2014 – Page 17 – Communio

Blandina Segale to be studied for sainthood

Sister Bladina Segale, a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, is now being studied for possible canonization. Segale who died at the tender age of 91 in 1941. The Santa Fe Archbishop Michael Sheehan is handling the cause.

The AP story says Sister Segale “challenged Billy the Kid, calmed angry mobs and helped open New Mexico territory hospitals and schools.”

She is the first from New Mexico to have a cause opened. The Sister of Charity was born in Cicagna, Italy, on January 23, 1850 and died on February 23, 1941. More of what the press is saying about Sister Bladina Segale can be found here.

If you are interested, you may want to find a copy of At the End of the Santa Fe Trail, a book containing the narrative and correspondence of Sister.

Sister Bladina joins a list many US citizens being considered for sainthood. Know, though, it could be several years before the advances since much work has to be organized and sanctity recognized. A Crisis Magazine article on Sister Bladina gives a good sense of who this woman is and her relevance for us today.

Friars of the Renewal –ordinary witness, extraordinary era

In my opinion, the Franciscans of the Renewal (the friars and the sisters) are among a few very dynamic communities in the USA who are actually living the gospel and being formed by sacred Tradition. Their following and their belonging to Jesus Christ is out-of-this-world. I may be biased because of my friendship and experience with many of the CFRs, but I think you might say the say if you went to pray and work among them. A recent article on the CFRs speaks a little to their charism…

Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization

In advance of the October 2014 extraordinary Synod of Bishops on Marriage and family, the “instrumentum laboris,” —the working document of 75 pages— offers a broad picture of the ways the Catholic Church witnesses to the Gospel and teaches and lives the moral life and the significant work that needs to be done to adequately address contemporary challenges. The office for synods published “The Pastoral Challenges of the Family in the Context of Evangelization.”

The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops is the third of this category. One might say this is the first synod with such wide interest, international participation in the initial stages and hope for good work going forward.

“The Pastoral Challenges of the Family” is based on the feedback and analysis requested from the national various Conferences of Bishops around the world late in 2013. So, besides the questionnaire, the document also incorporates the concerns of those who sent their reflections directly to the Pontifical Council for the family with the appropriate theological reflection. This is the first Synod for Lorenzo Cardinal Baldisseri.

The Holy Father has placed the work of the Synod under the patronage of the Holy Family. The Synodal prayer concludes the instrumentum labors.

Patriarchs Gregory and John meet

The annual Synod of Bishops of the Melkite Church just finished meeting. The Melkite bishops from around the world meet together each year for some time in prayer, discussions on theology, liturgy, canonical process and the election of bishops. This year the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, John X, met with Melkite Patriarch Gregory III –a historic meeting.

The Melkites in the USA are governed by Bishop Nicholas J. Samra (of the Eparchy of Newton) and the Antiochian Orthodox Church is awaiting a new head of church since their Metropolitan Philip Saliba died not long ago. The new metropolitan is expected to be announced late next week.

Saint Peter and Paul, pray for us.
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, pray for us.

Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

Christ is the completion of the law for righteousness unto every one that believes. … For this reason the blessed Baptist is brought forward, as one who had attained the foremost place in legal righteousness, and to a praise so far incomparable. And yet even thus he is ranked as less than one who is least: “for the least, He says, is greater than he in the kingdom of God.” But the kingdom of God signifies, as we affirm, the grace that is by faith, by means of which we are accounted worthy of every blessing, and of the possession of the rich gifts which come from above from God. For it frees us from all blame; and makes us to be the sons of God, partakers of the Holy Ghost, and heirs of a heavenly inheritance.

St. Cyril of Alexandria
Sermon XXXVIII [Commentary on Luke]

Corpus Christi

Our true adoration — of God Himself.

“O Jesus, you instituted this Sacrament, not through any desire to draw some advantage from it for yourself, but solely moved by love which has no other measure than to be without measure. You instituted this Sacrament because your love exceeds all words. Burning with love for us, you desired to give yourself to us and took up your dwelling in the consecrated Host, entirely and forever, until the end of time. And you did this, not only to give us a memorial of your death which is our salvation, but you did it also, to remain with us entirely and forever.”

St. Angela of Foligno

Adoration of evil can’t replace the adoration of God, Pope says

During his day visit to Calabria the Pope calls us to renounce evil with vigor, to reject the devil in all his works. The Holy Father address his words not only to the Calabrian mafia –though they are clearly the center of the remarks– but to all Christians to reject a posture of “adoration of evil and contempt for the common good.”

Pope Francis added: “Those who in their lives have taken this evil road, this road of evil, such as the mobsters, they are not in communion with God, they are excommunicated.”

One of the things I find interesting about Pope Francis is his willingness to focus our attention to the place of evil in life. I don’t think I’ve heard much about the devil and evil as much from the papal lips as now with Francis.

Our adoration of God, if we are true to our dignity of being called Christian, can not be exchanged for the sins of attachment to money, power, and fame.

Vatican Radio has a report here.

Theological commission defines role of sensus fidei in Church

A high powered theological commission, the International Theological Commission (ITC) gave a detailed definition to what Catholics mean when they say they have, or employ, a sensus fidei in Church life. Over the last decades various meanings have surfaced, and not all of them are correct. The ITC has stated in another place, “Catholic theology speaks the truth in love, so that the faithful may mature in faith, and not be ‘tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine.’”

The focus of “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church“ historical method identifies (discerns) the authentic contributions to the sensus fidei, by two criteria: conformity to the apostolic tradition and active participation.

Concluding the 85th session of the The International Theological Commission, released a new document . “Sensus Fidei in the Life of the Church” deals with the role of sensus fidei (the sense of the faithful) in the Church. There was one American on the sub commission that produced the “Sensus Fidei, Sister Sara Butler, M.S.B.T. (a former professor of mine).

The Catholic understanding of the sensus fidei “does not consist solely or necessarily in the consensus of the faithful. Following Christ, the Church seeks the truth, which is not always the same as the majority opinion. The Church values sociological and statistical research when it proves helpful in understanding the historical context in which pastoral action has to be developed and when it leads to a better understanding of the truth. Such research alone, however,” he insists, “is not to be considered in itself an expression of the sense of faith.” That was Pope John Paul II said. His successor the emeritus Pope Benedict XVI taught, “It is particularly important today to clarify the criteria used to distinguish the authentic sensus fidelium from its counterfeits. In fact, it is not some kind of public opinion of the Church, and it is unthinkable to mention it in order to challenge the teachings of the Magisterium, this is because the sensus fidei cannot grow authentically in the believer except to the extent in which he or she fully participates in the life of the Church, and this requires a responsible adherence to her Magisterium.”

As a technical term, sensus fidei describes the our ability as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, to discern how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is lived. The document’s works with with the survey sent to national episcopal conferences on the Synod of the Family.

Saint Romuald

The Church liturgically remembers the great 11th century Benedictine monk and abbot, Saint Romuald, who founded the Camaldolese remewal of Benedictine monasticism. This particular charism has a certain maturity new synthesis of the Rule of Benedict. In this country, the major hermitage of the the Camaldoese monks is in Big Sur, CA.

“The Camaldolese identity, now more than ever, is clearly a dynamic balance among various spiritual and structural elements united in fruitful tension; it is the awareness of the value of our own experience, linked with the cordial acceptance of others’ experience; it is a search for an inner disposition and an outward style that joins together men and women in an exceptional charism uniting solitude and communion, rootedness and universality, historical memory and openness to the present and the future, an essential spirit with a rich embodiment.” (Dom Emanuele Bargellini ,OSB Cam, former Prior General of the Camaldolese Congregation)

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity

One of the local Dominican friars put me on to the life and insight of the French Carmelite nun, Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity (whose feast is November 8). Thinking of this Blessed woman on Trinity Sunday draws me to think more deeply of what Love is in my own life and how it exists.

Blessed Elizabeth (1880-1906) had a personal mission of making the Holy Trinity better known and widely loved by every Christian. Hers is a manner of living the baptismal consecration we have received by the power of the Holy Spirit as a gift of living in the Father, Son and Spirit who make Their home within us (cf. Jn 14:23). Some of the many things she said:

The Trinity – this is our dwelling, our ‘home’, the Father’s house that we must never leave.

I think that in heaven my mission will be to draw souls, by helping them go out of themselves to cling to God by a wholly simple and loving movement, and to keep them in this great silence within, that will allow God to communicate Himself to them and transform them into Himself.

To her mother she said: Oh, may the Master reveal to you His divine presence, it is so pleasant and sweet, it gives so much strength to the soul; to believe that God loves us to the point of living in us, to become the Companion of our exile, our Confidant, our Friend at every moment.

A Christmas poem of 1901 states: He comes to reveal the mystery, To give all of the Father’s secrets, To lead from glory to glory, Even unto the bosom of the Trinity.”

Why is Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity important for today? Why is this very young Carmelite nun relevant to my experience of faith? True to the meaning of her name, Elizabeth (means ‘house of God’), she communicated to the world that “God wants to make is His home in us.” She is widely admired and her writings are read the important and common persons because people seen in them a certain authenticity, a call to go deeper into the mystery of Love, that is, God Himself. Many call Blessed Elizabeth a “prophet for our time” saying that she heard God’s call, and speaks the truth to us today. In his beatification homily Pope Saint John Paul said that Elizabeth is “a brilliant witness to the joy of being ‘rooted and grounded in love'” (Eph 3:17). Can we say the same for ourselves?

Years later in the mid-20th century the Servant of God Father Luigi Giussani would echo the teaching of Blessed Elizabeth by reminding his followers that God is not an abstraction, an idea, a figure of ages past. But that God is a Presence here-and-now, contemporaneous with human experience. Blessed Elizabeth and Father Giussani would indicate that a true Christian cannot claim with any degree of seriousness that we are surrounded by God as by air, light or energy, BUT that God is present within us; that God is at home in the human heart, that He exists in our concrete experience; that the newness of Christianity is that God wants to be in relationship with each person, and that God really cares and loves us. God incarnate –Jesus Christ– is not absent but truly present in every facet of human life. We know this by way of His eucharistic Presence.

Blessed Elizabeth’s writings reveal an awareness of the indwelling presence of God. She wished to “live through love in his presence” and to be in communion with Him for ever.