Catholic News World : Sunday November 16, 2014 - Share!

2014

Free Catholic Movie : "The Song of Bernadette" Stars Jennifer Jones about Our Lady of Lourdes

Breaking News US Aid Worker beheaded by ISIS RIP Peter Kassig

Pope Francis “Who have we ‘infected’ with the faith?" #Angelus Text/Video

Saint November 16 : St. Gertrude the Great : Benedictine : Patron of Nuns, Travellers, West Indies

Saint November 16 : St. Margaret of Scotland : Patron of death of children, Queens, Scotland, Widows

Sunday Mass Online : Sunday November 16, 2014 - 33rd Ord. Time

#PopeFrancis Commissions Showers for Poor People in #Vatican

The Song of Bernadette (1943) 156 min - Biography | Drama - April 1945 (USA)  The Apparitions occurred in 1858 France. Based on the novel by Franz Werfel, "The Song of Bernadette" is a sympathetic account of the life of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, a sickly (asthmatic) French peasant girl who claimed to have seen 18 miraculous visions of a "beautiful lady" near her home village of Lourdes in 1858. Bernadette had become so happily excited by her initial vision, which she claimed included her having been instructed by this "beautiful lady" to return each day for 15 days*.
Director: Henry King Writers: George Seaton (screenplay), Franz Werfel (novel) Stars: Jennifer Jones, Charles Bickford, William Eythe |

Breaking News US Aid Worker beheaded by ISIS RIP Peter Kassig

Peter Kassig has been behead by ISIS. In a video published on the Internet on Sunday. Apparently, Kassig, 26, converted to Islam in captivity, therefore went by the name Abdul-Rahman Kassig. He went to the Middle East as a U.S. soldier and returned later as a humanitarian worker. He worked in Syria and was captured in 2013.
 His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, had released a video asking for their son's release. The White House issued a statement : "If confirmed, we are appalled by the brutal murder of an innocent American aid worker and we express our deepest condolences to his family and friends," . British Prime Minister David Cameron also commented on Twitter: "I'm horrified by the cold blooded murder of Abdul-Rahman Kassig. ISIL have again shown their depravity. My thoughts are with his family". He is the fifth Westerner that ISIS beheaded via video messages. The first was U.S. journalist James Foley, journalist Steven Sotloff, next  British aid worker David Haines then  Alan Henning was beheaded. Peter Kassig, was from Indiana, and founded Special Emergency Response and Assistance, a nongovernmental organization to help Syrians seeking refuge from the civil war . Starting in 2012, he delivered food and medical supplies to Syria and gave medical care to victims, his family said. Kassig joined the U.S. Army in 2006 and went to Iraq in 2007. He was honorably discharged for medical reasons and returned to the United States to study. He felt called to help the victims of war and traveled to Lebanon to found SERA to deliver food and medical supplies to help refugees. 

Pope Francis “Who have we ‘infected’ with the faith?" #Angelus Text/Video

(Vatican Radio) “Jesus does not ask us to keep grace in a safe… He wants us to use it for the benefit of others.” That was Pope Francis message at his weekly Angelus address on Sunday. He spoke about the day’s Gospel, which relates Jesus’ parable of the talents. In the parable, the Pope said, the master is Jesus, we are the servants, and the talents are the patrimony we have received from the Lord. “What is this patrimony?” the Pope asked. “It is His Word, the Eucharist, faith in the heavenly Father, His forgiveness… This is the patrimony He entrusts to us!” But we are not meant to merely safeguard these gifts; rather, we are called to make them grow. What have we done with these gifts, the Pope asked. “Who have we ‘infected’ with the faith? How many people have we encouraged with our hope? How much love have we shared with our neighbour?” Every time and place, he said, “even the most distant and impractical,” can be a place where we can make our talents grow.  This parable, Pope Francis said, “encourages us to not hide our faith and our belonging to Christ, to not bury the Word of the Gospel, but to make it circulate in our lives, in our relationships, in concrete situations.” Our Christian witness must go out to others, grow, and bear fruit. Pope Francis called on everyone to re-read and meditate on the day’s Gospel reading from St Matthew (25:14-30). “The talents, the riches, all the spiritual goods, all the good things that God has given to me – how have I made them grow in others? Or have I simply kept them in a safe?” God knows each of us personally, and gives to each of us what is right for us. Although we do not all receive the same gifts, the Pope said, there is something we all have in common – God’s confidence. “God trusts us, God has hope in us!” “We must not be deluded, we must not allow fear to deceive us,” he continued. Rather, we must have confidence in God, who has confidence in us. Mary, the Pope said, “incarnates this attitude in the most beautiful and most complete way. She received and welcomed the most sublime gift, Jesus in person, and in turn offered Him to humanity with a generous heart.” “Let us ask her to help us to be ‘good and faithful servants,’ he concluded, “in order to participate in the joy of our Lord.” (Vatican Radio) Following his Angelus address on Sunday, Pope Francis appealed for dialogue with immigrants. He noted recent tensions in Rome between citizens and immigrants, tensions which have also been seen in other European cities. He called on civil institutions at every level “to take up as a priority what has now become a social emergency that, if not addressed promptly and in an adequate way, risks degenerating more and more.” The Christian community, he said, must be engaged in a concrete way in the issue of immigration, so that “there might not be confrontation, but encounter.” He called on citizens and immigrants to discuss the situation together and with the civil authorities, even “in the parish hall.” “The important thing,” Pope Francis said, “is to not give into the temptation to confrontation” and “to reject all violence.” He said, “It is possible to dialogue, to listen to one another, to make plans together, and in this way to overcome suspicion and prejudice, and to build a coexistence that is ever more secure, peaceful, and inclusive.”

, 2014

Saint November 16 : St. Gertrude the Great : Benedictine : Patron of Nuns, Travellers, West Indies

St. Gertrude the Great

BENEDICTINE AND MYSTIC WRITER

Feast: November 16

Information:

Feast Day:

November 16

Born:

6 January 1256 at Eisleben, Germany

Died:

November 17, 1302, Helfta, Germany

Canonized:

received equipotent canonization, and a universal feast day declared in 1677 by Pope Clement XII

Patron of:

nuns, travellers, West Indies

Benedictine and mystic writer; born in Germany, 6 Jan., 1256; died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, 17 November, 1301 or 1302. Nothing is known of her family, not even the name of her parents. It is clear from her life (Legatus, lib. I, xvi) that she was not born in the neighbourhood of Eisleben. When she was but five years of age she entered the alumnate of Helfta. The monastery was at that time governed by the saintly and enlightened Abbess Gertrude of Hackerborn, under whose rule it prospered exceedingly, both in monastic observance and in that intellectual activity which St. Lioba and her Anglo-Saxon nuns had transmitted to their foundations in Germany. All that could aid to sanctity, or favour contemplation and learning, was to be found in this hallowed spot. Here, too, as to the centre of all activity and impetus of its life, the work of works—the Opus Dei, as St. Benedict terms the Divine Office—was solemnly carried out. Such was Helfta when its portals opened to receive the child destined to be its brightest glory. Gertrude was confided to the care of St. Mechtilde, mistress of the alumnate and sister of the Abbess Gertrude. From the first she had the gift of winning the hearts, and her biographer gives many details of her exceptional charms, which matured with advancing years. Thus early had been formed between Gertrude and Mechtilde the bond of an intimacy which deepened and strengthened with time, and gave the latter saint a prepondering influence over the former.

Partly in the alumnate, partly in the community, Gertrude had devoted herself to study with the greatest ardour. In her twenty-sixth year there was granted her the first of that series of visions of which the wonderful sequence ended only with life. She now gauged in its fullest extent the void of which she had been keenly sensible for some time past, and with this awakening came the realization of the utter emptiness of all transitory things. With characteristic ardour she cultivated the highest spirituality, and, to quote her biographer, "from being a grammarian became a theologian", abandoning profane studies for the Scriptures, patristic writings, and treatises on theology. To these she brought the same earnestness which had characterized her former studies, and with indefatigable zeal copied, translated, and wrote for the spiritual benefit of others. Although Gertrude vehemently condemns herself for past negligence ( Legatus, II, ii), still to understand her words correctly we must remember that they express the indignant self-condemnation of a soul called to the highest sanctity. Doubtless her inordinate love of study had proved a hindrance alike to contemplation and interior recollection, yet it had none the less surely safeguarded her from more serious and grievous failings. Her struggle lay in the conquest of a sensitive and impetuous nature. In St. Gertrude's life there are no abrupt phases, no sudden conversion from sin to holiness. She passed from alumnate to the community. Outwardly her life was that of the simple Benedictine nun, of which she stands forth preeminently as the type. Her boundless charity embraced rich and poor, learned and simple, the monarch on his throne and the peasant in the field; it was manifested in tender sympathy towards the souls in purgatory, in a great yearning for the perfection of souls consecrated to God. Her humility was so profound that she wondered how the earth could support so sinful a creature as herself. Her raptures were frequent and so absorbed her faculties as to render her insensible to what passed around her. She therefore begged, for the sake of others, that there might be no outward manifestations of the spiritual wonders with which her life was filled. She had the gift of miracles as well as that of prophecy.

When the call came for her spirit to leave the worn and pain-stricken body, Gertrude was in her forty-fifth or forty-sixth year, and in turn assisted at the death-bed and mourned for the loss of the holy Sister Mechtilde (1281), her illustrious Abbess Gertrude of Hackeborn (1291), and her chosen guide and confidante, St. Mechtilde (1298). When the community was transferred in 1346 to the monastery of New Helfta, the present Trud-Kloster, within the walls of Eisleben, they still retained possession of their old home, where doubtless the bodies of St. Gertrude and St. Mechtilde still buried, though their place of sepulture remains unknown. There is, at least, no record of their translation. Old Helfta is now crown-property, while New Helfta has lately passed into the hands of the local municipality. It was not till 1677 that the name of Gertrude was inscribed in the Roman Martyrology and her feast was extended to the universal church, which now keeps it on 15 November, although it was at first fixed on 17 November, the day of her death, on which it is still celebrated by her own order. In compliance with a petition from the King of Spain she was declared Patroness of the West Indies; in Peru her feast is celebrated with great pomp, and in New Mexico a town was built in her honour and bears her name. Some writers of recent times have considered that St. Gertrude was a Cistercian, but a careful and impartial examination of the evidence at present available does not justify this conclusion. It is well known that the Cistercian Reform left its mark on many houses not affiliated to the order, and the fact that Helfta was founded during the "golden age" of Citeaux (1134-1342) is sufficient to account for this impression.

Many of the writings of St. Gertrude have unfortunately perished. Those now extant are:

—The "Legatus Divinae Pietatis",—The "Exercises of St. Gertrude";—The "Liber Specialis Gratiae" of St. Mechtilde.

The works of St. Gertrude were all written in Latin, which she used with facility and grace. The "Legatus Divinae Pietatis" (Herald of Divine Love) comprises five books containing the life of St. Gertrude, and recording many of the favours granted her by God. Book II alone is the work of the saint, the rest being compiled by members of the Helfta community. They were written for her Sisters in religion, and we feel she has here a free hand unhampered by the deep humility which made it so repugnant for her to disclose favours personal to herself. The "Exercises", which are seven in number, embrace the work of the reception of baptismal grace to the preparation for death. Her glowing language deeply impregnated with the liturgy and scriptures exalts the soul imperceptibly to the heights of contemplation. When the "Legatus Divinae Pietatis" is compared with the "Liber Specialis Gratiae" of St. Mechtilde, it is evident that Gertrude is the chief, if not the only, author of the latter book. Her writings are also coloured by the glowing richness of that Teutonic genius which found its most congenial expression in symbolism and allegory. The spirit of St. Gertrude, which is marked by freedom, breadth, and vigour, is based on the Rule of St. Benedict. Her mysticism is that of all the great contemplative workers of the Benedictine Order from St. Gregory to Blosius. Hers, in a word, is that ancient Benedictine spirituality which Father Faber has so well depicted (All for Jesus, viii).

The characteristic of St. Gertrude's piety is her devotion to the Sacred Heart, the symbol of that immense charity which urged the Word to take flesh, to institute the Holy Eucharist, to take on Himself our sins, and, dying on the Cross, to offer Himself as a victim and a sacrifice to the Eternal Father (Congregation of Rites, 3 April, 1825). Faithful to the mission entrusted to them, the superiors of Helfta appointed renowned theologians, chosen from the Dominican and Franciscan friars, to examine the works of the saint. These approved and commented them throughout. In the sixteenth century Lanspergius and Blosius propagated her writings. The former, who with his confrere Loher spared no pains in editing her works, also wrote a preface to them. The writings were warmly received especially in Spain, and among the long list of holy and learned authorities who used and recommended her works may be mentioned :

—St. Teresa, who chose her as her model and guide,—Yepez,—the illustrious Suarez,—the Discalced Carmelite Friars of France,—St. Francis de Sales,—M. Oliver,—Fr. Faber,—Dom Gueranger.

The Church has inserted the name of Gertrude in the Roman Martyrology with this eulogy: "On the 17th of November, in Germany (the Feast) of St. Gertrude Virgin, of the Order of St. Benedict, who was illustrious for the gift of revelations."

SOURCE http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/G/stgertrudethegreat.asp

Saint November 16 : St. Margaret of Scotland : Patron of death of children, Queens, Scotland, Widows

St. Margaret of Scotland
QUEEN OF SCOTLAND
Feast: November 16
Information:
Feast Day:
November 16
Born:
1045, Castle Réka, Mecseknádasd, in the region of Southern Transdanubia, Hungary
Died:
16 November 1093, St Margaret's Chapel in Edinburgh Castle, Midlothian, Scotland
Canonized:
1251 by Pope Innocent IV
Major Shrine:
Dunfermline Abbey
Patron of:
death of children, large families, learning, queens, Scotland, widows

Born about 1045, died 16 Nov., 1092, was a daughter of Edward "Outremere", or "the Exile", by Agatha, kinswoman of Gisela, the wife of St. Stephen of Hungary. She was the granddaughter of Edmund Ironside. A constant tradition asserts that Margaret's father and his brother Edmund were sent to Hungary for safety during the reign of Canute, but no record of the fact has been found in that country. The date of Margaret's birth cannot be ascertained with accuracy, but it must have been between the years 1038, when St. Stephen died, and 1057, when her father returned to England. It appears that Margaret came with him on that occasion and, on his death and the conquest of England by the Normans, her mother Agatha decided to return to the Continent. A storm however drove their ship to Scotland, where Malcolm III received the party under his protection, subsequently taking Margaret to wife. This event had been delayed for a while by Margaret's desire to entirereligion, but it took place some time between 1067 and 1070.
In her position as queen, all Margaret's great influence was thrown into the cause of religion and piety. A synod was held, and among the special reforms instituted the most important were the regulation of the Lenten fast, observance of the Easter communion, and the removal of certain abuses concerning marriage within the prohibited degrees. Her private life was given up to constant prayer and practices of piety. She founded several churches, including the Abbey of Dunfermline, built to enshrine her greatest treasure, a relic of the true Cross. Her book of the Gospels, richly adorned with jewels, which one day dropped into a river and was according to legend miraculously recovered, is now in the Bodleian library at Oxford. She foretold the day of her death, which took place at Edinburgh on 16 Nov., 1093, her body being buried before the high altar at Dunfermline.
In 1250 Margaret was canonized by Innocent IV, and her relics were translated on 19 June, 1259, to a new shrine, the base of which is still visible beyond the modern east wall of the restoredchurch. At the Reformation her head passed into the possession of Mary Queen of Scots, and later was secured by the Jesuits at Douai, where it is believed to have perished during the French Revolution. According to George Conn, "De duplici statu religionis apud Scots" (Rome, 1628), the rest of the relics, together with those of Malcolm, were acquired by Philip II of Spain, and placed in two urns in the Escorial. When, however, Bishop Gillies of Edinburgh applied through Pius IX for their restoration to Scotland, they could not be found.
The chief authority for Margaret's life is the contemporary biography printed in "Acta SS.", II, June, 320. Its authorship has been ascribed to Turgot, the saint's confessor, a monk of Durham and later Archbishop of St. Andrews, and also to Theodoric, a somewhat obscure monk; but in spite of much controversy the point remains quite unsettled. The feast of St. Margaret is now observed by the whole Church on 10 June.
SOURCE http://www.ewtn.com/saintsHoly/saints/M/stmargaretofscotland.asp

Sunday Mass Online : Sunday November 16, 2014 - 33rd Ord. Time

Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 157

Reading 1PRV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and works with loving hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a reward for her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates.

Responsorial Psalm PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

R/ (cf. 1a) Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Blessed are you who fear the LORD,
who walk in his ways!
For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork;
blessed shall you be, and favored.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
in the recesses of your home;
Your children like olive plants
around your table.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord.
Behold, thus is the man blessed
who fears the LORD.
The LORD bless you from Zion:
may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
R/ Blessed are those who fear the Lord.

Reading 21 THES 5:1-6

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.
For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come
like a thief at night.
When people are saying, "Peace and security, "
then sudden disaster comes upon them,
like labor pains upon a pregnant woman,
and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do,
but let us stay alert and sober.

Gospel MT 25:14-30

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.
Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them,
and made another five.
Likewise, the one who received two made another two.
But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground
and buried his master's money.

After a long time
the master of those servants came back
and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward
bringing the additional five.
He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.
See, I have made five more.’
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.’
Then the one who had received two talents also came forward and said,
'Master, you gave me two talents.
See, I have made two more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.’
Then the one who had received the one talent came forward and said,
'Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.'
His master said to him in reply, 'You wicked, lazy servant!
So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant
and gather where I did not scatter?
Should you not then have put my money in the bank
so that I could have got it back with interest on my return?
Now then! Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.
For to everyone who has,
more will be given and he will grow rich;
but from the one who has not,
even what he has will be taken away.
And throw this useless servant into the darkness outside,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.'"

Or MT 25:14-15, 19-21

Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"A man going on a journey
called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.
To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one--
to each according to his ability.
Then he went away.

After a long time
the master of those servants came back
and settled accounts with them.
The one who had received five talents came forward
bringing the additional five.
He said, 'Master, you gave me five talents.
See, I have made five more.'
His master said to him, 'Well done, my good and faithful servant.
Since you were faithful in small matters,
I will give you great responsibilities.
Come, share your master's joy.'"

#PopeFrancis Commissions Showers for Poor People in #Vatican

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has commissioned three showers to be built for use by the homeless in the area under St. Peter’s colonnades. The showers will be installed in an existing lavatory block used by pilgrims and tourists and the building works are set to begin on November 17th. The initiative was inspired by the experience of the Pope’s almoner (almsgiver) Archbishop Konrad Krajewski and received the immediate blessing of the Pope. Archbishop Krajewski recently meet a 50 year old homeless man from Sardinia named Franco on the streets of Rome and offered to buy him dinner because it was his birthday.
The man declined his invitation explaining that he couldn’t go to the restaurant with him because he stank. Not deterred, Archbishop Krajewski took the homeless man out for a meal anyway at a Chinese restaurant. During dinner the man explained to the archbishop that homeless people in Rome could always find some food but what they really lacked was a place to wash. In addition to the 3 showers that will be built by St. Peter’s Square, Archbishop Krajewski has already asked ten parishes in Rome to build showers for use by the homeless, with money donated by the Pope’s charity. The archbishop says the aim of this project is to restore dignity to Rome’s homeless people. According to the Catholic charity Sant’Egidio there are an estimated 8,000 people living rough on the streets of the Italian capital.