Angela Miceli Stout

These last weeks have revealed, with increasing ardor, a horror in our nation. The undercover videos showing top Planned Parenthood doctors discussing the sale of aborted baby parts for experimentation and profit have utterly made my heart break.  It is so easy to feel despair, hopelessness, numbness, and incredible sadness when we see it, and even more so when we see the response of so many of our friends who defend the practice.  Even the president of the organization, Cecile Richards, defended this practice saying that it is “life-saving research,” and “important and compassionate.” Such a tragedy, ending lives needlessly in a vain attempt to save others.  If such an ethic seems mind-boggling to you, that is because it is.  Such an ethic simply does not work because it is premised upon the killing of others.  Willful destruction of life never bears good fruit.

But this post isn’t about despair in the face of such horror; rather it is a reflection on life, in particular on the life of a woman, a saint, whose feast we celebrate today.  She, like us, faced unprecedented horror, but she ended up its victim. Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, faced a regime that devalued human life in a manner very similar to what we have seen in these videos.  Yet, Edith Stein’s life and death reveals beauty, hope, and a depth of self-sacrificial love in the face of absolute sorrow and horror.  Hers is a response for us to reflect upon and emulate in our own time.

Edith was born in Breslau, Germany on October 12, 1891 to Jewish parents Siegfried and Auguste Stein.  Stein’s unfinished autobiography, Life in a Jewish Family, chronicles her very normal and happy family life from her birth until 1916, which as far as she had written before the Nazis took her off to the death camps. She shows great affection for her family and friends reveals her own spiritual journey to the Church.  Edith began this book in the 1930’s as an antidote to the rising anti-Semitism in her beloved Germany. She dearly loved Germany, loved its history, loved being a Germany citizen, but she was also keenly distressed at its tempestuous political situation during WWI and in the decades the followed. Edith even took a leave of absence from her university studies during WWI to serve as a nurse for wounded soldiers. To the end, she loved her German identity.

Edith’s autobiography reveals a woman who valued relationships.  She loved her 7 older siblings and ministered to many of them in times of suffering.  She deeply cared for her friends and had a gift to understand their characters and see each of them with the utmost charity.  She deeply loved the country that would not let her work as a university professor because she was a Jew and a woman.  She loved those countrymen who, in the end, sent her and so many fellow Jews to her horrific, untimely and cruel death.  She understood with a profound clarity that all human persons depend on each other and are responsible for each other.

Edith was known as an extremely intelligent and gifted child.  She says that although her mother was quite religious and did observe the basic tenants of Judaism, Edith and her siblings were not very religious and often ridiculed their mother’s piety.  As a young teenager, Edith self-consciously decided that she did not believe in God.  It was not until she went on to receive her doctorate in philosophy that Edith would find herself attracted to the Catholic faith.

Edith studied for her doctorate under the famed professor of phenomenology, Edmund Husserl. It was also here that she began to be more open to the Christian faith, as most of her friends were Christians, both Protestant and Catholic. She was a brilliant student, and all her friends and family teased her for her great passion to study with Husserl. She writes that on one New Year’s Eve before she left to study in Goettingen for her doctorate, her sisters and friends wrote a little verse about her: “Many a maiden dreams of ‘busserl’ [kisses in German], Edith, though, of naught but Husserl. In Goettingen she soon will see Husserl as real as real can be.” (Life in a Jewish Family, p. 220).  This anecdote not only shows her passion for the intellectual pursuit of truth, but it reveals her humanness and the fondness of her friends and family.

While she was visiting a friend in 1921, she providentially found a copy of Teresa of Ávila’s autobiography. She read it in one sitting and immediately felt that the saint’s words in the book fulfilled the desires of her heart, and on January 1, 1922, Edith Stein became a Catholic.  Although her family was far from pleased by her decision, Edith remarked that they all respected her because they knew that Edith ardently sought truth with her whole being.  She was keenly aware of the impact of her conversion on those she loved.  Because her mother was so devastated by her conversion to Catholicism, Edith waited 11 years to fulfill the desire of her heart. In 1933, she entered the Carmel in Cologne, Germany.  She made her final vows in 1938, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, which means “Teresa Blessed of the Cross” (or “Blessed by the Cross” in some translations.)

Her name reflects her beloved spiritual sister and fellow Carmelite, Teresa of Ávila, and her fate of sharing in the Cross of Christ in a very tangible, visible way.  Edith, now Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, viewed her own life as a sacrificial offering to God for her people.  In 1939, she offered her life to God for all those she loved: for the Church, for the Carmelite Order, for the Jewish people, for her family, and for “the deliverance of Germany and peace throughout the world.” (Waltraud Herbstrith, Edith Stein: A Biography. Ignatius Press, 1992, p. 162).  Rather than give in to despair, darkness, and hopelessness, Edith offered her own life and sufferings to God for others—even for those who murdered her.  She saw herself as her brothers’ keeper, and asked Our Lord to accept her life for theirs.

By 1938, the threat of the Nazis was so great in Germany that the nuns moved Edith to another Carmelite convent in Echt, Holland. It was here, as we know, that Edith and her sister Rosa were brutally taken in 1942 to their deaths in Auschwitz after the Dutch bishops took a strong stand against the Nazis. But even on the journey to her death, Edith’s great love made a lasting impression on all those who were with her.

A Jewish businessman from Cologne, Julius Markan, who had been put in charge of the prisoners at Westerbork Camp, remembers how she cared for those around her as they faced death.  He wrote:

“Amongst the prisoners who were brought in on the 5th of August, Sister Benedicta stood out on account of her calmness and composure. The distress in the barracks and the stir caused by the new arrivals were indescribable. Sister Benedicta was just like an angel, going around amongst the women, comforting them, helping them and calming them. Many of the mothers were near to distraction; they had not bothered about their children the whole day long, but just sat brooding in dumb despair. Sister Benedicta took care of the little children, washed them and combed them, attending to their feeding and other needs. During the whole of her stay there, she washed and cleaned for people, following one act of charity with another, until everyone wondered at her goodness.”

Another person who met her on the way to her death, Dr. Wielek, recalled a conversation he had with her in Westerbork just before she was transferred to Auschwitz:

“In one conversation she said to me: ‘The world is made up of opposites, but in the end nothing remains of these contrasts. What only remains is great love. How is it possible for it to be otherwise?’”

Indeed in this world, we do experience such opposites: good and evil, joy and suffering, life and death.  “What only remains is great love.”  Edith’s final conviction teaches us how to suffer, how to offer ourselves, and how to embrace a world so seemingly full of violations against the human person.  Edith shows how to live as a balm for these wounds in the world—and how such a life lived for Christ will ultimately heal it.

St. Therese

Patience is the virtue which makes us accept for love of God, generously and peacefully, everything that is displeasing to our nature, without allowing ourselves to be depressed by the sadness which easily comes over us when we meet with disagreeable things.

Patience is a special aspect of the virtue of fortitude which prevents our deviating from the right road when we encounter obstacles. it is an illusion to believe in a life without difficulties. many difficulties are surmounted and overcome by an act of courage; others, on the contrary, cannot be mastered. We must learn to bear with them, and this is the role of patience - an arduous task, because it is easier to face obstacle directly, than to support the inevitable oppositions and sufferings of life, which, in time, tend to discourage and sadden us. By fixing our glance on Jesus, the divinely patient One, we can learn to practice patience most effectively. When we see Him who came into the world to save us, living from the first moment of His earthly existence in want, privation, and poverty, and later in the midst of misunderstanding and persecution; when we see Him become the object of the hatred of His own fellow citizen, calumniated, doomed to death, betrayed by a friend, and tried and condemned as malefactor, our souls are stirred: we realized that we cannot be his disciples unless we follow the same road. If Jesus, the Innocent One par excellence, bore so much for love of us, can we, sinnners who are deserving to suffer, not endure something for love of Him? Whatever the total suffering in our lives, it will always be very small, and even nothing, compared with the infinite sufferings of jesus; for in His Passion Christ not only endured the suffering of one life or several human lives, but that of all mankind.

It is very consoling for me to remember that You, the God of might, knew our weaknesses, that You shuddered at the sight of the bitter cup which earlier You had so ardently desired to drink.

In spite of this trial which robs me of all sense of enjoyment, i can still say: 'You have given me, O Lord, a delight in Your doings.' For is there any greater joy than to suffer for Your love, O my God? the more intense and the more hidden the suffering, the more do You value it. And even if, by an impossibility, You should not be aware of my affliction, I should still be happy to bear it, in the hope that by my tears I might prevent or atone for one sin against faith" (St Therese - "Letters" "The Story of the Soul")

St Therese of Child Jesus "Letters", Story of the Soul

The Passion of Jesus teaches us in a concrete way that in the Christian life we must be able to accept suffering for the love of God. This is a hard and repugnant task for our nature, which naturally prefers comfort and happiness. Suffering in itself is an evil and cannot be agreeable; but Jesus willed to embrace it in all its plenitude for our sake, he offers it to us and invites us to esteem and love it - as the only means to accomplish the sublime good of our redemption and the sanctification of our souls. God willed to exempt our first parents from suffering by preternatural gifts, but through sin, these gifts were lost forever, and suffering inevitably entered our life. the gamut of sufferings which has harassed humanity is therefore direct outcome of the disorder caused by sin, not only by original sin, but also by actual sins. Yet Church chants: O happy fault! Why? The answer lies in infinite love of God which transform everything and draws from the double evil of sin and suffering the great good of the redemption of the human race. When Jesus took upon Himself the sins of mankind, He also assumed their consequences, that is, suffering and death; and this suffering, embraced by Him during his whole life, and especially in His Passion, became the instrument of our redemption. Let St Therese speak on the value of suffering:

"O Lord, You do not like to make us suffer, but You know it is the only way to prepare us to know You as You know Yourself, tp prepare us to become like You. You know well that if You sent me but a shadow of earthly happiness, I should cling cling to it with all the intense ardour of my heart, and so You refuse me even this shadow... because you wish that my heart be wholly Yours.

Life passes quickly that it is obviously better to have a most splendid crown and a little suffering, than an ordinary crown and no suffering. When I think that, for a sorrow borne with joy, i shall be able to love You more for all eternity, I understand clearly that if You gave me the entire universe, with all its treasures, it would be nothing in comparison to the slightest suffering. Each new suffering, each oang of the heart, is a gentle wind to bear to You, o Jesus, the perfume of the soul that loves You; then you smile lovingly, and immediately make ready a new grief, and fill the cup to the brim, thinking the more the soul grows in love, the more it must grow in suffering too.

What a favour, my Jesus, and how You must love me to send me suffering! Eternity itself will not be long enough to bless You for it. Why this predilection? it is a secret which You will reveal to me in our heavenly home on the day when You will wipe away all our tears.

I am happy not to be free from suffering here; suffering united with love is the only thing that seems desirable to me in this vale of tears (St Therese of Child Jesus "Letters", Story of the Soul)

Thérèse of the Child Jesus

From Céline's (Sr. Geneviève's) testimony at the diocesan inquiry into the life of St. Thérèse, given as a part of the process for the cause of canonization.

Source: St. Thérése of Lisieux by Those Who Knew Her. Edited by Christopher O'Mahony. Dublin: Pranstown House, rep. 1989, pp. 128-129.

"On 9 June of the same year 1895, the feast of the Blessed Trinity, she received a very special grace during Mass, and felt within herself an urge to offer herself as a holocaust victim to Merciful Love. After Mass she took me with her to mother prioress; she seemed beside herself and did not say a word. When we found Mother Agnes, for it was she who was then prioress, she asked her if both of us could offer ourselves as victims to Merciful Love, and gave her a short explanation of what that meant. Mother Agnes was at a loss; she did not seem to understand too well what was going on, but she had such confidence in Sister Thérèse's discretion that she gave her full permission. It was then that she composed the act called 'An Offering to Love', which she carried next to her heart ever afterwards."

St. Thérèse's "Act of Oblation to Merciful Love"

Source: Story of A Soul, translated by Fr. John Clarke, O.C.D. Copyright (c) 1976 by Washington Province of Discalced Carmelites, ICS Publications, 2131 Lincoln Road, N.E., Washington, DC 20002 U.S.A., pp. 276-278.

ACT OF OBLATION TO MERCIFUL LOVE

J.M.J.T.

Offering of myself

as a Victim of Holocaust

to God's Merciful Love

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire to Love You and make you Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish Your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory You have prepared for me in Your Kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg You, O my God! to be Yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me Your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of His merits are mine. I offer them to You with gladness, begging You to look upon me only in the Face of Jesus and in His heart burning with Love.

I offer You, too, all the merits of the saints (in heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the holy angels. Finally, I offer You, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my Dear Mother. It is to her I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to You. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the says of His mortal life: "Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you!" I am certain, then, that You will grant my desires; I know, O my God! that the more You want to give, the more You make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask You to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot receive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are You not all-powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate Yourself from Your little victim.

I want to console You for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of you to take away my freedom to displease You. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may Your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank You, O my God! for all the graces You have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall contemplate You on the Last Day carrying the sceptre of Your Cross. Since You deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in heaven to resemble You and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion.

After earth's Exile, I hope to go and enjoy You in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for heaven. I want to work for Your Love Alone with the one purpose of pleasing You, consoling Your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love You eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before You with empty hands, for I do not ask You, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in Your eyes. I wish, then, to be clothed in Your own Justice and to receive from Your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!

Time is nothing in Your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years. You can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before You.

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I OFFER MYSELF AS A VICTIM OF HOLOCAUST TO YOUR MERCIFUL LOVE, Asking You to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within You to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become a martyr of Your Love, O my God!

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to appear before You, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful Love.

I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to renew this offering to You an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell You of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!

Marie, Françoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus

and the Holy Face, unworthy Carmelite religious.

This 9th day of June,

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity,

In the year of grace, 1895

Vatican Radio (Linda Bordoni)

Pope Francis is asking us to live this Lenten period as a favourable time for conversion during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy.

In his message for Lent entitled “I desire mercy and not sacrifice. The works of mercy on the road of the Jubilee” the Pope reiterates the importance of the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and condemns the attitude and actions of  the proud, the powerful and the wealthy who refuse to open the doors of their hearts to God and to the poor.

Listen to the report by Linda Bordoni: 

By reflecting upon and putting into practice the corporal and spiritual works of mercy – Pope Francis says - Christians will be able to reawaken their consciences which too often have grown dull in the face of poverty.

In his Message for a special Lenten period which takes place this year within the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the Pope says that it is a season to be lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience the transforming miracle of divine Mercy.

Pointing out that poor have a special place at the heart of the Gospel, he warns of  the “blindness” and of the  “illusion of omnipotence” which often afflicts the rich and powerful who close their hearts to the poor and end up themselves – he says - being the poorest of the poor.

This illusion of omnipotence, the Pope continues – can “likewise take social and political forms as shown by the totalitarian systems of the twentieth century, and in our day by the ideologies of monopolizing thought and techno-science which would make God irrelevant and reduce man to raw material to be exploited”.

The powerful message - presented on Tuesday morning in the Vatican Press Office – calls on believers to practice the works of mercy and to listen to God’s Word.

“Let us not waste this season of Lent – Pope Francis says – so favourable a time for conversion!”.

Please find below the full text of Pope Francis’ message for Lent:

 “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice” (Mt 9:13).

The works of mercy on the road of the Jubilee

1. Mary, the image of a Church which evangelizes because she is evangelized

In the Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, I asked that “the season of Lent in this Jubilee Year be lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus, 17).  By calling for an attentive listening to the word of God and encouraging the initiative “24 Hours for the Lord”, I sought to stress the primacy of prayerful listening to God’s word, especially his prophetic word.  The mercy of God is a proclamation made to the world, a proclamation which each Christian is called to experience at first hand.  For this reason, during the season of Lent I will send out Missionaries of Mercy as a concrete sign to everyone of God’s closeness and forgiveness. 

After receiving the Good News told to her by the Archangel Gabriel, Mary, in her Magnificat, prophetically sings of the mercy whereby God chose her.  The Virgin of Nazareth, betrothed to Joseph, thus becomes the perfect icon of the Church which evangelizes, for she was, and continues to be, evangelized by the Holy Spirit, who made her virginal womb fruitful.  In the prophetic tradition, mercy is strictly related – even on the etymological level – to the maternal womb (rahamim) and to a generous, faithful and compassionate goodness (hesed) shown within marriage and family relationships. 

2. God’s covenant with humanity: a history of mercy

The mystery of divine mercy is revealed in the history of the covenant between God and his people Israel.  God shows himself ever rich in mercy, ever ready to treat his people with deep tenderness and compassion, especially at those tragic moments when infidelity ruptures the bond of the covenant, which then needs to be ratified more firmly in justice and truth.  Here is a true love story, in which God plays the role of the betrayed father and husband, while Israel plays the unfaithful child and bride.  These domestic images – as in the case of Hosea (cf. Hos 1-2) – show to what extent God wishes to bind himself to his people.

This love story culminates in the incarnation of God’s Son.  In Christ, the Father pours forth his boundless mercy even to making him “mercy incarnate” (Misericordiae Vultus, 8).  As a man, Jesus of Nazareth is a true son of Israel; he embodies that perfect hearing required of every Jew by the Shema, which today too is the heart of God’s covenant with Israel: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Dt 6:4-5).  As the Son of God, he is the Bridegroom who does everything to win over the love of his bride, to whom he is bound by an unconditional love which becomes visible in the eternal wedding feast. 

This is the very heart of the apostolic kerygma, in which divine mercy holds a central and fundamental place.  It is “the beauty of the saving love of God made manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose from the dead” (Evangelii Gaudium, 36), that first proclamation which “we must hear again and again in different ways, the one which we must announce one way or another throughout the process of catechesis, at every level and moment” (ibid., 164).  Mercy “expresses God’s way of reaching out to the sinner, offering him a new chance to look at himself, convert, and believe” (Misericordiae Vultus, 21), thus restoring his relationship with him.  In Jesus crucified, God shows his desire to draw near to sinners, however far they may have strayed from him.   In this way he hopes to soften the hardened heart of his Bride. 

3. The works of mercy 

God’s mercy transforms human hearts; it enables us, through the experience of a faithful love, to become merciful in turn.  In an ever new miracle, divine mercy shines forth in our lives, inspiring each of us to love our neighbour and to devote ourselves to what the Church’s tradition calls the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.  These works remind us that faith finds expression in concrete everyday actions meant to help our neighbours in body and spirit: by feeding, visiting, comforting and instructing them.  On such things will we be judged.  For this reason, I expressed my hope that “the Christian people may reflect on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy; this will be a way to reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty, and to enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy” (ibid., 15).  For in the poor, the flesh of Christ “becomes visible in the flesh of the tortured, the crushed, the scourged, the malnourished, and the exiled… to be acknowledged, touched, and cared for by us” (ibid.).  It is the unprecedented and scandalous mystery of the extension in time of the suffering of the Innocent Lamb, the burning bush of gratuitous love.  Before this love, we can, like Moses, take off our sandals (cf. Ex 3:5), especially when the poor are our brothers or sisters in Christ who are suffering for their faith. 

In the light of this love, which is strong as death (cf. Song 8:6), the real poor are revealed as those who refuse to see themselves as such.  They consider themselves rich, but they are actually the poorest of the poor.  This is because they are slaves to sin, which leads them to use wealth and power not for the service of God and others, but to stifle within their hearts the profound sense that they too are only poor beggars.  The greater their power and wealth, the more this blindness and deception can grow.  It can even reach the point of being blind to Lazarus begging at their doorstep (cf. Lk 16:20-21).  Lazarus, the poor man, is a figure of Christ, who through the poor pleads for our conversion.  As such, he represents the possibility of conversion which God offers us and which we may well fail to see.  Such blindness is often accompanied by the proud illusion of our own omnipotence, which reflects in a sinister way the diabolical “you will be like God” (Gen 3:5) which is the root of all sin.  This illusion can likewise take social and political forms, as shown by the totalitarian systems of the twentieth century, and, in our own day, by the ideologies of monopolizing thought and technoscience, which would make God irrelevant and reduce man to raw material to be exploited.  This illusion can also be seen in the sinful structures linked to a model of false development based on the idolatry of money, which leads to lack of concern for the fate of the poor on the part of wealthier individuals and societies; they close their doors, refusing even to see the poor. 

For all of us, then, the season of Lent in this Jubilee Year is a favourable time to overcome our existential alienation by listening to God’s word and by practising the works of mercy.  In the corporal works of mercy we touch the flesh of Christ in our brothers and sisters who need to be fed, clothed, sheltered, visited; in the spiritual works of mercy – counsel, instruction, forgiveness, admonishment and prayer – we touch more directly our own sinfulness.  The corporal and spiritual works of mercy must never be separated.  By touching the flesh of the crucified Jesus in the suffering, sinners can receive the gift of realizing that they too are poor and in need.  By taking this path, the “proud”, the “powerful” and the “wealthy” spoken of in the Magnificat can also be embraced and undeservedly loved by the crucified Lord who died and rose for them.  This love alone is the answer to that yearning for infinite happiness and love that we think we can satisfy with the idols of knowledge, power and riches.  Yet the danger always remains that by a constant refusal to open the doors of their hearts to Christ who knocks on them in the poor, the proud, rich and powerful will end up condemning themselves and plunging into the eternal abyss of solitude which is Hell.  The pointed words of Abraham apply to them and to all of us: “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them” (Lk 16:29).  Such attentive listening will best prepare us to celebrate the final victory over sin and death of the Bridegroom, now risen, who desires to purify his Betrothed in expectation of his coming. 

Let us not waste this season of Lent, so favourable a time for conversion!  We ask this through the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, who, encountering the greatness of God’s mercy freely bestowed upon her, was the first to acknowledge her lowliness (cf. Lk 1:48) and to call herself the Lord’s humble servant (cf. Lk 1:38).

(Linda Bordoni)

Pope Francis

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in God’s heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure… Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.

When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually raises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this Message is precisely the globalization of indifference.

Indifference to our neighbour and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.

God is not indifferent to our world; he so loves it that he gave his Son for our salvation. In the Incarnation, in the earthly life, death, and resurrection of the Son of God, the gate between God and man, between heaven and earth, opens once for all. The Church is like the hand holding open this gate, thanks to her proclamation of God’s word, her celebration of the sacraments and her witness of the faith which works through love (cf. Gal 5:6). But the world tends to withdraw into itself and shut that door through which God comes into the world and the world comes to him. Hence the hand, which is the Church, must never be surprised if it is rejected, crushed and wounded.

God’s people, then, need this interior renewal, lest we become indifferent and withdraw into ourselves. To further this renewal, I would like to propose for our reflection three biblical texts.

1. “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Cor 12:26) – The Church

The love of God breaks through that fatal withdrawal into ourselves which is indifference. The Church offers us this love of God by her teaching and especially by her witness. But we can only bear witness to what we ourselves have experienced. Christians are those who let God clothe them with goodness and mercy, with Christ, so as to become, like Christ, servants of God and others. This is clearly seen in the liturgy of Holy Thursday, with its rite of the washing of feet. Peter did not want Jesus to wash his feet, but he came to realize that Jesus does not wish to be just an example of how we should wash one another’s feet. Only those who have first allowed Jesus to wash their own feet can then offer this service to others. Only they have “a part” with him (Jn 13:8) and thus can serve others.

Lent is a favourable time for letting Christ serve us so that we in turn may become more like him. This happens whenever we hear the word of God and receive the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. There we become what we receive: the Body of Christ. In this body there is no room for the indifference which so often seems to possess our hearts. For whoever is of Christ, belongs to one body, and in him we cannot be indifferent to one another. “If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honoured, all the parts share its joy” (1 Cor 12:26).

The Church is the communio sanctorum not only because of her saints, but also because she is a communion in holy things: the love of God revealed to us in Christ and all his gifts. Among these gifts there is also the response of those who let themselves be touched by this love. In this communion of saints, in this sharing in holy things, no one possesses anything alone, but shares everything with others. And since we are united in God, we can do something for those who are far distant, those whom we could never reach on our own, because with them and for them, we ask God that all of us may be open to his plan of salvation.

2. “Where is your brother?” (Gen 4:9) – Parishes and Communities

All that we have been saying about the universal Church must now be applied to the life of our parishes and communities. Do these ecclesial structures enable us to experience being part of one body? A body which receives and shares what God wishes to give? A body which acknowledges and cares for its weakest, poorest and most insignificant members? Or do we take refuge in a universal love that would embrace the whole world, while failing to see the Lazarus sitting before our closed doors (Lk 16:19-31)?

In order to receive what God gives us and to make it bear abundant fruit, we need to press beyond the boundaries of the visible Church in two ways.

In the first place, by uniting ourselves in prayer with the Church in heaven. The prayers of the Church on earth establish a communion of mutual service and goodness which reaches up into the sight of God. Together with the saints who have found their fulfilment in God, we form part of that communion in which indifference is conquered by love. The Church in heaven is not triumphant because she has turned her back on the sufferings of the world and rejoices in splendid isolation. Rather, the saints already joyfully contemplate the fact that, through Jesus’ death and resurrection, they have triumphed once and for all over indifference, hardness of heart and hatred. Until this victory of love penetrates the whole world, the saints continue to accompany us on our pilgrim way. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a Doctor of the Church, expressed her conviction that the joy in heaven for the victory of crucified love remains incomplete as long as there is still a single man or woman on earth who suffers and cries out in pain: “I trust fully that I shall not remain idle in heaven; my desire is to continue to work for the Church and for souls” (Letter 254, July 14, 1897).

We share in the merits and joy of the saints, even as they share in our struggles and our longing for peace and reconciliation. Their joy in the victory of the Risen Christ gives us strength as we strive to overcome our indifference and hardness of heart.

In the second place, every Christian community is called to go out of itself and to be engaged in the life of the greater society of which it is a part, especially with the poor and those who are far away. The Church is missionary by her very nature; she is not self-enclosed but sent out to every nation and people.

Her mission is to bear patient witness to the One who desires to draw all creation and every man and woman to the Father. Her mission is to bring to all a love which cannot remain silent. The Church follows Jesus Christ along the paths that lead to every man and woman, to the very ends of the earth (cf. Acts 1:8). In each of our neighbours, then, we must see a brother or sister for whom Christ died and rose again. What we ourselves have received, we have received for them as well. Similarly, all that our brothers and sisters possess is a gift for the Church and for all humanity.

Dear brothers and sisters, how greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!

3. “Make your hearts firm!” (James 5:8) – Individual Christians

As individuals too, we have are tempted by indifference. Flooded with news reports and troubling images of human suffering, we often feel our complete inability to help. What can we do to avoid being caught up in this spiral of distress and powerlessness?

First, we can pray in communion with the Church on earth and in heaven. Let us not underestimate the power of so many voices united in prayer! The 24 Hours for the Lord initiative, which I hope will be observed on 13-14 March throughout the Church, also at the diocesan level, is meant to be a sign of this need for prayer.

Second, we can help by acts of charity, reaching out to both those near and far through the Church’s many charitable organizations. Lent is a favourable time for showing this concern for others by small yet concrete signs of our belonging to the one human family.

Third, the suffering of others is a call to conversion, since their need reminds me of the uncertainty of my own life and my dependence on God and my brothers and sisters. If we humbly implore God’s grace and accept our own limitations, we will trust in the infinite possibilities which God’s love holds out to us. We will also be able to resist the diabolical temptation of thinking that by our own efforts we can save the world and ourselves.

As a way of overcoming indifference and our pretensions to self-sufficiency, I would invite everyone to live this Lent as an opportunity for engaging in what Benedict XVI called a formation of the heart (cf. Deus Caritas Est, 31). A merciful heart does not mean a weak heart. Anyone who wishes to be merciful must have a strong and steadfast heart, closed to the tempter but open to God. A heart which lets itself be pierced by the Spirit so as to bring love along the roads that lead to our brothers and sisters. And, ultimately, a poor heart, one which realizes its own poverty and gives itself freely for others.

During this Lent, then, brothers and sisters, let us all ask the Lord: “Fac cor nostrum secundum cor tuum”: Make our hearts like yours (Litany of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). In this way we will receive a heart which is firm and merciful, attentive and generous, a heart which is not closed, indifferent or prey to the globalization of indifference.

It is my prayerful hope that this Lent will prove spiritually fruitful for each believer and every ecclesial community. I ask all of you to pray for me. May the Lord bless you and Our Lady keep you.

National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Declared Place of Pilgrimage during the Year of Mercy

Pope Francis has announced an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy to be celebrated from December 8th, 2015—the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the 50th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II— to the Solemnity of Christ the King on November 20, 2016.

During this special period of time in the Church, Pope Francis calls all Catholics to be witnesses to God’s mercy.  Pope Francis has called on Catholics around the world to use the ongoing Jubilee year of mercy to “open wide” the doors of their hearts to forgive others and to work against social exclusion, even of those that may have caused them bother or upset.

Pope Francis said that walking through any of the holy doors open in dioceses around the world for the Jubilee year should be a sign of “true conversion of our heart.”  He said: “When we go through that door, it is good to remember that we must also open wide the doors of our heart. 

During this yearlong year of Mercy Pope Francis challenges all to put mercy before judgment.

Pope Francis said: "How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we affirm that sins are punished by his judgment before putting first that they are forgiven by his mercy. 

While most Jubilees have been focused on calling pilgrims to Rome to receive an indulgence, Francis has widely expanded his Jubilee, asking that dioceses throughout the world open their own holy door at a cathedral or other church to expand the practice globally.

A holy door is a door normally designated in special churches -- like the four papal basilicas in Rome -- to be opened only during Jubilee years as a sign of the possibility of re-entering into God’s grace.

    In the Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan announced that the National Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Middletown, NY is a one of five holy sites and places of pilgrimage where a Holy Door, a Door of Mercy, is opened to pilgrims who would like to receive a Jubilee Indulgence. 

Parish groups and individuals are invited to come and enter the Door of Mercy at the National Shrine. 

If you are interested in planning a day of pilgrimage to the Shrine please call 845-343-1879845-343-1879 or email Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..

OLMC National Shrine
70 Carmelite Dr.
PO Box 2163
Middletown, NY 10940
http://www.ourladyofmtcarmelshrine.com

by Fr. David Hofman, O.Carm.

The Church begins a Jubilee Year of Mercy.

Pope Francis’ idea is that the whole Church will spend the year practising mercy at every level – from priests celebrating the sacrament of Reconciliation to people feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.

Christians are called to be the living presence of God in the world - people who uncover the face of God and the heart of God in the words and actions of their everyday life.

That's how Jesus is born, not only in one moment of history, but in every moment of history.

To live a merciful life is to see, love and act as Jesus himself does.

The practise of virtue is an integral part of the process of Christian transformation – of changing our minds and hearts, of allowing God’s grace to re-fashion us in the image of his Son.

That’s what contemplation is all about life – allowing the heart of God to grow within our own, our values and attitudes to be changed and transformed so that we come to see with God’s eyes, feel with God’s heart and act with God’s intentions toward the world and its peoples.

For us Carmelites, our contemplative experiences of God’s love enable us to see others as our brothers and sisters.

Our charism of ‘community’ is much more than just being part of a group. It’s about ‘fraternity’, becoming a brother or sister to others and acting towards them as a true brother or sister would – welcoming them into my life, standing with them in times of trouble and distress, looking after their needs, encouraging and affirming them, celebrating achievements. It’s about easing the burdens and lightening the load for each other. It’s about creating moments of grace in each other’s’ lives.

To act with mercy is to act with compassion, with the same depth of the feelings of love and concern a mother has for her child.

It is not an abstract, intellectual thing, but a real choice to live and act with deep respect and profound compassion towards others in the concrete circumstances of our daily lives.

It is not an exercise of the mind but a movement of the heart.

Concrete actions bring goodness into the lives of others. That’s the ‘action’ in the Carmelite Charism - a ‘ministry of mercy’, of respectful, compassionate behaviour towards other human beings.

So we do our best to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, do what we can for those in any kind of need. We refrain from the ‘terrorism of gossip’ (as Pope Francis put it), from the need to tear people down. We don’t make fun of people or put them down. We don’t use positions of power to ‘lord it over’ each other or control other peoples’ lives. We do everything we can to be a source of blessing for them – to be people who heal, build up, nourish, strengthen and love.

The Carmelite Way influences everything in our lives, from how we pray to how we drive our cars.

It takes practice and patience to become a merciful person. It begins with the realisation of how much God actually loves us in spite of how we often behave.

This Year of Mercy gives us new energy in our striving to allow the heart of God to be our own and to reveal that heart in the simple goodness of our lives.

Father Michael Manning, O.Carm.

Since the year 1300 when Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year, the Catholic Church has regularly celebrated “Holy Years,” usually every twenty-five years, except for special circumstances.

A major aspect of the Holy Year has been that of pilgrimage either to Rome or to a number of doors which have been opened in diocese around the world to make a symbolic entry through the Holy Door; to make reparation for sin and to renew the conversion of one’s life.

Christ identified Himself as the door, saying.  “Truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.    I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture” (John 10:7, 9).  Using this symbolic image Jesus tells us that the only way to the father is through him, the only begotten Son, the saviour.   Another aspect is the phrase ‘they…will come in and go out and find pasture’.  In other words this going through the gate is not a one-way journey.  We enter, are strengthened with grace and then go out to bring this grace to others through our actions.  There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into this life of communion with God:  This is Jesus, the one and absolute way to salvation.

Passing through the Holy Door is to open oneself to the transforming grace of God and to confess your faith in Jesus Christ as Son of God, Lord and saviour who suffered, died and rose for our salvation.

Therefore to pass through the door from the outside of St. Peter’s into the basilica is to pass from this world into the presence of God, just as in the old Temple of Jerusalem, the High Priest on the Feast of Yom Kippur passed through the veil covering the doorway of the Holy of Holies to enter into the presence of God to offer the sacrifice of atonement.   Moreover, to pass through the door is to confess with firm conviction that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the Lord, and the Saviour who suffered, died, and rose for our salvation.

Pope Francis announcing the opening of the Holy Doors  says “To experience and obtain the Indulgence, the faithful are called to make a brief pilgrimage to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral or in the churches designated by the Diocesan Bishop, and in the four Papal Basilicas in Rome, as a sign of the deep desire for true conversion. Likewise, I dispose that the Indulgence may be obtained in the Shrines in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the churches which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches. It is important that this moment be linked, first and foremost, to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist with a reflection on mercy. It will be necessary to accompany these celebrations with the profession of faith and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear in my heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world”.  So we can see that the thoughts of Holy Father in his pastoral role as Bishop of Rome go “to all the faithful who, whether in individual Dioceses or as pilgrims to Rome, will experience the grace of the Jubilee. I wish that the Jubilee Indulgence may reach each one as a genuine experience of God’s mercy, which comes to meet each person in the Face of the Father who welcomes and forgives, forgetting completely the sin committed”.

Photo: Fr Kevin Melody, O.Carm, represented the Prior Provincial of the British Province and opened our Door of Mercy at the National Shrine of Saint Jude on 13 December 2015. Photos below.

Paul VI Hall Thursday 21 January 2016

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

I cordially welcome all of you, people who work in pilgrimages and shrines. Going on pilgrimage to shrines is one of the most eloquent expressions of the faith of the people of God. It manifests the piety of generations of people who, with simplicity, have believed and entrusted themselves to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and the saints. This popular religiosity is a genuine form of evangelisation, which needs to be increasingly promoted and valued, without minimising its importance. It’s interesting: Blessed Paul VI, in Evangellii nuntiandi, speaks of popular religiosity, but says it is better to call it “popular piety”; and then, the Latin American Bishops in their Aparecida Document go a step further and speak of “popular spirituality”. All three concepts are valid, but together. At shrines, in fact, our people live their profound spirituality, that piety which for centuries has shaped the faith with devotions that are simple but very meaningful. We think to how intensified, in some of these places, is prayer to Christ crucified, or that of the Rosary, or the Way of the Cross …

It would be a mistake to assume that those who go on pilgrimage live a spirituality that is not personal but rather “en masse”. In fact, the pilgrim carries with them their own story, their own faith, the lights and shadows of their lives. Each carries in their heart a special desire and a particular prayer. Whoever enters the shrine immediately feels at home, welcomed, understood and supported. I really like the biblical figure of Anna, the mother of the prophet Samuel. In the temple of Shiloh, her heart full of sadness, she prayed to the Lord to have a child. Eli the priest instead thought she was drunk and wanted to throw her out (cf. 1 Samuel 1:12-14). Anna represents well so many people we can meet in our shrines. Eyes fixed on the Crucifix or the image of the Virgin Mary, a prayer said with tears in his eyes, full of confidence. The sanctuary is really a privileged space to meet the Lord and touch his mercy with your hands. To go to confession in a shrine is to have the experience of touching the mercy of God with your hand.

This is the key word that I wish to underline together with you today: welcome. Welcome pilgrims. It could be said that everything depends on welcome. A welcome that is loving, festive, heartfelt, and patient. It also takes patience! The Gospels present Jesus as always welcoming towards those who approach him, especially the sick, the sinners, the marginalized. And remember that expression: “He who receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me” (Matthew 10:40). Jesus spoke about welcome, but mostly he practiced it. When we are told that sinners – such as Matthew and Zacchaeus – welcomed Jesus into their homes and at their tables, it is first of all because they had felt welcomed by Jesus, and that had changed their lives. It’s interesting that the Book of the Acts of the Apostles ends with the scene of Saint Paul who, here in Rome, “welcomed all who came to him” (Acts 28:30). His home, where he lived as a prisoner, was the place where he announced the Gospel. Welcome is truly the determining factor for evangelisation. Sometimes, just a word or a smile is enough to make a person feel a heartfelt welcome.

The pilgrim who comes to the shrine is often tired, hungry, thirsty … And many times this physical condition also reflects the interior. Therefore, this person needs to be well received in both material and spiritual terms. It is important that the pilgrim who crosses the threshold of the sanctuary feels treated more like a member of the family than as a guest. He or she should feel at home, awaited, loved, and looked at with eyes of mercy. Anyone, young or old, rich or poor, sick or troubled, and curious tourists, can find the welcome due to them, because in each one there is a heart that seeks God, sometimes without being fully aware of it. We ensure that every pilgrim has the joy of finally feeling understood and loved. In this way, when they return home they will feel nostalgia for what they have experienced and a desire to come back, but also wanting to continue the journey of faith in their ordinary life.

A very special form of welcome is that given by the ministers of God’s forgiveness. The shrine is the home of forgiveness, where everyone encounters the tenderness of the Father who has mercy on everyone, without exception. Those who approach the confessional do so because they are repentant, repenting their sins. He or she feels the need to approach there. He/she clearly perceives that God does not condemn, but welcomes him/her and hugs him/her, like the father of the prodigal son, who restores his filial dignity (cf. Luke 15:20-24). Priests who carry out a ministry in sanctuaries must have hearts impregnated by mercy; their attitude must be that of a father.

Dear brothers and sisters, we live this Jubilee with faith and joy: let us live as one big pilgrimage. You, especially, live your service as a work of corporal and spiritual mercy. I assure you of my prayers for this, through the intercession of Mary our Mother. And please, with your prayers, accompany me in my pilgrimage. Thank you.