EUROPE: AUSTRIA : NEW CHANT CD FROM AWARD WINNING MONKS
HEILIGEN KREUZ REPORT: Their first CD had received platinum in Britain and Germany, seven times platinum in Austria, including gold in Holland, Belgium, Poland, France and Switzerland and was there for weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in the U.S..
"FOR US, THIS HYPE WAS A CHALLENGE. WE WANT TO BE MONKS AND NO POP-STARS. WITH GOD'S HELP, WE HAVE REMAINED NORMAL. OUR COMMUNITY HAS NOT BEEN WEAKENED BY THE SUCCESS, BUT EVEN STRONGER, "SAID FATHER KARL WALLNER, SPOKESMAN FOR THE MONASTERY. "WE HAVE REJECTED ALL INVITATIONS FROM MAJOR MUSIC COMPANIES FOR A SECOND CD STEADFAST. SIMILARLY, WE HAVE TURNED DOWN ALL INVITATIONS TO PERFORM, ALTHOUGH THEY HAD OFFERED US A LOT OF MONEY. "
Global interest in Gregorian chant also pinpointed Abbot Maximilian home: "The singing is prayer and spiritual mission." Therefore, in the chorales is also included so much power. Prior Simeon Wester, musical director and lecturer at the Gregorian University Holy Cross was, modestly: "We are not scientists in the choir."
APA / Herbert Pfarrhofer
CD WILL BE MARKETED GLOBALLY WITH OWN LABEL
The monks have their own label "Obsculta Music" was founded. "A certain degree of self-determination is very important to us," said Father Johannes Paul Chavanne, one of the singing monks. "This CD is still much more of ourselves than inside in the first, because we organize everything themselves and carry." Additionally, Gregorian chants to the Luxembourg composer and pianist David Ianni has contributed to four hymns piano music.
Initially it was planned, "Amor et Passio" offer only in the monastery shop, a professional worldwide distribution but then you chose the Viennese tradition Preiser Records label. The proceeds from the CD sales will benefit seminarians from the Third World.
APA / Herbert Pfarrhofer
"IF PEOPLE WISH TO CONNECT WITH GOD"
"We believe that the success of our first CD was a miracle and you can not repeat it. That's not us. Pope Benedict XVI. has encouraged us during his visit in 2007, to give testimony to the outside. That's what we want.We want people to enjoy, give strength, they connect with God, the peace and quiet, "said Wallner, who in this music a" wanted to see antidepressant "against the world and against the church crisis.
"When we sing, we are united to God. We hope that many people feel by listening to this connection with God. We have the feeling that many people are burned out and empty of meaning. Our monasteries are places of spiritual power. We want to broadcast, "said Father Karl Wallner.
ORDER FROM:
Zisterzienserabtei Stift Heiligenkreuz,
A-2532 Heiligenkreuz im Wienerwald,
Tel. +43-2258-8703-0;
Email: information(at)stift-heiligenkreuz.at
AUSTRALIA: ART ICON OF OUR LADY VISITS FROM ITALY
Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese REPORT
2 Nov 2011
Icon of Our Lady of the Rosary of
Pompeii now touring Australia
For many, the mention of Pompeii conjures up the ruins of the ancient Roman city destroyed by the massive eruption of Mt Vesuvius' back in 79 AD. But for most Italians and the more than one million pilgrims who visit Pompeii each year, the ruins are not the attraction. They arrive instead to pray at the Pontifical Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii.
The Shrine which is one of Italy's most revered and most frequently visited is named for the Marian icon which hangs over the high altar, and which has been credited with a series of miraculous events as a result of prayers for Our Lady's intercession.
Now this important Icon, accompanied by the Pontifical Delegation of the Marian Mission of the Rosary, has arrived in Adelaide for the start of a three week pilgrimage that will include Sydney where for six days the precious Icon will be on display at St Mary's Cathedral.
Led by Mission Director, Don Andrea Fontanella, the Pontifical delegation includes Don Giuseppe Ruggiero, Director of Liturgy of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, Don Giovanni Russo, who is Director of the Youth Ministry for the Shrine and Domenico Romano, International Officer for the Marian Mission Around the World.
While it is rare for this venerated and important Icon to leave its home in Pompeii, after the remarkable response to its previous visit to Australia in 2005, permission was granted earlier this year for a second pilgrimage to our shores.
Pope Benedict XVI visited the Shrine
of Our Lady of Pompeii in October 2008
"The Icon of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii last visited Australia in November six years ago and the response by pilgrims was so great that the Mass planned for St Mary's Cathedral had to be transferred to the Club Marconi Stadium where we had a crowd of more than 20,000," says Felice Montrone, Secretary General for Australian of the Confederation of Italians Around the World. "The people that day came from all over, taking buses and trains from across NSW and even interstate to venerate this important Icon."
While Mr Montrone admits he is unsure if an open air Mass may prove necessary on this visit, he believes that as the Icon will reside at St Mary's Cathedral from 15 November until its departure for Italy on Monday, 21 November, there time for the many thousands of faithful who wish to pay homage to the Icon.
The Australian pilgrimage of the Icon begins on Friday, 4 November with a special service at South Australia's St Francis of Assisi Church, Newton. The Icon will remain at St Francis of Assisi Church until 6 November before travelling to Melbourne where from 9-13 November it will reside at St Anthony's Shrine, Hawthorn.
Then after spending 14 November travelling, the Icon will begin its six day mission to Sydney.
From Tuesday, 15 November until Monday, 21 November, Veneration of the Icon at St Mary's Cathedral will include daily Confessions at the Cathedral from 9.am until 10.30 am followed by an Italian Mass at 11 am. This program will alter slightly at the weekend with the Italian Mass held at 9.am on Saturday, 19 November and a Solemn Mass in English at 10.30 am on Sunday, 20 November.
Painted in the style of Eastern European icons of the Sixth Century, the Icon with its representation of Our Lady of the Rosary, was uncovered 126 years ago by Blessed Bartolo Longo.
Shrine of Our Lady of the Pompeii
where the Icon normally hangs
above the high altar
Searching for a representation of Our Lady of the Rosary for his project to celebrate the Feast of the Holy Rosary, but with little money to spend on this, he was told of one in a convent in Naples that had been purchased from a junk shop for just a few lire.
"Not only was it worm eaten, but the face of the Madonna was that of a rough looking country woman...a piece of canvas was missing above her head...her mantle was cracked," he wrote later admitting that at first he hesitated about whether he should accept the painting as a gift or not.
Four years after it was placed in Pompeii's Our Lady of the Rosary Church, acclaimed Italian painter, Federico Maldarelli offered to restore the image. Thanks to his skills, the beauty of the Icon finally became apparent. This beauty was further enhanced when a second restoration was carried out by Vatican artists in 1965.
The Pompeii Shrine and Icon were visited by Blessed John Paul II in 1979 and a year later the Holy Father described the newly-beatified Bartolo Longo as "the man of the Madonna" and "the Apostle of the Rosary."
This historic journey by the late pontiff was repeated by Pope Benedict XVI in October 2008.
"Having the Icon in Australia this month will bring joy to many thousands of people," says Mr Montrone who urges CBD workers to take time out during their lunch break to visit the Cathedral where Pompeii's historic and much loved Icon will be on display.
http://www.sydney.catholic.org.au/news/latest_news/2011/2011112_1532.shtml
AFRICA: SOMALIA: REFUGEES FLEE FOOD CRISIS
CISA REPORT: DOLLO ADO, November 4, 2011 (CISA) -Unless the capacity to deliver aid is rapidly increased, there will be significant problems in meeting the needs of Somalis fleeing to Ethiopia, the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has said.
Malnutrition and mortality rates have been brought below crisis level in the refugee camps in southern Ethiopia. “At the moment, the capacity to receive more people and provide the necessary food, nutritional care, medical care, drinking water, sanitation and more is grossly insufficient,” said Wojciech Asztabski, MSF Project Coordinator for the Dollo Ado intervention.
The camps currently hosts around 130,000 refugees from Somalia, the majority fleeing the food crisis and conflict. In recent weeks the number of refugees crossing the border into Ethiopia has increased to approximately 300 per day.
“I didn’t want to leave Somalia, but the hunger and the fighting made life too difficult,” said a new arrival, a 39-year-old mother. “My husband and my mother are still in Somalia, we did not have enough money to travel, so I travelled alone with the four children. We travelled by donkey cart for seven days and nights. Now my son is very sick, he can’t eat and every day he looks more exhausted.”
MSF, in collaboration with authorities and other organisations, has assisted in the refugee camps since 2009. Since last May, MSF has dramatically scaled up its programs to improve the situation and bring mortality rates under emergency thresholds, but the organisaton warns that the emergency is far from over.
“We should be expecting thousands more to come across the border over the next weeks,” added Mr Asztabski. “The reception centre and the transit camp, where people stay until they are settled in one of the refugee camps, are rapidly filling up.”
The transit camp currently hosts over 6000 people. “There are not enough latrines, nor enough shelter or drinking water. More capacity is needed here on the ground, and very quickly too,” added Mr Asztabski.
The existing refugee camps where people are referred to after the transit centre are currently full, and the reception centre and transit camp are not equipped to receive people for prolonged stays. MSF warns that insufficient levels of shelter, water and sanitation will further weaken an already vulnerable population.
MSF is ready to provide life-saving assistance for a prolonged period, and is calling for the Ethiopian authorities to continue facilitating the necessary imports of medicines and materials, while allowing experienced international staff to provide the necessary support.
The drought affecting the Horn of Africa has had a dramatic impact on the people of Somalia, who are already suffering from 20 years of conflict, a desperate lack of development and the most basic services. MSF has been working uninterrupted in Somalia since 1991 and teams assist people inside Somalia as well as Somali refugees in Ethiopia and Kenya.
MSF is currently treating more than 22,000 vulnerable children in its nutrition programmes. Despite significant challenges, MSF teams have to date vaccinated more than 126,000 people against measles.
ASIA: TAIWAN : STUDENTS PREFER CATHOLIC UNIVERSITIES
UCAN REPORT: Fu Jen Catholic University in New Taipei city has become a favored destination for students from China seeking educational opportunities outside the mainland.
More than 2,000 students from mainland China have recently applied to 87 universities in Taiwan, with 1,742 registrations already confirmed, according to a joint students’ recruitment commission in Taipei.
This is the first year that students from the mainland have been permitted to apply to universities in Taiwan.
About 560 students have applied to Fu Jen, though only 40 will be accepted. Two other Catholic universities – Providence University in central Taichung and Wenzao Ursuline College of Foreign Languages in southern Kaohsiung – are also accepting applications, though they have similarly low rates of acceptance.
http://www.ucanews.com/2011/06/22/mainland-students-favor-catholic-study/
AMERICA: BOLIVIA: HUMAN TRAFFICKING INCREASES- 37 CHILDREN MISSING
According to information gathered by Fides, a police representative said that the people still missing "may be regarded as cases of human trafficking", so he urged the public and private institutions to work with "strategic alliances". Rivas did not exclude the possibility that these missing people may be "used for labor and sexual exploitation". On the other hand he regretted that currently "children are easily transferred from the province to the city and from the city to other parts of the country, and there is insufficient control on behalf of the institutions".
The representatives of the Institutions in defense of human rights of Chuquisaca, both public and private, met on Tuesday, November 1, to discuss and enrich the bill to combat human trafficking. Jose Rocha, Coordinator of the Bolivian Youth Consortium (CONBOJUV), said that the opportunity allowed to "see ourselves as protagonists of a proposal". (CE) (Agenzia Fides 03/11/2011)
TODAY'S SAINT: NOV. 6: ST. LEONARD
St. LeonardHERMIT, CONFESSOR
Feast: November 6
Information:
Feast Day:
November 6
Died:
559
Patron of:
political prisoners, imprisoned people, prisoners of war, and captives, women in labor, as well as horses
St Leonard, or Lienard, was a French nobleman of great reputation in the court of Clovis I, and in the flower of his age was converted to the faith by St. Remigius, probably after the battle of Tolbiac. Being instructed in the obligations of our heavenly warfare, wherein the prize of the victory is an assured crown of immortal glory, he resolved to lay aside all worldly pursuits, quitted the court, and became a constant disciple of St. Remigius. The holy instructions and example of that saint made every day deeper impressions upon his tender soul, and Leonard seemed to have inherited the very spirit of his master, and to be animated with the same simplicity, disinterestedness, modesty, zeal, and charity. He preached the faith some time; but finding it very difficult to resist the king's importunities, who would needs call him to court, and burning with a desire of giving himself up entirely to the exercises of penance and contemplation, he retired privately into the territory of Orleans, where St. Mesmin or Maximin governed the monastery of Micy (called afterwards St. Mesmin's), which his uncle St. Euspicius had founded, two leagues from the city, in 508. In this house St. Leonard took the religious habit and inured himself to the fervent practices of regular discipline under the direction of St. Mesmin and of St. Lie or Laetus, a holy monk of that house, who afterwards died a hermit.
St. Leonard himself aspiring after a closer solitude, with the leave of St. Mesmin left his monastery, travelled through Berry, where he converted many idolaters, and coming into Limousin, chose for his retirement a forest four leagues from Limoges. Here, in a place called Nobiliac, he built himself an oratory, lived on wild herbs and fruits, and had for some time no other witness of his penance and virtues but God alone. His zeal and devotion sometimes carried him to the neighbouring churches, and some who by his discourses were inflamed with a desire of imitating his manner of life joined him in his desert, and formed a community which, in succeeding times, out of devotion to the saint's memory, became a flourishing monastery, called first Noblat, afterwards St. Leonard le Noblat. The reputation of his sanctity and miracles being spread very wide, the king bestowed on him and his fellow-hermits a considerable part of the forest where they lived. The saint, even before he retired to Micy, had been most remarkable for his charity toward captives and prisoners, and he laid himself out with unwearied zeal in affording them both corporeal and spiritual help and comfort, and he obtained of the governors the liberty of many. This was also the favourite object of his charity after he had discovered himself to the world in Limousin, and began to make frequent excursions to preach and instruct the people of that country. It is related that some were miraculously delivered from their chains by his prayers, and that the king, out of respect for his eminent sanctity, granted him a special privilege of sometimes setting prisoners at liberty; which about that time was frequently allowed to certain holy bishops and others. But the saint's chief aim and endeavours in this charitable employment were to bring malefactors and all persons who fell under this affliction to a true sense of the enormity of their sins, and to a sincere spirit of compunction and penance, and a perfect reformation of their lives. When he had filled up the measure of his good works, his labours were crowned with a happy death about the year 559, according to the new Paris Breviary. Many great churches in England of which he is the titular saint, and our ancient calendars, show his name to have been formerly no less famous in England. In a list of holidays published at Worcester in 1240, St. Leonard's festival is ordered to be kept a half-holiday, with an obligation of hearing mass and a prohibition of labour except that of the plough. He was particularly invoked in favour of prisoners, and several miracles are ascribed to him.
TODAY'S MASS READINGS: 32ND SUN. OF ORDINARY TIME/ YEAR A
| Wisdom 6: 12 - 16 | |
| 12 | Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her. |
| 13 | She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her. |
| 14 | He who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty, for he will find her sitting at his gates. |
| 15 | To fix one's thought on her is perfect understanding, and he who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care, |
| 16 | because she goes about seeking those worthy of her, and she graciously appears to them in their paths, and meets them in every thought. |
| Psalms 63: 2 - 8 | |
| 2 | So I have looked upon thee in the sanctuary, beholding thy power and glory. |
| 3 | Because thy steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise thee. |
| 4 | So I will bless thee as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on thy name. |
| 5 | My soul is feasted as with marrow and fat, and my mouth praises thee with joyful lips, |
| 6 | when I think of thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the watches of the night; |
| 7 | for thou hast been my help, and in the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy. |
| 8 | My soul clings to thee; thy right hand upholds me. |
| 1 Thessalonians 4: 13 - 18 | |
| 13 | But we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. |
| 14 | For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. |
| 15 | For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, shall not precede those who have fallen asleep. |
| 16 | For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; |
| 17 | then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord. |
| 18 | Therefore comfort one another with these words. -- |
1"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be compared to ten maidens who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.2Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.3For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them;4but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps.5As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.6But at midnight there was a cry, `Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'7Then all those maidens rose and trimmed their lamps.8And the foolish said to the wise, `Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.'9But the wise replied, `Perhaps there will not be enough for us and for you; go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.'10And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut.11Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, `Lord, lord, open to us.'12But he replied, `Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.'13Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
