual tendency.

Born in 1969, he spent the first 4 years of his childhood in the village of Tabossi and, at the end of 1972, his parents moved permanently to the city of Paraná where he lived until his death.

He completed his primary education in Paraná, and his secondary education at Technical School No. 3 "Tte. Luis Candelaria"; then pursued a degree in Electromechanical Engineering at the National Technological University, Paraná Region.

At 16, he joined a study group on the Social Doctrine of the Church and later joined the ranks of Catholic Action Argentina at the Parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, Cathedral of Paraná. He was an active member, serving as a junior youth delegate and later as diocesan vice president of the Catholic Action Youth until his death. He was a great educator of young people to whom he transmitted his Christian joy.

 His school friends comment that, at that age, his transformation was noticeable. From his slovenly style of dress and somewhat careless speech (which earned him the nickname "the Indian"), one could see a change in his taste for certain music, his improved academic performance, and his respect for elders and women. This change was so significant that his classmates were careful about their speech and behavior when Carlos was present.

Upon joining Catholic Action, he met his girlfriend, who shared his joy, pain, and illness. He dated her for almost six years, where prayer, the virtue of chastity, and purity kept them united until the end.

His spiritual life deepened through frequent Communion and adoration, as well as Ignatian retreats. He  had a great devotion to the Virgin Mother, especially  Our Lady of the Rosary and Our Lady of Mount Carmel and prayed the rosary daily. 

 He knew how to see Jesus Christ in his neighbor, and so he did not hesitate to come to their aid, with true charity and apostolic zeal.

 His reputation for holiness was deeply felt by all those who knew him and shared different moments in his life, when he shone with his sense of humor, his faithfulness as a friend, and his profound spirituality. So much so that a plaque bearing his name hangs in the Youth Room at the Archdiocesan Headquarters of Catholic Action, and another can also be seen at the San Martin Regional Hospital, at the entrance to the Hemotherapy and Immunohematology Section.

His trust in the Divine Will sustained him until his last breath. He passed away on October 30, 1990, in Gracia de Dios, surrounded by a priest and the love of his family, friends, and girlfriend.

He accepted his illness and his suffering with Faith. No one heard him complain. He knew that his suffering had meaning and that the Lord was giving him this opportunity to give himself, with love, for a greater good, which he didn't know about, but which he trusted would bear fruit at some time or place.

 

DIVINE MERCY

 

                                                  Kataryna Shadrina- Ukraine

Cardinal Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, presided over the solemn Mass for DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY held in St. Peter’s Square, highlighting the need for the Church to follow in Pope Francis’ footsteps as “instruments of mercy for humanity” in the world today. 

“Only mercy heals and creates a new world, putting out the fires of distrust, hatred and violence: this is the great teaching of Pope Francis…

It is precisely the Father’s mercy, which is greater than our limitations and calculations, that characterized the Magisterium of Pope Francis and his intense apostolic activity.

Jesus comes to meet you where you are, to give you the courage to live, to share your experiences, your thoughts, your gifts, and your dreams. He comes to you in the face of those near or far, a brother and sister to love.”

"There is nothing that man needs more than Divine Mercy – that love which is benevolent, which is compassionate, which raises man above his weakness to the infinite heights of the holiness of God."

                                  —Shrine of Divine Mercy in Cracow, Poland on June 7, 1997

THE POPE OF PEACE AND HOPE - BURIED

 

Cardinal Bychok, who leads the Ukrainian Catholic eparchy of Melbourne (Australia), said in a tribute to Pope Francis that reflects the thoughts of many as today we bury the Holy Father:  

 “Each Pontiff imparts his own personal character on the Church. The Holy Father Francis was a Pope for the marginalized and those on the periphery. He was a man of simple piety who strove to bring the Church closer to people. His gave freely of his gifts and had a unique personal approach to all he met.

 Pope Francis was a Pope of peace. In a world devastated by war he called for peace and justice… the Holy Father was a strong defender of life and the dignity of every person. He worked for the healing of divisions between East and West and for a greater understanding of other faiths, building on that which we have in common rather than our differences.

 Building on the work of his illustrious predecessor Benedict XVI of blessed memory, Pope Francis apologized to survivors of abuse and set in place simpler procedures to deal with perpetrators. He began to implement a culture of safeguarding for the most vulnerable. Work that must continue into the future.

 I ask all Catholics and people of good will to pray for the eternal repose of the late Holy Father giving thanks for his life and the gifts that he freely shared.”

In another tribute, Father Arturo Sosa, SJ, superior general of the Society of Jesus, reflected on the first Jesuit pope, saying Pope Francis “did not seek to please everyone” or to measure himself by a popularity index. Once he chose to be a disciple of Jesus, his deep motivation in life was to put God’s will into practice…. He was “a man of prayer, who asked for prayers to make decisions according to the will of God.”

 “Pope Francis helped put the difference of positions on the table. I don’t think of Pope Francis as a reformer. I think of him as someone who continued the reform that the Church has always carried out.”

 “Pope Francis’ most urgent legacy for today will be his calls for peace. I think Pope Francis has shouted in every moment, on every occasion, about peace. The world needs peace and peace is built by us. Peace means to put aside any other priority than people and the dignity of people. And peace means justice with the poor. I think the constant prayer and the constant argument about peace by Pope Francis is a very important message for today.”

It is not a coincidence that Pope Francis died part way through 2025, in the year he had proclaimed a Jubilee of HOPE, for many have called him the pope of Hope.

In his own words, the Holy Father written:  “In times like the ones we are living, in which the Third World War being fought ‘piecemeal’ that is unfolding before our eyes can lead us to assume attitudes of gloomy discouragement and ill-concealed cynicism.”

Hope is “the hinge on which the world remains standing, despite all the wickedness and nefariousness caused by our sins as men and women.

To hope, then, is to welcome this gift that God offers us every day. To hope is to savor the wonder of being loved, sought, desired by a God who has not shut Himself away in His impenetrable heavens but has made Himself flesh and blood, history and days, to share our lot.”

RISEN WITH CHRIST

 

As we get ready to bury our Argentinian Pope, we consider several young people from Argentina who are being considered for canonization The youngest, VICTOR SCHIAVONI was born on Nov. 24, 1977, in the Argentine district of Nogoyá, the oldest of five boys.

From an early age he showed a natural inclination towards the things of the Lord, he served as an altar boy at Mass and participated in parish activities. He attended primary school at the “Castro Barrios San José” College of the Franciscan Missionary Tertiary Sisters with good results.

Feeling the call to the priesthood from an early age, after much prayer, he entered the Minor Seminary of Paraná in 1991. In the three years he spent in the seminary he matured both in his studies and in his spirituality. He proved to be a wise young man, capable of working on his own defects to conform himself more and more to Christ, the only love of his life.

 He strove, following the instructions of his superiors, to resemble Jesus in everything, from the simplicity of his clothing to the most difficult virtue of forgiveness, which he always offered even when grave wrongs were done to him.

Victor was also very devoted to the Virgin Mary and, during a visit to the Virgin of Luján, on May 8, 1995, the first symptoms of the disease appeared. At first he did not pay attention to them, thinking they were something temporary, but as the pain persisted, he has some tests done, which at first yielded nothing.

 He was then diagnosed with leukemia, necessitating frequent hospitalizations at the San Martín de Paraná Hospital for radiation and chemotherapy sessions and for blood transfusions. His sanctity was not hidden from those close to him and his superiors themselves were strongly convinced of it.

Victor endured the disease with great heroism, never complaining, even when he returned from radiotherapy sessions and could not even stand up, remaining calm, offering his suffering to the Lord. Even when his illness worsened, he continued to live his suffering with great faith, instilling peace in all those around him, so much so that he aroused the admiration of the doctors and the staff who treated him.

Victor died on September 7, 1995 on the eve of the Nativity of Mary. Brought back to his hometown, after the solemn funeral, he was buried in the local cemetery, where the tomb is often visited by people, who entrust their prayers to the young man.

On March 28, 2023, with a rescript of the Holy See, the Nihil Obstat was granted for the opening of the Beatification Process.

Victor wanted to become a priest, but he did not succeed but in his short life, made up of ordinary things, yet he demonstrated a life which conformed to Christ, giving his whole heart to Him. Such a rare life in today's world.

THE TIME OF LOVE

 

 

Spring bursts today,
For Christ is risen and all the earth’s at play.

Flash forth, thou Sun,
The rain is over and gone, its work is done.

Winter is past,
Sweet Spring is come at last, is come at last.

Bud, Fig and Vine,
Bud, Olive, fat with fruit and oil and wine.

Break forth this morn
In roses, thou but yesterday a Thorn.

Uplift thy head,
O pure white Lily through the Winter dead.

Beside your dams
Leap and rejoice, you merry-making Lambs.

All Herds and Flocks
Rejoice, all Beasts of thickets and of rocks.

Sing, Creatures, sing,
Angels and Men and Birds and everything.

All notes of Doves
Fill all our world: this is the time of loves.

                Christina Rossetti

                        Artist:  Ivanka Demchuck- Ukraine

ANOTHER MODEL FOR YOUTH

 

SERVANT of GOD HELENA AGNIESZKA KMIEC was a young Polish missionary born in 1991 in Krakow and raised in a home of deep faith. She was related to Bishop Jan Zając, who was the brother of her grandfather. Helena's parents, father Jan from Libiąż and mother Agnieszka from Kraków, met while building a church in Olcza, Zakopane. Agnieszka died when Helena was six weeks old. She and her older sister were raised by their stepmother, Barbara.

She graduated from the High School of the Catholic Association of Educators in Libiąż. She was a scholarship holder of the Leweston School in Sherborne, England where she obtained her high school diploma, at the same time pursuing an individual course of study in her high school, from which she graduated in 2009.

In 2014, she obtained a master's degree in engineering at the Faculty of Chemistry of the Silesian University of Technology, where she studied technology and chemical engineering in English. After graduating, she worked as a flight attendant for an airline

  From a young age, she showed a strong love for Jesus, attending Mass almost daily and devoting herself to service. Helena’s life was centered around the Eucharist.  She was known for her joyful spirit and relatability and her social media showed her as an ordinary yet virtuous young woman. Her sister, Teresa, testified  to Helena’s living fully in the love of God while engaging actively in the world, highlighting that a close relationship with God brings happiness both on earth and in heaven.

 During her university studies at the Silesia University of Technology, she joined the Salvator Missionary Volunteer Service, serving in missions in Hungary, Zambia, and Romania. She especially dedicated herself to children and young people in vulnerable situations. 

 On 8 January 2017, together with Anita Szuwald, she went on a mission to Bolivia, where she planned to help the Servant Sisters of Dębica in an orphanage in Cochabamba until June.

She died on the night of 24–25 January, 2017, stabbed during an assault on the facility. She was only 26 years old. In March 2018, a Bolivian court sentenced her killer, Romualdo Mamio dos Santos, to 30 years in prison.

The Holy Mass preceding the funeral was presided over by Cardinal Stanisław Dziwisz.

 By the decision of the President of Poland in February, 2017, she was posthumously awarded the Gold Cross of Merit for her charitable and social activities and her commitment to people in need of help.

 After her death, her reputation for holiness became more well known, inspired by her life of dedication to God and her missionary service. In April 2024, the archbishop of Krakow announced the opening of her cause for beatification after receiving approval from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

 Currently, the Church is investigating her life and witness in the process that could lead to her being declared blessed.

In May 2017, the Society of the Divine Savior established the Helena Kmieć Foundation to promote help children and youth in mission countries.

 On 18 August 2017, during a ceremonial session of the Libiąż City Council, a unanimous decision was made to posthumously grant Helena Kmieć the title of Honorary Citizen of the City of Libiąż. A motion to rename Kościelna Street to Helena Kmieć Street was also unanimously approved.

 In January 2020, she became patron of the Catholic Primary School in Warsaw.

HANGING OUT THE ALLELUIAS

 

In the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene.

 The tomb, the tomb, that

Was her core and care, her one sore.

The light had hardly scarleted the dark

Or the first bird sung when Mary came in sight

With eager feet. Grief, like last night’s frost,

Whitened her face and tightened all her tears.

It was there, then, there at the blinding turn

Of the bare future that she met her past.

She only heard his Angel tell her how

The holding stone broke open and gave birth

To her dear Lord, and how his shadow ran

To meet him like a dog.

And as the sun

Burns through the simmering muslins of the mist,

Slowly his darkened voice, that seemed like doubt,

Morninged into noon; the summering bees

Mounted and boiled over in the bell-flowers.

‘Come out of your jail, Mary,’ he said, ‘the doors are open

And joy has its ear cocked for your coming.

Earth now is no place to mope in. So throw away

Your doubt, cast every clout of care,

Hang all your hallelujahs out

This airy day.’

from “Resurrection: An Easter Sequence” by the Irish poet, W. R. Rodgers, 1952

Art work:  Donald Jackson (British), St. John's Bible

EASTER

 

This very long poem is a good meditation for Easter. Having come out of Lent and Holy Week, we find that spring has sprung us many colors and light.  May the risen Lord, bring light and joy to all.  This poem is by SERVANT of GOD MARIE ROUGET (called “the Warbler of Auxerre”) who died in 1967, at the age of  84. Some consider her the greatest French poet of their time.

                                        Kateryna Shadrina

Hallelujah! Make, O sun, the house new! 

My sisters, let each of you move

With the hands of a housewife and cheerful fingers...

It’s Easter! Let's throw out the dark dust,

Let's scrub the keys and locks with fine sand,

So that the door can open in peace. Resurrection: Ivanka Demchuk- Ukraine

 

Wax gently, wax lively the cupboard doors,

The window laughs in their shimmer!

Scrub! Let it gleam in the glow of the floor.

Let's dress her curtains in fresh muslin...

What a work! Did we bake the filbert cake

            And put a bouquet on the table?

 

Hallelujah! We are done being dead,

From fasting, from closing our doors,

The heart closed and guarded by pious fears.

The priest delivered the flame and the wild waters,

Our soul goes out and has fun with our words

And our youth in our eyes.

 

Open wide the door to Holy Week.

My heart inside me skips and rings   

As well as a bright gold bell that fell silent

And returns from Rome after the mystical times

Giving me flight and the tone of the hymns

For the joy of salvation.

 

But with my basket I have to go away

Looking for fresh eggs in the straw...

In the surrounding vineyards the crocuses have bloomed

In circles of gold and holding their green hands.

I've seen in the ditch nests of violets

And cuckoos on the slopes.

The chickens have laid eggs far away in the countryside.

In the morning who accompanies me?

Come alone with me, my beloved...

What word did I say before I thought about it?

Where is this beloved, says, my little one?

Whom by such a name have you named?

 Is it Jesus, O I who knows no man?

The martyred God that in his sleep

Yesterday we stayed up all night in the choir,

Crying out for love over his tomb, of veiled grief?

Is it sweet Spring and his winged seeds

Who blew into our hearts?'

My beloved, it is only a word, it is no one,

            But to have said it makes me shudder

And I am fragrant and I am rumored

Like a fiancée to the king who loves her as a gift,

I shudder and feel like the earth, open

All big at the feet of the sower.

 

What seed in the distance floating is going to steal my soul?

            What is the grain she is claiming

To be with the flowers a flower of the summer

And to bear fruit when autumn comes? ...

He is soft, invisible and light, he hums

Through the enchanted wind.

 

What is Spring, O Jesus, my sweet Master?

            The Angel of revolt perhaps

Who changes at a glance both the earth and the waters

To seduce me and make me restless and rebellious,

-- I, who should be a quiet chapel to you --

            Like the grass and the twigs.

 

Ah! from him now will you be able to defend me?

            O Christ, you had to wait for him

On your cross of salvation every day without healing

And make me sink to my heart, from your wounds,

Your blood, so that looking for your thorns in the hedges,

            At your feet I love to die.

 

But this morning the Angel stirred the stone,

            O You standing in the light,

Resurrected from the dawn to the feet color of time,

You who in the garden met Mary,

What will you do, gardener of Easter in bloom,

To defend me from Spring?

(1907) Translation by Benjamin Crockett

THE HARROWING OF HELL

Your voice speaks to my soul:

 Be not afraid of my golden garments, have no fear of the rays of my candles,

For they are all but veils of my love, they are all but as tender hands covering my secret.

I will draw them away, weeping soul, that you may see I am no stranger to you.

How should a mother not resemble her child?

All your sorrows are in me.

I am born out of suffering, I have bloomed out of five holy wounds.

I grew on the tree of humiliation, I found strength in the bitter wine of tears.

I am a white rose in a chalice full of blood.

I live on suffering, I am the strength out of suffering, I am glory out of suffering:

Come to my soul and find your home.

 “Passion” (Exerpt) by Gertrud von Le Fort translated from the German 

by Margaret Chanle  in Hymns to the Church 1953

All during Holy Week we have been showing the art of Ukrainian artist Kateryna Shadrina. She has many icons of Jesus descending into hello to bring the souls awaiting His Glory.  Several of these icons have been labeled “Harrowing” of hell.  I had to look this one up. By definition harrowing in an adjective meaning extremely painful, agonizing, excruciating, torturous. We know that Jesus has died and cannot experience pain or suffering anymore, so the agony here refers to the poor souls waiting to be released from bondage.  

The artist's colors here are once again muted. I would sometime, when I have time, check dates when her icons were written, to see if there is a change after the Russian invasion.  In the past two years, this very young artist, has been busy at work.

In triumphant descent, Christ brought salvation to the souls held captive there since the beginning of the world. The Old Testament view of the afterlife was that all people when they died, whether righteous or unrighteous, went toSheol, a dark, still place. The realm into which Jesus descended is called Hell, in long-established English usage, but is really Limbo so-called by some Christian theologians to distinguish it from the Hell of the damned. 

The Harrowing of Hell is mentioned or suggested by several verses in the New Testament:

Matthew 12:40: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so for three days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the earth."

HOLY WEEK MEDITATION: FRIDAY

 

Kateryna Shadrina is known for her bold expressive use of unconventional palettes like the red, green, and purple with rich mixing of colors, but in her “Denial  of Peter”, we see more muted colors, perhaps giving us te dark side of this Apostle. Immediatly was he asking himslef, will the Lord ever forgive me? Had he then remembered all that Jesus had told him in terms of love- His great love for us all?

In Veil of Veronica we see Jesus again in the martyrs' red while other figures more muted tones. In the descent from the Cross most color is gone- to show us the life blood of our Savior is depleted. Kateryna uses color to portray the mood of each mystery, as seen by these icons.

Her exhibition at Iconart Gallery, Lviv, in 2022, entitled “Victima” reflected her views on sacrifice, faith, and love.

“Where there is true love, there will always be a place for sacrifice. Sacrifice can be considered as the level at which the power of love is measured. And the standard in this is God – the perfection of love. He sacrificed the most precious thing for our hope. But in our pragmatic world, it is very difficult to weigh the pros and cons so that one’s sacrifice is not made in vain. We are focused on the terrestrial things, we catch the moment and don’t know exactly whether to think about the salvation of the soul and the kingdom of heaven.” 

Veil of Veronica

BODIES GIVEN- LIBERATION- HOLY WEEK 2025

 

 

 LIBERATION- AUSCHWITZ- PASSION WEEK- January of this year marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, where over one million people were murdered, most of whom were Jewish. It is fitting this Holy Week to ponder this horrid part of history lest we forget and start all over again the discrimination and hatred mankind is capable of.

 80 years after the liberation, the world is again in crisis. We see in the world today a great increase in antisemitism, and it was antisemitism that led to the Holocaust. Jewish-Christian values have been overshadowed worldwide by prejudice, fear, suspicion and fanaticism.

 "The act of remembering the evils of the past remains a vital task, and in so doing we inform our present and shape our future," King Charles said during a visit to the Jewish Community Centre in Krakow.

 Until the liberation of some 7 thousand prisoners remaining at the site of the camp by soldiers of the Red Army, the German Nazis murdered approx. 1.1 million people in Auschwitz, mostly Jews, but also Poles, the Roma, Soviet prisoners of war, and people of other nationalities.

For the world today, Auschwitz is a symbol of the Holocaust and the atrocities of World War II. In 2005 the United Nations declared 27 January as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Having visited it myself  in 1998, I can testify that it is a life-changing experience- one you never forget.  And if all these neo- Natzis, white suprematists, etc. were to visit, they would change their attitude fast!  

This Holy Week we pray that violence, hatred and down right ignorance be eradicated.  And we all need to look into our own hearts for where we have failed in judging others.   Lord have Mercy on us all!  

Art: Kataryna Shadrina- Ukraine ( Waiting for Salvation)