VATICAN: SUMMARY OCT 4-5-
EUROPE: PARIS: PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES
AFRICA: APPEAL FOR FOOD FOR EAST AFRICA-
ASIA: PHILLIPINES: TYPHOON VICTIM DIED A HERO-
AUSTRALIA: ELDERLY PRIEST MISLED BY FRAUDSTER-
AFRICA: AN ENORMOUS SPIRITUAL 'LUNG' FOR HUMANITY-
VATICAN CITY, 4 OCT 2009 (VIS) - At 9.30 a.m. today in the Vatican
Basilica, Benedict XVI presided at a Eucharistic concelebration with 239 Synod Fathers and 55 collaborators, for the opening of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in the Vatican's Synod Hall until 25 October.
In his homily, the Holy Father commented on three aspects of today's liturgy of the Word that are, he said, "particularly apt in accompanying the opening of a synodal assembly dedicated to Africa": the primacy of God, Creator and Lord; marriage; and children.
"As to the first aspect,Africa is the repository of an inestimable treasure for the whole world: its deep sense of God. ... When we speak of the treasures of Africa, our thoughts immediately turn to the resources its land is rich in and that, unfortunately, have become and often continue to be a reason for exploitation, conflict and corruption. The Word of God, instead, makes us look at another inheritance: the spiritual and cultural inheritance, of which humanity has even greater need than it does of raw materials".
Africa, the Pope went on, "represents an enormous spiritual 'lung' for a humanity that appears to be in a crisis of faith and hope. But this 'lung' can take ill as well. And, at the moment, at least two dangerous pathologies are attacking it: firstly, an illness that is already widespread in the West, that is, practical materialism, combined with relativist and nihilist thinking".
"There is", he went on, "absolutely no doubt that the so-called First World has exported and continues to export its spiritual toxic waste that contaminates the peoples of other continents, in particular those of Africa. In this sense, colonialism which is over at a political level, has never really entirely come to an end".
The "second 'virus' that could hit Africa", he said, "is religious fundamentalism, mixed with political and economic interests. Groups who follow various religious creeds are spreading throughout the continent of Africa: they do so in God's name, but following a logic that is opposed to divine logic, that is, teaching and practicing not love and respect for freedom, but intolerance and violence".
Matrimony, the Holy Father went on, "as it is presented to us in the Bible, does not exist outside of the relationship with God. Married life between a man and a woman, and therefore of the family that springs from that, is inscribed into the communion with God and, in the light of the New Testament, becomes the symbol of Trinitarian love and the Sacrament of the union of Christ with the Church. In as much as it protects and develops its faith, Africa will discover immense resources to support the family built on matrimony".
In the episode in which Jesus welcomes the children, the Pope explained, "we see the image of the Church that, in Africa, and in every other part of the planet, demonstrates her maternal concern especially for the smallest, even before they are born".
"Naturally, the primary task of evangelisation remains valid and relevant, or rather of new evangelisation that takes account of the rapid social changes of our era and the phenomenon of globalisation".
The present Synod - which has as its theme "The Church in Africa, at the Service of Reconciliation, Justice and Peace. 'You are the salt of the earth, ... you are the light of the world'" - is, said the Holy Father, "the propitious moment to rethink pastoral activity and renew the impulse of evangelisation. To become the light of the world and the salt of the earth one must always aim at the 'high measure' of Christian life, that is to say holiness".
"May the Church in Africa always be a family of true disciples of Christ, where the difference between the different ethnic groups becomes a reason and a stimulus for mutual human and spiritual enrichment", he said.
The Holy Father also highlighted how reconciliation "is the stable foundation upon which peace is built, the necessary condition for the true progress of mankind and society, according to the project of justice ordained by God".
Before concluding his homily, the Pope called upon everyone to pray for the fruits of the Second Special Assembly for Africa, which begins its work tomorrow.
HML/OPENING AFRICA SYNOD/... VIS 091005 (730)
APPEAL FOR VICTIMS OF NATURAL DISASTERS AND OF VIOLENCE
VATICAN CITY, 4 OCT 2009 (VIS) - At midday today, following the Eucharistic concelebration with Synod Fathers in the Vatican Basilica for the opening of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, Benedict XVI appeared at the window of his study to pray the Angelus with faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square.
"The Synod", he told them, "is always an intense ecclesial experience, an experience of collegial pastoral responsibility that focuses on a specific aspect of life in the Church or, as in this case, a specific segment of the Christian people defined on the basis of geographical area. The Pope and his closest collaborators gather with the designated members of the assembly, with experts and auditors, to study the chosen theme.
"It is important to stress that this is not a study session or a planning assembly", he added. "We all know that it is not us who are not the main players, it is the Lord, the Holy Spirit Who guides the Church. What is important is for everyone to listen: to listen to one another and, all together, to listen to what the Lord wishes to tell us".
"Africa is a continent with extraordinary human wealth", he went on. "Currently its population numbers around one billion people, and its overall birth-rate is the highest in the world. Africa is a land rich in human life, but unfortunately this life is marked by many forms of poverty and sometimes suffers great injustice. The Church is committed to overcoming these things with the power of the Gospel and the concrete solidarity of many charitable institutions and initiatives".
After praying the Angelus the Pope spoke of his concern for "people of the Pacific and of Southeast Asia, who in recent days have been struck by violent natural catastrophes: the tsunami in Samoa and Tonga; the typhoon in the Philippines that then went on to affect Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and the devastating earthquake in Indonesia. ... My thoughts also go to those suffering for the floods in Sicily, especially in the area of Messina. I invite everyone to join me in prayer for the victims and their loved ones. ... I appeal that these our brothers and sisters may not lack our solidarity and the support of the international community".
He went on: "Nor can I forget the conflicts currently endangering the peace and security of the people of Africa. Over these days I have followed with grave concern the episodes of violence that have affected the people of Guinea. My condolences go to the victims' families, as I invite all parties to engage in dialogue and reconciliation, certain they will spare no efforts to reach a just and equitable solution".
ANG/SYNOD DISASTERS GUINEA/... VIS 091005 (470)
FIRST GENERAL CONGREGATION
VATICAN CITY, 5 OCT 2009 (VIS) - The first General Congregation of the Second Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops was held this morning in the Synod Hall. The meeting was presided by the Pope, and 226 Synod Fathers were present.
Benedict XVI made some brief opening remarks in which he referred to the problems of Africa and to the goals of reconciliation, justice and peace. "It is right to carry out empirical studies", he said, "yet practical analyses, though conducted with precision and competence, do not indicate the true problems of the world if we do not see everything in the light of God".
"Hence", he explained, "our analyses are deficient if we do not realise that behind the injustice of corruption, and all such things, is an unjust heart, a closure towards God and thus a falsification of the fundamental relationship upon which all other relationships are founded".
Cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and president delegate on duty, also pronounced some brief words at the beginning of this morning's session.
Archbishop Nikola Eterovic, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, then explained the activities of the council of the secretariat general since the last synodal assembly (First Special Assembly for Africa of 1994) and illustrated the preparations for the current Synod.
Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson, archbishop of Cape Coast, Ghana, relator general of the Synod, then read out the English-language "Relatio ante disceptationem", (report before the discussion) of which extracts are given below:
"Pope John Paul II described the 1994 Synod, which he concluded with the promulgation of his post-synodal Apostolic Exhortation 'Ecclesia in Africa', as a 'Synod of resurrection and hope'. That synod assembly, which had been convoked against the background of a predominantly pessimistic world view of Africa, and against a background of a peculiarly challenging and a 'deplorably unfavourable' situation of the continent for the evangelizing mission of the Church in those closing years of the twentieth century, was nevertheless expected to mark a turning point in the history of the continent".
"The situation on the continent was as harshly ambivalent as it was paradoxical; and the close succession of such events as the collapse of apartheid and the sad outbreak of the Rwandan genocide typified this paradox very well. In view of this paradoxical blend, in which evil and distress seemed to prevail over good and virtue, the Paschal setting of the First Special Assembly for Africa inspired a message of hope for Africa".
"This post-synodal period is now in its fourteenth year; and while the situation of the continent, its islands, and of the Church still bears some of the 'lights and shadows' that occasioned the first Synod, it has also 'changed considerably. This new reality requires a thorough study in view of renewed evangelisation efforts, which call for a more in-depth analysis of specific topics, important for the present and future of the Catholic Church on the great continent'".
The Cardinal then listed some ecclesial data concerning "the exceptional growth of the church in Africa: ... The ascendancy of African members of missionary congregations to leadership positions and roles: council members, vicars general, and even superiors general. The pursuit of self-reliance on the part of local Churches. ... An observable growth in ecclesiastical structures and institutions" He also listed some of the "formidable challenges" facing the Church in Africa: "The talk about a thriving Church in Africa conceals the fact that the Church hardly exists in large parts north of the equator. The exceptionally growing Church in Africa is to be found generally south of the Sahara. The fidelity and commitment of some clergy and religious to their vocations. ... The loss of members to new religious movements and sects".
"In 1963, at a meeting of the Organization for African Unity, African leaders decided to retain a vestige of the colonial rule, maintaining the colonial boundaries and descriptions of states, regardless of their artificial character. That decision, however, has not been followed by a corresponding development of a sense of nationalism that makes ethnic diversity mutually enriching, and that extols the common national good over parochial ethnic interests. Thus ethnic diversity continues to be a seedbed of conflicts and tensions, which even defy the sense of belonging together as members of a Church-Family of God.
Slavery and enslavement, which the Arab world initiated on the East African coast, and Europeans, with the collaboration of Africans themselves, took over into the fourteenth century and extended over the continent, represented forced movement of Africans. These days, the voluntary migration of Africa's sons and daughters to Europe, America and the Far East for various reasons, land them in servile conditions, which require our attention and pastoral care".
"The period after the First Special Assembly for Africa, namely, the dawn of the Third Millennium, appears to have coincided with an emerging continental desire on the part of African leaders themselves for an 'African renaissance'. ... African political leaders appear determined to change the face of political administration on the continent; and they have spearheaded a critical self-appraisal of Africa, which identified poor and bad governance on the continent as the cause of Africa's poverty and woes. Accordingly, they have charted the path of good governance and the formation a political class, capable of taking the best of ancestral traditions in Africa and integrating them with principles of governance of modern societies. They have adopted a strategic framework (NEPAD) to guide performance, and to set the tone for Africa's renewal through transparent political leadership".
"The radical relationship between governance and economy is clear; and it demonstrates that bad governance begets bad economy. This explains the paradox of the poverty of a continent which is certainly the most richly endowed in the world. The spin-off of this 'governance-economy equation' is that there is hardly any African country that can meet its budgetary obligations, namely, its planned national financial programme, without outside assistance in the form of grants or loans. This continual underwriting of national budgets by means of loans inflates a bludgeoning debt burden. The universal Church joined the Church in Africa in a campaign to eradicate it during the Great Jubilee Year".
"There are also certain global phenomena and international initiatives, whose impact on the African society and some of its structures, are worth assessing, and which pose new challenges to the Church. While the prominence, which is increasingly being given to the place and role of women in society is a happy development, the global emergence of lifestyles, values, attitudes, associations, etc., which destabilize society, is disquieting. These attack the basic props of society (marriage and family), diminish its human capital (migration, drug-pushing and arms' trade) and endanger life on the planet".
"It is clear that, although the continent and the Church on the continent are not yet out of the woods, they can still modestly rejoice in their achievement and positive performance, and begin to disclaim stereotypical generalizations about its conflicts, famine, corruption and bad governance. The forty-eight countries that make up Sub-Sahara Africa show great differences in the situations of their churches, their governance and their socio-economic life. Out of these forty-eight nations, only four: Somalia, Sudan, Niger and parts of Democratic Republic of Congo are presently at war; and at least two are at war because of foreign interference: the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan. Indeed, there are fewer wars in Africa than in Asia. Increasingly, war mongers and war criminals are being denounced, held accountable for crimes and prosecuted".
"The truth is that Africa has been burdened for too long by the media with everything that is loathsome to humankind; and it is time to 'shift gears' and to have the truth about Africa told with love, fostering the development of the continent which would lead to the well-being of the whole world. The G8 countries and the countries of the world must love Africa in truth! Generally considered to occupy the tenth position in world economy, Africa is however the second emerging world market after China. Thus, it is as the just-ended G8 summit labelled it, a continent of opportunities. This needs to be true also for the people of the continent. It is hoped that the pursuit of reconciliation, justice and peace, made particularly Christian by their rootedness in love and mercy, would restore wholeness to the Church-Family of God on the continent, and that the latter, as salt of the earth and light of the world, would heal 'wounded human hearts, the ultimate hiding place for the causes of everything destabilizing the African continent'. Thus, will the continent and its islands realize their God-given opportunities and endowments.
"Peace does not have just a secular sense, it being the absence of conflict, the presence of harmony in the home and within the family, individual and communal (national) security and prosperity. Peace, is not just when human beings and their societies fulfil their respective duties and recognize the rights of other persons and societies; and it is not just one of the results of working for justice. Peace essentially transcends the world and human efforts. It is a gift of God bestowed on the 'righteous/just'. ... Peace is an activity that goes beyond strict justice and requires love. It derives from communion with God and is aimed at the wellbeing of man".
When the Synod exhorts the Church in Africa to be 'servants of reconciliation, justice and peace' as 'salt of the earth'", it is "making use of a polyvalent symbol to express the multiple tasks and demands of being a disciple and of being Church (family of God) in Africa. ... On a continent, parts of which live under the shadow of conflict and death, the Church must sow seeds of life: life-giving initiatives. She must preserve the continent and its people from the putrefying effects of hatred, violence, injustice and ethnocentrism. The Church must purify and heal minds and hearts of corrupt and evil ways; and administer her life-giving Gospel message to keep the continent and its people alive".
"At this Synod, the earth and the world, for which Catholics on the continent and its islands must be 'salt' and 'light', as servants of reconciliation, justice and peace are Africa of our day. ... It is there that, Jesus Christ, after revealing Himself through Scriptures as our reconciliation, justice and peace, now calls and commissions His disciples in Africa and its islands to expend themselves, like salt and light, to build the Church in Africa as a veritable family of God through the ministries of reconciliation, justice and peace, exercised in love, like their Master".
SE/FIRST CONGREGATION/... VIS 091005 (1790)
OTHER PONTIFICAL ACTS
VATICAN CITY, 3 OCT 2009 (VIS) - The Holy Father appointed:
- Cardinal Jozef Tomko, prefect emeritus of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, as his special envoy to the closing ceremony of celebrations marking the 150th anniversary of the evangelisation of Taiwan, due to take place in Taipei on 22 November.
- As judges of the Court of Appeal of Vatican City State: Msgr. Giovanni Battista Defilippi, Msgr. Agostino De Angelis and Msgr. Giovanni Vaccarotto.
NA/.../... VIS 091005 (80)
AMERICA
RIO DE JANEIRO: HOST OF 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES
CNA reports that the Archdiocese of St. Sebastian of Rio de Janeiro issued a press release this week in which Archbishop Orani Joao Tempesta thanked God for the city’s selection as host of the 2016 Olympic Games.
Archbishop Tempesta said, “We are very happy with this celebration and we hope that starting now peace, harmony and joy in our people are promoted even more.”
“May the blessing of the Redeemer and the intercession of St. Sebastian accompany us. Long live Rio 2016!” he exclaimed.
Well-aware of the fact that Rio de Janiero is the most violent city in Latin America, Archbishop Tempesta said a few days ahead of the vote, “Sports are an opportunity both to spread peace and to see to that is possible for people who are different to live side by side with each other.”
(SOURCE: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17307
EUROPE
PARIS: PLENARY ASSEMBLY OF THE COUNCIL OF EPISCOPAL CONFERENCES
CNA reports that during his remarks at the opening of the Plenary Assembly of the Council of Episcopal Conferences of Europe, the prefect for the Congregation for Bishops, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, referred to Pope Benedict XVI’s recent encyclical “Caritas en veritate” and said, “Only faith and reason together will save man.”
In his speech the cardinal said, “Reason always needs to be purified by the faith and at the same time religion always needs to be purified by reason in order to show its authentic human face.”
He also stressed the importance of promoting an appropriate relationship between Church and State, “a healthy secularism that allows co-existence and collaboration between faith and reason, so that they mutually help one another.”
The current crisis affecting Europe, Cardinal Re said, “constitutes a challenge” for believers, who must not yield in their efforts to save “non-negotiable values such as life, the family, the centrality of the human person, freedom of education and of religion.”
place of free circulation, but rather it must become an authentic community of nations that desire to unite their destinies and live in justice and solidarity, promoting what Paul VI called the civilization of love.”
(SOURCE: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=17310
AFRICA
APPEAL FOR FOOD FOR EAST AFRICA
CISA reports that an international aid agency has launched £9.5 million emergency food appeal to reach some 750,000 drought-stricken people in East Africa.
Approximately 23 million East Africans are in risk of starvation due to failed rains in the last five years, Oxfam warns.
“A severe and persistent five-year drought, deepened by climate change, is now stretching across seven countries in the region and exacting a heavy human toll, made worse by high food prices and violent conflict,” the charity said.
It cited Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda as the worst affected countries. Other countries hit are Sudan, Djibouti and Tanzania.
Malnutrition is now above emergency levels in some areas and hundreds of thousands of cattle, people’s key source of income, are dying.
Paul Smith Lomas, Oxfam’s East Africa Director said: “This is the worst humanitarian crisis Oxfam has seen in East Africa for over ten years. Failed and unpredictable rains are ever more regular across East Africa as raining seasons shorten due to the growing influence of climate change.”
Lomas said that droughts have increased from once a decade to every two or three years. In Wajir, northern Kenya, almost 200 dead animals were recently found around one dried-up water source. People are surviving on two litres of water a day in some places.
In Kenya, 3.8 million people, a tenth of the population, are in need of emergency aid. Food prices have spiraled to 180 percent above average. In Somalia, half of the population, over 3.8 million people, is affected.
In Ethiopia, 13.7 million people are at risk of severe hunger. Many are selling their cattle to buy food. In northern Uganda farmers have lost half of their crops and more than two million people across the country desperately need aid.
Some 160,000 people mainly around the wild life tourist area of Ngorongoro in north-eastern Tanzania are also at risk. In Djibouti there are worrying levels of increased malnutrition, and in South Sudan conflict has put 88,000 people at particular risk.
(SOURCE: http://www.cisanewsafrica.org/story.asp?ID=4162
ASIA
PHILLIPINES: TYPHOON VICTIM DIED A HERO
UCAN reports that Samuel Magallanes, 49, survived the recent typhoon Ketsana but his 18-year-old son Muelmar did not, dying a hero after saving a reported 30 people in the floods on Sept. 26.
Bagong Silangan residents made homeless by typhoon Ketsana staying in a covered basketball court
Speaking of his loss during a Mass in Bagong Silangan for the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of ecology, Magallanes spoke of his grief.“It is painful for me that he is gone.”
He went on to tell the congregation of 200 about his family’s ordeal and recounted how his son had helped him climb on to the roof of their home after the water rose to the second floor.
He then helped the older man cross to neighbors’ roofs until they found a safer place.
"Then he told me 'Pa, stay here first, I will help those asking for help,'" the elder Magallanes said. "He knew how to swim so he went to a house where there were many children," Magallanes said.
It was the last time he was to see his son alive.
Despite the big loss to the family, “we are proud of the heroism he showed in helping his neighbor,” he said.
Father Robert Reyes of Cubao diocese, lead organizer of the “Mass of Reconciliation with Nature,” praised Muelmar Magallanes, the “martyr who offered his life to save many others.”
Magallanes and his family are temporarily staying at the basketball court along with some of the 600 displaced residents.
One of them, Fernanda Francisco, told how she had seen Muelmar saving a neighbor when tragedy happened.
“I told him to go to the (local government center) to ask for a boat because he had already rescued many people, but then a wall fell on him,” the 54-year-old woman said.
She said water began rising from 10 a.m. trapping her family in the house. In less than an hour, flood waters reached their second floor.
“We could only manage to grab some clothes to bring to our third floor packed with about 300 people, including a three-month-old baby,” Francisco said.
She said they prayed all night, and when water subsided around 5:30 a.m., theirs was the only house left undamaged and bodies lay in the streets.
Hernando Malubay, 36, praised Muelmar for helping save his child by hauling him through flood waters in a basin. He thanked God for his family's "second life."
Father Reyes later led residents and volunteers who are helping clean up and provide relief services in a procession of a statue of St. Francis around the neighborhood. They carried candles, brooms, medicines and relief goods bought with help from overseas Filipino workers.
Reconciliation was needed because man’s abuse of nature was causing floods and natural disasters, the priest said.
The crowd then went back to continue the clean-up, provide medical help and provide soup kitchens, blessings and the distribution of relief goods.
Volunteers included members of Kubol Pag-asa (tent of hope, civic group), Rebolusyonaryong Alyansang Makabayan (nationalist revolutionary movement), political campaign groups and University of the Philippines and other youth movements.
The number of dead in Bagong Silangan is 42 with 38 other residents still missing.
Father Robert Reyes blesses a Manila area community ravaged by the typhoon
Around the country, the National Disaster Coordinating Council’s (NDCC) Oct. 4 update on Typhoon Ketsana announced official figures of 288 dead and 42 people missing, with 135 dead in Metro Manila alone, 54 in Quezon City northeast of the capital where Bagong Silangan is located and 50 in Marikina City east of Manila.
Bagong Silangan (new east) is a resettlement area of squatters removed from various areas in Metro Manila in the mid-1980s.
It is surrounded by middle-class villages, a dumpsite community and is crossed by two small creeks that rise when it rains. In 2003, houses began mushrooming in the grassy area among the community.
Sister Angie Jamola, a full-time pastoral worker of Franciscan Missionaries of Mary who was away during the flood, welcomed the volunteers saying the feast of the patron of ecology “reminds us that what we do to nature will cause a reaction from nature.”
NDCC on Oct. 5 reported 16 more people died and two were missing after Typhoon Parma hit northern Philippines on Oct. 3. Buenget province more than 200 kilometers northwest of Manila was reportedly worst hit with 10 dead in two landslides in Itogon and La Trinidad towns.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Oct. 2 declared a state of national calamity allowing local government officials to tap five percent of their funds for emergency purposes in anticipation of the second typhoon.
(SOURCE: http://www.ucanews.com/2009/10/05/dead-typhoon-hero-honored-as-congregation-%e2%80%98reconciles-with-nature%e2%80%99/
AUSTRALIA
ELDERLY PRIEST MISLED BY FRAUDSTER
Cath News reports that using fake documents and sad stories about suffering, cancer surgery and her mother dying, Olivia Raymond convinced 83 year old Melbourne priest Father Paul Kane to give her nearly $400,000 from parish accounts and $50,000 of his own.
court heard that the money, which she stole over a period of about two years, was used for gambling and drugs, said an AAP report in The Australian.
Fr Kane reportedly gave her the sum from accounts belonging to St Matthew's Parish in the north Melbourne suburb of North Fawkner, and from much of his life savings.
Her mother sat in the Victorian County Court as Raymond pleaded guilty to five counts of obtaining property by deception and one of making a false document.
Victoria's chief Crown Prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC, asked Judge Howard Mason to jail Raymond, 31, of Epping, for between three and five years, the report says.
He said the priest was a "very vulnerable" and unworldly elderly man.
Judge Mason remanded Raymond, who is also known as Melissa Edgell, in custody to be sentenced at a date to be fixed.
(SOURCE: http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=16879
TODAY'S SAINT
St. Faustina Kowalska
APOSTLE OF DIVINE MERCY
Feast: October 5
Information: Feast Day: October 5
Born: 25 August 1905, Głogowiec, Poland
Died: October 5, 1938, Kraków, Poland
Canonized: 30 April 2000, Pope John Paul II
Major Shrine: Shrine of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki, Kraków, Poland
Patron of: World Youth Day
St Mary Faustina Kowalska was born on 25 August 1905 in Glogowiec, Poland, to a poor, religious family of peasants, the third of 10 children. She was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of Swinice Warckle. From a very tender age she stood out because of her love of prayer, work, obedience and her sensitivity to the poor. At the age of nine she made her First Holy Communion and attended school for three years. At the age of 16 she left home and went to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrow, Lodz and Ostrowek in order to support herself and to help her parents.
At the age of seven she had already felt the first stirrings of a religious vocation. After finishing school, she wanted to enter the convent but her parents would not give her permission. Called during a vision of the suffering Christ, on 1 August 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and took the name Sr Mary Faustina. She lived in the congregation for 13 years, residing in Krakow, Plock and Vilnius, where she worked as a cook, gardener and porter.
Externally, nothing revealed her rich mystical interior life. She zealously performed her tasks and faithfully observed the rule of religious life. She was recollected, yet very natural, serene and full of kindness and disinterested love for her neighbour. Although her life was apparently insignificant and monotonous, she hid within herself an extraordinary union with God.
It is the mystery of God's mercy, which she contemplated in the word of God as well as in her everyday activities, that forms the basis of her spirituality. The process of contemplating and getting to know the mystery of God's mercy helped to develop within Sr Mary Faustina the attitude of childlike trust in God and of mercy towards her neighbour. "0 my Jesus, each of your saints reflects one of your virtues; I desire to reflect your compassionate heart, full of mercy; I want to glorify it. Let your mercy, 0 Jesus, be impressed upon my heart and soul like a seal, and this will be my badge in this and the future life" (Diary 1242). Sr Faustina was a faithful daughter of the Church. Conscious of her role in the Church, she cooperated with God's mercy in the task of saving lost souls. At the specific request of the Lord Jesus and following his example, she made a sacrifice of her own life for this very goal. Her spiritual life was also distinguished by a love of the Eucharist and a deep devotion to the Mother of Mercy.
The years she spent in the convent were filled with extraordinary gifts, such as revelations, visions, hidden stigmata, participation in the Passion of the Lord, bilocation, the reading of human souls, prophecy and the rare gift of mystical espousal and marriage. Her living relationship with God, the Blessed Mother, the angels, the saints, the souls in purgatory—with the entire supernatural world—was as real for her as the world she perceived with the senses. In spite of being so richly endowed with extraordinary graces, Sr Mary Faustina knew that they do not in fact constitute sanctity. In her Diary she wrote: "Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God. These gifts are merely ornaments of the soul, but constitute neither its essence nor its perfection. My sanctity and perfection consist in the close union of my will with the will of God" (Diary 1107).
(SOURCE: http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/F/stfaustinakowalska.asp
TODAY'S GOSPEL
Luke 10: 25 - 37
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? How do you read?"
27 And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."
28 And he said to him, "You have answered right; do this, and you will live."
29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?"
30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.
32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion,
34 and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, `Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.'
37 He said, "The one who showed mercy on him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise."
No comments:
Post a Comment