“Magdalene’s Song”: a film of beauty and grace

Madgalene's Song ad.jpg“Magdalene’s Song,” is a film by Mauro Campiotti about Blessed Mary Magdalene of the Incarnation (Caterina Sordini) foundress of the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, an order of contemplative nuns who had an extraordinary relationship with the Lord and devotion to the Church in a time of great difficulty.


This film was the third in a series of four films on “Interesting Lives for Our Times” sponsored by the Siena Forum for Faith & Culture and Crossroads Cultural Center.

The Director, Mauro Campiotti, and 4 nuns from the Perpetual Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament were present to answer questions at the end of the film.


Thanks to Rita Simmonds and Tom Sullivan for the pictures.

I loved this film and I look forward to having a copy of it.  I recommend seeing “Magdalene’s Song.”

A great treat was meeting the nuns who are a part of the order founded by Blessed Mary Magdalene. These two sisters are also blood sisters and there’s a third sister who’s a sister.

Here’s a blog post on the Blessed Mary Magdalene and here order.

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Guardian Angels

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The 27th Sunday through the year trumps the feast of the Holy Guardian Angels. BUT I can’t resist thinking about angels. Today in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd I spoke to the children about the angels, though I centered my thoughts on the Archangels but the Guardian Angels factored in, too. Remember to say a prayer to your Guardian Angel intercession before God the Father.
Our belief in the existence of the guardian angels is not a pious idea that we teach to children; angels are biblical; Jesus speaks of the angels and the Church continues to give witness to the existence of angels in our lives.
So, what can we conclude? We conclude that God has concern for every human being by the protection of the Guardian Angels. Pope Benedict encourages us not to forget our angels in weekly audience (read about it here).
The Church prays….
O God, who in Your unfathomable providence are pleased to send Your holy Angels to guard us, hear our supplication as we cry to You, that we may always be defended by their protection and rejoice eternally in their company.
Angels are spirits. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “The existence of spiritual, non-corporeal beings that Sacred Scripture usually calls “angels” is a truth of faith (329).
What do these spirits do? What is the nature of spirits?
They angel. Again, from the Catechism of the Catholic Church we hear of the Saint Augustine of Hippo who taught “‘Angel is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit’, from what they do , ‘angel'” (329).
What does the word “angel” mean?
Messenger.
What does the Church teach about angels?
Angels “are servants and messengers of God. Because they ‘always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven’ (Mt 18:10) they are ‘the mighty ones who do his word’ (Ps 103:20).
The Jewish people are familiar with angels –there are plenty of angels in the Old Testament (see Genesis 28-29; Exodus 12-13 and 32:34; Psalm 90:11; Job 38:7 among many sources). The Prophet Daniel (c. 550BC) speaks of Michael as “the great prince which stands for the children of His people.” And Our Lord speaks of the 12 legions of angels as being at his side.
Do angels exist? I think so. The witnesses are hard to beat.

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Mike Aquilina’s 2009 book, Angels of God, is an excellent resource.
I recommend all of Mike’s writings, so purchase everything!!!
AND send an angel postcard given here…
Pray for the monks of the American-Cassinese Congregation who have the Holy Guardian Angels as their heavenly patrons. Monasteries in this congregation places like St Vincent’s (Latrobe, PA), St Anselm’s (Manchester, NH), St Martin’s (Lacey, WA), St Mary’s (Morristown, NJ), Newark Abbey (Newark, NJ) and a few more.

A frustrating week…

The week was a bear on many levels. The agony started when I arrived at the office and found out that the office laptop was stolen from my desk. Of course, not only was I angry at the un-named person who stole the computer, but at myself because nothing was backed up. Not having a virtual copy of the documents on an external hard drive was a big mistake. And the rest of the week was down hill because I began thinking about all the things I’ve worked on that are now gone plus all the personal information with it.

AND, the person who took the computer also took the pennies being collected for the poor. Well, at least that’s the assumption. The children in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd are collecting their spare change –or their parent’s pocket change– for the “Pennies for the Good Shepherd.”

I’ve got to find room in my heart to let go of anger toward the thief and pray for his conversion and my own. So pray with me and for me and for the other person. Saint Dismas and Saint Nicholas, pray for me and the other.
Hence, not a lot of posting this past week. 

Saint Michael the Archangel and the archangels

Tadolini's Michael.jpgNo better day than today to recall the work of the archangels: Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.

Raphael is least known, but he’s remembered because of his ability to heal in God’s name and then there’s the famous Gabriel who announces to a young Jewish girl, Mary, that she’s to bring into history God, the Incarnate Word of God known to us as Jesus and then we know Michael because he’s best known for throwing Lucifer to hell (he was the 4th archangel turned Satan or known as the devil). Michael means “who is like unto God.”
Catholics know Saint Michael for 4 things:
1. he provides aid for the spiritual struggle fought by all people;
2. he is present at every deathbed, giving hope for one’s redemption;
3. weighs the merits of a person’s soul following death: you are judged worthy of heaven, purgatory or hell;
4. he guarantees Jesus Christ’s promise to that the gates of hell won’t prevail upon the Church and that the Church will last to the end of time.
Since the time of Pope Leo XIII in the 19th century, we’ve prayed …
Saint Michael, the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And do thou, Oh Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God, cast into hell, Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Saint Vincent de Paul

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Among the Scripture passages that Saint Vincent de Paul (1580-1660) most identified with and recalled for his followers was Matthew 25. He was convinced by the revealed word that God was close to the poor, to those who live on the margins of society, civil or ecclesial. The charism of Saint Vincent, understood most clearly in the Congregation of the Mission, was to make known God’s mercy to all people but most especially to the poor. In this way he was akin to the Prophets and to the life of Jesus. Saint Vincent de Paul once said, “The Church teaches us that mercy belongs to God. Let us implore Him to bestow on us the spirit of mercy and compassion, so that we are filled with it and may never lose it. Only consider how much we ourselves are in need of mercy.”
Saint Vincent de Paul, pray for us.

Speed of light changes


I don’t know about you, but I was
thrilled to hear that the speed of light is no longer considered an absolute limit on the
speed of particles. I am even more delighted that comedy has already coped with
and internalized the new revolution:


“We don’t allow faster-than-light neutrinos
in here,” said the bartender. A neutrino walks into a bar.

Saint Pio of Pietrelcina

The question I am asking myself: is it possible to follow this man? Alternately, Can I even think that it is possible to be a man like Padre Pio, and seek after God without reservation? What Padre Pio has left us is a clear model of holiness and a path to walk. Holiness here is not meant to be an artificial , showy display of piety (beating the breast, hours of Adoration of Eucharistic adoration, days of fasting, no bathing, etc) but it is a way of life where we shed everything that is not ourselves, living in the manner that is coresponds to the way God the Father has educated us through His Son, Jesus (read the NT). Padre Pio’s ministerial life as a priest and as a professed Franciscan Capuchin focussed on the sanctification of souls. No greater work needed his attention and energy. The path given us to walk by Padre Pio is one that leads us back to God hearing the words of Jesus: I love you, I have mercy on you no matter what. Three tools to use on this path: prayer, confession and charity. Beauty and joy will shine through our conversation with God and by our love. If you really want to know more about the path Pio gives us, read what the Pope spoke in 2009 when he made a pilgrimage to the relics of Saint Pio:

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Some saints have lived intensely and personally this experience of Jesus. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina is one of them. A simple man of humble origins, “seized by Christ” (Phil. 3:12) — as the Apostle Paul writes of himself — to make of him an instrument chosen by the perennial power of his cross: power of love for souls, of forgiveness and of reconciliation, of spiritual paternity, of effective solidarity with those who suffer. The stigmata, which marked his body, united him closely to the Crucified and Risen One. A true follower of St. Francis of Assisi, he made his own, like the Poverello, the experience of the Apostle Paul which he describes in his letters: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20), or: “in us death is at work, but in you life” (2 Cor 5, 12). This does not mean alienation, loss of personality: God never annuls that which is human, but he transforms it with his Spirit and he ordains it to the service of his plan of salvation. Padre Pio kept his natural gifts, and even his own temperament, but he offered everything to God, who has been able to freely use them to extend the work of Christ: to proclaim the Gospel, forgive sins and heal the sick in body and spirit.

As it was for Jesus, the real struggle, the radical combat Padre Pio had to sustain, was not against earthly enemies, but against the spirit of evil (cf. Ephesians 6, 12). The biggest “storms” that threatened him were the assaults of the devil, against which he defended himself with “the armor of God” with “the shield of faith” and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:11,16,17). Remaining united to Jesus, he always kept in mind the depths of the human drama, and because of this he offered himself and offered his many sufferings, and he knew how to spend himself in the care and relief of the sick, a privileged sign of God’s mercy, of his kingdom which is coming, indeed, which is already in the world, of the victory of love and life over sin and death. Guide souls and relieve suffering: thus we can sum up the mission of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, as the servant of God, Pope Paul VI said about him: “He was a man of prayer and suffering” (To the Capuchin Chapter Fathers, 20 February 1971).

 

Pope Benedict XVI

Homily during the 2009 visit to the Shrine of Saint Pio