January 2007 Archives

Today is not only the feast of Saint John Bosco, the gentle spiritual father of countless children and young people, it is also the feast of Saint Marcella of Rome. Saint Jerome called Marcella “the glory of the ladies of Rome.”

As a young girl Marcella met Saint Athanasius; his stories of the Desert Fathers of Egypt enthralled her. Marcella married but was widowed after only seven months. Saint Jerome lodged in Marcella’s house on the Aventine. Today one has this marvelous view from the Aventine.

The young widow’s home became an academy for the study of Sacred Scripture and a school of prayer. Saint Paula and other Roman ladies joined her. Marcella was a woman of no mean intellectual prowess. While she respected her spiritual father Jerome, he did not intimidate her. More than once she challenged him with difficult and subtle questions concerning the Scriptures. It was for Marcella that Saint Jerome wrote his explanation of the Hebrew words Amen and Alleluia.

In a letter to the Roman lady Principia, Saint Jerome compares Marcella to the prophetess Anna in Saint Luke’s Gospel. “Let us then compare her case with that of Marcella,” he says, “and we shall see that the latter has every way the advantage. Anna lived with her husband seven years; Marcella seven months. Anna only hoped for Christ; Marcella held Him fast. Anna confessed Him at His birth; Marcella believed in Him crucified. Anna did not deny the Child; Marcella rejoiced in the Man as king” (Saint Jerome, Letter 127). This is Jerome’s spiritual portrait of Marcella: she clung to Christ, believed in Him crucified, and rejoiced in Him as King.

Thanks to the skill and generosity of Sister M. Emmanuel, A.S.C.J. of Mount Sacred Heart in Hamden, Connecticut, I was able to transport the icon of The Virgin Mother, Adorer of the Eucharistic Face of Christ to Rome. Sister Emmanuel crafted a beautiful wooden "ark" for the icon. She also provided a leather case to contain the wooden "ark" during travel. The folks at Aer Lingus were very kind about flying the Blessed Mother from New York to Rome.

By a special act of Providence, Sister Barbara Matazzaro, A.S.C.J. and I were on the same flight from New York to Rome. It was wonderful to travel with such a good friend. Sister Barbara was en route to the A.S.C.J. general house, which is quite near Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.

Sitting next to me on the flight from New York to Dublin was a French lady from Annecy, France. She was a self–declared "Buddhist" but when I spoke to her of Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jeanne–Françoise de Chantal, she grew nostalgic. I gave her a reproduction of the icon and invited her to read Father Croset's Act of Consecration to the Blessed Virgin. It moved her deeply. Before we parted, she said that she would reconsider her Catholic heritage.

During our five hour wait in the Dublin airport we crossed the road to Our Lady, Queen of Peace Church where the kind sacristan arranged for me to offer Holy Mass. I exposed the icon in front of the altar for Mass. Earlier, an Irish priest (now working in Nashville, Tennessee) had greeted us in the airport and asked us to pray for the Church in Ireland. I offered Holy Mass for that intention.

The Dublin church contained a lovely statue of our Lady of Loreto: a little bit of Italy already welcoming us to Ireland. Our Lady of Loreto is, as you may know, the patroness of aviators and of air travel. After Mass, Sister Barbara and I had breakfast in the airport.

More than one reader asked for a fuller explanation of the icon of the Virgin Mother, Adorer of the Eucharistic Face of Christ. The following essay is an attempt to respond to that request.

In his encyclical Ecclesia de Eucharistia, the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II drew the eyes of the Church to the Face of Christ in the sacrament of the Eucharist. He coined a new phrase, one not encountered before in his writings or in the teachings of his predecessors, “the Eucharistic Face of Christ.” Thus did Pope John Paul II share with the Church his own experience of seeking, finding, and adoring the Face of Christ in the Eucharist.

"To contemplate the face of Christ, and to contemplate it with Mary, is the 'programme' which I have set before the Church at the dawn of the third millennium, summoning her to put out into the deep on the sea of history with the enthusiasm of the new evangelization. To contemplate Christ involves being able to recognize Him wherever He manifests Himself, in His many forms of presence, but above all in the living sacrament of His Body and Blood. The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by Him she is fed and by Him she is enlightened. The Eucharist is both a mystery of faith and a 'mystery of light.' Whenever the Church celebrates the Eucharist, the faithful can in some way relive the experience of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus: 'their eyes were opened and they recognized Him' (Lk 24:31). . . . I cannot let this Holy Thursday 2003 pass without halting before the 'Eucharistic face' of Christ and pointing out with new force to the Church the centrality of the Eucharist."

This text, among others of Pope John Paul II, inspired the new icon of the Mother of God, Adorer of the Eucharistic Face of Christ. The icon was written by the hand of Charlotte Lauzon in preparation for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ 2006. Presently, it is kept in the Abbey of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme in Rome.

Calling our attention to the presence of the Mother of God in every celebration of the Holy Sacrifice, Pope John Paul II wrote: “Mary is present, with the Church and as the Mother of the Church, at each of our celebrations of the Eucharist. If the Church and the Eucharist are inseparably united, the same ought to be said of Mary and the Eucharist. This is one reason why, since ancient times, the commemoration of Mary has always been part of the Eucharistic celebrations of the Churches of East and West.”

The icon depicts the Mother of God as she is shown in the familiar icon of the Sign, as well as in the much–loved Russian icon of the Mother of God of the Inexhaustible Chalice. The icon of the Sign is among the most venerated icons of the Mother of God. The ancient gesture of praying with upraised hands is seen in frescoes in the catacombs. It evokes the mystery of the Ecclesia Orans, the Praying Church, personified here in the Mother of God. The same ancient gesture of intercession became, in the late Middle Ages, a popular expression of adoration at the elevation or showing of the Sacred Host.

Whereas in icons of the Sign, Christ is depicted enclosed in a mandorla or nimbus of divine light on the Virgin’s breast, in this icon the Eucharistic Face of Christ shines from the Sacred Host suspended above the Holy Chalice on the altar. The Mother of God stands at the altar presenting the Eucharistic Face of her Son to the Eternal Father, saying, “Behold, O God our Protector; look upon the Face of your Christ” (Ps 83:10). At the same time she presents the Eucharistic Face of her Son to the eyes of all who seek Him in the Holy Mysteries. Looking out towards us, she calls us to the contemplation and adoration of the Face of Christ at once concealed and revealed in the Sacrament of the Altar.

“The contemplation of Christ has an incomparable model in Mary. In a unique way the Face of the Son belongs to Mary. It was in her womb that Christ was formed, receiving from her a human resemblance which points to an even greater spiritual closeness. No one has ever devoted himself to the contemplation of the Face of Christ as faithfully as Mary.”

The blood-red mantle of the Virgin frames the Body and Blood of Christ, recalling that she “became in some way a tabernacle — the first tabernacle in history — in which the Son of God, still invisible to our human gaze, allowed Himself to be adored.” “Mary is a woman of the Eucharist in her whole life. The Church, which looks to Mary as a model, is also called to imitate her in her relationship with this most holy mystery.”

Above the uplifted hands of the Mother of God is inscribed the prayer of the disciples to the Wayfarer on the on the road to Emmaus: Mane nobiscum, Domine, “Stay with us, Lord” (Lk 24:29). This is the phrase that Pope John Paul II gave the Church at the beginning of the Year of the Eucharist in 2004. The same inscription is found on the medal of the Holy Face of Jesus diffused by the Servants of God, Mother Maria-Pierina De Micheli and Benedictine Abbot Ildebrando Gregori. The Mother of God sustains the Church in praying, Mane nobiscum, Domine, and teaches the Church to treasure in her heart the promise of Christ’s abiding presence in the Eucharist: “Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20).

The altar in the icon represents every altar in the world where the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ are offered in the Holy Sacrifice and given in Communion. The words, Illumina, Domine, vultum tuum super nos, “Lift up, O Lord, the light of your face upon us” (Ps 66:1), also inscribed on the medal of the Holy Face of Jesus, appear on the front of the altar. In this Eucharistic context, the ancient prayer of the psalmist is wondrously fulfilled. The altar is the place from which the Eucharistic Face of Christ shines with a divine radiance that penetrates every darkness.

Because Uncle Mark finally got his internet connection in Rome! Yes, Fabio the computer specialist came to the abbey yesterday to do mysterious things to Uncle Mark's computer, and Angelo the electrician (from a place called the Vatican) was there today! Uncle Mark is very happy and so am I!

Dear friends,

No internet connection yet! Things take a very long time in Rome. Workers were here for one day last week to begin threading the cable through our ancient walls.

Then they disappeared and have not returned since. When I inquire, the answer is usually an expressive hand gesture. I have so much that I want to write about. Help me to be patient.

Dear friends, I thank Lisa for giving you news of my arrival in Rome. I do not have internet access as yet and so have to write to you in the Comments section. The technician is supposed to be coming today to set things up.

I have been given a different cell: this one is enormous: my apartment in Hamden could easily fit into it twice. The ceilings are at least twelve feet high.

Right outside my door is a lovely sculptured shrine of the Madonna of the Rosary of Pompei. That, of course, made me very happy. My cell is at least 1/4 mile from the refectory - well, perhaps I am exaggerating a bit, but not much. It is very, very far. The abbey is huge and the distances require that one leave for every exercise well in advance.

I thank you all for your prayers. Although I arrived with a sore throat and a ear ache, I quickly recovered and have been sleeping well. Twice a day in the refectory there are fresh greens from the garden: surely that helps! Soon I will be able to resume writing on Vultus Christi and I will have much to share.

This will be my last entry until I get settled in at Santa Croce in Gerusalemmme in Rome. I leave tomorrow on the wings of Aer Lingus and will arive in Rome on the 4th. I hope to be able to celebrate Holy Mass in the Dublin airport during my layover there.

I wish that I could write more for January 3rd, the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. One of my favourite prayers is the sweet and powerful invocation of the glorious Irish and English Martyrs: Iesu, Iesu, Iesu, esto mihi Iesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, be to me a Jesus.

O God, who in the Holy Name of Jesus
have given us a light in every darkness,
food for every hunger,
and medicine for every affliction;
mercifully grant that we may find
no name more agreeable in the singing,
more welcome in the hearing,
and more comforting in thought
than the most sweet Name
of your Only-Begotten Son
Jesus Christ who is Lord forever and ever.

My dear friends Christopher and Lisa Hoffer–Schaefer and Nadine Casey spent their New Year's Day afternoon and evening helping me pack. I would never have been able to do it alone. We had great fun doing it. That is Chris with the roll of packing tape.

The ladies, with characteristic efficiency, were amazing. Nadine prepared address labels for shipping. There are three boxes of books ready to be sent to Rome. The suitcases and carry–on bags are ready. This has never been known to happen in my life. I usually pack in a mad frenzy on the eve of my departure. Lisa, seen above, is the Queen of Get–It–Done.

Nadine (above) appears to be working contemplatively. After a few hours of packing, Christopher and Lisa produced a splendid New Year's supper of salad, chicken, and shrimp. And, of course, there was the obligatory bottle of Prosecco. I thank God for the good friends He has given me.

It will soon be possible to obtain magnificent reproductions of the icon of the Virgin Mother, Adorer of the Eucharistic Face of Christ. This icon, inspired by the teachings of Pope John Paul II during the Year of the Eucharist, was blessed last June on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart. I will be carrying the original with me to Rome on Wednesday.

The Presence of Mary

For the Church, all the days between Christmas and Epiphany are one continuous celebration: the festival of the Advent of God among us. Through it all, there is a mysterious presence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a nearness of the Mother, a pervasive tenderness. In today’s Gospel, the Virgin Mother is all silence, but her silence is — to borrow an image from the Gospel of Saint John — like a fragrance filling the house (cf. Jn 12:3). “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).

On today’s Solemnity of the Mother of God, the Holy Spirit gifts the Church with a renewed consciousness of the presence of Mary. It is as if the Church, surprised by the nearness of the Mother of God on the threshold of the New Year and graced with a new awareness of just how close Mary always is, wants and needs today to acknowledge her unfailing presence. The Virgin Mother’s nearness to the Church is like her breath, warm on the face of the sleeping Infant Christ.

The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins compared this presence of the Blessed Virgin to the air we breathe:

This air, which, by life’s law,
My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—

Mary Immaculate,
Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.