Saints: May 2008 Archives

A Missionary-Monk

The World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests will be observed this coming Friday, May 30th, Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It may well spark a greater interest in models of priestly holiness. Yesterday, for example, was the dies natalis of Father Leopoldo Pastori (1939-1996), an Italian missionary monk in Guinea-Bissau.

The Will of the Father

Born in Lodi, Italy on February 9, 1939, Leopoldo entered the PIME Fathers (Pontifical Institute for the Foreign Missions) in September 1957. On May 1, 1961, he received the clerical habit. In his photo album of pictures taken that day, Leopoldo wrote:

Come Gesù giovinetto, mi porto all' altare del Padre e con Gesù offro la mia giovinezza per fare la volontà del Padre. Non c'è cosa più bella al mondo che fare sempre e ovunque la volontà di Dio: fonte di pace e di consolazione.

"Like the young lad Jesus, I bring myself to the altar of the Father and with Jesus I offer my youth to do the will of the Father. There is nothing more beautiful in the world than always and everywhere to do the will of God: the wellspring of peace and of consolation."

To Love the Madonna and Make Her Loved

Maria! Ecco un tesoro che vengo a scoprire continuamente. La mia vestizione è stata tanto bella e felice perché mi ero preparato con la Madonna. Maria ! Se ho un desiderio forte, è quello di amare tanto e di far amare la Madonna.

"Mary! Behold a treasure that I am coming to discover continually. My vestition was so beautiful and happy because I prepared myself with the Madonna. Mary! If I have one strong desire it is this one: to love the Madonna so much, and to make her loved."

Changing Times

Leopoldo was ordained a priest on June 29, 1969. Instead of being sent straightaway to the foreign missions, he was assigned to the PIME Minor Seminary built by Blessed John XXIII in Sotto Il Monte. The ideological climate was marked by May 1968. A popular slogan among confused young clerics was, "Obedience is no longer a virtue." Leopoldo remained constant, faithful to his life of prayer and to the ascetical disciplines he had chosen for himself.

To the Missions

In 1972, Father Leopoldo went for the first time to visit the PIME missions in Guinea-Bissau. In 1974, at thirty-five years of age, he was assigned to those same missions. To his friends he wrote, "I am leaving in the name of Jesus and for love of Him; only in this why can I feel that my life is right." He devotes himself to the poor, visits the sick, and forms a local orchestra for young people. His afternoons are given to adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and to reading. Father Leopoldo wrote:

Il lavoro è importantissimo, l'impegno e le attività importantissimi, necessari, ma se non c'è un'unione insistente, profonda e frequente con Gesù, soprattutto nell'Eucarestia, tutto il resto non serve a niente, finisce solo in una delusione, in mani vuote, nel cercare continuamente di seminare ma seminare a vuoto.

"Work is most important, duties and activity are most important and necessary, but if there is not an insistant, profound, and frequent union with Jesus, above all in the Eucharist, all the rest is worth nothing, it ends only in a delusion, in empty hands, trying continually to sow the seed, but sowing in a void."

Illness

In July 1977 Father Leopoldo is found to be suffering from hepatitis. He is hospitalized in the international clinic in Dakar. He accepts the solitude of his hospitalization, prays constantly, and seeks union with Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament. He goes to the Benedictines in Cap-des-Biches for a month of convalescence. In March 1978 he returns to Italy to serve as rector of the seminary at Sotto Il Monte. He remains there until 1996.

Prego sempre che il Signore, dopo questo forzato "esilio", mi dia la grazia di ritornare ancora in Guinea. Il vescovo mi aspetta.

"I am always praying that the Lord, after this forced exile, will give me the grace to return again to Guinea. The bishop is waiting for me."

Silence

On September 23, 1990, Father Leopoldo receives his missionary crucifix for the second time. He returns to Guinea on December 16, 1990. He will remain there for five and a half years: the most fruitful years of his life.

Sto acclimatandomi bene in questa nuova casa, con una bellissima chiesa. Mi trovo bene. Per ora faccio la vita del missionario-monaco, attorniato da un silenzio profondo, cadenzato dal richiamo di tanti uccelli, cicale, grilli, e dai canti notturni dei villaggi vicini. . . . A poco a poco mi inserisco nel lavoro, che è soprattutto di animazione spirituale, approfondimento dei contenuti missionari alla gente.

"I am acclimatizing myself well in this new house with a most beautiful church. I am well here. For the moment I am leading the life of a missionary-monk, surrounded by a profound silence, marked by the calls of so many birds, cicadas, crickets, and by the nocturnal songs of the villages . . . . Little by little I insert myself into the work: mostly spiritual direction, the deepening of the missionary message to the people."

Father Leopoldo has deep spiritual affinities with Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, and with Blessed Charles de Jésus (de Foucauld), whom he calls, quoting Pope Paul VI, "one of the greatest missionaries of the century."

Five Hours of Prayer Daily

Prayer holds the first place in Father Leopoldo's missionary life:

Sto cercando di vivere il mio ideale: essere missionario-contemplativo per annunziare Cristo in modo credibile ("Redemptoris Missio", n. 91). Do molto tempo alla preghiera davanti all'Eucarestia, almeno cinque ore al giorno, come facevano i primi missionari del Pime. E sto provando, dato che Gesù vuole crescere e io diminuire, che la preghiera sta diventando continua, di giorno e, quando mi sveglio, di notte!

"I am seeking to live my ideal: to be a missionary-contemplative so as to announce Christ in a credible manner ("Redemptoris Missio," n. 91). I give much time to prayer before the Eucharist, at least five hours a day, as did the first PIME missionaries. And I am experiencing, given that Jesus wants to increase and wants me to decrease, that prayer is becoming continual, by day, and when I wake up, by night."

All Priest

In recalling the holiness of Saint Philip, it occurs to me that it was essentially this: he was all priest. He was always and everywhere a priest. His priesthood suffused his very being, making him incandescent with the fire of the Cross and of the altar. As we prepare to observe the World Day of Prayer for the Sanctification of Priests on this coming Friday, June 30th, Saint Philip Neri makes his appearance to stimulate our generosity, and to show us what happens when a priest surrenders to the fire of Divine Love.

Spiritual Combat: The Seven Capital Sins

Have no illusions about priestly holiness. Like all men, priests are locked in a combat to the death with the seven capital sins: pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Priests are, if anything, subject to more subtle and more violent temptations than anyone else because they are Satan’s preferred quarry. Is the propensity to any one particular sin worse than the propensity to another? I dare not speculate about secrets of conscience. God alone probes the mind and heart.

To God All Things Are Possible

Souls called in a particular way to offer themselves for the sanctification of the clergy should entertain no illusions about the seriousness of their apostolic mission. There were, there are, and there always will be prideful priests, covetous priests, lustful priests, angry priests, gluttonous priests, priests who are drunkards, priests who consumed by envy, and priests who are lazy. One might be tempted then to say with the disciples in today’s Gospel, “Why then, who can be saved?’ (Mk 10:26). Listen to Our Lord’s reply. Jesus spoke it, according to Saint Mark, with His eyes fastened on the disciples. “Such things are impossible to man’s powers, but not to God’s; to God, all things are possible” (Mk 10:27).

Spiritual Maternity

Read the appeal from Rome, asking women in all states of life to become spiritual mothers to priests, and calling for a worldwide movement of adoration in a spirit of reparation and supplication for the priesthood. It is not enough to read it once and file it away. Our Lord will hold those women who consent to spiritual motherhood accountable for the sins and for the sanctity of a multitude of priests. Does this shock you? It shouldn’t. Saint Paul says, “A man’s body is all one, though it has a number of different organs; and all this multitude of organs goes to make up one body; so it is with Christ. . . . If one part is suffering, all the rest suffer with it; if one part is treated with honour, all the rest find pleasure in it. And you are Christ’s body, organs of it depending upon each other” (1 Cor 12:12, 26-27). Again, the Apostle says in another place, “Bear the burden of one another’s failings; then you will be fulfilling the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2).

In those places where Corpus Christi will be celebrated on Sunday, May 25th, tomorrow, Thursday, May 22nd, may be kept as the feast of Saint Rita of Cascia.

Visiting Saint Rita

When I was a lad growing up in Fair Haven, I would occasionally venture beyond the boundaries of my immediate neighborhood and visit a parish church on the other side of the great divide that was Grand Avenue. Saint Rose Church had a unique attraction: a life-size and very realistic statue of Saint Rita of Cascia kneeling in front of a life-size and equally realistic crucifix. To my ten-year-old eyes, Saint Rita’s glass eyes looked positively alive. More than once I thought, just for a moment, that they were moist with real tears. Saint Rita’s face was turned upward to meet the gaze of the Crucified, and embedded right in the middle of her forehead was a thorn from His Crown of Thorns.

Children Need Images

First lesson: for children, images are more important than words. Children of all ages need to be surrounded with images, with holy images, with representations of the saints. If you have outgrown your need for images, you may have outgrown your capacity for wonder and your capacity for seeing the invisible. “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:4).

A Thorn in the Flesh

Second lesson: intimate participation in the Paschal Mystery of Christ — the very grace we ask for in today’s Collect — begins when our gaze meets the gaze of the Crucified Lord. When the encounter is real, the equivalent of a thorn from Jesus’ Crown of Thorns will be embedded, not in our foreheads, but in that secret place of weakness within us that God has destined to receive it. Saint Paul says: “A thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Cor 12:7-9).

Go to the Saints

Third lesson: the saints are present to us and wait for us to approach them. Sometimes they approach us first, offering friendship, insight, and assistance. Visiting the statue of Saint Rita kneeling before her crucifix in Saint Rose Church was like visiting a favorite aunt. Go to the saints, certain of their interest in whatever interests you. You can count on their sympathy, on their readiness to listen, and on their help.

Sacred Signs

There is a cold, reasonable, and altogether too “grown-up” form of religion that fails to address the needs of the heart. Chilly and cerebral, it is foreign to the spirit of the Gospel because it is so far removed from things that children need and understand. In many places, the past forty years saw the imposition of a new iconoclasm, an elitist religion without warmth, a religion for the brain with precious little for the heart, a religion stripped of images and devoid of the sacred signs that penetrate deeply those places in the human person where mere discourse cannot go.

The Grace of Folklore

This is the religion of barren churches, white-washed and devoid of transcendence. This is the religion of those who sniff uncomfortably at what they dismiss as folklore, forgetting that folklore is, more often than not, the expression of an ancient wisdom, piety, and fear of the Lord. This is the sterile religion of those who, in the name of “discretion and good taste” displaced tabernacles, and removed crucifixes and images of the saints. You can find them now for sale on E-bay and in trendy antique shops.

Notre-Dame-du-Laus

Yesterday I read an account of Saint Peter Julian Eymard's pilgrimage to the shrine of Notre Dame du Laus (pronounced Loh) in 1865. The shrine, which now attracts some 120,000 pilgrims each year, was the scene of a Solemn Mass last May 4th during which His Excellency, Monseigneur Jean-Michel di Falco Léandri, bishop of the diocese of Gap, officially recognized the supernatural character of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Benoîte Rencurel (1647–1718), a Dominican tertiary.

Saint Peter Julian Eymard Invokes Benoîte Rencurel

Saint Peter Julian went to Notre-Dame-du-Laus to obtain the healing of his sister, who was gravely ill. At Laus, the saint asked for blessed oil. Returning to his sister, who was suffering from incessant vomiting and perspiration, he knelt down at the foot of her bed, and said, "My sister, we are going to begin a novena." Then he anointed her stomach with the oil. Making the Sign of the Cross, Saint Peter Julian invoked Benoîte Rencurel, saying, "Soeur Benoîte of Laus, intercede with the Blessed Virgin for me. That same evening his sister's vomiting and perspiration ceased completely. From that moment she improved day by day until her health was completely restored. The following year Saint Peter Julian Eymard returned to Notre Dame du-Laus on a pilgrimage of thanksgiving.

Caro Cardo Salutis

The physical elements of this brief account are striking: a pilgrimage to the site of an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, the use of blessed oil, recourse to a novena, the Sign of the Cross, the pious anointing, the invocation of Benoîte Rencurel, and the pilgrimage of thanksgiving. It is all splendidly Catholic. Tertullian said it long ago: "The flesh is the hinge of salvation."

The antiphon Ad Benedictus this morning, with its lilting seventh mode melody, is an apt portrayal of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the life of Saint Pachomius. The text is Isaiah 35:1.

Laetabitur deserta et exsultabit solitudo et florebit sicut lilium, alleluia.

Thrills the barren desert with rejoicing, the wilderness takes heart, and blossoms, fair as the lily, alleluia.

Julian Green had a book entitled "Chaque homme dans sa nuit," — Each Man in His Night; one might also speak of "each man in his desert." Irrigated by the living water of the Holy Spirit life's deserts become gardens, and joy comes to inhabit the solitudes of the heart.

The Collect is a jewel:

Deus, qui beatum Pacomium abbatem
ad doctrinae virtutumque culmina pervenire fecisti,
concede, quaesumus, ut eius exemplo,
panem Verbi tui primum quaeramus
a quo mentes lumen accipunt et corda quietem.

O God, who raised the blessed abbot Pachomius
to the heights of doctrine and of virtue,
grant that we, by following his example,
may seek before all else the bread of your Word
from which our minds receive light and our hearts stillness.

— Or, one may want to render that last line, "by which our minds are illumined and our hearts quieted."

The example of the Desert Fathers, of desert-dwellers, of hermits, and of monks speaks to all of us. There is no desert that cannot be reclaimed for Christ; there is no barrenness that cannot be made fertile by the action of the Holy Spirit. I am reminded of the words of Pope Benedict XVI to the young people and seminarians at Dunwoodie, New York, on the evening of Saturday, April 19th:

"There is another aspect of prayer which we need to remember: silent contemplation. Saint John, for example, tells us that to embrace God’s revelation we must first listen, then respond by proclaiming what we have heard and seen (cf. 1 Jn 1:2-3; Dei Verbum, 1). Have we perhaps lost something of the art of listening? Do you leave space to hear God’s whisper, calling you forth into goodness? Friends, do not be afraid of silence or stillness, listen to God, adore him in the Eucharist. Let his word shape your journey as an unfolding of holiness."

John 15:9-17

Go and Bear Fruit

In the Roman Missal the Mass for the feast of Saint Matthias the Apostle begins, not with an antiphon drawn from the Psalms as it usually does, but with a word of Our Lord: “You did not choose Me, says the Lord, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide” (Jn 15: 16). The same word is given us again in the Gospel. How extraordinary that while we are yet on the threshold of the Holy Sacrifice, Jesus should address a word — and such a word — to us. Before we had a chance to open our mouths, He spoke to us. He revealed to us the choice of His love and His desire, even more, His design that we should bear fruit, fruit that will abide.

The Gospel of Life

A Christian cannot be barren. “My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, He takes away” (Jn 15:2). Spiritual sterility is incompatible with the choice of God. God wants us fruitful; he wants us to be bearers of life, givers of life, witnesses to the life that courses from the True Vine into every branch and tendril.

The Contraceptive Mentality

Just as there can be in the natural order a “contraceptive mentality” that thwarts and inhibits the transmission of the gift of life, so too there can be in the supernatural order a “contraceptive mentality” that thwarts and inhibits the transmission of the life of grace. There is such a thing as “sterilization” of the soul — a reversible state because of God’s ever-ready mercy — but a frightening reality nonetheless.

Spiritual Fecundity

Spiritual fecundity is not always visible. The children of our prayers and tears may remain unknown to us in this life but we will see their faces in heaven. Our part here below is to accept the responsibilities of spiritual fatherhood and motherhood. “You did not choose me, but I chose you” (Jn 15:16).

Families of Souls

Parents consecrated in marriage have a spiritual fatherhood and motherhood of the children they have brought into the word; it is not enough to provide housing, food, drink, clothing, healthcare, education, security, and affection. There is something more. The married couple is called to spiritual fecundity and this long after the passing of the natural seasons of bearing and raising children, right into eternity. Spiritual parenting is a coordinate of the baptismal priesthood in the state of married life. Father and Mother are sweet names in the mouths of a couple’s children; they are made sweeter by the Holy Spirit who reveals their meaning in the family of souls.

The Johannine Fatherhood of the Priest

The priest is called to fatherhood; he refuses this fatherhood or minimizes it at the peril of his own soul because it was for this priestly fruitfulness that he was chosen by Christ. The priest is called to cherish the Mystical Body of Christ and to nourish it, to play an indispensable role in the transmission of divine life. Spiritual fatherhood is actualized sacramentally in preaching, in hearing confessions, and in the celebration of the other sacraments, above all in offering the Eucharist. There is also a hidden aspect to the fatherhood of the priest: suffering and the secret prayer that pleads the Blood of Christ over every sorrow and every wound opened by sin. The fatherhood of the priest — his “Johannine” fatherhood — grows out of his contemplation of the pierced Heart of the Crucified. It is the wound from which flows life, “life in abundance” cf. Jn 10:10).

I find my consolation in the one and only companion who will never leave me, that is, our Divine Saviour in the Holy Eucharist. . . .

Blessed Damien de Veuster, SS.CC.

A Priest–Icon of the Suffering Christ

The saints, all of them, are living illustrations of the power of the Holy Spirit. The saints are the masterpieces of the Divine Iconographer who, in every age, writes in souls the whole mystery of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Finger of God’s Right Hand tracing on hearts of flesh the likeness of the Heart of Jesus. In Blessed Damian of Molokai the Church sets before us a priest fashioned by the Holy Spirit in a special way into the image of the suffering Christ, “despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Is 53:3).

Memorial of Blessed Damien of Molokai, Priest

I posted this reflection for the feast of Blessed Damien last May 10th, but in reviewing it, I see that its message has become, if anything, even more relevant to my own life. New readers of Vultus Christi may find it helpful.

When Providence Writes One's Life

Blessed Damien is, I think, a very suitable patron for those who lives have not turned out as they planned. By the time a child has reached adolescence, he has already dreamed dreams and nourished hopes for his life. The vivid reveries of little boys and girls take shape in a kind of autobiography written in the imagination and lived ahead of time in a world of fantasy. In that world no desire is broken, no hope dashed, no dream unfulfilled, but rarely do the life stories we write for ourselves correspond to those written for us by Providence. Events and circumstances — illness, loss, changes in fortune, failure — shatter dreams, close some doors and open others. The chance encounter with one person or the discovery of a particular book can change the direction of a life, leading to unexpected twists and turns.

The Designs of the Heart of Jesus

God intervenes in a thousand little ways, and sometimes dramatically, to realize in every generation “the designs and thoughts of His Heart” (cf. Ps 32:11). “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is 55:8-9).

Yes to the Plan of God

The life story of each of us written in the Heart of God surpasses by far anything we could have imagined or written for ourselves. When one realizes that one’s life is not unfolding as one thought it would, two responses are possible. One can refuse the path opened by God, “kicking against the goads” (Ac 26:14), or one can say “Yes” to it.

Blessed Damien said “Yes” to God’s astonishing plan for him, a plan that led him from Belgium to Hawaii and, after ten years, to the dreaded leper colony of Molokai. The suffering Christ called Damien to a costly, sacrificial love, and to configuration with himself. He became “as one from whom men hide their faces” (Is 53:3), identified fully with the suffering Christ and with the lepers he served.

A Benedictine Without A Monastery

As a religious of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Father Damien’s life was based on the Rule of Saint Benedict. Without living in a monastery and without the benefits and protection of the cloister, Father Damien found himself living the Rule of Saint Benedict on Molokai in ways prepared for him by the Providence of God. “To relieve the poor. To clothe the naked. To visit the sick. To bury the dead. To give help in trouble. To console the sorrowful. To avoid worldly behaviour. To set nothing before the love of Christ” (RB 4:14-21). “The care of the sick,” says Saint Benedict in another place, “is to be given priority over everything else, so that they are indeed served as Christ would be served, since he himself said, ‘I was sick and you visited me’” (RB 36:1-2).

Eucharistic Adoration

Father Damien was magnetized by the mystery of the Most Blessed Sacrament. He drew the strength to love and to serve the suffering members of his Mystical Body from adoration of the Eucharistic Body of Christ. To his brother he wrote, "Without the constant presence of our Divine Master, I would never be able to cast my lot with that of the lepers." Father Damien built chapels all over Molokai; he established perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament there. In 1888 he wrote to his provincial, “ This is the fifteenth year we observe night adoration . . . all of us lepers.”

Never To Despair of God's Mercy

In the end, all the “thoughts and designs” of the Heart of Christ were realized in the life and death of Blessed Father Damien. His feast invites us to say “Yes” to our lives, not as we would have them be, but as it has pleased to God to write them and as He is writing them even now. Say “Yes” to the triumph of love in your heart and in your life. Say “Yes,” and following Blessed Damien in Saint Benedict’s “school of the Lord’s service” (RB Pro: 45), “never despair of God’s mercy” (RB 4:74).

Vultus Christi reader Bailey Walker was kind enough to point out that Dominicans are keeping the feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer today. The Proper Invitatory from the Dominican Office is an invitation to adore the Face of Christ:

Venerémur Christí vultum, * Quem Vincéntius prædicávit Iúdicem esse ventúrum. Allelúia.

Let us worship the Face of Christ * Whom Vincent preached as the Judge to come. Alleluia.

The Fourth Responsory at Matins also speaks to my heart. It complements the description of Saint Vincent's ministry in the lessons drawn from the Bull of his canonization, and presents a practical rule of life for preachers and for all priests. Nearly every line of the liturgical text can be traced back to a passage in the Psalms, the Wisdom Books, or the Gospels. The Responsory is a perfect example of meditatio, that is, the repetition of the Word in other words.

At night, keeping vigil, he studies attentively,
applying himself to the sacred texts;
in the morning, like a beautiful star,
he shines with the marvelous light of doctrine; *
in the evening he banishes all kinds of illness by the healing remedy.
V. No period of time goes by in which he is not occupied in some good work.
In the evening he banishes all kinds of illness by the healing remedy.

For me, at least, this Responsory is a rather effective examination of conscience. Do I keep vigil? Is sacred study my delight? Do I apply myself to the sacred texts? Does the clear light of doctrine illumine my mornings and shine in my preaching? Do I offer myself to Our Lord at the close of day for the healing of all kinds of illnesses? Is there any period of time in which I am not occupied with some good work?

May 3
Saints Philip and James, Apostles

John 14:6-14
Psalm 18:2-5
1 Corinthians 15:1-8

Today's Office Antiphons

There is no doubt that the antiphons given in the Divine Office for this feast of Saints Philip and James are among the most beautiful of the Paschaltide liturgy. If you have an Antiphonale, open it and sing them! The Church takes the dialogue of the Gospel and, with an artistry inspired by the Holy Spirit, presents it anew in a series of antiphons interwoven with alleluias:

Domine, Ostende Nobis Patrem

The first antiphon is Philip’s bold request: “Lord, show us the Father and it is enough for us, alleluia” (Jn 14:8). Philip’s prayer echoes that of Moses in the book of Exodus: “I pray thee, show me thy glory” (Ex 33:18).