UPDATES MAY 2019

May 4 MARIA CONCEPTION  de ARMIDA, known as CONCHITA  (see BLOG 4/19/17) was beatified. She was born during the Mexican Civil War and  grew up during the Revolution and the religious persecutions that were a part of it. She was married and  widowed at age 39.  She had nine children.

As a mystic, she reported that she heard God telling her: "Ask me for a long suffering life and to write a lot... That's your mission on earth". She never claimed direct visions of Jesus and Mary but spoke of Jesus through her prayers and meditations.

She was foundress of many religious organizations which included the Apostolate of the Cross and the Congregation of Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus founded in 1897,

and the Congregation of Missionaries of the Holy Spirit founded in 1914.

 

Though her children claim they rarely saw her take the time to write, she left 65,000 hand-written pages of mystical meditations.

She is the first Mexican lay woman to be beatified.

"I carry within me three lives, all very strong: family life with its multiple sorrows of a thousand kinds, that is, the life of a mother; the life of the Works of the Cross with all its sorrows and weight, which at times crushes me until I have no strength left; and the life of the spirit or interior life, which is the heaviest of all, with its highs and lows, its tempests and struggles, its light and darkness. Blessed be God for everything!"

The New York Court of Appeals has dismissed an appeal of an earlier judgement allowing VENERABLE FULTON SHEEN’s  (see BLOG 3/22/12)remains to be moved to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria, in accordance with his family’s wishes.  The May 2 dismissal of the Archdiocese of New York’s appeal could pave the way for the Illinois-born archbishop’s beatification, after almost three years of litigation

 “Although the New York Archdiocese may technically have legal options remaining, they are contrary to the wishes of Archbishop Sheen and his family, and would serve no genuine purpose except to delay the eventual transfer of Archbishop Sheen’s remains,” it added.

Archbishop Sheen served as host of the “Catholic Hour” radio show and the television show “Life is Worth Living.” He authored many books, with proceeds supporting foreign missions. He headed the Society for the Propagation of the Faith at one point in his life, and continued to be a leading figure among Catholics in the U.S. until his death.

The Peoria diocese opened the cause for Sheen’s canonization in 2002 after Archdiocese of New York said it would not explore the case. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI recognized the heroic virtues of the archbishop.

However, Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria suspended the beatification cause in September 2014 on the grounds that the Holy See expected Sheen’s remains to be in the Peoria diocese.

The Archbishops’s will had declared his wish to be buried in the Archdiocese of New York Calvary Cemetery. Soon after he died, Cardinal Terence Cooke of New York asked Joan Sheen Cunningham, the Archbishop’s niece and closest living relative, if his remains could be placed in the crypt of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, and she consented.

Later  the niece has since said that her uncle would have wanted to have been interred in Peoria if he knew that he would be considered for sainthood. In 2016, she filed a legal complaint seeking to have her uncle’s remains moved to the Cathedral of St. Mary in Peoria.

If I had a relative up for sainthood, believe me nothing would get in the way of their canonization.  Let’s  hope this is the end of the feud and the process can rapidly continue to give this great man  of prayer his due!

Archbishop Sheen’s intercession is credited with the miraculous recovery of a pronounced stillborn American baby from the Peoria area. In June 2014, a panel of theologians that advises the Congregation for the Causes of Saints ruled that the baby’s recovery was miraculous – a key step necessary before someone is beatified.

HE LIVED THE BEATITUDES

 A great Catholic humanitarian has died today. JEAN VANIER, age of 90, spent his whole life giving hope to suffering people: "The message of the Gospel is to become men and women of compassion. If you become a man or a woman of compassion, you will be like Jesus".

Jean Vanier, founded L'Arche (1964), a community which supports people with disabilities (see BLOG 2/26/14). The community is active all over the world with about 150 centers. Jean had been suffering from cancer and was being cared for at a L’Arche in Paris.

Jean was born in Geneva on September 10, 1928 of  very devote parents, Georges and Pauline Vanier (see BLOG 2/13/14) Jean was a former officer in the Canadian Navy and received  the Templeton Prize in 2015, one of the highest awards given every year to persons from the religious world.

"Our mission  is to encounter a world of extreme weakness, poverty and suffering, people who have often been rejected... L’Arche is a place of reconciliation where people of very different religions and cultures can meet and this transforms the lives of people with disabilities, but also transforms the volunteers. L’Arche, after all, is a place of celebration where the aim is for everyone to be happy... We want to be a sign of the importance of people with disabilities, because they have a message to give, but few know it: they, in fact, were chosen to be the great witnesses of God.”

Jean felt that people with disabilities lead us to God and whoever has compassion for the other is similar to Jesus.

”I believe strongly that today it is necessary to create communities that live the values of the Gospel: to live together, to live the Beatitudes and to discover that the life of the Beatitudes, the life of the Gospel can be lived very simply by living together. The message of the Gospel is to become men and women of compassion. If you become a man or a woman of compassion, you will be like Jesus.

Jean Vanier emphasized the importance of joy: "I think the whole vision of evangelization is joyful, because we have received the Good News! The world is not only a world of violence, but the Word made flesh, God came to tell us something. God loves humanity, God is present. This does not mean that there is no struggle against evil. There is violence in the world; there is violence in me and in all of us. But Jesus is stronger and we keep the hope that He will help us.”

Jean Vanier was a man who truly practiced what he preached.  He always had a twinkle in his eye ad a smile for everyone.  May the angels carry him to his well earned place with the saints!

SECOND MARTYR FOR CHRIST

SERVANT of GOD MARTA OBREGÓN RODRÍGUEZ is the second young woman who was martyred. She was born in 1969 in  La Coruña, Spain.

She was the second of four attractive and energetic sisters.  Her mother is a supernumerary in the Opus Dei, but Marta decided to join the Neocatechumenal Way after leaving behind a rebellious adolescence.  She believed she found the love of her life in her boyfriend Francisco Javier Hernando, yet before her death they broke up..

“Marta attracted you like a magnet. Whatever place she went to she immediately made friends. She triumphed wherever she went. Everyone wanted to be with her, talk to her and know about her,” Hernando recalled. She was very athletic excelling in tennis  and also loved to play the guitar. According to her mother she was very impulsive and spontaneous yet very affectionate and attentive. Friends say she was willing to help and encourage anyone.

 

With her family

Marta studied journalism at the Compultense University of Madrid, where she lived at a house run by the Augustinian Missionaries. In 1990 she went to Taize in France, where every summer thousands of young people meet for prayer and fellowship. She has a great conversion at this event, and wrote to a friend: “God is the most important thing in my life, He is my love. Life is awesome, but it is shorter than we think.”

On the night of January 21, the feast of St. Agnes (the martyr of purity), Marta was returning home from the Arlanza club of Opus Dei.  A friend of hers had taken her to her apartment, because she had been suspecting for a few days that someone was following her. She entered the main door of the building but she never reached her apartment. Her murderer was waiting for her in the stairs from the parking lot, in front of the elevators, an area not visible from the street. She was abducted and taken to an open field where he intended to rape her. Marta defended herself as long as her strength endured, which was a while. Her nails were broken and there were marks all over her body caused by metallic objects.

According to the police and medical declarations, Marta resisted until the final moment. Fourteen stabs were necessary to end her life. Marta miraculously died a virgin. In the trial of Pedro Luis Gallego, the so-called “elevator rapist”, other girls who had been raped by this man declared that, if they did not resist, he simply raped them. Yet Marta preferred to die before losing her virginity. The forensic doctors stated  Marta had a horrible and very painful death due to the fact that her murderer vented his anger terribly on her. Her naked body was found  six days later in a field, covered with snow.

Marta led a very strong spiritual life, received spiritual direction and prayed daily. She was strengthened by Jesus and, without doubt, learned the value of purity from His Mother.

Marta had the desire for a life of total dedication to Christ, and curiously some of the friends with whom she gathered most are now cloistered nuns . Up to five girls  are scattered in convents of Caleruega, Soria or Palencia.   She used to do half an hour of prayer every day, almost always on her knees, before the Tabernacle, and she spoke frequently with the director of the Club. She remembers that "she was a woman who had found God, but she kept looking for Him with more and more intimacy. 

Marta had written in a notebook: "If I could set an example with my life.”  Marta is already setting an example with her life. You can live a life of piety, like Marta, being in the world and being modern. God had plans for her and hope they are fulfilled, " concludes Marta's mother.

NEW MARTYRS

The Vatican  has recently announced 6 young lay women who are being considered for canonization.  Two are martyrs- an example to all young women today that one can be “a normal youth”, yet still be in love with the Lord and willing to die for Him. They were born a year apart and died a year apart.

The first young woman is  SERVANT of GOD SANTA SCORESE who was born in Bari, Italy in 1968 and murdered in 1991. Santa attended university studying education. She Santa  was very active in Christian apostolate and also worked with the Red Cross, especially involved  with children who had suffered from polio  and muscular dystrophy.   

She also became a member of the Focolare Movement and became a "Gen". In 1985, at the age of 17, she went to Rome to the Genfest, the gathering of the members of the movement of  Servant of God Chiara Lubich (foundress).

Santa lived the Gospel by dedicating her  life to the poor, the suffering, the lonely, making herself completely available to others. She was a member of the pastoral council, taught catechism and sang in the choir and participates with commitment in the initiatives of the Catholic Action.

Available to others, understanding of friends and ready to help those in difficulty, she became  a reference point for everyone.

At first she  decided to  consecrate herself to Christ and to the Immaculate Conception at the Institute of the Missionaries of the Immaculate "Father Kolbe" of Bologna, but over time she felt called to live in a very personal way her relationship with the Lord, and to continue her commitments to study and live a Christian life at home.

Meanwhile, a deranged young man begins to undermine her, persecute her, threaten her. For  several years he does not give her respite, he follows her everywhere, phones her, and threatens her, all of which takes away her serenity.

Late in the evening of Friday 15th March 1991, upon returning from a catechesis meeting, the irreparable happens. Sheltered by the night, that young man waits for her under the door of the house and  beats her to death.

With parents and sister

Santa  was no different from any other girl.  She loved life, yet was extraordinarily eager to seek after the "Truth”.  She fought an "inner struggle", alternating serenity and sweetness with lack of feeling and desolation. Her struggle was full of questions, graduated achievements and awareness leading to the joy and the increasing gratitude to the Lord who loves without reservations.

Santa wrote on December 30th, 1988: "Oh my God, I am in front of You, your power and your boundless love. Thank you!  You called me and I answered; now I can see all great things You have done and You still do every day in myself. Little by little You are reaching the bottom of my heart and my soul looks for You every time it needs to revive.

With friends (in middle)

Please, teach me to love, to be a kindhearted person for You and all the world.

Let me sing my Magnificat reminding everything You have done in myself and allow me to walk with Our Lady along the way leading to the endless life!" 

She was longing to involve most people in her Love for Christ.

"Thank You for loving me, for making me feel Your presence in me. I’m experiencing Your love in sorrow and in joy. Really, I feel I’m growing up, but the most beautiful observation is that I’m doing it with You."

                                                                   Diary: 10th August 1986

DIVINE MERCY

Jesus speaks to St. Faustina:

On one occasion, I heard these words: My daughter, tell the whole world about My Inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. 

The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. 

Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy. (Diary 699)

ALLELUIA

Egino Weinert- Cologne_ (2012)

ALLELUIA  ALLELUIA  ALLELUIA

HE IS RISEN

AS HE PROMISED!

SACRED REFUGE

Rogier Van der Weyden

Oh! Sacred Feet, all gashed and torn,
   Bruised by the hammer's cruel blows,
Bathed in the life-blood dripping down
   From anguished Heart in bitter throes;
I press You to my lips in tears,
   With contrite sorrow, fervent sigh.
Dear precious Wounds, God's bleeding prayers,
   Ah! plead for me when death draws nigh.

Oh, Mangled Hands, transfixed and wan,
   in suppliance raised to Heaven above,
Pierced by the nails that torture wrung,
   From breaking Heart of burning love;
I press You to my lips in tears,
   With contrite sorrow, fervent sigh.
Dear precious Wounds, God's bleeding prayers,
   Ah! plead for me when death draws nigh.

Oh! Sacred Refuge, tender Side,
   Rent by the lance with cruel thrust,
There, where His Heart is, let me hide,
   There, where His love is, let me trust.
I press You to my lips in tears,
   With contrite sorrow, fervent sigh.
Most Holy Wound, allay my fears,
   Receive my soul when death draws nigh

--"Prayer to the Five Wounds," The Little Treasury of Leaflets,

                                                                           vol.IV (Dublin: Gill, 1914) 893-894.

Carravagio

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