LA MORENITA

Br. Mickey Mc Grath- OSFS

The feast in honor of OUR LADY of GUADALUPE, December 12, goes back to the 16th century. Chronicles of that period tell us the story.

A poor Indian named Cuauhtlatohuac was baptized and given the name Juan Diego. He was a 57-year-old widower and lived in a small village near Mexico City. On Saturday morning, December 9, 1531, he was on his way to a nearby barrio to attend Mass in honor of Our Lady.

New Mexico

He was walking by a hill called Tepeyac when he heard beautiful music like the warbling of birds. A radiant cloud appeared and within it a young Native American maiden dressed like an Aztec princess. The Lady spoke to him in his own language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico, a Franciscan named Juan de Zumarraga. The bishop was to build a chapel in the place where the Lady appeared.

New Mexico

Eventually the bishop told Juan Diego to have the Lady give him a sign. About this same time Juan Diego’s uncle became seriously ill. This led poor Diego to try to avoid the Lady. The Lady found Diego, nevertheless, assured him that his uncle would recover and provided roses for Juan to carry to the bishop in his cape or tilma.

Hubbard Museum- Ruidoso, NM

When Juan Diego opened his tilma in the bishop’s presence, the roses fell to the ground and the bishop sank to his knees. On Juan Diego’s tilma appeared an image of the Blessed Mother exactly as she had appeared at the hill of Tepeyac. It was December 12, 1531.

Our Lady of Guadalupe is affectionately known as La Morenita, ‘the little dark one’, and she is revered by millions of Catholics in Mexico and in our own country.  These days, Juan’s tilma with the image on it hangs in the basilica built on the spot, as ordered by the convinced Bishop de Zumárraga. The image of the Virgen de Guadalupe remains clearly imprinted on the miraculous cloak without visible signs of deterioration.

Renee Ekleberry-Nevada

In 1999, Bl. John Paul II affirmed Our Lady of Guadalupe as the "Patroness of the Americas" and her feast became a solemnity for Catholics throughout the Western Hemisphere.


We are all familiar with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, but in this blog I present some other less familiar  images, mostly modern. Blessed Feast!

Stephen Whatley- British

Rain Ririn- California

My Friend- Br. Arturo Olivos-SFO-NM

Another by Br. Arturo

Jan Oliver- Colorado

Dan Paulos- New Mexico

Gerardo Thijssen-Mexico

CRAZY MAN in the DESERT? REPENT FOR THE END IS NEAR????

As we start the second week of Advent, the Church turns her attention to the figure of  John the Baptist, the forerunner or herald of Jesus Christ.

All Sundays of Advent are unique in their own way, but the Second Sunday particularly stands apart for its invitation to John the Baptist to come out of the wilderness shouting for us to repent.

Who was this "mad man" running around the desert? "John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey."  John certainly didn’t waste much time on food preparation but  locusts (pure protein) and wild honey were probably a more balanced and healthier diet than most of us eat today. Nor did he care much for his attire. So what gives here? Who paid attention to this prophet of seeming gloom and doom (with a message of HOPE for all who heard with their hearts)?

Laura James

Today  we have those who pretend to be prophets saying  the world, as we know it, will end this December 21, as predicted by the Mayans.

Headlines lately read:
    -Russia attempts to quell end-of-the-world panic
    - in France officials ban access to sacred mountain which believers claim will be refuge from  'Mayan apocalypse on December 21'
    -Los Angeles survival groups brace for Dec. 21, 2012 and beyond
    -2012 Extinction: Doomsday Prophecies Proven By Scientists!

21 December 2012 marks the end of the Mayan calendar. Various astronomical alignments and numerological formulae have been proposed as pertaining to this date, though professional Mayanist scholars state that predictions of impending doom are not found in any of the extant classic Maya accounts, and that the idea of the world "ending" in 2012, misrepresents Maya history and culture.

St. John the Baptist

A New Age interpretation of this transition is that the date marks the start of time in which Earth and its inhabitants may undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21 December, 2012 may mark the beginning of a new era. Others suggest that the date marks the end of the world or a similar catastrophe.

We look at the people running around preparing for such a disaster (as they have for the past 2000 years) and say "they are mad"!  and yet?  What is the true message here? Does it relate to the message of John? Repent for you know not the hour?


The Gospel reads:
John went throughout the whole region of the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah:


A voice of one crying out in the desert:
“Prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight his paths.
Every valley shall be filled
and every mountain and hill shall be made low.
The winding roads shall be made straight,
and the rough ways made smooth,
and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.”

John's words  touch the core of many hearts. Peoples’ lives change because of his message. He paints a picture of valleys overflowing with justice, of mountains leveled by love and yet he will be killed for his message.

 This Advent, as we prepare in our hearts for the coming of  the Child, we need to pay attention to this message, the only one that can lead us to Him. And may it be a "new era" in the world's love and devotion to Christ!

PATRONESS of the UNITED STATES

Giambattista Tiepolo  1767

Today we celebrate the 1st Vespers of OUR LADY of the IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
The Immaculate Conception is a dogma of the Catholic Church maintaining that from the moment when she was conceived the Blessed Virgin Mary was kept free of original sin and was filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred during baptism. It is one of the four dogmas in Roman Catholic Mariology. Mary is often called the Immaculata (the Immaculate One), particularly in artistic and cultural contexts.

Francisco Zurbaran  1628

Diego Velazquez  1618

The Immaculate Conception should not be confused with the perpetual virginity of Mary or the virgin birth of Jesus; it refers to the conception of Mary by her mother, Saint Anne. Although the belief was widely held since at least Late Antiquity, the doctrine was not formally proclaimed until December 8, 1854, by Pope Pius IX in his papal bull Ineffabilis Deus. The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is observed on December 8 in many Catholic countries as a Holy Day of Obligation and in some places as a national or public holiday.

Mary Immaculate was officially declared the patroness of the United States in 1847. A year earlier, the U.S. bishops had written to the Catholics of this country: We take this occasion to communicate to you the determination, unanimously  adopted by us, to place ourselves and all entrusted to our charge throughout the United States under the special patronage of the holy Mother of God, whose Immaculate Conception is venerated by the piety of the faithful throughout the Catholic Church. By the aid of her prayers, we entertain the confident hope that we will be strengthened to perform the arduous duties of our ministry, and that you will be enabled to practice the sublime virtues, of which her life presents the most  perfect example.

Carlo  Crivelli  1492

For us it is a major holy day celebrating a beautiful Liturgy and Mass, and a holiday with no work and celebrating MM Grace's birthday.

St. Anne conceiving, J. Bellegambe (d.1536)

Many well-known artists have presented us with magnificent works based on this mystery of Our Mother Mary.

Bartolome Murillo 1676

F. Smuglewicz- Polish-Lithuanian  (d. 1807)

Poesia- California  2012

AMERICAN MYSTICS (CONTINUED)

MARIE ROSE FERRON often called the Little Rose was born in 1902 in Quebec. Her family (she was the 10th of 15 children) moved to Massachusetts when she was two and then later to Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She was a stigmatist, mystic, visionary, and victim soul who died in 1936 at the age of 33. She was a parishoner of the Holy Family Church in Woonsocket which at the time was experiencing a movement, known as the Sentinelle Affair. The movement eventually led to the excommunication of 56 members of her diocese from the Catholic Church. Since it was widely known that Marie Rose was a suffering soul, she was asked by Bishop Hickey to offer her sufferings for the Sentinellists whom he felt were greatly in need of this form of intercession. She offered her sufferings with gratitude. And through her sufferings, the 56 members of the Sentinelle Affair were lifted of their status of excommunication. 

Additionally, Little Rose received one of the greatest gifts a human can experience - the presence of Jesus, Mary, and the saints in the earthly life. At an early age, Little Rose was healed of a leg problem by (Bl) Brother Andre of Montreal, who was known for healing. 

Little Rose, age 7

During her teenage years, Marie Rose became ill with a mysterious paralysis and painful contraction of the muscles in the legs, feet, arms and hands, and also an intestinal problem which rendered her practically unable to eat and she also contracted Tetanus  and Pyorrhea. Due to the progression of the paralysis in her legs, she was eventually completely bedridden.

In life, Little Rose was given the stigmata and a crown of thorns. This was first visible, but Little Rose feared pride because she knew pride was a destroyer of mystics. She begged  Jesus to make the stigmata hidden, which He did. Though she felt the pains of the stigmata and crown of thorns, it was not visible. At the time of Little Rose's death in 1936, one of the branches of the crown of thorns and the thorn stigmata was still visible. This was photographed, and later published in the book, She Wears a Crown of Thorns, written by Rev. A.O. Boyer, the spiritual director and confessor of Little Rose.

Rose at the time of her stigmata

Following her death a letter was issued by Bishop Russell J. McVinney which attempted to put at ease the minds of many who wished to see Marie Rose beatified. He undertook two investigations and concluded that there was nothing extraordinary about her life. However, many believe that these investigations hung on the witness of only three members of the community. Many miracles have been documented to date through the intercession of Little Rose, and exhumation of her remains eleven years following her death showed her to be incorrupt. Meanwhile, many continue to believe that Marie Rose Ferron is a powerful intercessor in heaven.

 Concerning suffering, she once said: "Grind up all your sufferings in the mill of patience and silence; mix them with the balsam of the Passion of the Savior; make them into a small pill and swallow it with faith and love and with the fire of charity, digest it.

Little Rose with "crown of thorns"

ANOTHER ROSE


RHODA WISE born in 1888  was a mystic and stigmatist from Canton, Ohio. Her biography, Her Name Means Rose, was published by EWTN. Rhoda Wise has been associated with many miraculous healings, including the healing of Mother Angelica.

Rhoda and her husband  George

Although raised a Protestant, Rhoda was received into the Catholic Church after one of her stays at a Canton hospital, where a nun told her about the Rosary and St. Thérèse de Lisieux. Rhoda experienced her first apparition of Jesus on 28 May 1939 at her home in Canton, where He told her that He would come with St. Therese on 28 June. Rhoda suffered from stomach cancer, which had been considered incurable and so she had been sent home to die, but she was cured.
 

St. Therese as Rhoda saw her

From 1939 to 1948, Rhoda  experienced annual apparitions of Jesus and St. Therese.  Rhoda became a stigmatist and would  bleed on the first Friday of every month. In the last apparition, on 28 June 1948, Jesus asked her to say the Rosary daily for the Conversion of Russia.

According to Mother Angelica, Rhoda led a doubting and ailing Rita Rizzo (Mother Angelica's birth name) in a novena to St. Therese. At the end of the nine days of prayer, Rita's painful stomach ailment disappeared and she eventually became a nun under Rhoda's mentorship.

Rhoda Wise died on 7 July 1948. Over 14,000 people reportedly attended her funeral.

“In my personal judgment she was held in high favor by God.”  Monsignor Habig said at the eulogy; “In the midst of a sinful world, holiness is still cherished.
Rhoda Wise was truly a holy soul with her heart filled with a love for God so great 
that she was able to endure the greatest suffering for His sake.”

Rhoda and her daughter Anna Mae

“I submit my poor judgment to that of the Church, but it is my personal conviction that what she stated about the many apparitions of Our Lord and the Little Flower is true, and that she was highly favored by the Lord.”

In the years following Rhoda’s death, her daughter, Anna Mae kept Rhoda’s home open to visitors. When she died in 1995, the home became the property of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery because it is such an important part of Mother Angelica’s story.

“This place is to be a shrine and cures more wonderful than your own will take place on this spot.”  (Our Lord to Rhoda Wise on April 3, 1940.)

MYSTICS IN AMERICA

WHAT IS A MYSTIC??   Mysticism is a desire of the human soul towards an intimate union with God  through contemplation and love. A  mystic essentially is anyone who actively and willfully seeks a direct relationship and union with God through contemplative prayer and devotion, such as St. Teresa of Avila and St. Catherine of Siena. A mystic need not be one who receives extraordinary mystical graces such as visions, ecstacies or inner locutions. In other words, a mystic need not receive direct communication from God.

St. Pio

But many of the mystic saints we know are called by God to a special sacrificial union with Him, and have received extraordinary mystical graces from God to strengthen and guide them in their mission within the Church, as they are united with Jesus and Mary in suffering for the conversion of humanity. An example is the newly canonized Padre Pio.

 The term often used  is victim souls or suffering servants. They are co-redeemers with Christ and their mission is to lead souls to Him. They are the great lovers of God who offer and give of themselves completely to "fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his Body, which is the Church" (Colossians 1:24)

In the United States we have mystics whose cases are being studied for sanctity, the oldest being SERVANT of GOD MAGIN CATALA one of the Franciscan missionaries who helped found 21 Christian outposts in spots that would later become major West Coast settlements, including Los Angeles and the Bay Area. He is one of the most remarkable mystics in the history of America, ranking  with Venerable Solanus Casey (see Blog Nov. 7) and Blessed Andre Bessette of Montreal.

Father Catala with Natives

Of  Spanish birth, Father Magin entered the Order of Friars Minor at the age of sixteen by taking the habit of St. Francis at the monastery of Barcelona on April 4, 1777.

Father Catala, who was deeply devoted to the Blessed Mother, arrived at Monterey, California, in July 1794, and from there traveled to the Santa Clara Mission. He died on November 22, 1830.

Father Magin developed chronic inflammatory rheumatism very soon after he arrived and was afflicted with it throughout his missionary life. It was just one of countless sufferings. He called his locale the "valley of tears," which said something about the spiritual warfare.


He was known for extraordinary charisms, among them was the gift of  prophecy. He had preached that "people from almost all the nations of the earth will come to this coast. Another flag shall come from the East and the people that follow it will speak an altogether different language, and they will take possession of the country and the lands."  Father Magin predicted that a large city would rise on the bay of San Francisco, great houses would be erected, and the people would be at its height, then it would be destroyed by earthquake and fire. He even predicted the hour and manner of his own death.

Father Catala ate only corn gruel and milk in small amounts and on Friday he only drank water with his corncakes. He also fostered devotion to the Precious Blood of Jesus. The little Indian children were so taken by his holiness, they would peep through the keyhole and the cracks in the wall of the front of the Mission Church to watch him pray before the Great Crucifix. At times they were awe-struck when they heard him speak aloud to Jesus Crucified. While walking away they would whisper and say, 'Father is talking to God.'

Father Catala

 A more modern mystic ( I love these people who have lived in our own lifetime) is SERVANT of GOD CORA LOUISE EVANS who was born in Midvale, Utah in 1904, and raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Cora was 19 when she met her future husband.

 Their first date was to the temple to do baptisms by proxy for the dead. Their temple marriage ceremony on June 4, 1924, when Cora was 20, had her seething inside. She considered Mormonism a sex-oriented, polytheist religion. She realized she had gained a wonderful husband, but resolved to one day find the one true God that would break this false religion. 10 years later became a Catholic.

Interestingly enough it was a radio broadcast she heard on Catholic radio while ill, that touched her soul! Reverend Duane Hunt (the future bishop of Salt Lake) spoke of Mary as the Mother of God and quoted Isaiah in preparation for Christmas, "Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel. For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rest. . . His dominion is vast and forever peaceful." 

Cora reported visions of Jesus and the saints and a mission from Jesus to promote the “Mystical Humanity of Christ,” the idea that Christ is always within us and we should behave always as Christ would, said Michael McDevitt, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay (CA), who is the promoter of  her cause of sainthood. 

Servant of God Cora's two children, husband Mack, and many family and friends followed her from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into the Catholic faith.

"Cora’s first mystical experience was of the Blessed Mother in 1907, when she was 3 years old," said Michael McDevitt. "She bore the stigmata and would go into ecstasy while having mystical experiences. She had perfect recall and would journal her experiences."

 

 In the first grade, Evans smelled a fragrance and saw a beautiful woman dressed in white. She thought it was an angel. The woman asked Cora to help her give Jesus more love.

The life story of Servant of God Cora Evans, wife and mother, is that of a remarkable mystic who practiced Christian virtues and earned a reputation for holiness. Her gifts of mysticism and stigmata alone could make her a saint, but her writings commissioned by Jesus Himself to convey the things that were made known to her for the good of the Universal Church raise the ante. Her writings introduce the devotion to Christ in His Mystical Humanity, a way of prayer life both ancient and new.

The Mystical Humanity of Christ calls upon the faithful to live with a heightened awareness of the living indwelling presence of the resurrected Christ in their daily lives. It is a daily spiritual communion that draws the individual to Sacramental communion, the Eucharist, with greater frequency.

March 2012 the Vatican approved a complete investigation into the cause of sainthood of this former Mormon wife and mother who reported visions of Jesus and a mission to promote “The Mystical Humanity of Christ.”

She died in 1957 in Monterey, California, where Servant of God  Magin Catala started his mission in America 163 years before.

WAITING for the LORD

Kay Eneim, 2007

                    

The word Advent comes from the Latin word meaning coming. During Advent we recall the history of God's people and reflect on how the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament were fulfilled. We reflect that every year at this time we celebrate the Christ Child's coming. It is a time of expectancy and joyful anticipation. 

J. Bourgault- Canadian

But  "Advent does not mean “expectation” as some may think. It is a translation of the Greek word parousia, which means “presence” or, more accurately, “arrival”, that is, the beginning of a presence. In antiquity the word was a technical term for the presence of a king or ruler, and also of the god being worshiped, who bestows his parousia upon his devotees for a time. “Advent,” then, means a presence begun, the presence being that of God. ( “Dogma and Preaching,” by Pope Benedict XVI)

With Advent the ecclesiastical year begins in the Western churches. During this time the faithful are admonished to prepare themselves worthily to celebrate the anniversary of the Lord's coming into the world.

In European Catholic countries Advent is a time much more celebrated than in our own country. While we do have a very rich Liturgy celebrated daily in the monastery, for the most part it is a time that just by-passes many, who eagerly await Christmas, as they dash from one store to another, checking their lists of who gets what!  When I lived in Germany many years ago it was a wondrous time with so many customs new to me. Special breads and foods were made, served only at this time- a favorite was Birnenbrot (pear bread- really a cake) made from dried pears. It was a sort of semi-fasting time (perhaps knowing of all the rich and varied treats to come for the long Christmas season).

Brigid Marlin

It is not known when the celebration of Advent was first introduced into the Church but there are references of it being celebrated by the end of the 4th century. The collection of homilies of St. Gregory the Great (590-604) begins with a sermon for the second Sunday of Advent. In 650 Advent was celebrated in Spain with five Sundays. Several synods had made laws about fasting to be observed during this time, some beginning with the eleventh of November, others the fifteenth, and others as early as the autumnal equinox.In the eighth century we find it observed not as a liturgical celebration, but as a time of fast and abstinence, from 15 November to the Nativity, which, according to Goar, was later reduced to seven days. But a council of the Ruthenians (1720) ordered the fast according to the old rule from the fifteenth of November.

When I was growing up we had to abstain from meat on Christmas eve, which was the time when my Mother's large family gathered at our house for the big meal and opening of gifts. My Mother, not a Catholic, took care of my Father and my 2 brothers and me with Crab Louie (hardly what I would call fasting), but it became a tradition, and even when the laws of fasting and abstinence were relaxed, we still had Crab Louie for Christmas eve dinner.

Spanish

It is my favorite season of  the year, beginning with the lighting of the Advent wreath in chapel. Special Antiphons are sung each Sunday, culminating in the "Great O"s.

And of course during this waiting period the Church peppers us with the amazing feasts such as St. Nicholas on Dec. 6 and St. Lucy Dec. 11. M M Grace celebrates her birthday on the great feast of the Immaculate Conception, Dec.8, and I have mine  Dec. 12, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Master of the Madonna, 14th C.

Besides our wonderous daily Liturgy, it is a time of preparation for the feasts to come, with the plum puddings made either before or after Thanksgiving. Our traditional dessert, which I brought back from the Black Forest 40 years ago is Linzer Torte, which has been our dessert every Christmas since.  It is also made early and steeps in the Kirschwasser (cherry schnapps). All we have to do is cut it and serve with our own monastery whipped cream.  Christmas cookies are made to have with eggnog, always an easy dessert.  Mother Prioress makes her famous cheesecake to eat on one of the Holy Days, usually the feast of St. Stephen, Dec. 26. 

Because for us Advent is mostly a spiritual preparation, we then celebrate the Christmas Season for weeks after the great event. While the world is taking down the tree and putting away the tinsel till next year we are just getting started.   

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice!

Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

                           12th century Latin hymn

"Mary Pregnant"