If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. (Blessed Teresa of Calcutta)
26 August 1910 to 5 September 1997
“This
celebration of Mother Teresa should remind us that the work of mercy, charity
and compassion still have a fundamental place in our being disciples of Jesus
today. During her life Mother put into practice in many ways Charity in
Truth (Fr Cedric Prakash, SJ, Sept. 5, 2009).
Tonight 7 men made the Profession of Faith and the
Oath of Fidelity (which I encourage you too read) at Vespers. These 7 men will be ordained to the Order of
Deacon tomorrow here in the Saint Joseph Seminary Chapel by Bishop Dennis
Joseph Sullivan, VG, auxiliary bishop of New York: James H. Ferreira, George
LaGrutta, Steven R. Markantonis, Fredy P. Montoya, Thomas Roslak, Enrique J. Salvo,
Daniel P. Tuite.
The
following is the text Benedict XVI sent to Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of
the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, on the occasion of the
11th Inter-Christian Symposium, which began today in Rome.
Through you,
venerable brother, in your capacity as president of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity, I have the pleasure and joy of sending a warm and
auspicious greeting to the organizers and participants of the 11th
Inter-Christian Symposium, promoted by the Franciscan Institute of Spirituality
of the Pontifical University Antonianum and by the Aristotle Orthodox
Theological Faculty of Thessalonica, planned in Rome from Sept. 3-5.
I am happy
first of all for this initiative of fraternal encounter and exchange on the
common aspects of spirituality, which is beneficial for a closer relationship
between Catholics and Orthodox. In fact, these Symposiums, which began in 1992,
address important and constructive topics for reciprocal understanding and unity
of intention. The fact that it takes place alternatively in a territory of
Catholic or Orthodox majority also allows for real contact with the concrete,
historical, cultural and religious life of our Churches.
In particular, this
year you wished to organize the Symposium in Rome, city that offers all
Christians indelible testimonies of history, archaeology, iconography,
hagiography and spirituality, strong stimulus to advance toward full communion
and above all, the memory of the Apostles Peter and Paul, Protothroni, and of
so many martyrs, ancient witnesses of the faith. Of them, St. Clement of Rome
wrote that “suffering … many insults and torments, they became a most
beautiful example for us” (Cf. Letter to the Corinthians, VI,1).
The topic
chosen for the next meeting: “St. Augustine in the Western and Eastern
Tradition” — argument intended to be developed in collaboration with the
Patristic Institute Augustinanum — is most interesting to reflect further on
Christian theology and spirituality in the West and in the East, and its
development. The Saint of Hippo, a great Father of the Latin Church, is, in
fact, of fundamental importance for theology and for the West’s very culture,
whereas the reception of his thought in Orthodox theology has revealed itself
to be rather problematic.
Hence, to know with historical objectivity and
fraternal cordiality the doctrinal and spiritual riches that make up the
patrimony of the Christian East and West, is indispensable not only to
appreciate them, but also to promote better reciprocal appreciation among all
Christians.
Therefore, I express cordial wishes that your Symposium is fruitful
in that it discovers doctrinal and spiritual convergences that are useful to
build together the City of God, where his children can live in peace and in
fraternal charity, based on the truth of the common faith. I assure you of my
prayer for this end, asking the Lord to bless the organizers and the
institutions they represent, the Catholic and Orthodox speakers and all the participants.
May the Grace and peace of the Lord be in your collaborators and in your minds!
In Castel Gandolfo,
August 28, 2009
Benedictus PP. XVI
O most blessed Trinity, we praise and thank you for the example of Blessed Mary Stella and her ten companions, Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, who by imitating Jesus Christ, offered themselves as a
sacrifice of love.
God of mercy and compassion, through the merits of their martyrdom and by their intercession, grant us the grace we humbly ask… (insert intention here) …so that like them, we may witness with our lives to the presence of the Kingdom of God’s love and extend it to the human family throughout the world. We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Blessed Martyred Sisters of Nowogródek, pray for us.
Blessed Mary Stella and her companions were authentic martyrs for the faith: they “…paid with their blood for the charity they exercised in favor of escapees, of the wounded and the sick during the terrible and uncertain days” (His Will Alone, 424).
They had engaged life as any other person does and so I thinking giving the names of the sisters keeps memory of the women, our friends, alive in our hearts. Certainly as a kid in a Nazareth school (New Haven, CT) this image of the sisters was haunting and striking. On my desk sits the commemorative coin, a gift of Sister Thaddeus of Jesus, CSFN, with the faces and names of the sisters reminding me of the gift their lives are for us.
The eleven Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth who were executed by the Nazis on August 1, 1943 were:
Sister Maria Stella, Superior (Adelaide Mardosiewicz) (1888-1943)
Sister Mary Imelda (Jadwiga Zak) (1892-1943)
Sister Mary Rajmunda (Anna Kukulowicz) (1892-1943)
Sister Maria Daniela (Eleanor Juzwik) (1895-1943)
Sister Maria Kanuta (Jozefa Chrobot) (1896-1943)
Sister Maria Gwidona (Helena Cierpka) (1900-1943)
Sister Maria Sergia (Julia Rapieg) (1900-1943)
Sister Maria Kanizja (Eugenia Mackiewicz) (1904-1943)
Sister Maria Felicyta (Paulina Borowik) (1905-1943)
Sister Maria Heliodora (Leokadia Matustzewska) (1906-1943)
Sister Maria Boromea (Veronika Narmuntowicz) (1916-1943)
The Sisters had these words in their hearts and on their lips as they gave witness to Christ and the Church: “O God, if sacrifice of life is needed, accept it from us who are free from family obligations.
Spare those who have wives and children.”
And so we pray that Blessed Mary Stella and companions intercede for us before the the Throne of Grace for us, for the Nazareth Congregation of Sisters (especially for Sister Mary Ellen Genova) and for Poland.
N.B. In many places the martyrs of Nowogródek are remembered liturgically on the day their death, August 1st. In the convents of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Nazareth today is the liturgical memorial is prayed at Mass and in the Divine Office.
You may have seen the story of 10 nuns come into full communion with the Catholic Church. The ceremonial aspect of full communion was yesterday but the journey to that point was long in coming individually and corporately. Archbishop Edwin O’Brien of Baltimore received the nuns and is working with them to become a diocesan right community.
Our methods of entering the divine mysteries are varied: some
use the spoken or written word (poet, some use photography, some will engage nature,
some may use music & dance and still others will use the time-honored
tradition of icons. Jesuit Father Stephen Bonian takes us through a variety of
fitting understandings of iconography and their use for prayer in his article,
“Gateways to Prayer.”
For we see …
“In God’s beauty, all the earth is sanctified.
Tree and stone, wood and paint have glory
In His beauty.
Creation is transformed;
The fallen is made holy.
And man, beholding Beauty’s vision,
Shares His life.”
(“On the Beauty of God” by an anonymous Orthodox author)
The Holy Bible is like a mirror before our mind’s eye. In it we see our inner face. From the Scriptures we can learn our spiritual deformities and beauties. And there too we discover the progress we are making and how far we are from perfection. (Gregory the Great)
Under the leadership of Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture, contemporary artists of all media are invited to the Vatican for a meeting on November 21st.
The Rimini
Meeting, mentioned here before, invited Carl Anderson, the
Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus to address the more than 700,000
attendees on August 28, 2009. In his address he spoke about the common,
practical spirituality of the Knights as influencing works of Charity. Knowing
that “Christ plays in ten thousand places, Lovely in limbs, and lovely in
eyes not his”, Anderson advocated a life of charity that spurs all people –at least it ought to– to build a civilization of love based on real, lasting hope.
The point for
Catholics is not to set up another group of “do-gooder” structure no
matter of the brilliance of the idea which has no grounding in the dignity of
man and woman and/or with some vague understanding of Christianity, but to form
a companionship, friends who are rooted in Christ Jesus. Only then can we
truly, actually care for another. Many can argue rightly that people who have
no faith or don’t share faith in Christ can build a loving and caring society.
True and there are bountiful examples of this being done all around the world.
But for those who claim to be Christians, substance over sentiment is what
drives. I don’t do something and meet Christ. Rather, I have met Christ and
therefore I live differently with myself and with my brothers and sisters
around me. Otherwise we have beige Catholicism and we don’t need more of that
stuff.
In my opinion, Carl Anderson touches on this point: our Christian lives
are not sustained by a something but a someone: Christ who sacrificed himself
for us on the cross and then rose from the dead. This is the hope Christians
have. If we forget this point then we Catholics are no different than the Elks
lodge and that may be OK for some but I think being Catholic means something
more: that we come to know our God is a personal way through helping others.
Ask yourself: How am I different after I’ve done something for my neighbor? Has
my life in Christ changed, or not? Mr. Anderson draws on sacred Scripture &
Theology as well as the works of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Particularly
re-read Deus caritas
est.
Carl Anderson’s talk can be read here