Wednesday, May 26, 2010
CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: TUES. MAY 25, 2010
CATHOLIC WORLD NEWS: TUES. MAY 25, 2010: HEADLINES-
VATICAN: CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF RELIGION IN HAMBURG-
AUSTRALIA: JAMES GRIFFIN CATHOLIC SCHOLAR DIES AGE 80-
AMERICAS: COLOMBIA: FORMER MODEL CONVERTS AFTER SICKNESS-
EUROPE: FRANCE: FILM ON MARTYRED MONKS WINS AWARD AT CANNES FESTIVAL-
ASIA: KATHMANDU: NEW ORPHANGE DONATED BY GERMAN CATHOLIC COUPLE-
AFRICA: NIGERIA: 2010 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE RESERVATIONS FOR 1,500-
VATICAN
CATHOLIC THEOLOGY AND PEDAGOGY OF RELIGION IN HAMBURG
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS REPORT) - On 18 May, the Holy See and the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany, signed an agreement concerning the creation of a centre of formation for Catholic theology and the pedagogy of religion at Hamburg University.
The agreement was signed in Hamburg by Archbishop Jean-Claude Perisset, apostolic nuncio to Germany, on behalf of the Holy See, and by Herlind Gundelach, minister for science and research of the Free Hanseatic City of Hamburg, on behalf of the city.
The ceremony was also attended by Archbishop Werner Thissen of Hamburg accompanied by Auxiliary Bishop Hans-Jochen Jaschke, while the University of Hamburg was represented by Holger Fischer, vice president, and by the dean of the Evangelical theological faculty.OP/ VIS 20100525 (130)
PROCESSION AND MASS FOR CORPUS CHRISTI
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff today announced that at 7 p.m. on Thursday 3 June, Solemnity of Corpus Christi, Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass on the square in front of Rome's St. John Lateran Basilica. Following this he will preside at the traditional Eucharistic procession from the basilica, along Via Merulana, to the Basilica of St. Mary Major.OCL/ VIS 20100525 (80)
JOINT INITIATIVE: COUNCIL FOR CULTURE AND NEOSTEM INC.
VATICAN CITY, 25 MAY 2010 (VIS) - The international biopharmaceutical company NeoStem Inc. and the Pontifical Council for Culture have announced a joint initiative between their charitable organisations to expand research and raise awareness of adult stem cell therapies, according to a communique made public today.
NeoStem's Stem for Life Foundation, formed to create awareness about the promise of adult stem cells to treat disease, and the pontifical council's STOQ Foundation (Science Theology and the Ontological Quest), will work to advance research on adult stem cells, to explore their clinical applicability in the field of regenerative medicine, and the cultural relevance of such research especially with its impact on theological and ethical issues.
"As part of the collaboration, NeoStem and the pontifical council will make efforts to develop educational programs, publications and academic courses with an interdisciplinary approach for theological and philosophical faculties, including those of bioethics, around the world. One of the initiatives will be a three-day international conference at the Vatican on adult stem cell research, including VSEL technology (which uses very small embryonic-like stem cells) that will focus on medical research presentations and theological and philosophical considerations and implications of scientific achievements", the communique says.
AUSTRALIA
JAMES GRIFFIN- CATHOLIC SCHOLAR DIES AGE 80
Cath News report: James Thomas Griffin, one of the country's best-known independent scholars, died on May 9 and was buried last Monday alongside his father and brother in Warrnambool on the southwest Victorian coast. He was 80.
Jim Griffin, who grew up in an Irish Catholic home, became an inspirational schoolteacher at Xavier College, Melbourne, a history professor in Papua New Guinea, a lecturer in Townsville where he made many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander friends, and then at the Australian National University, an analyst at the top secret Office of National Assessments, said The Australian in an obituary.
He was the author of a well-reviewed revisionist biography of John Wren, an irrepressible tenor, and father of six after marrying Helga Girschik at St Peter's in the Vatican.
He died at home in Canberra after a long illness, leaving his biography of Archbishop Daniel Mannix almost completed. When it is published, it will almost certainly create the kind of controversy that Griffin - an intensely cultural though not devoutly religious Catholic - relished, the report adds.
Old friend Father Ed Campion presided over his funeral at St Christopher's Cathedral, Canberra, which was attended by hundreds, including many former students, and a large representation of those Australians who have sustained an interest in PNG. The PNG high commissioner, Charles Lepani, was present.
Jim leaves his wife, Helga; children James, Justin, Denis, Anthea, Cathleen and Gabrielle; and grandchildren Julian, Laura, Patrick, Priscilla, Uriel, Sam and Giovanna.
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21542
AMERICAS
COLOMBIA: FORMER MODEL CONVERTS AFTER SICKNESS
CNA report: Amada Rosa Pérez was one of Colombia’s top models before she disappeared from the public eye five years ago. Now she is making headlines once again, but this time by sharing her conversion story.
Amada explained to the Colombian newspaper “El Tiempo,” that she had been diagnosed with a disease that left her with only 60 percent of her hearing in her left ear. The news caused her to question her lifestyle. “I felt disappointed, unsatisfied, directionless, submerged in fleeting pleasures ...” she said. “I always sought answers and the world never gave them to me.”
“Before I was always in a hurry, stressed out, and got upset easily," she continued. "Now I live in peace, the world doesn’t appeal to me, I enjoy every moment the Lord gives me. I go to Mass, I pray the Holy Rosary daily, as well as the Divine Mercy Chaplet at 3 p.m.
“I go to confession frequently,” she added.
Amada now works tirelessly with a Marian religious community in Colombia.
“Being a model means being a benchmark, someone whose beliefs are worthy of being imitated, and I grew tired of being a model of superficiality. I grew tired of a world of lies, appearances, falsity, hypocrisy and deception, a society full of anti-values that exalts violence, adultery, drugs, alcohol, fighting, and a world that exalts riches, pleasure, sexual immorality and fraud.
“I want to be a model that promotes the true dignity of women and not their being used for commercial purposes,” Amada said.
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/former-colombian-model-shares-conversion-story/
EUROPE
FRANCE: FILM ON MARTYRED MONKS WINS AWARD AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Cath News report: Of Gods and Men, a film about a group of martyred French monks, has taken the second highest honour at the Cannes Film Festival.
The movie by the French director Xavier Beauvois took the Grand Prix prize at the film festival, reports the Catholic News Agency.
It features the true story of seven Cistercian monks who were taken hostage and murdered by Islamic fundamentalists in 1996 in Africa.
They had chosen to remain in the conflict-torn region of the Algerian mountains, despite having been told to return to their native France - knowing that they would be martyred.
Kate Muir, a film critic for the London-based Times Online, called the film the "most intensely passionate" one of the Cannes event, and according to her, during the movie's premier the "audience wept".
"The deep humanity of the monks, their respect for Islam and their generosity towards their village neighbours make (up) the reason for our choice," stated the festival jury who issued the award, said the news report.
"This movie of great artistic value benefits from a remarkable group of actors and follows the daily rhythm of work and liturgy."
http://www.cathnews.com/article.aspx?aeid=21543
ASIA
KATHMANDU: NEW ORPHANGE DONATED BY GERMAN CATHOLIC COUPLE
UCAN report: A new orphanage run by the Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament has opened its doors to 27 children on the outskirts of Kathmandu.
A German Catholic couple, Manfred and Martina Brenneisen, who led fundraising efforts to build Karuna Kinderhaus in Tupikhel village, 10 kilometers south of the city center, cut the red ribbon formally opening the orphanage on May 25.
They then attended an inaugural Mass led by Bishop Anthony Sharma, apostolic vicar of Nepal.
“They have understood the vulnerability of children in a changing Nepal and made their love for Nepali children a reality,” Bishop Sharma said.
“We plan to live here whenever we come to Nepal – and to continue raising funds to keep the home running. A good education is now the most important thing for these children to build a good future,” Martina Brenneisen said.
The new solar-powered orphanage can offer a home to 50 children. Presently almost all the 27 children are girls aged 3 to 15.
The children will study in local schools and a school run by the Sisters of St.Joseph’s of Cluny situated nearby.
“In the last six years conditions in Kathmandu and in western Nepal for children have become unimaginable. So many children do not stand a chance if they have no protection,” Martina Brenneisen told UCA News.
Apart from accommodation, Karuna Kinderhaus also has a computer room, library and recreation rooms
http://www.ucanews.com/2010/05/26/new-orphanage-provides-refuge-to-lucky-few
AFRICA
NIGERIA: 2010 CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE RESERVATIONS FOR 1,500
All Africa report: In order to make the 2010 Christian pilgrimage to the holy land hitch-free, the FCT Administration has made accommodation reservations for 1,500 intending pilgrims.
FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, stated this on Monday after the monthly FCT operations briefing in Abuja.
The minister said the reservations was meant for 1,500 intending FCT pilgrims in Jerusalem, Tel-Avi, Nazareth, Tiberius, Elat, St, Katherine (Egypt), Rome (Italy) as well as Greece.
Senator Mohammed assured that payment for the accommodation will be made next month so as to confirm the booking.
According to him, 12 tour agents were interviewed for handling FCT contingents out of which Immanuel Tours Limited and Tailor-Made Tours were recommended.
The minister disclosed that application forms for the 2010 Christian Pilgrimage is still on sale and directed that mobilization of intending pilgrims from the FCT for the year 2010 should start as soon as possible.
He also directed that the screening of intending pilgrims be conducted early to check potential absconders and to fish-out undesirable ones; insisting that FCT will remain a shining example for other 36 states of the federation to emulate.
http://allafrica.com/stories/201005260217.html
TODAY´S SAINTS
St. Bede
DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, HISTORIAN
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25
Born: 672 at Wearmouth, England
Died: 25 May 735
Canonized: 1899 by Pope Leo XIII
Major Shrine: Durham Cathedral
Patron of: lectors ;english writers and historians; Jarrow
Historian and Doctor of the Church, born 672 or 673; died 735. In the last chapter of his great work on the "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" Bede has told us something of his own life, and it is, practically speaking, all that we know. His words, written in 731, when death was not far off, not only show a simplicity and piety characteristic of the man, but they throw a light on the composition of the work through which he is best remembered by the world at large. He writes:Thus much concerning the ecclesiastical history of Britain, and especially of the race of the English, I, Baeda, a servant of Christ and a priest of the monastery of the blessed apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, which is at Wearmouth and at Jarrow (in Northumberland), have with the Lord's help composed so far as I could gather it either from ancient documents or from the traditions of the elders, or from my own knowledge. I was born in the territory of the said monastery, and at the age of seven I was, by the care of my relations, given to the most reverend Abbot Benedict [St. Benedict Biscop], and afterwards to Ceolfrid, to be educated. From that time I have spent the whole of my life within that monastery, devoting all my pains to the study of the Scriptures, and amid the observance of monastic discipline and the daily charge of singing in the Church, it has been ever my delight to learn or teach or write. In my nineteenth year I was admitted to the diaconate, in my thirtieth to the priesthood, both by the hands of the most reverend Bishop John [St. John of Beverley], and at the bidding of Abbot Ceolfrid. From the time of my admission to the priesthood to my present fifty-ninth year, I have endeavored for my own use and that of my brethren, to make brief notes upon the holy Scripture, either out of the works of the venerable Fathers or in conformity with their meaning and interpretation.
After this Bede inserts a list or Indiculus, of his previous writings and finally concludes his great work with the following words:
And I pray thee, loving Jesus, that as Thou hast graciously given me to drink in with delight the words of Thy knowledge, so Thou wouldst mercifully grant me to attain one day to Thee, the fountain of all wisdom and to appear forever before Thy face.
It is plain from Bede's letter to Bishop Egbert that the historian occasionally visited his friends for a few days, away from his own monastery of Jarrow, but with such rare exceptions his life seems to have been one peaceful round of study and prayer passed in the midst of his own community. How much he was beloved by them is made manifest by the touching account of the saint's last sickness and death left us by Cuthbert, one of his disciples. Their studious pursuits were not given up on account of his illness and they read aloud by his bedside, but constantly the reading was interrupted by their tears. "I can with truth declare", writes Cuthbert of his beloved master, "that I never saw with my eyes or heard with my ears anyone return thanks so unceasingly to the living God." Even on the day of his death (the vigil of the Ascension, 735) the saint was still busy dictating a translation of the Gospel of St. John. In the evening the boy Wilbert, who was writing it, said to him: "There is still one sentence, dear master, which is not written down." And when this had been supplied, and the boy had told him it was finished, "Thou hast spoken truth", Bede answered, "it is finished. Take my head in thy hands for it much delights me to sit opposite any holy place where I used to pray, that so sitting I may call upon my Father." And thus upon the floor of his cell singing, "Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost" and the rest, he peacefully breathed his last breath.
The title Venerabilis seems to have been associated with the name of Bede within two generations after his death. There is of course no early authority for the legend repeated by Fuller of the "dunce-monk" who in composing an epitaph on Bede was at a loss to complete the line: Hac sunt in fossa Bedae . . . . ossa and who next morning found that the angels had filled the gap with the word venerabilis. The title is used by Alcuin, Amalarius and seemingly Paul the Deacon, and the important Council of Aachen in 835 describes him as venerabilis et modernis temporibus doctor admirabilis Beda. This decree was specially referred to in the petition which Cardinal Wiseman and the English bishops addressed to the Holy See in 1859 praying that Bede might be declared a Doctor of the Church. The question had already been debated even before the time of Benedict XIV, but it was only on 13 November, 1899, that Leo XIII decreed that the feast of Venerable Bede with the title of Doctor Ecclesiae should be celebrated throughout the Church each year on 27 May. A local cultus of St. Bede had been maintained at York and in the North of England throughout the Middle Ages, but his feast was not so generally observed in the South, where the Sarum Rite was followed.
Bede's influence both upon English and foreign scholarship was very great, and it would probably have been greater still but for the devastation inflicted upon the Northern monasteries by the inroads of the Danes less than a century after his death. In numberless ways, but especially in his moderation, gentleness, and breadth of view, Bede stands out from his contemporaries. In point of scholarship he was undoubtedly the most learned man of his time. A very remarkable trait, noticed by Plummer (I, p. xxiii), is his sense of literary property, an extraordinary thing in that age. He himself scrupulously noted in his writings the passages he had borrowed from others and he even begs the copyists of his works to preserve the references, a recommendation to which they, alas, have paid but little attention. High, however, as was the general level of Bede's culture, he repeatedly makes it clear that all his studies were subordinated to the interpretation of Scripture. In his "De Schematibus" he says in so many words: "Holy Scripture is above all other books not only by its authority because it is Divine, or by its utility because it leads to eternal life, but also by its antiquity and its literary form" (positione dicendi). It is perhaps the highest tribute to Bede's genius that with so uncompromising and evidently sincere a conviction of the inferiority of human learning, he should have acquired so much real culture. Though Latin was to him a still living tongue, and though he does not seem to have consciously looked back to the Augustan Age of Roman Literature as preserving purer models of literary style than the time of Fortunatus or St. Augustine, still whether through native genius or through contact with the classics, he is remarkable for the relative purity of his language, as also for his lucidity and sobriety, more especially in matters of historical criticism. In all these respects he presents a marked contrast to St. Aldhelm who approaches more nearly to the Celtic type.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/B/stbede.asp
St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi
DISCALCED CARMELITE MYSTIC AND HEALER
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25
Born: April 2, 1566, Florence, Italy
Died: May 25, 1607, Florence, Italy
Canonized: April 28, 1669, Rome by Pope Clement X
Patron of: Naples (co-patron)
Carmelite Virgin, born 2 April, 1566; died 25 May, 1607. Of outward events there were very few in the saint's life. She came of two noble families, her father being Camillo Geri de' Pazzi and her mother a Buondelmonti. She was baptized, and named Caterina, in the great baptistery. Her childhood much resembled that of some other women saints who have become great mystics, in an early love of prayer and penance, great charity to the poor, an apostolic spirit of teaching religious truths, and a charm and sweetness of nature that made her a general favourite. But above all other spiritual characteristics was Caterina's intense attraction towards the Blessed Sacrament, her longing to receive It, and her delight in touching and being near those who were speaking of It, or who had just been to Communion. She made her own First Communion at the age of ten, and shortly afterwards vowed her virginity to God. At fourteen she was sent to school at the convent of Cavalaresse, where she lived in so mortified and fervent a manner as to make the sisters prophesy that she would become a great saint; and, on leaving it, she told her parents of her resolve to enter the religious state. They were truly spiritual people; and, after a little difficulty in persuading them to relinquish their only daughter, she finally entered in December, 1582, the Carmelite convent of Santa Maria degl' Angeli, founded by four Florentine ladies in 1450 and renowned for its strict observance. Her chief reason for choosing this convent was the rule there followed of daily Communion.
Caterina was clothed in 1583, when she took the name of Maria Maddalena; and on 29 May, 1584, being then so ill that they feared she would not recover, she was professed. After her profession, she was subject to an extraordinary daily ecstasy for forty consecutive days, at the end of which time she appeared at the point of death. She recovered, however, miraculously; and henceforth, in spite of constant bad health, was able to fill with energy the various offices to which she was appointed. She became, in turn, mistress ofexterns--i.e. of girls coming to the convent on trial--teacher and mistress of the juniors, novice mistress (which post she held for six years), and finally, in 1604, superior. For five years (1585-90) God allowed her to be tried by terrible inward desolation and temptations, and by external diabolic attacks; but the courageous severity and deep humility of the means that she took for overcoming these only served to make her virtues shine more brilliantly in the eyes of her community.
From the time of her clothing with the religious habit till her death the saint's life was one series of raptures and ecstasies, of which only the most notable characteristics can be named in a short notice.
* First, these raptures sometimes seized upon her whole being with such force as to compel her to rapid motion (e.g. towards some sacred object).
* Secondly, she was frequently able, whilst in ecstasy, to carry on work belonging to her office--e.g., embroidery, painting, etc.--with perfect composure and efficiency.
* Thirdly--and this is the point of chief importance--it was whilst in her states of rapture that St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi gave utterance to those wonderful maxims of Divine Love, and those counsels of perfection for souls, especially in the religious state, which a modern editor of a selection of them declares to be "more frequently quoted by spiritual writers than those even of St. Teresa". These utterances have been preserved to us by the saint's companions, who (unknown to her) took them down from her lips as she poured them forth. She spoke sometimes as of herself, and sometimes as themouthpiece of one or other of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. These maxims of the saint are sometimes described as her "Works", although she wrote down none of them herself. This ecstatic life in no wise interfered with the saint's usefulness in her community. She was noted for her strong common-sense, as well as for the high standard and strictness of her government, and was most dearly loved to the end of her life by all for the spirit of intense charity that accompanied her somewhat severe code of discipline. As novice-mistress she was renowned for a miraculous gift of reading her subjects' hearts--which gift, indeed, was not entirely confined to her community. Many miracles, both of this and of other kinds, she performed for the benefit either of her own convent or of outsiders. She often saw things far off, and is said once to have supernaturally beheld St. Catherine de' Ricci in her convent at Prato, reading a letter that she had sent her and writing the answer; but the two saints never met in a natural manner. To St. Mary Magdalen's numerous penances, and to the ardent love of suffering that made her genuinely wish to live long in order to suffer with Christ, we can here merely refer; but it must not be forgotten that she was one of the strongest upholders of the value of suffering for the love of God and the salvation of our fellow-creatures, that ever lived. Her death was fully in accordance with her life in this respect, for she died after an illness of nearly threeyears' duration and of indescribable painfulness, borne with heroic joy to the end. Innumerable miracles followed the saint's death, and the process for her beatification was begun in 1610 under Paul V, and finished under Urban VIII in 1626. She was not, however, canonized till sixty-two years after her death, when Clement IX raised her to the altars in 28 April, 1669. Her feast is kept on 27 May.
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmarymagdalendepazzi.asp
St. Madeline Sophie Barat
FOUNDRESS
Feast: May 25
Information: Feast Day: May 25
Born: 12 December 1779, Joigny, France
Died: 25 May 1865, Paris, France
Canonized: 24 May 1925 by Pope Pius XI
Foundress of the Society of the Sacred Heart, born at Joigny, Burgundy, 12 December, 1779; died in Paris, 24 May, 1865. She was the youngest child of Jacques Barat, a vine-dresser and cooper, and his wife, Madeleine Foufé, and received baptism the morning after her birth, her brother Louis, aged eleven, being chosen godfather. It was to this brother that she owed the exceptional education which fitted her for her life-work. Whilst her mother found her an apt pupil in practical matters, Louis saw her singular endowments of mind and heart; and when, at the age of twenty-two, he returned as professor to the seminary at Joigny, he taught his sister Latin, Greek, history, natural science, Spanish, and Italian. Soon she took delight in reading the classics in the original, and surpassed her brother's pupils at the seminary.
After the Reign of Terror, Louis called Sophie to Paris, to train her for the religious life, for which she longed. When he had joined the Fathers of the Faith, a band of fervent priests, united in the hope of becoming members of the Society of Jesus on its restoration, he one day spoke of his sister to Father Varin, to whom had been bequeathed by the saintly Léonor de Tournély the plan of founding a society of women wholly devoted to the worship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to prayer and sacrifice, and destined to do for girls what the restored Society of Jesus would do for boys. Father Varin had vainly sought a fitting instrument to begin this work; he now found one in this modest, retiring girl of twenty. He unfolded the project, which seemed to satisfy all her aspirations, and she bowed before his authoritative declaration that this was for her the will of God. With three companions she made her first consecration, 21 November, 1800, the date which marks the foundation of the Society of the Sacred Heart. In September, 1801, the first convent was opened at Amiens, and thither Sophie went to help in the work of teaching. It was impossible yet to assume the name "Society of the Sacred Heart", lest a political significance be attached to it; its members were known as Dames de la Foi or de l'Instruction Chrétienne. Father Varin allowed Sophie to make her vows, 7 June, 1802, with Genevieve Deshayes.
The community and school were increasing, and a poor school had just been added, when it became evident to Father Varin that Mademoiselle Loquet, who had hitherto acted as superior, lacked the qualities requisite for the office, and Sophie, although the youngest, was named superior (1802). Her first act was to kneel and kiss the feet of each of her sisters. Such was ever the spirit of her government, November, 1804, found her at Sainte-Marie-d'en-Haut, near Grenoble, receiving a community of Visitation nuns into her institute, One of them, Philippine Duchesne, was later to introduce the society into America. Grenoble was the first of some eighty foundations which Mother Barat was to make, not only in France but in North America (1818), Italy (1828), Switzerland (1830), Belgium (1834), Algiers (1841). England (1842), Ireland(1842), Spain (1846), Holland (1848), Germany (1851), South America (1853) Austria (1853), Poland (1857).
Mother Barat was elected superior-general in January, 1806, but a majority of one vote only, for the influence of an ambitious priest, chaplain at Amiens, wellnigh wrecked the nascent institute. Prolonged prayer, silent suffering, tact, respect, charity, were only means she used to oppose his designs. With Father Varin, now a Jesuit, she elaborated constitutions and rules grafted on the stock of the Institute of St. Ignatius. These rules were received with joy in all the houses, Amiens alone excepted; but Mother Barat's wisdom and humility soon won submission even here. In 1818 she sent Mother Duchesne, with four companions, to the New World; her strong and holy hand was ever ready to support and guide this first missioner of the Society. She called all the superiors together in council at Paris in 1820, to provide a uniform course of studies for their schools. these studies were to be solid and serious, to fit the pupils to become intelligent wives and devoted mother; to give that cultivation of mind. that formation of character, which go to make up a true women; all was to stamped and sealed with strong religious principles and devotion to the Sacred Heart.
Foundations multiplied, and Mother Barat, seeing the necessity of a stronger guarantee of unity, sought it in union with Rome. The solemn approbation was obtained much sooner than usual, owing to a memoir drawn up by the foundress and presented to Leo XII in May, 1826. The decree of approbation was promulgated in December. The society being now fully organized and sealed by Rome's approval, for forty years Mother Barat journeyed from convent to convent, wrote many thousand letters, and assembled general congregations, so as to preserve its original spirit. The Paris school gained European repute; Rome counted three establishments, asked for and blessed by three successive pontiffs. At Lyons Mother Barat founded the Congregation of the Children of Mary for former pupils and other ladies. in he same year (1832), she began at Turin the work of retreats for ladies of the world, an apostleship since widely and profitably imitated. Numerous foundations brought Mother Bart onto personal contact with all classes. We find her crossing and recrossing France, Switzerland, Italy, often on the eve of revolutions; now the centre of a society of émigrés whose intellectual gifts, high social position, and moral worth are seldom found united; now sought out by cardinals and Roman princesses during her vicits to her Roman houses; at another time, speaking on matters educational with Madame de Genlis; or again, exercising that supernatural ascendency which aroused the admiration of such men as Bishop Fraysinous, Doctor Récamier, and Duc de Rohan.
These exterior labours were far from absorbing all Mother Barat's time or energies; they coexisted with a life of ever-increasing holiness and continual prayer; for the real secret of her influence lay in her habitual seclusion from the outside world, in the strong religious formation of her daughters which this seclusion made possible, and in the enlightened, profound, ans supernatural views on education which she communicated to the religious engaged in her schools. She worked by and through them all, and thus reached out to the ends of the earth. In spite of herself she attracted and charmed all who approached her. New foundations she always entrusted to other hands; for, like all great rulers, she had the twofold gift of intuition in the choice of persons fitted for office, and trust of those in responsible posts. Allowing them much freedom of action in details, guiding them only by her counsels and usually form afar. Prelates who now and them ventured to attribute to her the successes of the society, saw that instead of pleasing, they distressed her exceedingly.
Beloved by her daughters, venerated by princes and pontiffs, yet ever lowly of heart, Mother Barat died at the mother-house in Paris, on Ascension Day, 1865, as she had foretold, after four days' illness. She was buried at Conflans, the house of novitiate, where her body was found intact in 1893. In 1879 she was declared Venerable, and the process of beatification introduced. [Note: Mother Barat was canonized in 1925.]
http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmadelinesophiebarat.asp
TODAY´S GOSPEL
Mark 10: 28 - 31
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28 Peter began to say to him, "Lo, we have left everything and followed you."
29 Jesus said, "Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel,
30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.
31 But many that are first will be last, and the last first."
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