Adoration

It is Sunday again, and I watched the Mass on YouTube participating as much as I am able from my living room. However, it is obviously not the same. I miss my Parish - the people, the clergy, the place itself and above all the Blessed Sacrament.

This afternoon, I went for Adoration. Of course, I could not enter the Church. I parked in the parking lot facing the church door - and beyond it the Tabernacle. I prayed the Evening Prayers from the Magnificat and just soaked in the presence of Jesus.

There is a misunderstanding among some that the Blessed Sacrament must be exposed in a Monstrance for Adoration. This may be due in part to the availability of perpetual adoration in so many churches now days. Perpetual adoration is a wonderful practice, but sometimes we forget that we can also adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament while he is hidden in the Tabernacle. In times passed, church doors were left unlocked around the clock and anyone could just drop in and visit and pray.

Unfortunately, in our present culture we are not able to leave the doors of churches open without the fear of theft or vandalism. Even the Perpetual Adoration Chapels are locked up tight and you have to have the key code to visit Jesus. And now, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, the churches and chapels are all locked up tight and never opened - we don't know for how long.

But Jesus is still there. The Blessed Sacrament is still there. I felt that while sitting in the parking lot parked cross wiles across the parking spaces so that I could face the Church. Although I could not see the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary Lamp, I knew Jesus was there. I got the image that the Church building itself was a bigger Tabernacle enclosing the Tabernacle enclosing the Sacrament. I hope to continue to visit at least once a week while the shut down lasts.

Reflection on the 6th Station Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

I love stories of Saints. I find hope in their lives, struggles and sacrifices and help from their intercession. So today, I will share the insight that I find in the story of St. Veronica.

St. Veronica gets her own call out in the sixth station. She is a woman of action and courage. There are three actions of Veronica that we reflect on in this station:

• She stepped out from the crowd.
• She took off her veil.
• She gave comfort to Jesus by wiping his face with her veil.

In return for these actions, she was given the great gift of an image of that beautiful face.

You are probably aware that this story, and Veronica herself, appear nowhere in sacred scripture. In fact, Veronica’s story in its current form does not appear until the Middle Ages. Some people have doubts that she was even an historical person. Her name is seen as a corruption of the Latin Vera Icon - meaning “True Image”, and the story is seen as being more about the image than about the person of Veronica.

I’m not going to argue one way or the other whether Veronica was a real person in an historical sense, but whether she was (and is) real in another sense. Consider again the actions of Veronica:

• She stepped out from the crowd -- she chose not to follow what everyone else was doing, but went where she saw the need.
• She took off her veil - she made herself vulnerable by exposing herself to the stares and ridicule of the crowd.
• She offered comfort to Jesus - she was not able to stop the madness, but she could use what she had - her veil - to do what little she could to bring comfort to our Lord. She gave to Him from her weakness.

So, let me share some examples of how Veronica’s Spirit has been evident in more recent times:

I first offer you Fr. Damien De Veuster, a missionary priest from Belgium. Fr. Damien served as a missionary in the Kingdom of Hawaii in the mid 1800s. When the Hawaiian legislature passed a law that all those with Leprosy - also known as Hansen’s Disease - be quarantined on the island of Molokai, the Bishop asked for priest volunteers to minister to them. Fr. Damien stepped up. At that time, Leprosy was believed to be highly contagious and deadly, but Fr. Damien went to Molokai to be a father and friend to the quarantined people and to become one of them. He told the lepers that, no matter what the outside world thought of them, they were precious in God’s eyes. After 11 years of working with the community, Fr. Damien contracted the disease and eventually died among the people he had served so faithfully. 

St. Damien of Molokai - 

• Stepped out from the crowd - he did not give in to the fear of leprosy as most of his contemporaries did.
• He made himself vulnerable - he went where the sick people were to serve them.
• He offered comfort to the body of Christ - serving the lepers of Molokai in both their spiritual and physical needs.

St. Damien became the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in giving his life for the people God gave to him to serve.

Secondly, let us look at Fr. Maximilian Kolbe. Maximilian was a Franciscan friar in Poland in the early 20th century. During World War II, Kolbe whose father was an ethnic German, could have claimed rights similar to those of a German citizen. However, he refused to take the easy way out. He and his fellow friars provided shelter at their friary to refugees, including 2,000 Jews, whom he hid from persecution. This did not last for long, as Kolbe and others were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. When a prisoner escaped, the commander chose 10 prisoners to die in a starvation bunker to deter further escapes. Fr. Maximilian offered himself in place of one of the men who were chosen to die. He led the others in prayer as they slowly starved to death. Maximilian was the last to die, by injected with carbolic acid. 

St. Maximilian -

• Stepped out from the crowd - by refusing to take the easy way of accepting the rights of an ethnic German.
• He made himself vulnerable - by opening his friary to refugees.
• He offered comfort to the body of Christ - by offering his life for the life of a fellow prisoner and by praying with those dying with him in the starvation bunker.

St. Maximilian became the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in laying down his life for the life of another. 

A third example is Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu. Sr. Mary Teresa had joined the Sisters of Loreto at 18 and was sent to teach in their convent school in Calcutta India. She taught there for 20 years and was appointed headmistress in 1944. Shortly after this, Sr. Teresa heard the call to leave the comfort of the convent school and go into the streets of Calcutta to serve the poorest of the poor. She received Vatican permission to start the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, depending entirely on donations. She spent the rest of her life, until her death in 1997, trusting in the Lord for all her needs and serving the poor, the sick and the dying. 

St. Teresa of Kolkata -

• Stepped out from the crowd - by leaving her comfortable vocation as a teacher in a convent school to answer God’s call to serve the poor.
• She made herself vulnerable - by going into the streets of Calcutta to serve in total trust that God would provide the resources through donations. 
• She offered comfort to the Body of Christ by serving anyone who came to her as if she were serving Jesus Himself.

Mother Teresa was given the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in those that she served and became for them, and for the world, the image of Christ in action.

Finally, I ask how can you and I become Veronica in the world today? I ask you to reflect on the ways that you can:

• Step out from the crowd
• Make yourself vulnerable
• Offer comfort to Jesus in his mystical body here on earth

Find a way to become a True Image, a Vera Icon of Jesus in your home, your workplace and your neighborhood. 

COVID-19 Lent

How is your Lent going?

Two years ago, my Mom told me that sometimes God give you your Lent. That year, my Aunt and Uncle were looking to make the transition in to a Nursing Home. Mom and Dad spent most of Lent driving them around to many different facilities looking for the right place. This was not what Mom had planned to do for Lent, but on Easter Day when she told me about it I think she felt that she had had a good Lent. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

Last year, as Lent approached I made my plans. I felt that I really had not had a very good Lent the year before, so I wanted to be more focused. All my plans flew out the window when Mom went into Hospice on the Friday after Ash Wednesday. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

In my own mind, I say that last year I gave up my Mother for Lent. That may sound crass or even flippant, but that's not how I mean it - or how I feel it. Last year my Lent was spent in praying for and with my Mom, spending time with my Dad and my siblings and receiving love and compassion from family and friends. Although I did not mourn in the way that I would have expected to, I think that having this happen during Lent brought my loss a different perspective and gave me a new view of the Lenten season. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

This year I decided that I was going to have a really good Lent. I wanted this Lent to be very contemplative and take advantage of every opportunity to grow spiritually. Our Parish had scheduled so many opportunities for prayer and learning - and I wanted to do them all! In fact, in the first 17 days of Lent I was at my church or another church for at least an hour on 16 of those days. My calendar for the next few weeks was similarly full. I feel that this was working. I have spent more time in prayer and spiritual reading and have grown in my friendships with people at my Church.

However, in just a few days, we have gone from a place where the Corona virus was something that we heard about happening somewhere else to where it is turning our world upside down. So many events and activities have been cancelled or postponed that we are all reeling from the impact. While this has hit me fairly lightly in comparison to so many others, it still brings to mind what Mom told me two years ago -- "Sometimes God give you your Lent."

So, what is it that God is giving us this Lent? He is giving us a chance to slow down (more like a mandate!). He is calling us to be more contemplative - to be human beings and not human doings. He is giving families time to spend enjoying each other's company rather than rushing from one activity to another. He is also calling us to trust in Him in this unsettled time and in our fear and worry.

"Sometimes God gives you your Lent." What will you take away from Lent this year?

Bl. Eurosia Fabris

I realize that many of the Saints I have featured in "Fun With Saints" this month were clergy or vowed religious, so I want to conclude with a layperson, Bl. Eurosia Fabris.

Eurosia, popularly known as Mama Rosa, was born in 1866 in an agricultural area near Vicenza Italy. She was only able to attend school for two years because she needed to help her parents with farm work and domestic chores. She was still able to learn to read enough to read several religious texts during her youth, including the Bible, the Catechism, and Church history. She joined the Association of the Daughters of Mary in her parish church and developed a special devotion to Mary, the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist. She was active in parish life, teaching catechism to children and sewing to girls who came to her home.

At eighteen, Eurosia had received several offers of marriage, but she declined not feeling herself alled to the vocation of marriage. In 1885, a young mother who lived nearby died tragically leaving three young daughters. One of the girls died shortly after. The other two were 20 months and 2 months old. Their father was away caring for sick relatives, so Eurosia went to the home every day for six months to care for the children and maintain their home. After this act of charity, she contemplated, prayed and consulted relatives and the parish priest before deciding to marry their father. She considered this marriage as an act of sacrifice to follow the will of God and embrace a new mission. She adopted the two girls and had nine more children of her own. She also kept her home open to other children as well, who called her "Mama Rosa."

Mama Rosa lived an intense life of prayer and emulated the strong women of the Bible. She died on January 8, 1932 and was buried at the parish church. Her heroic charity and serenity, fidelity to prayer, and dedication to catechesis surely contributed to the fact that of her nine children, three entered the priesthood and another three entered the religious life.Her feast day is January 8 and she is a patron of catechists and families.

St. Ambrose

"No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks." St. Ambrose

Aurrelius Ambrosius (c340-397), Ambrose in English, is one of the original four doctors of the Church. Legend is that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on Ambrose's face and left behind a drop of honey. His father took this as a sign of future eloquence and a honeyed tongue.

In the late 4th century, there was a deep conflict in Milan between the Nicene Church and the Arians. In 374 when the bishop died, the Arians challenged the succession. Ambrose went to the church where the election was being held to prevent an uproar. His address was interrupted by calls for him to be the new bishop. At first, he refused - he was not baptized and had no formal training in theology. Upon accepting, within a week he was baptized, ordained and consecrated as bishop.

As bishop he adopted an ascetic lifestyle, giving money to the poor and donating all of his land. Bishop Ambrose was instrumental in the conversion of St. Augustine. His feast day is December 7. Among his patronages are bees, beekeepers and candle makers.

St. Philip the Apostle

My Uncle Phil passed away one year ago today, so to day I will feature St. Philip the Apostle in his memory.

According to the New Testament, Philip was one of Jesus' twelve Apostles. He was from Bethsaida in Galilee and is connected in the Gospel with Peter and Andrew who were from the same town. He was the one who introduced Nathanael to Jesus.

Philip the Apostle is often confused with Philip the Evangelist who (in the Acts of the Apostles) was appointed with Stephen to oversee the charitable contributions and was the one who witnessed to the Ethiopian eunuch on the road from Jerusalem. They are clearly not the same person in scripture, but this confusion has resulted in later traditions of Philip's life to be confused.

Church tradition is that Philip was sent with his sister, Mariamne, and Bartholomew to preach in Greece, Phrygia and Syria. He was martyred in the city of Hierapolis about the year 80. For some reason, he is another patron of pastry chefs. His Feast day is celebrated on May 3, in the General Roman Calendar -- the Eastern Orthodox celebrate on November 14 and the Anglicans and Lutherans on May 1.  

St. Honoratus

Tonight, I am baking the pies for Thanksgiving Dinner, so it is appropriate to mention the patron saint of pastry chefs (not that I'm a chef, but I have to have a reason for picking a Saint today 😊).

St. Honoratus was born in Port-le-Grand near Amiens (France) in the sixth century. He was said to be virtuous from births -- which is one of those pious things said in biographies about Saints that annoy me. I prefer Saints who have human struggles. It gives me more hope.

He resisted being elected Bishop of Amiens believing himself unworthy of this honor. According to legend, his former nursemaid also felt that he was unworthy. When it was known in his hometown that he had been proclaimed bishop, she refused to believe that Honoratus had been elevated to such a position. She was baking bread and is said to have remarked that she would believe the news only if the peel she had been using to bake put down roots and turned itself into a tree. When the peel was placed into the ground, it was transformed into a mulberry tree that gave flowers and fruit. The miraculous tree was still being shown in the sixteenth century.

St. Honoratus' devotion is widespread in France. He has given his name to a popular French pastry, the St. Honore Cake. His feast day is May 16 and he is a patron Saint of bakers, confectioners, bakers of altar bread, candle-makers, florists, flour merchants, corn chandlers and oil refiners as well as pastry chefs.