BE NOT AFRAID! - Jesus and Pope Saint John Paul II We are finishing up a double novena, and I can't think of anything more inclined to renew our hope than the news that this past Sunday - World Mission Sunday - our Papa Francis canonized 14 new Saints for us! I am sure at least one of them, if not all 14, had no suspicion early on that this big day was coming. That means that we, in the midst of our littleness and weakness, could be the next candidates! Or better yet, those intentions we keep praying for and those dreams we keep hoping for - they could be the next lucky winner in the not-yet-canonized-holy-ones' affectionate shower of roses begun by St. Aloysius, continued by St. Therese, and joined in these days by myriad would-be-saints in Heaven. I guess the best way to say it in modern parlance is that showering roses is trending! Let's pray, then, for little Ava and all our other dear ones, that God our loving Father will indulge those eager saints and grant them - Tolton and Marcel to name just two - the petitions they are offering, the miracles they are begging for us today. Short prayer: Father Tolton, we ask you with Therese's confidence: obtain for us Ava's complete healing! Longer prayer: Father in Heaven, Father Tolton’s suffering service sheds light upon our sorrows; we see them through the prism of your Son’s passion and death. If it be your Will, O God, glorify your servant, Father Tolton, by granting the favor I now request through his intercession (Ava’s healing) so that all may know the goodness of this priest whose memory looms large in the Church he loved. Complete what you have begun in us that we might work for the fulfillment of your kingdom. Not to us the glory, but glory to you O God, through Jesus Christ, your Son and our Lord; Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are our God, living and reigning forever and ever. Amen And for all out other intentions: St. John Paul II, give us your love of the Rosary and our Blessed Mother, and through her intercession, please grant all the petitions in our hearts and minds, and even those we have forgotten or don't yet know, especially those which occupy the most adorable Hearts of Jesus and Mary. Blessed Mother of those whose names you can read in my heart, watch over them with every care. Make their way easy and their labors fruitful. Dry their tears if they weep; sanctify their joys; raise their courage if they weaken; restore their hope if they lose heart, their health if they be ill, truth if they err, and repentance if they fall. Amen. And now, who are these new saints?! We are thrilled to announce that among them are our compatriots, 3 Maronite brothers who were laymen, and a Canadian foundress! Not only that, but the canonization of one of them hinged on his obtaining the miraculous healing of a man mauled by a jaguar! Let's renew our hope big time because no matter what we're facing and praying for, I think it might be less than a jaguar-mauling! But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's get to know these new saints in some kind of reasonable order with the help of EWTN (and you can read the whole article by clicking on EWTN!) - The 11 Martyrs of Damascus: Pope Francis canonized the Martyrs of Damascus, a group of 11 men killed in 1860 for refusing to renounce their Christian faith and convert to Islam. The martyrs, including eight Franciscan friars and three laymen, were attacked in a church in the Christian quarter of Damascus during a wave of religious violence. The canonized Franciscan friars include six priests and two professed religious — all missionaries from Spain except for Father Engelbert Kolland, who was from Salzburg, Austria. Franciscan Father Manuel Ruiz, Father Carmelo Bolta, Father Nicanor Ascanio, Father Nicolás M. Alberca y Torres, Father Pedro Soler, Kolland, Brother Francisco Pinazo Peñalver, and Brother Juan S. Fernández were all declared saints. The three laymen were brothers — Francis, Abdel Mooti, and Raphael Massabki — known for their deep piety and devotion to the Christian faith. Francis Massabki, the oldest of the brothers, was a father of eight children. Mooti was a father of five who visited the Church of St. Paul daily for prayer and to teach catechism lessons. The youngest brother, Raphael, was single and was known to spend long periods of time praying in the church and helping the friars. According to witnesses, the brothers were offered the chance to live if they renounced their faith, but they refused. “We are Christians, and we want to live and die as Christians,” Francis Massabki reportedly said. All 11 were brutally killed that night, some beheaded, others stabbed to death. “They remained faithful servants,” Pope Francis said. “[They] served in martyrdom and in joy.” St. Marie-Leonie Paradis St. Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912), a Canadian religious sister, founded the Little Sisters of the Holy Family, an order whose spirituality and charism is the support of priests through both prayer and by taking care of the cooking, cleaning, and laundry in rectories in “humble and joyful service” in imitation of “Christ the Servant.” Born in the Acadian region of Quebec, Paradis also spent eight years in New York serving in the St. Vincent de Paul Orphanage in the 1860s and taught French at St. Mary’s Academy in Indiana, before founding her religious order in New Brunswick, Canada. Paradis’ canonization was thanks to the miraculous healing of a newborn in Canada, thanks to her loving intercession. St. Elena Guerra: An “apostle of the Holy Spirit” and mentor of St. Gemma! St. Elena Guerra (1835–1914) was known for her ardent devotion to the Holy Spirit. Elena who founded the Oblates of the Holy Spirit, was instrumental in promoting the novena to the Holy Spirit under Pope Leo XIII in 1895. Her writings and spiritual leadership inspired many, including St. Gemma Galgani, a mystic and saint who was her student. For much of her 20s, Guerra was bedridden with a serious illness, a challenge that turned out to be transformational for her as she dedicated herself to meditating on Scripture and the writings of the Church Fathers. She felt the call to consecrate herself to God during a pilgrimage to Rome with her father after her recovery and went on to form the religious community dedicated to education. During her correspondence with Pope Leo XIII, Guerra composed prayers to the Holy Spirit, including a Holy Spirit Chaplet, asking the Lord to “send forth your spirit and renew the world. “Pentecost is not over,” Guerra wrote. “In fact, it is continually going on in every time and in every place, because the Holy Spirit desired to give Himself to all men and all who want Him can always receive Him, so we do not have to envy the apostles and the first believers; we only have to dispose ourselves like them to receive Him well, and He will come to us as He did to them.” [Marcel and I want to add that the joy of the Holy Spirit we find in the Little Way where even if we dispose ourselves poorly, He will still come to us because He has mercy on our poverty!] St. Giuseppe Allamano: spiritual son of St. John Bosco! One of the most celebrated figures among the new saints is St. Giuseppe Allamano (1851–1926), an Italian diocesan priest who founded the Consolata Missionaries and the Consolata Missionary Sisters. Allamano, though he spent his entire life in Italy, left a global legacy by training missionaries who carried the Gospel to remote corners of Africa, Asia, and South America. Allamano told the missionaries in the order he founded in northern Italy in 1901 that they needed to be “first saints, then missionaries.” The medical miracle that led to Allamano’s canonization involved the healing of a man who was attacked by a jaguar in the Amazon rainforest. In 1996, a man named Sorino Yanomami, a member of the indigenous Yanomami tribe in the Amazon, was mauled by a jaguar and left with life-threatening injuries. As doctors treated his skull fractures, Consolata missionaries prayed in the hospital with a relic of Allamano, seeking his intercession. Miraculously, Yanomami recovered without any long-term damage, according to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints. Allamano, whose spiritual director was St. John Bosco, emphasized the importance of holiness in priestly life, telling his priests, “You must not only be holy, but extraordinarily holy.” His influence has endured through the orders he founded, present today in 30 countries across the globe. * * * I have tears in my eyes as I think of these 14 new saints and the joy our knowing them is bringing to our dear Holy Father JPII who gave us so many saints and beata. I'm picturing these new guys and gals, in the company of their brother dear John Paul, having an earnest conversation with Fr. Tolton, explaining that he needs to help Ava now. Their hands are tied in her respect as we have been following the time-honored custom (made hilarious by our efficient American ways!) of invoking one particular holy one in order to advance his cause by getting his hands on this specific miracle for us. Hooray for the saints! Hooray for the miracles they procure! But hooray most of all for the Holy Spirit Who fills our hearts with His gifts of joy, peace, and love as we take our own humble places at the crowded table of the saints. Perhaps at today's feast we we'll be served, as little Therese so often was, the less appetizing dishes. Or like Marcel, maybe we'll find that Jesus has played a trick on us and mixed bitter sweets among the other chocolates. Well no worries there - isn't 70% cocoa still the sought after mix? We can find laughter in little Jesus' pranks by loving what He gives us, although I must admit that works best when we're all praying for each other. Thank you again for joining us in our novenas or in your private prayers. We are finding what is supposed to be our cancer cross to be quite the stylish styrofoam cross with wheels once described by Fr. Groeschel of happy memory! Praise God, and may He be blessed in His angels and in His saints, especially these latest. We thank Him too for that saint-maker whose feast we celebrate today on the day God installed him as our Holy Father, and here are a few words to remind us why he is John Paul the Great. The quote “Be not afraid” is from Pope St. John Paul II's inaugural Mass on October 22, 1978. The full quote is: “Do not be afraid. Do not be satisfied with mediocrity. Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch…. I plead with you--never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid!” Draw me, we will run!!! Comments are closed.
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Miss MarcelI've written books and articles and even a novel. Now it's time to try a blog! For more about me personally, go to the home page and you'll get the whole scoop! If you want to send me an email, feel free to click "Contact Me" below. To receive new posts, enter your email and click "Subscribe" below. More MarcelArchives
September 2024
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