HOPE IN WAR- BETHLEHEM

 

 

During this week we call holy, we call attention to two very important issues dealing with suffering humanity. This one, is a program for children, and the next deals with those who died and whose descendants now live in same area.

The HOLY CHILD PROGRAM in Beit Sahour, a Palestinian town 2 miles east of Bethlehem and 6 miles from Jerusalem,  was founded by the Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist to help children who suffer from untreated complex mental-health issues and experiences of intergenerational trauma.  These are the same sisters whose order ran the ferry and general store on Shaw Island for 27 years, so we are very close to and supportive of their work.

Recently, with the help of many USA donations, they were able to buy the building where the school is, ensuring on- going programs.

 It is the only therapeutic and alternative education program in the West Bank. Right now there are 35 students at a time, about 60% Catholic and the rest are Muslim. Their motto is:  Instilling Hope through Healing, which fits right in with the Jubilee year of HOPE.

 “Almost 95% of the children, who range from 5 to 15 years old, come through our program and upon graduation either continue their education in government or private schools or enroll in special education or vocational programs. Some, if they are old enough, get a job,” said Francis Barillaro, vice president and treasurer of the Bethlehem Holy Child Program, told the Register in an interview. “We take kids who are often shunned because of their disabilities, and they are now able to go home and support themselves or help support their families. We bring some stability to them and their family and their community.”

There are also parent groups, which are free not only to the HCP parents, but to any family in the community, especially families who we are unable to enroll in the program but need special services.

Culturally, families who had children with emotional or physical problems would often experience shame and a limitation of marriage prospects, as such difficulties were looked upon as God’s punishment. Home visits, crisis counseling and referrals to medical and social services as needed.

 

All schools in Palestine are required to teach the Quran to Muslim children, even though the children study their own religion.  How do they integrate being  exposed to such different religions? Every morning they discuss with each other what they have learned in religion class, highlighting similar values and practices. They do not focus on the differences, but live, work and play together.  

 Palestine has no teacher training for special education, so our friend from Seattle, Diane Magdalene Rzegocki, who has more than 25 years of experience as a clinical social worker, helped the Holy Child Program adopt, and provided training to give teachers the needed skills.

Students are enrolled in the Holy Child Program for two to three years; 96% of the program’s graduates continue their education in government or private schools or enter vocational programs or the workforce. They are followed for two years afterward to make sure that they’re successful in their placement.

At a time when this area is suffering due to so much strife, it is comforting to know that there is a glimmer of HOPE for children and families, who can spread their knowledge and gifts.

(Photo:  Diane Magdalene on right with Cathy Goodrich, both on the Holy Child Board-  their children are married.)

A MODEL OF ORDINARY HOLINESS

 

 

We see more and more holy young people, who can be a example of a short life "well lived". In a past Blog we saw Venerable Matteo Farina (July 2020).  Now we have another young woman who I am sure will become more known as her cause is put forward for sainthood.

SERVANT of GOD PAOLA ADAMO was born in Naples on October 24, 1963, daughter of Claudio Adamo and Lucia D'Ammacco. She was baptized on the same day of her birth in the chapel of the Posillipo clinic, where she was born at 3 am. Her parents, both architects by profession, were also Salesian Cooperators and catechists. It was they who prepared the child for her First Communion, which took place on May 28, 1972 in the parish of San Giovanni Bosco in Taranto, and for Confirmation, which was given to her two years later, on June 22. Her father had been commissioned as the designer of that very church. Paola grew up and was educated in the Salesian oratory environment.

 

She loved her parents, to whom she dedicated her poems. She attended classical dance lessons and practiced swimming for three years. She played the guitar easily, happy to sing and play for her parents. Her irrepressible joy for life was also expressed in her contacts with her classmates, whom she loved very much. She attended the "Lisippo" Art School in Taranto, where her father was a teacher. In particular, she preferred the company of girls who were marginalized by the rest of the class. One of these later became her best friend.  For Paola life was grace and should be lived as grace.

 Sensitive and intelligent, she began to write a secret diary at the age of nine, a source of very profound thoughts and maxims despite her age. Every evening she read a few pages of the biography of Saint John Bosco written by Cardinal Carlo Salotti and examined her conscience very carefully. She wrote about it in one of her poems:

 "When in the evening, before falling asleep, I take stock of the day, I am left with so much bitterness for the free hours that have slipped away so stupidly and I find myself with eyes full of tears."

One morning in June 1978, when the school year was about to end, Paola asked her parents for permission not to go to school: she said she had a pain in her right side. Her mother agreed, while her father, at first, did not believe her and told her to go. As the daughter of a teacher, she should not set a bad example.

 On the evening of June 9, while she was sitting in an armchair, Paola felt cold.  Her parents saw that she had a fever,  but they left for Naples anyway, where they were spending the holidays. Once she returned home, her situation did not improve anf on Friday, June 23, 1978, she was admitted to a clinic. 

The doctor diagnosed viral hepatitis, an illness that Paola had already had as a child. The next day the diagnosis was confirmed, but the girl was now in a pre-comatose state. After a two-hour journey, she was brought back to Naples and on the evening of June 25, she was admitted to the Cotugno hospital. 

On June 27, she received the Anointing of the Sick. The next day, she was already in serious condition. Paola died on June 28, 1978, at the age of 14, struck by a viral hepatitis.

43 years later, the Archbishop of Taranto, Monsignor Filippo Santoro, presided over the installation of the diocesan tribunal for the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Paola Adamo.

Paola is a model of holiness for the youth of  today. She lived an ordinary lfe, but lived it extraordinally. She saw God in everyone and evrything. She had a great love for her family, the Church, her friends, putting Jesus at the center of her life.

"If you believe in God you have the world in your hands." Everyone who knew her were inspired by her love of life and beauty.  "If God is the source of everything, only He can make us really happy."

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.