An Advent Day with the Order of Malta

Earlier today the Southeast CT area section of the Order of Malta met for its annual Advent Day meeting, Holy Mass and lunch. A delightful time with these brothers and sisters in faith and service.

I was only able to make the tail end of Mass and lunch due to my attendance at my godmother’s funeral rites. A deep sorrow at Pam’s transitus to the Lord. Please keep my godmother Pam in your prayers; she lived with the tragic disease of ALS.

The photo above shows us with Bishop Peter Rosazza and Fr Thomas Kelly and the Knights and Dames of Malta and the Associates.

Our Lady of Lourdes, pray for us.
Blessed Gerard, pray for us.

Giving Thanks

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Hoping your Thanksgiving is filled with blessings and joy!

“Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” – Psalm 100

What is the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem?

We are “…missionaries of the Gospel of Christ in today’s society…”.

Periodically I ask myself what is this order to whom I belong? What’s the point? Why is it important to the Church, too society, to me? Having to ask the question is not entertaining frivolous doubt or wasting time and words. Knowing one’s mission, living one’s vocation and working one’s conversion –all graces that are God-given– is a daily personal work and a daily prayer generated by the Holy Spirit. After all, we do pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with His seven gifts, do we not?

This last point was reinforced with me by attending the Mass with the Rite of Confirmation for the Latin Arab community at the Good Shepherd Community in Yonkers, NY. Hearing the questions and the prelate’s prayer invoking the Holy Spirit. Hence the image of the EOHSJ-NY gathering with His Beatitude Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM (20 Nov 2022).

The question this post resources is an essential a question for those discerning membership but also for those who have been in the Order for any length of time. It is a question posed by a member of the Mexican Lieutenancy to the Cardinal Filoni who serves as the Grand Master. The answer Cardinal Filoni gives is brief and worthy of serious reflection.

I would hope that all of us who claim membership a noble ideal in the EOHSJ would not only ask for understanding (i.e., what is the meaning of this question of what type of group to which we belong) but also ask the question of our particular Lieutenancies. Are we missionaries of the Gospel? Are we bearing witness to the Word of God and sacramentality of God’s presence in the world? Are we faithful members of the Mystical Body of Christ in concrete ways (cf. Matthew 25)?

Blessed Bartolo Longo, pray for us.

At the Arabic Catholic Community, Yonkers

Knights and Ladies with His Beatitude, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM, following Holy Mass at the Good Shepherd Community, Yonkers, 20 November 2022.

Earlier today I was with members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Eohsj Eastern Lieutenancy) as we joined with Good Shepherd Parish (Yonkers, NY) and His Beatitude, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM. It the occasion for a pastoral visit to the Arab Latin Catholic Community at which time a group of the children of the parish received the sacraments of Confirmation and Holy Communion.

It was an exceptional afternoon to be with our Lieutenant, Her Excellency Vicki Downey. Our work as members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre is to support the work of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem البطريركية اللاتينية في القدس , and by extension the communities here.
EOHSJ with some members of the Good Shepherd Community following Mass on 20 November 2022.

Nice to have met Father Davide Meli and Abouna Fares Hattar.

The Good Shepherd Community is one of two communities of Arab Catholics in Yonkers, NY. The other being the Christ The Savior Melkite Church (FrMusil Shihadeh). Too many think of the Arab community being Muslim but in reality there are Christian faith communities dating back to the time of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Cause of Canonization of Michelle Duppong opened

We may have a new saint from the Church of the USA. On December 29, 2014, Michelle Christine Duppong was unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer while serving as the Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Diocese of Bismarck. She died at the age of 31.

Since Michelle was part of the FOCUS missionaries they have have established a page on their website profiling her. Give a look.

If you are unfamiliar with the process of how one is declared a saint in the Catholic Church, The National Catholic Register has an article on Michelle Duppong.

Here’s a recent communication from the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota.

On November 1, 2022, All Saints Day, Bishop David Kagan celebrated the Opening Mass for the Cause for Canonization of Michelle Duppong.

PUBLICATION OF THE POSTULATOR’S PETITION

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

In the name of the ‘Fellowship of Catholic University Students’ (FOCUS), Father Thomas J. Grafsgaard, appointed as postulator and approved by myself as postulator, requested me to initiate the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Michelle Duppong, former FOCUS Missionary and Director of Adult Faith Formation for the Diocese of Bismarck who died on December 25th, 2015, at Haymarsh in this diocese.

After having consulted with the Holy See, my brother bishops and the faithful of this diocese; and having verified the existence of a true and widespread reputation of sanctity, enjoyed by her during her life and growing ever stronger after her death, as well as ample evidence of the granting of graces and favors by God through her intercession, I, David D. Kagan, Bishop of Bismarck, do hereby make public the petition of Father Thomas J. Grafsgaard, the postulator of this cause, and thus declare I am initiating the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of the Servant of God Michelle Christine Duppong.

In conformity with “The Norms to be Observed in Inquiries Made by Bishops in the Causes of Saints”, published by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints on February 7, 1983, I also call upon any and all who may have useful information regarding the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Michelle Christine Duppong to bring such documents, materials or information to my attention.

Given at Bismarck, North Dakota, on this 1st day of November in the year of Our Lord 2022.

Bishop David D. Kagan
Bishop of Bismarck

All Saints

 

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1.

“It is a great good to think that if we try we can become saints with God’s help. And have no fear that He will fail if we don’t fail. Since we have not come here for any other thing, let us put our hands to the task.”

St. Teresa of Avila, Doctor of the Church

Blessed Theodore Romzha

“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. … No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.” (John 15:18.20)

Bishop Kallistos Ware [+2022] said that today is truly the age of martyrs. More people are giving witness to Christ than ever before.

Today, the Byzantine Catholic Church remembers Blessed Theodore Romzha, who was killed by the Communists as he performed his pastoral duties. In the epistle read today, St. Paul reflects on what Christians have always had to do to follow Christ, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church. (Colossians 1:24)” This, St. Paul, comes from the great mystery of the Church: Christ in us, our hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) We do not give up our lives for our own purposes, but because we know that our life is in Christ. We die not only for some ideal, but in witness to a person -the Jesus Christ, our Lord, “light from light, true God from true God.” This is why in history Christians have been persecuted by all kinds of organizations and ideologies and economic systems which perceive Jesus, the Giver of Life, as a threat.

Sadly, even in our history, Christians have persecuted other Christians. However, today we proclaim the glory of all those who proclaim Jesus as Lord. Indeed, the feast is ecumenical, celebrating the Byzantine Catholic bishop who died for Christ in 1947, Theodore Romzha, and the Russian Orthodox priest, John Kochurev, who had served as a pastor in Chicago, but was the first Orthodox priest to be martyred by the Communists in Russia in 1917. Both Catholic and Orthodox therefore bear united witness to the one Lord Jesus Christ in the face of his enemies.

Meditation by Archpriest David Petras