On Discerning a Call to Religious Life by Women - Stewardship and the Generous Gift of Widows

On Saturday, November 3 at Ottawa's St. Margaret Mary Parish, some thirty women attended a Women's Vocation Breakfast  at which several sisters from religious communities witnessed to their discernment and struggle with whether the Lord was calling them to follow him in some form of consecrated life.

Mmebers of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the Sisters of Our Lady Immaculate and the Servants of the Cross told their vocation story. Other congregations had sent material on their charisms.

Father Tim Mccauley, Ottawa Archdiocesan Director of Vocations also spoke, and I gave the participants a closing blessing at the close of the session. 

The mood was upbeat and engaging: a very encouraging sign for the future of our church and the consecrated life within it. 

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Thirty-second Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year “B”) - November 11, 2012

STEWARDSHIP: “SHE HAS PUT IN EVERYTHING...”

[1 Kings 17.10-16 [Psalm 146]; Hebrews 9.24-28; Mark 12.38-44]

In our diocese a small committee works with great determination to propose the concept of stewardship. Inspired by a pastoral letter, STEWARDSHIP—A DISCIPLE'S RESPONSE written by the United States Bishops Conference, committee members invite their fellow Catholics to consider a foundational truth, that all they have received has been entrusted to them by God to use wisely.

Gratitude for the gifts one has received from God will, in this view, lead the disciple of Jesus to want to share with his or her parish community a generous portion of each one's time, talent and treasure.


The American bishops were aware that stewardship had not been part of Catholic tradition, and that cynics might argue it was simply a new means of raising money for church purposes. Indeed, our church has tended to operate much more on the principle that people will give what is needed as it is needed.

The bishops knew that they had to redirect the focus away from here and now material needs towards a spiritual disposition based on the conversion of each disciple's outlook.

A question often asked by religious leaders in the past was “what does the church need to carry out the mission?” However, the really important question to put to a disciple could better be formulated as: “what has God given me that I need to steward according to God's will?”

For a disciple of Jesus to be a steward, he or she must first come to the realization that what they have—time, talent and money—belongs to God and that they are simply caretakers of these precious gifts.

To be a steward means, after putting aside time for my spiritual and that of my family, to share one's talents with one's faith community, entering a spirit of sacrificial giving. Then the generous sharing of one's treasure follows naturally; it, too, cannot help but be sacrificial. The widow in today's gospel passage reveals that far more important than the amount given is the spirit of surrender to God with which one gives.

In Jerusalem during his last days, Jesus excoriated the scribes for loving the kind of attention accorded religious leaders: recognition in public, the best seats in the sacred assembly and “places of honour at banquets”.

Instead of humility, such attention can induce pride and even preying on the needy to get the money needed to keep up one's image (“they devour widows' houses and for the sake of appearances say long prayers”).

Instead, Jesus directed his focus onto the inner disposition of humble giving by a widow, in contrast with outer displays of munificence by the wealthy. Jesus surprised his hearers with the remark that “this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on”.

In proportion to their resources, the large sums contributed by the rich involved no real sacrifice on their part. So they cannot compare with the widow's tiny gift, which was a sacrifice of all she had to live on. Mark tells us that the two copper pieces she put in were two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation, and—Mark translated for his readers—made up a Roman quadrans (“which are worth a penny”). This came to 1/64 of a denarius, the daily wage of a labourer.

The widow of Zarephath showed a similar self-sacrificing disposition, offering to the prophet Elijah a portion of the little she had to keep herself alive. Her reward was a miracle that fed her, her son and the prophet “for many days”.

Jesus implied that discipleship involves absolute surrender to God's will and purpose, a disposition to which he would recommit himself in his Passion. Jesus' self-sacrifice, mirrored in the widow's offering, is highlighted by the author of Hebrews.

Formerly the high priest entered the Holy of Holies each year with blood belonging to animals (“with blood that is not his own”), whereas Christ offered his own life in atonement for the sins of the world. “Christ has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself”.

Women of Bethany Meet in Ottawa

Last weekend, close to 200 women gathered from Ottawa and the surrounding region (I met some participants from PEI and Montreal, and feel sure there were others from other distant places also present) to take part in a Women of Bethany retreat guided by Dr. Mary Healy, scripture scholar and professor at the Sacred Heart Seminary in Detroit.

Women of Bethany affords women a chance to step back from the normal routine and enjoy the company of the Lord as Lazarus, Martha and Mary did in their home at Bethany. Opportunities for prayer and praise, rosary, the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the Eucharist were offered under the planning a direction of Lorie O'Reilly (chair of WofB) and Father Vincent Pereira (chaplain for the weekend).

Mary and I serve on the editorial board of the Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture series (published by Baker Academic), in which she has published the volume on Mark's Gospel and is preparing the commentary on the Epistle of the Hebrews.  Her knowledge and love of Pope John Paul II's magisterial teaching on the special charism of women in the Bible and the Church underlies her book Men and Women are from Eden.

As I was tied up most of the weekend, Lorrie, Mary and I shared luncheon earlier on Friday and I was able to attend Mary's first presentation on Friday evening and offer the attendees words of welcome and a blessing.  My understanding is that the whole weekend was a great experience for all involved.  Some photos from our lunch meeting and my brief participation at the event at the Ottawa Marriott Hotel:

Pope's Intentions November 2012 - Kahnawake Shrine & St. Joseph's Oratory Mass of Thanksgiving

These are the Holy Father's Prayer Intentions for November 2012:

General Intention: That bishops, priests, and all ministers of the Gospel may bear the courageous witness of fidelity to the crucified and risen Lord.

Missionary Intention: That the pilgrim Church on earth may shine as a light to the nations.

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GIVING THANKS TO GOD FOR THE CANONIZATION

OF ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA

Yesterday, seven busloads of pilgrims from Ottawa and the surrounding dioceses journeyed to St. Joseph's Oratory for the Mass of Thanksgiving for the Canonization of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawks. 

Our buses stopped off en route at St. Francis Xavier Parish Church in Kahnawake, on the South Shore of Montreal, joined the parish for the Sunday Eucharist (at which I was invited to be principal celebrant, assisted by the Pastor Father Esprit and Deacon Ron Boyer), then had lunch at the Oratory restaurant and joined the joyful throng in the upper basilica church for the Mass presided by Bishop Lionel Gendron of St. Jean-Longueuil Diocese, where the new saint's remains are located in the Kahnawake church.

I did not give my camera to anyone for photos of the Mass at the Oratory, but here are others from the day-long joyous event:

Christ and the Christian - Multi-Diocese Pilgrimage to Kahnawake, St. Joseph's Oratory, Mt. Royal

GOD'S PLAN IS

THAT WE BE CONFORMED

TO HIS RISEN SON

The eternal Father, by a free and hidden plan of His own wisdom and goodness, created the whole world.

His plan was to raise men to a participation of the divine life. Fallen in Adam, God the Father did not leave men to themselves, but ceaselessly offered helps to salvation, in view of Christ, the Redeemer "who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature".

All the elect, before time began, the Father "foreknew and pre- destined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that he should be the firstborn among many brethren" (Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, paragraph 9).

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Almighty and merciful God, by whose gift your faithful offer you right and praiseworthy service, grant, we pray, that we may hasten without stumbling to receive the things you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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THANKSGIVING TO GOD

FOR ST. KATERI TEKAKWITHA

Today, as the result of the organizing skills of Mike Budge, pilgrims from Ottawa and Kingston archdioceses and the dioceses of Alexandria-Cornwall, Mont-Laurier and Pembroke will be travelling to Kahnawake to visit the shrine in honour of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, then on to the Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Joseph Oratory on Mount Royal.

My bus leaves at 6:30am from the Church of Notre-Dame de Lourdes on Montreal Road, others will have left much earlier. Full account in days to come.

St. Martin de Porres & St. Hubert

Saint Martin de Porres was born on December 9, 1579, in Lima, Peru. He was the illegitimate son of wealthy Spanish knight Juan de Porres and a freed slave woman from Panama, Anna Velasquez, who was of mixed raced. At the age of fifteen, Martin became a "resident oblate" in the Dominican Friary in Lima and was accepted as a lay brother nine years later. He had a desire to be a foreign missionary somewhere to earn martyrdom, but he spent his whole life in Lima working as a barber, farm laborer, almoner (one who collects and distributes alms for the poor), and doctor's assistant, among other things.

Martin was blessed with great graces and miracles such as: curing the sick, aerial flights, and bilocation. He was very humble and called himself "Brother Broom". He treated all with love and did not discriminate against anyone who needed help. Not only did he love all people, but animals as well, even rodents, and he maintained a hospital for cats and dogs in the house of his sister. In his charity, he also started an institution for poor children to educate them and to teach them a trade so that they would have better lives; and he established an open garden planted with fig trees which was accessible to all the poor for food.

Saint Martin died on November 3, 1639 of typhus (a disease that is contracted from lice, mites, or fleas), probably contracted due to his contact with animals. He was carried to his tomb by bishops and noblemen. He was canonized by Pope John XXIII on May 6, 1962. He was also the first Black saint of the Americas and a contemporary of Saint Rose of Lima. Saint Martin is the patron saint of nurses and health care assistants, sick livestock, and is called on against rats and mice.

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O God, who led Saint Martin de Porres by the path of humility to heavenly glory, grant that we may so follow his radiant example in this life as to merit to be exalted with him in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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Saint Hubert is the name of one of the main north-south streets in Montreal, whose bus line in the days before the Metro I would ride home from my high school in the west end of Montreal to the Ahuntsic neighbourhood where I lived.  It is also well-known for a chain of chicken rotisseries in Quebec (with a few restaurants in Ontario).  The original Hubert was a bishop celebrated widely in Belgium.  Here's his story:

SAINT HUBERT

Patron des Chasseurs, Évêque
(657-727)

Saint Hubert était un prince de la lignée de Clovis, roi de France. Il avait douze ans quand, au milieu d'une chasse, il vit un ours furieux se jeter sur son père et l'étreindre de ses griffes redoutables. À ce spectacle, il poussa un cri vers le Ciel: "Mon Dieu, faites que je sauve mon père!" Aussitôt, se jetant sur l'animal féroce, il lui donne le coup de la mort. C'est là, sans doute, le premier titre de saint Hubert à sa réputation de patron des chasseurs.

Plus tard, Hubert chassait, un Vendredi saint, dans la forêt des Ardennes, ce qui était une chose peu convenable pour un chrétien. Soudain, un beau cerf, qu'il poursuit avec ardeur, s'arrête et lui fait face. Entre les cornes de l'animal brille une Croix éclatante, et une voix prononce ces paroles:

"Hubert! Hubert! Si tu ne te convertis pas et ne mènes pas une vie sainte, tu descendras bientôt en enfer.

— Seigneur, s'écrie le jeune prince, que voulez-Vous que je fasse?

— Va vers l'évêque Lambert, il t'instruira."

Bientôt Hubert renonce à tous ses droits sur la couronne d'Aquitaine, se revêt d'un costume de pèlerin et s'achemine vers Rome. Comme il arrivait au tombeau des saints Apôtres, le Pape Sergius, dans une vision, apprenait le meurtre de l'évêque Lambert, victime de son zèle pour la défense de la sainteté conjugale, et il recevait l'ordre d'envoyer à sa place le pèlerin qui arrivait en ce moment, pour prier, à la basilique de Saint-Pierre. Le Pontife trouva en effet l'humble pèlerin, lui fit connaître les ordres du Ciel, et Hubert, malgré sa frayeur et ses larmes, dut se soumettre à la Volonté de Dieu.

De retour en sa patrie, il fonda l'évêché de Liège, où il fit briller toutes les vertus des Apôtres. Sa douce et persuasive éloquence captivait les foules; il parlait quelquefois pendant trois heures consécutives, sans qu'on se lassât de l'entendre. A la puissance de la parole il joignait celle des miracles. A sa prière, les démons abandonnaient le corps des possédés, les flammes de l'incendie s'éteignaient, la sécheresse désastreuse cessait tout à coup pour céder la place à une pluie féconde: "Le Dieu d'Élie est le nôtre, disait-il, implorons-Le dans la prière et le jeûne; la miséricorde fera le reste."

Une voix céleste lui dit un jour: "Hubert, dans un mois tes liens seront brisés." Il se prépara pieusement à la mort, et, après avoir chanté le Credo et entonné le Pater, il rendit son âme à Dieu. On l'invoque spécialement contre la rage et contre la peur. (Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950.) 

The Commemoration of All Souls

Today, the day after the Solemnity of All Saints, the Church invites us to pray for the faithful departed. This yearly commemoration, often marked by visits to the cemetery, is an occasion to ponder the mystery of death and to renew our faith in the promise of eternal life held out to us by Christ’s resurrection.

As human beings, we have a natural fear of death and we rebel against its apparent finality. Faith teaches us that the fear of death is lightened by a great hope, the hope of eternity, which gives our lives their fullest meaning. The God who is love offers us the promise of eternal life through the death and resurrection of his Son.

In Christ, death no longer appears as an abyss of emptiness, but rather a path to life which will never end. Christ is the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in him will never die.

Each Sunday, in reciting the Creed, we reaffirm our faith in this mystery. As we remember our dear departed ones, united with them in the communion of the saints, may our faith inspire us to follow Christ more closely and to work in this world to build a future of hope. -- Pope Benedict XVI, November 2, 2011

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Listen kindly to our prayers, O Lord, and, as our faith in your Son, raised from the dead, is deepened, so may our hope of resurrection for your departed servants also find new strength. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Solemnity of All Saints - Vox Clara Meets in Rome re Sacraments

Almighty ever-living God, by whose gift we venerate in one celebration the merits of all the Saints, bestow on us, we pray, through the prayers of so many intercessors, an abundance of the reconciliation with you for which we earnestly long. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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VOX CLARA 2012 MEETING

This year's meeting took place at the Pontifical North American College from October 29-31 and principally examined early translations of the Order of Confirmation and the Order for Celebrating Marriage.  Below is the press release regarding the meeting followed by some photos from the meeting itself and the social interactions during tea breaks:

VOX CLARA COMMITTEE PRESS RELEASE
October 29-31, 2012

The members and staff of the Vox Clara Committee met from October 29-31, 2012 at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. This Committee of senior Bishops from Episcopal Conferences throughout the English-speaking world was formed by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on July 19, 2001 in order to provide advice to the Holy See concerning English-language liturgical texts and to strengthen effective cooperationwith the Conferences of Bishops in this regard.

The Vox Clara Committee is chaired by Cardinal George Pell (Sydney). The participants in the meeting were Bishop Thomas Olmsted (Phoenix), First Vice-Chairman; Cardinal Oswald Gracias (Bombay), Second Vice-Chairman; Bishop Arthur Serratelli (Paterson), Secretary; Cardinal Justin Rigali (Philadelphia, emeritus), Treasurer; Cardinal John Tong Hon (Hong Kong); Archbishop Alfred Hughes (New Orleans, emeritus); Archbishop Michael Neary (Tuam); Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, S.J. (Ottawa); and Bishop David McGough (Birmingham, auxiliary). Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I. (Chicago) was unable to attend the meeting.

Also assisting the meeting were the Executive Secretary, Monsignor James P. Moroney; experts: Father Dennis McManus and Father Jeremy Driscoll, O.S.B.; advisors: Abbot Cuthbert Johnson, O.S.B. and Monsignor Gerard McKay; and special assistants: Reverend Joseph Briody and Reverend Gerard Byrne.

The representatives of the Holy See included the Delegate to the Vox Clara Committee, Reverend Anthony Ward, S.M., Undersecretary of the Congregation; Monsignor Anthony Kollamparampil; and Reverend Andrew Menke.

Various members of the Committee reported on the reception of the English translation of the Roman Missal throughout the world and ntoed with gratitude the contribution of priests in its effective implementation.

The main work of the Committee was an intensive review of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) Green Book translations of the Order of Confirmation and the Order of Celebrating Marriage. The members noted that all involved have gained from the experience in producing the translation of the Missale Romanum over the past decade. Making a limited number of general and specific observations on these texts to the Congregation, the members look forward to the successful completion of this project with the publication of the ICEL Gray Books early next year.

In reviewing the timelines for translation of the remaining editiones typicae by ICEL, the Committee was gratified by the Commission’s careful attention to maintaining a process which is both expeditious and attentive to the need for careful consultation on all levels.

The Committee was gratified by the success of the Roman Pontifical, recently published by Vox Clara on behalf of the Congregation. With over a thousand copies in use throughout the English-speaking world, the Roman Pontifical brings a certain stability and uniformity to liturgical practice. Further publication projects were also discussed.

On the second day of the meeting, Cardinal Pell welcomed Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, as well as the new Secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche, noting the Archbishop Secretary’s significant contribution to the work of liturgical translation during his years as Chairman of ICEL. The Prefect expressed his thanks to the Vox Clara Committee not only for its assistance to the Congregation through the years, but also for the model of episcopal collaboration which it has provided in the important work of the translation of liturgical texts of the Roman Rite.

On the last day, the Committee was received in audience by Pope Benedict XVI, who warmly greeted the members and advisors and thanked them for their work.