MEDITATIONS FOR HOLY WEEK

 

One Ukrainian artist stands out for her colorful, yet finely detailed work.  More than any artist, KATERYNA SHADRINA highlights Holy Week, and  while we have shown her work in several Blogs, we have never showcased her.  

In her "Kiss of Judas", she uses bright yellow to make Jesus the central focus of the painting. Judas is given purple as a secondary color and the apostles, who are not crucial to the event, are given the same treatment of blue.  

“There is no trial more painful to a feeling heart than to be betrayed, and there never has been more frightful treachery than that of Judas, and yet observe with what meekness and patience Jesus submits to what is a source of such acute sorrow to His tender Heart. He repels not that unnatural monster of ingratitude, but receives him with humility and sweetness, and embraces him with every demonstration of the most ardent charity. He selects this last moment to bestow upon His betrayer the tenderest additional proofs of unbounded love, and by the interior movements of His grace and exterior demonstrations of friendship, He calls, invites, and urges him to repent and be converted. Oh, charity of my Jesus! When will you also learn not to resent an offense, and not to be so unforgiving toward those who offend you? When will you learn from the example of Jesus to bear patiently any trifling injury?” THE SCHOOL OF JESUS CRUCIFIED, Fr. Ignatius of the Side of Jesus, 1895.

In "Christ and Pilot" Jesus wears the martyr's robe of red and is adorned with a halo (unlike the previous icon). Katernya is known for her vibrant colors.

 

PROCESSION SUNDAY

 

                                         John August Swanson - American (d. 2021)

Today we process into Holy Weeek, in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus. May it be a time of strength and renewal for all, leading us to the Joy that is to come.  

Come, bitter regret, pierce our hearts
Let go, my eyes! Well up, springs of sad tears!
The sun and stars recede, shrouding themselves in mourning.
The angels cry sadly. Who can describe their grief?
The cliffs harden; the dead arise from the earth.
I ask what is it, what has happened? All creation is stunned!
In the presence of the passion of Christ,
We are filled with inexpressible regret!
Jesus, shatter without delay the hardness of our hearts!
Quench the ardor of my passions as I enter the depths of your Passion.

POLISH HYMN- Loved by St. John Paul II

GOD'S WILL FOR A TEEN

 

SERVANT of GOD GUILIA GABRIELI was an Italian teenager. She enjoyed travelling, shopping and fashion. She also had a great talent for writing. When she was 12, she was diagnosed with sarcoma. Her faith in Christ shone during the last two years of her life. She was devoted to Our Lady and Bl. Chiara Luce Badano. Due to her heroic patience, even her doctors and nurses “found a new value for life.”

Giulia, born in 1997, grew up in Bergamo, in the San Tomaso de' Calvi neighborhood, together with her younger brother Davide. She was a normal girl with a sunny disposition, deeply Catholic. Among her passions were writing and dance.

 On August 1, 2009, while on vacation at the seaside with her family, Giulia noticed a swelling on her left hand. Initially, her parents thought it to be a simple insect bite. Later, when the symptoms did not abate, Giulia underwent a series of tests.

The diagnosis turned out to be one of the most aggressive sarcomas, which necessitated chemotherapy. Even though the disease had made her very weak and in pain, Giulia continued to go to school, brilliantly passing her 8th grade exams, which she had to take at home. Her chosen thesis was dedicated to war and the Shoah, accompanied by a critical analysis of Pablo Picasso 's painting "Guernica" .

 Giulia had a particular talent for writing, having been awarded twice for her stories. The pages she herself wrote about her experience of the disease were later collected and published in the book "Un ganci in mezzo al cielo" (A Hook in the Middle of the Sky).

In her illness, Giulia strove to never stray from the Lord, but rather come closer to Him. Yet there were moments of crisis in which she wondered if the Lord  had abandoned her.  Having gone to Padua for radiotherapy, she entered the Basilica of St Anthony where, she had a chance meeting with a woman in prayer.

As she was resting her hand on the saint’s tomb, the woman came over and placed her hand over hers. “She didn’t say anything to me, but she had a look on her face as if to say, ‘Don’t worry. Keep going. God is with you.’ I had walked into the basilica upset and in tears, and walked out with a smile and joyful at the thought that God has never abandoned me.” She found joy in facing her ordeal which would never abandon her again. .

Her joy was contagious and she was the one who consoled and supported relatives and friends, even surprising the doctors who assisted her, whom she jokingly called "her superheroes". Her spirit was an occasion for conversions even among them.   Pediatrician Pieremilio Cornelli commented, “I now understand the value of life and love; I experienced it in this young woman’s life.”

 A nurse named Bruna Togni adds, “When she [first] walked into the hospital, for me she was just another one of the patients I was used to seeing every day, but thanks to her I realized that I had only been living on the surface of reality. There was something about her, I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was powerful. I began thinking about what had led me to undertake such a special profession as nursing. I’ve learned to penetrate people’s hearts, to look into their eyes.” 

 After a first trip to Medjugorje, she became so close to Our Lady, that for her 14th birthday she asked for a second trip as a present, accompanied by about fifty relatives and friends to whom she had communicated her enthusiasm.

“I often feel sick. I am afraid of the effects of the therapy, but the thought that comes to me is that every day, He leads me on my way, step by step, alongside the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Mother. Just thinking that He is with me, that He is looking out for me, all this helps me to put on a smile and feel better.”

 Giulia died in Bergamo on the evening of August 19, 2011, while the Via Crucis for young people was taking place at the World Youth Day in Madrid. The bishop of Bergamo, Francesco Beschi, with whom Giulia had woven an intense spiritual dialogue, told her story.

 On 7 April 2019, at the Sanctuary of the Madonna dei Campi in Stezzano, Monsignor Beschi, in the presence of the postulator Fra Carlo Calloni and the vice-postulator Don Mattia Tomasoni, began the diocesan phase of the beatification process, proclaiming Giulia "Servant of God". 

A few months after her death, her family and friends established the Association con Giulia Onlus with the aim of carrying out the projects that Giulia had at heart especially for young people and sick children.

“Now I know that my story only has two possible endings: my complete healing, thanks to a miracle – something I am asking the Lord for, because I have many dreams I would like to fulfill. Or perhaps, encountering myself with the Lord, which is a beautiful thing. Both are good endings. The important thing, as Blessed Chiara Luce says, is that God’s will be done.” 

A NEW SAINT FOR POOR FRANCE

 

Another child who can be compared to Blessed Carlo Acutis, Venerable Matteo Farina, Pablo Maria de la Cruz, and Gaspard Clermont, and other children being considered for canonization, all of whom died prematurely, is SERVANT of GOD ANNE-GABRIELLE CARON, who was born in 2002 in Toulon, France. She was the eldest daughter of a naval officer, Alexandre Caron, and a literature teacher, Marie-Dauphine Caron, one of five children.

From the age of two and a half, her attentiveness to others and her piety were noted. At the age of four, she demonstrated her eagerness to die in order to see God. For a year, in 2006-2007, she traveled to French Guiana with her family. Upon her return, she made sure to welcome and integrate the new students into her first-grade class.

 As a child, long before her illness, Anne-Gabrielle was already showing predispositions to an interiority that she would develop during her illness.  She analyzed everything in relation to love. When she was two and a half years old, her brother François-Xavier was baptized. As she entered the church, Anne-Gabrielle saw a large crucifix on the side, she let go of her grandmother's hand and said: "Jesus, Jesus, He is in pain, I will console Him." 

 In the summer of 2008, her right leg began to cause her pain. The pain worsened. A biopsy performed in February 2009 revealed that she had Ewing's sarcoma, a rare and virulent bone cancer.

”I sometimes tell myself that the Good Lord gives me a lot: the heartache, the chemo, the taste when I am in pain. I would like to know why He chose me and not someone else. It's still a lot. But I'm willing to accept it. I love You my God. " (age 7)

 Hospitalized in Marseille at La Timone Hospital, she underwent intensive chemotherapy. During a period of remission, she made her First Communion and received Confirmation.

She reflected on her suffering and trials, complaining about them several times, but accepted them. She prayed frequently to the Blessed Virgin. Very demanding of herself and those close to her, she refused to tolerate lack of love or gossip.  

The two priests who accompanied her during her illness, Father Benoît-Vianney Arnauld and Father Jean-Raphaël Dubrule, were astonished by the interior life of one so young. "I don't feel worthy to sit next to her," said Father Benoit-Vianney; "I have never seen a child who has reached such a degree in the love of God." 

Anne-Gabrielle also knew how to be very lively, exhibiting the excitement and joy of a child.  

She suffered greatly. "The very last days of her life, she took communion daily, lying down, with her hands joined together. Then she immersed herself in deep interior prayer. It was a crystal, so pure and so fragile. The presence of God was tangible. Her contemplation was never-ending", said her mother. 

While she suffered with joy and generosity, she spoke openly of her fear of dying. Yet, she asked God to give her the suffering of the other children in the hospital.

“Say, do you think that the souls I will have delivered through my sacrifices will be able to do something for me when I am dead? Do you think they know that somewhere on Earth there is an eight-year-old girl suffering for them? " said Anne-Gabrielle a month before her death. 

 At the beginning of July 2010, when a final chemo attempt was made, Anne-Gabrielle suffered a stroke. On July 22nd, morphine was no longer effective. 

She died on July 23 at La Timone Hospital.   All those who were with her until the end of her life testify that they were taken by an "irrepressible desire to love Jesus" at her touch. "It was as if we were sanctified in His presence," recounts her mother. "We touched heaven with her. " 

PASSION SUNDAY - WE ADORE THEE

 

  The 5^th Sunday of Lent, also known as Passion Sunday, marks the beginning of Passiontide and is a time for deeper reflection on the coming suffering and death of  Jesus.

“For us, here and now, there is more immediate and more practical meaning in those fourteen incidents on the way to Calvary.  It is a showing not simply of the way of sorrows which we are all destined to walk, if we will or not, but of the way of love which heals sorrow, and which we all can take if we walk in the footsteps Christ has marked out for us, and not only imitate Him but identify ourselves with him.  The stations show us how each one can lighten the heavy cross that is laid upon the bent back of the whole human race now, how each one in the power of Christ’s love can sweeten his own suffering and that of those who are dear to him.

This is why the prayer, “We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee, because by thy Holy Cross, Thou hast redeemed the world,” echoes down the centuries, not in tones of fear and reluctance but as a cry of welcome, a tender cry, in the tones of a lover’s greeting, to Him whom every man must meet on the way of sorrows, changed for Him to the way of love.”       

Words written over 70 years ago by the mystic and eccentric writer Caryll Houselander.  Perhaps even more appropriate in our world today? 

All the readings of this Sunday give us hope and paint a picture of a very bright tomorrow for all that is to come. In the first reading, God restores our hope, giving us every reason to continue living, despite the difficulties of this present moment and season.

 In the Gospel, we are encouraged by the words of Jesus “Neither do I condemn you.” The complete forgiveness of Jesus is incredible.  He will always fill us with Joy, soon fulfilling His promise to us through his death and resurrection.

HOPE IN WAR

 

              " Protection of the Mother of God" -  Icon by Katerya Shadrina, Ukraine

The apostolic nuncio in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, emphasized that, despite the pain and devastation of the on-going war, HOPE remains the only refuge for those suffering from the war.

“Pope Francis has proclaimed the Jubilee Year of Hope, and in such a horrible war, there is nothing left but hope. Military chaplains tell us that soldiers are grateful for any message of hope, because it is the only thing they have left,” the Archbishop said in an interview with ACI Prensa (CNA’s Spanish-language news partner).

 Archbishop   Kulbokas criticized the ineffectiveness of the international community in finding a solution to the conflict. “There are no international structures capable of resolving the war. At the beginning, Europe may have thought that this conflict was not its problem, but when wars are not taken seriously, the conflict grows. If wars are not stopped at the outset, it’s too late later on.”

Yet despite the conflict, the apostolic nuncio maintains hope for a diplomatic solution. “In order for the conditions to be met that would put serious negotiations on the table, it’s necessary that there not be not just one or two global actors to decide. Peace in Ukraine must be a matter for the entire international community,” he indicated.

According to recent U.N. data, more than 12,600 civilians have died in the conflict, including more than 2,400 children and  2 million families have been displaced.

THE "NO NAME" BAND- ANOTHER HOLY TEEN

 

VENERABLE MATTEO FARINA was a young athlete and musician who played guitar and loved chemistry. He hoped to become an environmental engineer, but was diagnosed with brain cancer at 13 and died six years later. During his illness, he suffered with joy and continued to embrace Jesus as an ordinary teenager—between band practice and dates with his girlfriend.

Matteo was born in 1990 in Avellino (the birthplace of his paternal grandfather) as the second of two children born to Miky Farina (a bank clerk) and Paola Sabbatini (a housewife); his elder sister was Erika whom he was close to.

 In 2000, Matteo had a dream in which he saw St  (Padre) Pio of Pietrelcina who revealed to him the secret of Christian happiness, urging Matteo  to spread this knowledge to others. This dream made Matteo realize that he was meant to evangelize this secret in order to lead others to God.

Throughout his life, he had a deep devotion to Sts. Francis of Assisi and to Pio of Pietrelcina and would recite the rosary each day and read the Gospel. He went to confession once a week and often attended Eucharistic Adoration.

 He also had a devotion to St. Gemma Galgani and (Soon to be canonized) Pier Giorgio Frassati while the writings of Thérèse of Lisieux inspired him.

  From his father he acquired a love for music and he was trained to play several musical instruments by his father. He and friends formed a music band called "No Name". His friends would often refer to Matteo as "the moralizer" since he often spoke about God and encouraged peace. He also had a passion for chemistry and considered continuing his studies in the environmental engineering field. He also liked information technology during his time at school.

Matteo created a fund for the missions in Mozambique and deposited his savings there while urging his parents to replace Christmas shopping with sending something to the poor of Africa. 

In April 2007, he began dating a girl named Serena, with whom he remained until his death, once referring to her as "the most beautiful gift that the Lord could give."

In September 2003, he began experiencing severe headaches and vision problems and so he travelled with his parents and his uncle Rosario for a series of health checks conducted in Avellino and Verona hospitals before a two-week visit to Hannover for a brain biopsy the next month.

 On their return to Brindisi he believed his health problems were over but the tests soon showed an extended edema in the right temporo-occipital area of his brain with mallignant cells also suspected.

 Matteo had a severe seizure ten months later and found his vision was impaired. This forced him to go to Germany for a craniotomy operation to remove a third degree brain tumor in January 2005. He spent over a month undergoing chemotherapy in Milan and was able to return to Brindisi in April,  the day which Pope (St) John Paul II died.

 He had periodic checks until 2007 when it was believed that the disease was regressing. But this was short lived, as Matteo experienced the first recurrence in December 2007. In October 2008 he left for Hannover for checks in which the second recurrence was discovered, at which stage his mother felt it was appropriate for him to receive the anointing of the sick.

 Matteo had the first of three operations to remove the tumor on 9 December 2008 but his condition worsened. He returned to Brindisi on 13 February 2009 with paralysis of his arm and left leg (due to the operations) and began using a wheelchair in order to move around.

In late March he had a high fever which saw him admitted to the Antonio Perrino Hospital where he received an Easter blessing from Archbishop Rocco Talucci.

His doctors were unable to do anything more for Matteo and advised him to return home. He received his final communion on 13 April 2009 and died a week later on 24 April. His remains were relocated on 29 September 2017 to the Brindisi-Ostuni Cathedral at a Mass which was presided over by Archbishop Domenico Caliandro. 

His mission can be described in his own words : “My God, I have two hands, let one of them to be always clasped to you in order to hold you closer in every trial. And let the other hand fall throughout the world if this is your will… as I Know you by others, so let others know you through me. I want to be a mirror, the clearest possible, and if this is your will, I want to reflect your light in the heart of every man. Thanks for life. Thanks for faith. Thanks for love. I’m yours”.

ANOTHER HOLY TEEN

 

Bl. Carlos Acuti is scheduled to be canonized Sunday, April 27, during the Jubilee of Teenagers, becoming the first millennial saint and a model of holiness for young people in the digital age.

At least six other teens are also being considered for canonization. Because April seems to be teen month, I will present these young people, who are certainly role models for today's youth, especially in their suffering.  SERVANT OF GOD PIERANGELO CAPUZZIMATI, who from the age of 14 suffered from leukemia, lived a life of strong faith, trusting in the Lord. He was born in Taranto in 1990 and grew up in a loving family in Faggiano, in the province of Taranto in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.

His sister Sara was born in 1995 and they were very close, being raised in a loving family. Pierangelo had a calm and thoughtful nature and surprised family and teachers with his insatiable thirst for knowledge. 

(Both photos with his sister Sara).

 After finishing elementary school, in 2001 he enrolled in the “Alfieri” middle school in Taranto, which he attended with great commitment and excellent results, and began to cultivate a love for reading. In 2003 he received Holy Confirmation.

In the summer of 2004, Pierangelo fell ill with leukemia. His life and that of his family were completely turned upside down. Enrolled in the fourth year of high school at the Liceo Classico “Archita” in Taranto, he was forced by constant hospitalizations and long periods of convalescence to attend sporadically, while always keeping in touch with classmates and teachers.

He studied at home with the help of a Latin and Greek teacher, teaching himself the other subjects. In the very short periods in which he was able to attend, he did his homework in class, and was questioned: the results left his classmates and teachers speechless. Advancing, with full marks to the next year, during the summer of 2005, he underwent a bone marrow transplant. The operation seemed to have been a success, but required a long convalescence that did not allow him to attend the next school year.

One would expect a normal teen to plunge into despair, yet his illness only intensified his spiritual life. He spent much time in prayer as well as his studies, and contemplating the beauty of nature. He had a great passion for the history of the Church and loved the saints, who inspired him. He saw his disease as a gift, giving him more time to spend with his friend, Jesus.

In August 2007 he underwent a second transplant: same procedure, same protocol and same commitment to not miss the school year. Studying and reading and praying filled his days. Unfortunately, the disease got the upper hand and on April 30, 2008 Pierangelo died. He would have turned eighteen in June.

Pierangelo was animated by an immense faith, despite having grown up in a family environment rather indifferent to religion. His illness and suffering were the humus within which the Holy Spirit spoke to his parents and the son become the "father" of his elders. 

His statements on illness as a gift, on the limitation of the human mind in understanding divine plans, on the importance of belonging to the Church and of common prayer that he spoke of in the last days of his life, were an example to all. 

4th SUNDAY OF LENT (REJOICE)

 

 

Sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint (cf.Rom5:5). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”. It moves the Church to pray for “everyone to be saved” (1 Tim2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom, in the glory of heaven. This was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one” (The Exclamations of the Soul to God, 15:3).

May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope, intercede for us and accompany us on our Lenten journey. (Conclusion of Pope's message for Lent 2025) We also pray for Russia, whom our Lady said would be converted.  The following man exemplifies the hope one must have for this to happen- and soon!

For Lent we are, listening to the memoirs of ALEXEI NAVALNY and while he is not a canonized saint, he certainly was a man of God. He portrayed hope until the end of his all too short life. Hope for himslef and hope for his country. Knowing such people exist in our world today, is a cause to rejoice!

 Alexei’s Memoir “ Shadows of Truth" is more than just about politics, it portrays the mind of a man who faced death yet fought on. This was a man of great courage in the face of the impossible. His was the voice against the brutality and corruption of Putin’s regime.

 In 2020, Alexei was poisoned with a nerve agent, by one of Putin’s henchmen. After recovering from the near-fatal incident in a German hospital, he was arrested upon his return to Russia for violating the conditions of his suspended sentence. He was transferred around Russian prisons and penal colonies for the next three years.

 What comes across in his memoirs is a great sense of  humor, making one laugh at some of the dire circumstances he finds himself in. Also his faith is evident throughout the book, he can see a light at the end.

 “I have always thought, and said openly, that being a believer makes it easier to live your life and, to an even greater extent, engage in opposition politics…[you must ask] are you a disciple of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others, paying the price for their sins? Do you believe in the immortality of the soul and the rest of that cool stuff? If you can honestly answer yes, what is left for you to worry about?… My job is to seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and leave it to good old Jesus and the rest of his family to deal with everything else. They won’t let me down and will sort out all my headaches. As they say in prison here: they will take my punches for me.”

On February 16, 2024, Alexei Navalny died in a penal colony in the Russian Arctic. He was 47 years old. As tragic as his life was, he left us reasons for hope and strategies for resistance, particularly for those whose advocacy springs forth from a passion for the teachings of Jesus. I highly recommend this book and even better the audio. The narrator is so good one feels they are listening to Alexei himself. 

A MAN OF GOOD FRIDAY

 

In this year of HOPE, one man lived this virtue to the fullest, even though his entire life was Lenten- physically and spiritually. Yet he never gave in to despair.

SERVANT of GOD NINO BAGLIERI was born in Modica, Sicily in 1951. After attending primary school he went to work as a bricklayer. At age 16, he fell from scaffolding from a height of 55 feet, leaving him completely paralyzed. Faced with this dramatic situation his mother Giuseppina, a woman of strong faith, vowed to personally look after him for the rest of her life.

Nino went from one hospital to another but without any improvement. Back in his native town in 1970, after the early days of visits from his friends, ten long years of darkness began for Nino, without leaving the house, alone, in desperation and suffering. Nino Baglieri was drowning in self-pity, cursing his lot , with no hope. However, his courageous mother never lost hope for her son’s conversion.  

On 24 March 1978, Good Friday, a group of people who were part of the Renewal of the Spirit Movement prayed over him. Nino felt himself transformed as he himself recounts: “It was Good Friday 1978; I will never be able to forget that date. It was four in the afternoon; the priest came with a small group of people who began to pray over me, laid hands on my head and called on the Holy Spirit. It was at that precise moment when they were invoking the Holy Spirit, that I felt a great warmth invade my body, a tingling as if there was new strength coming into me and something old was leaving me. 

At that instant I accepted the Cross, said my ‘yes’ to the Lord, accepted Christ into my life and was reborn to new life. At that moment I was looking for physical healing but instead the Lord had worked something greater - healing of the spirit. I was reborn to new life, a new man with a new heart. While still suffering my heart was filled with a new joy, a joy I had never known.”

From that moment Nino began reading the Gospels and the Bible, rediscovering the wonders of faith. It was at that time, while helping some of the neighboring youngsters to do their homework that he learned how to write with his mouth. And this is how he spent his days. He wrote his memoirs and wrote letters to people of all kinds all around the world, and personalized little cards that he gave to people who visited him. 

Thanks to a crossbar he was able to write down telephone numbers and be in direct contact with other people who were sick, his calm and convincing words comforting them. He began a constant flow of relationships with people, which not only brought him out of his own isolation, but left him to witness to the Gospel of joy and hope with courage and without fear. In Loreto, speaking to a large group of young people who were looking at him with a degree of pity, he had the courage to tell them: “If any of you are in mortal sin then you are in a worse state than I am!”

 Yearly Nino celebrated the anniversary of his Cross, and in 1982 he became part of the Salesian Family as a Salesian Cooperator. On 31 August 2004 he made his perpetual profession among the Volunteers. Cardinal Angelo Comastri, who knew Nino said: “When you met him you had the sensation that the Holy Spirit dwelt within him ... He celebrated the anniversary of his call to the cross like others celebrate the anniversary of their marriage or ordination ..."

On 2 March 2007, after a long period of suffering and trial, he died. After his death he was dressed in tracksuit and gym shoes because, as he had said: “On my final trip to God I want to run to meet him.” 

Nino Baglieri was, a magnet of goodness which attracted so many young people to the love of God finding his strength in the Holy Eucharist!

 "Lord, in the Holy Eucharist let Yourself be absorbed in order to transform us into You, to be like You, to love and serve like You. Transform my life, O Lord, change it in Your way, so that I too may be a host for my brothers and sisters, that I may give myself to others with the same love as You give Yourself to me, so that I too may give myself to everyone.’”

3rd SUNDAY OF LENT

"Third, let us journey together in HOPE, for we have been given a promise. May the hope that does not disappoint (cf.Rom5:5), the central message of the Jubilee, be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in the Encyclical Spe Salvi, “the human being needs unconditional love. He needs the certainty which makes him say: ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom8:38-39)”. Christ, my hope, has risen! He lives and reigns in glory. Death has been transformed into triumph, and the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this: the resurrection of Christ!

This, then, is the third call to conversion: a call to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life. Let us ask ourselves: Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?”                (Cont. of message from Pope Francis  for Lent 2025 in the Jubilee year.)

The state of our world today, demands faith from us as well as HOPE. We have been listening to the Memoirs of Alexei Navalny (in another Blog) which reminds me of my stay in the Czech Republic, ten years after the velvet revolution. *

Our dear friend put me in an ex convent, now an inn, which, while clean and well stocked, never gave me a night's sleep.  At first I was puzzled why and then found out that it had been the political prison during the Communist regime. Each nun’s cell became a cell for political & social prisoners, including the future president, Vaclav Havel.  

Václav Havel was a Czech statesman, author, poet, playwright, and dissident. He served as the last president of Czechoslovakia from 1989 until 1992, prior to the dissolution of Czechoslovakia on 31 December, before he became the first president of the Czech Republic from 1993 to 2003. He was the first democratically elected president after the fall of communism. As a writer of Czech literature, he is known for his plays, essays and memoirs.

If anyone had the right to loose hope in humankind, he would be at the top of the list, and yet he never gave up:

“The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world. Either we have hope within us or we don’t; it’s a dimension of the soul; it’s not essentially dependent on some particular observation of the world or estimate of the situation. Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world that is immediately experienced, and is anchored somewhere beyond its horizons. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously headed for early success, but, rather, an ability to work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed.”

( Vaclav Havel, Disturbing the Peace: A Conversation with Karel Hvizdala, trans and intro. by Paul Wilson) 

* The Velvet Revolution  was a non-violent transition of power in what was then Czechoslovakia, occurring from 17 November 17 to 28, 1989. Popular demonstrations against the one-party government of the Communist Party included students and older dissidents. The result was the end of 41 years of  one-party rule in the country, and the  conversion to a parliamentary republic

HOLY MAN OF AFRICA

 

“Lent, O Lord: Do not allow us to resort to broken cisterns (Jer 2:13), nor to imitate the unfaithful servant, the foolish virgin; do not allow the enjoyment of earthly goods to make our hearts insensitive to the lament of the poor, the sick, orphaned children, and the countless brothers and sisters of ours who still today lack the minimum necessary to eat, to cover their bare limbs, to gather the family under one roof” (Radio message of Pope St. John XXIII, Lent, 1963).

The latest to start on the road to canonization certainly lived these words. CARDINAL BERNARDIN GANTIN, whose prominence in the hierarchy of the Church was unprecedented for an African, has been equaled by few non-Italians.

His name, interestingly enough, means “tree of iron on African land”, which was fitting for this holy man as his people and his land were always present in his life. Benin is a French-speaking West African nation, and is the birthplace of the vodun (or “voodoo”) religion and home to the former Dahomey Kingdom from circa 1600–1900. It borders Nigeria and is one of the poorest countries in the world.  65 per cent of the population is under the age of 25. 

The first Christian missionaries arrived in 1861. The main Christian center was in the city of Ouidah, and from there it spread throughout the whole territory. A strong thrust toward Christianity came with the experience of many slaves deported from the country to the plantations of Latin America, the majority of whom upon their return to Africa were witness to the strength and hope they had received from the Gospel.

Son of a railroad official, he was born in 1922 in Toffo, French Dahomey, in what is today known as the People's Republic of Bénin. He entered the minor seminary in Ouidah at age fourteen and was ordained to the priesthood in 1951 in Lomé, Togo, by Archbishop Louis Parisot of Cotonou. He then fulfilled pastoral assignments while also teaching languages at the seminary. In 1953 he was sent to Rome where he studied at the Pontifical Urban University and then at the Pontifical Lateran University, where he earned his licentiate in theology and canon law.

In 1956 he was elected titular Bishop of Tipasa of Mauritania and Auxiliary of Cotonou and was consecrated on 3 February 1957.

On 5 January 1960, St. John XXIII promoted him to Archbishop of Cotonou when his old teacher, the ailing Archbishop Parisot, felt it was time to hand over his flock to the one who could take on the enormous work of the apostolate. His prowess as a pastor was demonstrated in a number of areas: he subdivided the diocese to adapt more effectively to individual situations; he promoted the founding of schools; he vigorously supported the activity of catechists and of indigenous sisters; and, particularly concerned with the problem of priestly vocations, he underwent many sacrifices in order to maintain seminarians and priests of the diocese in their studies.

 He held many important offices in his life, including President of the Episcopal Conference of the region that included seven countries (Dahomey, Togo, the Ivory Coast, Alto Volta, New Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria). He was called to Rome in 1971 as the adjunct secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, of which he became the secretary two years later.

From 1975 he was the Vice-President and then President of the Pontifical Commission of Justice and Peace and also Vice-President and then President of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum (1976-1984). In 1984 (until 1998) he was Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.

In 1993 he was made Dean of the College of Cardinals. In 2002, the Holy Father accepted the request of Cardinal Gantin to be dispensed from the Office of Dean of the College of Cardinals and of the title of the suburbicarian see of Ostia, allowing him to return to his homeland, in Benin, which he had long longed for.

He was very close to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (soon t be Pope). As friends and colleagues alike, the bond between the Bavarian and the Beninese remains the stuff of legend in the famously-fractious Curial world. Both remained far more attached to their respective homelands than the cultural ambit of working at the Vatican. "Many personal memories bind me to this brother of ours," Benedict said in his homily at a 2008 Vatican Memorial Mass for Cardinal Gantin.

 Cardinal Gantin died at Pompidou Hospital in Paris after a long illness on  May 13 (the feast of our Lady of Fatima), 2008, less than a week after being transferred there from Benin and five days after his 86th birthday. The Beninese government declared three days of mourning for him, beginning on 14 May.

 Hailed among his own even today as the "Father of the Nation" -- even as Catholics comprise just a third of Benin's population -- such is Cardinal Gantin's legend at home that pop songs have been recorded in his honor.

 A constant love for the Eucharist, a source of personal holiness and sound ecclesial communion which finds its visible foundation in the Successor of Peter, came to the fore in Cardinal Gantin. And it was in this very same Basilica that in celebrating his last Holy Mass before leaving Rome he stressed the unity that the Eucharist creates in the Church. In his homily he cited the famous sentence of St Cyprian of Carthage, the African Bishop, which is engraved in the dome of St Peter's: "From here a single faith shines throughout the world; from here is born the unity of the priesthood". This could be the message we inherit from venerable Cardinal Gantin as his spiritual testament....

"His human and priestly personality was a marvellous synthesis of the characteristics of the African soul with those proper to the Christian spirit, of the African culture and identity and the Gospel values. He was the first African ecclesiastic to have eminently responsible roles in the Roman Curia and he always carried them out with his typical simple and humble style, whose secret is probably to be found in the wise words his mother chose to address to him when he became a Cardinal on 27 June 1977: "Never forget the little faraway village from which we come"...." Cardinal Ratzinger