Communio – Page 255 – …bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Connecticut lawmakers to consider physician assisted suicide

The front page
of today’s New Haven Register carried an article by Jordan Fenster,
“Right-to-die bill may be discussed by legislature” by which the citizens of
Connecticut were alerted to the possibility that in the next session of the
legislature the question of assisted suicide will be on the table. Following
the defeat of Massachusetts ballot on the same subject last week, the contagion is now again flowing south. Already three US states, Oregon, Montana and Washington, allow for
physician assisted suicide. 34 states prohibit lethal doses of medication that
would end human life.

Let me say from the outset, this is not a Catholic issue. Persons of belief and unbelief ought to be concerned about the potential passing of a law that legalizes medically induced suicide. Hence, this is not a conservative issue. This is not a an anti-human dignity issue. It
is just the opposite: this is a human issue. Who we are a human beings, and how
we teach each other is a human issue that is informed by what we believe and
how we behave. Committing this legislative error is a problem of education.
Recall that in the past when a similar bill was brought to the CT voters it failed only 51-49%.

Several weeks ago there appeared in the New York Times an
intriguing OP-ED article that I believe we need to seriously consider in the
discussion of physician assisted suicide. Considering voices that differ from ours need to be thoughtfully taken into account because we are people use who reason to frame our moral lives. We can’t simply dismiss the other and therefore I appeal to people of belief and unbelief to reasonably discuss what’s at stake. When we rush the discuss without fact we always get burned.

In my opinion not enough attention has been devoted
to considering how this legislation has been lived out in this country and in
others, nor have we considered the philosophical, theological, sociological and
human consequences of such an act. Most often our heart-strings are pulled, even stretched leading us to decide weighty matters without due attention to the reality in front of us –to the person and people and intimately connected with life and death issues. We also don’t always adequately consider the eternal consequences of killing someone before natural death happens.

Who’s life are we “making dignified” by engaging death before it’s naturally
presented? What really is human dignity? What does it mean to be truly a man or
a woman in relationship with other men and women here-and-now, and following
death? To what extent does fear, anxiety and perceived suffering dictate how we
think and act toward others? Are we sufficiently aware of and sensitive to the difference between ideology and being a person, no matter how debilitated?

Here is Ben Mattlin’s October 31, 2012 New York
Times article published online.

Suicide by Choice? Not So Fast

Continue reading Connecticut lawmakers to consider physician assisted suicide

New Norbertine abbot blessed

The Nortbertine Order is not that well known in the USA, though it is a venerable way of living one’s vocation: canons praying the Divine Office, living together in community, and being apostolically engaged in the local Church.

In the USA, we have the primary Norbertines abbeys of St Norbert’s Abbey (WI), Daylesford Abbey (PA), St Michael’s (CA) and now Santa Maria de la Vid (NM). There are several other priories of Norbertine canons but I want to highlight the recent abbatial blessing of Joel Garner as the first abbot of Santa Maria.

May the Blessed Virgin and Saint Norbert to continue to richly bless Abbot Joel and his community through their intercession before the Throne of Grace.

New York Encounter 2013 – Experiencing Freedom

The New York Encounter 2013 is forthcoming on 18-20
January 2013. The theme for this year’s Encounter is “Experiencing Freedom.”

Our friends in the ecclesial movement of Communion and Liberation have put
together a wonderful moment of witness and education. Please find information
for the New York Encounter from the organizers.

The proposed Program NYE 2013.pdf

Benedictine All Saints

Today is the liturgical observance of Benedictine All Saints. Let’s pray for all those monks, nuns, sisters and oblates who lived a life of holiness and perseverance in the monastic life.

Not to be a “Debby-downer” BUT, it is not likely that many Benedictine monasteries in the USA will observe today as a feast of all holy monks and nuns. Sadly, many of the monastic superiors have given-in to painting life in their in the monastery with the color beige: there’s no vitality of tradition.

Historically, according to a note in an Office book, “Up to the end of the sixteenth century, there was no general feast of this name for the whole Order, since the “Order of St. Benedict”, in the modern sense, was unknown. In individual monasteries, as Monte Cassino, Cluny, Fontenelle, etc., a feast of all the saints proper to the monastery was observed, on different dates; only by the revision of the monastic Breviary by Paul V, in 1612, a general feast of All Holy Monks of the Order was instituted, on the above date.”

Let us pray,

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that the example of the holy Monks [and Nuns} may stir us to a better life: that so we may imitate the actions of those whose solemnity we celebrate.

Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Today, with the feast of Saint Josaphat (c. 1580-1623), we ought to mourn the sad division of the Church that exists between East and West.

The Church prays,

Stir up in your Church, we pray, O Lord, the Spirit that filled Saint Josaphat as he laid down his life for the sheep, so that through his intercession we, too, may be strengthened by the same Spirit and not be afraid to lay down our life for others.

Notice that the prayer calls to our attention that we too, are called to be witnesses to the work of unity, even to the point of laying down our lives for others. Here the use of the word ‘witness’ is used in two ways: giving testimony by word and deed and dying, if need be, with our own lives. Here’s the dual meaning of the martyr (witness).

Continue reading Saint Josaphat Kuncevyc

Cardinal Dolan tells US bishops: work on your own conversion first

The USCCB
President Timothy Cardinal Dolan began his address saying that we need to
attend to “First things first: we are first believers in Christ: the way, the
truth and the life…We need to recall that the Lord said, “Seek first the
Kingdom of God”: it is God who first engages us…”

Continue reading Cardinal Dolan tells US bishops: work on your own conversion first

Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization by US bishops

Dorothy Day half-length portrait, seated at de...

The Servant of God Dorothy Day’s cause for canonization may move forward (or not) depending on how the vote goes. The bishops of USA are meeting this week in Baltimore for the annual business meeting.

Dorothy Day is a Benedictine Oblate of Saint Procopius Abbey. She holds the ecclesial title of Servant of God which denotes that the Nihil Obstat (which says that the Vatican is open to the cause moving ahead).

Cardinal Dolan recently said that Day was a woman of the Church –the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Roman Church; she loved her faith. She had a reasonable view of the Church’s ministry, even her sinfulness and yet she held firmly to the intimate connection between the Jesus Christ and the Church.

The anniversary of the Servant of God Dorothy Day’s anniversary of death is forthcoming on November 29 (1980).

Listen to what Cardinal Dolan said about Dorothy Day is here.

Saint Martin of Tours

Sundays are not
days on which the Church observes the liturgical memorial of saints. It happens
periodically, but today’s feast of Saint Martin of Tours (AD 316-397) is not
one them, at least not in the USA. Perhaps in Tours where the saint lived there
is a festive celebration of Martin, I am uncertain of such. But that today is
Veterans’ Day here and that the liturgical calendar recalls Martin, it seems
silly not to think of this most famous saint as we pray for Veterans.

The Church prays,

O God, who are glorified in the Bishop Saint Martin both by his life and death, make new, we pray, the wonders of your grace in our hearts, that neither death nor life may separate us from your love.

Martin
was widely honored for his holiness and witness to Jesus Christ; through his
intercession God performed many miracles and many came to Christian faith. It
is said that saints beget saints. Martin was a disciple of the famed Saint Hilary of Poitiers
and Saint Lidorius desired that Martin succeed him as bishop of Tours and his
successors were Saint Britius and Saint Perpetuus; and Saint Benedict had a significant
devotion to Martin.

One of the famous stories of Martin is the one of the
cloak. As the narrative goes, Martin was approaching Amiens meeting a
poorly attired beggar who was obviously in need: cold, hungry and homeless. That he was a virtuous man, Martin cut his cloak in half and
gave half to the beggar. That night, in a dream, Jesus appeared to Martin wearing the cloak given to the
“beggar.” As Martin recounted, he heard Jesus say to the angels: “Here is
Martin, the Roman soldier who is not baptized [a catechumen] and has clad me” (Sulpicius
Severus, ch 2). One version of the story tells of the cloak being restored in
full to Martin.

A friend of Saint Martin, Sulpicius Severus wrote in his Vita of Martin that,

The body being laid out in public was being honored by the last sad offices on the part of the mourning brethren, when Martin hurries up to them with tears and lamentations. But then laying hold; as it were, of the Holy Spirit, with the whole powers of his mind, he orders the others to quit the cell in which the body was lying; and bolting the door, he stretches himself at full length on the dead limbs of the departed brother. Having given himself for some time to earnest prayer, and perceiving by means of the Spirit of God that power was present, he then rose up for a little, and gazing on the countenance of the deceased, he waited without misgiving for the result of his prayer and of the mercy of the Lord. And scarcely had the space of two hours elapsed, when he saw the dead man begin to move a little in all his members, and to tremble with his eyes opened for the practice of sight. Then indeed, turning to the Lord with a loud voice and giving thanks, he filled the cell with his ejaculations.

Saint Martin is not only the patron saint for the military but he’s also asked to intercede for those battling alcoholism.

Blessed Maria Luisa Prosperi

Today, the Church beatified the Venerable Servant of God Maria Luisa (nee Gertrude Prosperi; 1799-1847), a former Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey in Trevi in what is now known as the Diocese of Spoleto-Norcia (Italy). Her name is now added to the long list of Benedictine saints and blesseds.

Cardinal Angelo Amato, SDB, Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints pronounced the papal decree of beatification. His homily may be read in Italian here.

What can we learn from Maria Luisa Prosperi?

Our new blessed was devoted to the Most Blessed Sacrament, the contemplation of the cross with a profound and exemplary love for the infinite mercy of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is Benedict XVI who tells us to recognize in Abbess Maria Luisa a singular love for the Lord’s Passion. Maria Luisa was known as a “woman in love with God.”

Blessed Maria Luisa’s liturgical memorial will be 12 September.

Blessed Maria Luisa was born on 15 August 1779 and died on 12 September 1847. She became a Benedictine nun of the Monastery of Saint Lucy in 1820 in a monastery founded in 1844.

Martin Boler, OSB RIP

The second and longtime Prior of Mount Saviour Monastery, Father Martin Thomas Boler will be laid to rest today.

Father Martin was born in 1924. After his medical education he entered the newly formed (1951) Benedictine monastery of Mount Saviour in Elmira, New York.

At a certain point in 1969 Father Damasus decided a younger man ought to lead the monastery and so he resigned. Father Martin was elected the Father Prior of the community, a diakonia he held from 1969-2008. He’d been in declining health for the last few years and reposed in the Lord on November 7.

Father Martin’s life was beautifully captured by Br John of Weston Priory in A Memoir on Fr Boler by Br John.pdf

May God be merciful to Father Martin, and may his memory be eternal.