Wednesday, 31 May 2017

The Feast Of The Visitation





Today is the feast of The Visitation. It commemorates Our Lady's visit to her cousin Elizabeth. When the angel announced to Mary her own pregnancy, he claimed that her cousin "who in her old age has conceived a son." On hearing this news Mary didn't sit back and think about her own pregnancy but immediately left in "haste" and went to help her elderly cousin.

 I often wonder if part of Mary's departure to see her cousin was to be able to confirm the experience she had just undergone. I mean it's not every day an angel comes into your home and announces news of such magnitude. Mary must have wanted some confirmation that what the angel had said was true. Possibly she also wanted to share the news of her own pregnancy with someone who had also
experienced God's miraculous power and who she knew would be able to understand that her own conception was truly extraordinary and that these two events were somehow connected.

When she arrived at Zechariah and Elizabeth's home, the moment Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting the child growing within her gave a mighty leap. Now, if you have ever experienced a pregnancy you will know how a child can roll and leap inside you. I remember being very pregnant and attending a concert with my husband, the moment the band struck up the baby jumped in my womb, the poor thing was startled by the noise. It's the closest thing I can imagine to how Elizabeth felt in that moment . Now granted hers was for completely different reasons, she, being filled with the Holy Spirit had a powerful experience of the joy that accompanies being in the presence of Our Lord.

Can you envisage the merriment of these two women as they sat together recounting their exploits. To have seen the hand of God moving so powerfully in their lives must have filled them with such joy and happiness.

One of the things we can take from this feast day is Mary's humble disposition to serve. She goes to help her cousin around the house lifting the burden of daily chores from her friends shoulders. Maybe there are those around us who could do with our help, especially any pregnant mamas who might need an extra pair of hands.

Today we learn that an encounter with Mary always brings us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus. St. Jose Escriva said " if you seek Mary you will find Jesus." Let us seek after him with all our heart so that we too like Elizabeth can be filled with joy and experience the Holy Spirit working in our lives to bring that same love and joy that these two women gave to the whole world.









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Sunday, 21 May 2017

St. Rita Of Cascia



Antonio and Amata Lotti, natives of Roccaporena, a tiny village in the Umbrian Hills of the republic of Cascia, were well-respected peacemakers in their town who welcomed their only child, Margherita in 1381.  In the local dialect, her name meant “pearl” and she was known as Rita.  Baptized in the church of St. Augustine in Cascia, Rita became acquainted with the local Augustinian nuns of St. Mary Magdalene and was attracted to their way of life.  But her parents arranged a marriage for her in order to provide safety and security, and so Rita obediently married Paolo Mancini with whom she had two sons.  In the climate of the times, there was often open conflict between families, and her husband Paolo was murdered.  Her sons were young, but the expectation would be for them eventually to avenge the murder of their father to defend family honor.  Rita, influenced by the peacemaking example of her parents, pledged to forgive her husband’s killers.  She faced a steep challenge, however, in convincing her sons to do the same.  Tradition has it that she often pointed out to them the image of the crucified Christ and the fact that he forgave those who killed him.  Within a year, however, both sons succumbed to a deadly illness leaving Rita not only a widow, but also childless.  Following these tragedies, Rita placed her trust in God, accepting them and relying on her deep faith to find her way.  After eighteen years of marriage, Rita felt called to a second but familiar vocation, to religious life in the Augustinian convent.
But the sisters were hesitant and refused her request; however, Rita was not discouraged, convinced that she was called to the contemplative community.  The sisters even more firmly refused, citing that although Rita had forgiven her husband’s killers, her family had not.  There were members of the rival family in the convent; her presence would be detrimental to community harmony.  And so, inspired by her three patron saints (Augustine, Nicholas of Tolentino and John the Baptist), Rita set out to make peace between the families.  She went to her husband’s family and exhorted them to put aside their hostility and stubbornness.  They were convinced by her courage and agreed.  The rival 
family, astounded by this overture of peace, also agreed.  The two families exchanged a peace 
embrace and signed a written agreement, putting the vendetta to rest forever.  A fresco depicting the scene of the peace embrace was placed on a wall of the Church of Saint Francis in Cascia, an enduring reminder of the power of good over evil and a testament to the widow whose forgiving spirit achieved the impossible.
At the age of 36, Rita finally was accepted into the Augustinian convent.  She lived a regular life of prayer, contemplation and spiritual reading, according to the Rule of Saint Augustine.  For forty years she lived this routine lifestyle, until fifteen years before her death, on Good Friday 1442, she had an extraordinary experience.  In contemplation before an image of Jesus that was very dear to her, the Jesus of Holy Saturday or, as it is also known, the Resurgent Christ, she was moved by a deeper awareness of the physical and spiritual burden of pain which Christ so freely and willingly embraced for love of her and of all humanity.  With the tender, compassionate heart of a person fully motivated by grateful love, she spoke her willingness to relieve Christ’s suffering by sharing even the smallest part of his pain.  Her offer was accepted, her prayer was answered, and Rita was united with Jesus in a profound experience of spiritual intimacy, a thorn from his crown penetrating her forehead.  The 
wound it caused remained open and visible until the day of her death.
Toward the end of her life, Rita progressively weakened physically.  Several months before her death, she was visited by a relative from Roccaporena who asked if she could do something for her.  Rita at first declined, but then made a simple request to have a rose from the garden of her family home brought to her.  However, it was January, the dead of winter in the hills of Umbria.  But upon her return home, the relative passed Rita’s family garden and found to her astonishment a single fresh rose in the snow-covered garden on an otherwise barren bush.  She immediately returned to the convent where she presented it to Rita who accepted it with quiet and grateful assurance.  For the four decades she had spent in Casica’s convent she had prayed especially for her husband Paolo, who had died so violently, and for her two sons, who had died so young.  The dark, cold earth of Roccaporena, which held their mortal remains, had now produced a beautiful sign of spring and beauty out of season.  So, Rita believed, had God brought forth, through her prayers, their eternal life despite tragedy and violence.  She now knew that she would soon be one with them again.
Rita died peacefully on May 22, 1457.  An old and revered tradition records that the bells of the convent immediately began to peal unaided by human hands, calling the people of Cascia to the doors of the convent, and announcing the triumphant completion of a life faithfully lived.  The nuns prepared her for burial and placed her in a simple wooden coffin.  A carpenter who had been partially paralyzed by a stroke, voiced the sentiments of many others when he spoke of the beautiful life of this humble nun in bringing lasting peace to the people of Cascia.  “If only I were well,” he said, “I would have prepared a place more worthy of you.”  With those words, Rita’s first miracle was performed, as he was healed.  He fashioned the elaborate and richly decorated coffin which would hold Rita’s body for several centuries.  She was never buried in it, however.  So many people came to look upon the gentle face of the “Peacemaker of Cascia” that her burial had to be delayed.  It became clear that something exceptional was occurring as her body seemed to be free from nature’s usual course.  It is still preserved today, now in a glass-enclosed coffin, in the basilica of Cascia.




Taken from The Precious Pearl byMicael Di Gregoria O SA

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Monday, 1 May 2017

The Feast Of St. Joseph The Worker




The Feast of St. Joseph the worker has been celebrated in the Church since 1955. Inspired by his example the Church has always held that all work, no matter how  menial some may seem to others is inspired by God and brings with it great dignity and value. We know from Scripture that right from the beginning man was made for work. In the garden of Eden Adam had to "till the land and keep it". Before the fall man cooperated with God and participated in the overall task of Divine Providence. We have to assume because all was well in the garden Adam did this with a joyful heart. He knew it was something his Creator asked of him.
When sin entered the garden something that had intended to be enjoyable suddenly became laborious
. "Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and 
thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread".

So often we see our work as removed from its original intention. We look upon it as a form of punishment or as something oppressive that gets in the way of us living our lives. For others, it is a means to make vast sums of money because that is where they think happiness and security lies.  Often we fail to see the value of work itself; that all work, no matter what it is can be used to help us in our sanctification.

We are being asked by God to participate in His creation. So often we classify people by the jobs they do. For a long time people looked  down upon those in manual labour. Even today we tend to classify people according to the size of their "take home" pay. But all work has value and all is needed for the good of society.  Work is a gift from God, it makes no sense to classify people differently according to their occupations, as if some jobs were better than others. All work is intertwined and keeps each of us connected, it bears witness to the innate dignity of mankind and our dominion over creation. Work 
allows each of us to develop, we form relationships with our colleagues around us, we support our 
families and contribute to the wider society in which we live.

We must remember while here on earth Jesus followed in the footsteps of St.Joseph and like so many young men before him he took on his fathers trade. If we unite our work through Christ, Christ will sanctify it. So on those " bad days"  when work is all "toil and sweat" we have something of immense value  to offer the Father. So whatever occupation you find yourself in, paid or unpaid, skilled or unskilled take heart God is using you today to bring about great change in his world. Let your hearts be filled with love and joy as you offer each and every hour to his service.



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