Tuesday, February 26, 2013

St. Mary Magdalene has come to the Chicago area -- that is a relic of the saint often referred to as the apostle to the Apostles. On February 20, a reliquary carrying a portion of her tibia (leg bone) began a two-week tour to churches in the archdiocese. It then will then continue to other Illinois locations during March. "The purpose of the tour is to share the holiness of the relic and tell the story of the saint who is recorded as the first witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ," said Paula Lawlor, coordinator of the Illinois tour. "It also reminds us that she was a real person," he said. "St. Mary Magdalene was told to go and tell the others." The first stop was St. Vincent Ferrer Church in River Forest. "St. Mary Magdalene is the patroness of our order," said Dominican Father Thomas McDermott, pastor. "Dominicans are the custodians of the relic. We are grateful and blessed for the opportunity to have her relic at our church." Tradition has it that some years after the Crucifixion, Mary Magdalene was imprisoned. Upon her release, she and other followers of Jesus were cast out to sea on the shores of Palestine without sails, oars or supplies. The boat miraculously came to shore on the coast of Gaul (France) in a town near Marseille. After preaching with her companions and converting the whole of Provence, Mary Magdalene retired to a mountain cave known as La Sainte-Baume, which means holy cave, and spent the last 30 years of her life in solitude.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Along with the rest of the Roman Curia, Pope Benedict XVI began his second day of spiritual exercises by reflecting on Psalm 119 and the “light that breaks the darkness, especially in today's culture. The comparison with the Word is essential, it shows us the true scale of values, often calculated only in things, in money, power,” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi told the Pope Feb. 18 at the Apostolic Palace. The Italian cardinal focused his meditations for today on Psalms 119, 23 and 19, under the title “At the sources of the Jordan River of the Spirit: God of Grace and the Word. In Psalm 23, there is the sharing of the road – God is the shepherd leading the flock, and at the same time a traveling companion – elements which refer to the value of grace, truth and love,” said the cardinal. And during this morning’s third meditation, the cardinal poetically described Creation as “a different word of God” that contains “a silent theological music and is a message that knows no sound or echoes words but rather runs through the universe.” The annual Lenten spiritual exercises began on Sunday evening and will run until Feb. 23, when the Pope will give a short speech. The week’s theme is titled “The art of praying, the art of believing. The face of God and of man in the prayers of Psalms.” The retreat schedule involves two meditations in the morning and one in the early evening, followed by the celebration of vespers and Eucharistic benediction. The reflections are preached to the Pope and members of his administrative offices, known as the Roman Curia, in the Vatican’s Redemptoris Mater Chapel. Pope Benedict chose Cardinal Ravasi, president for the Pontifical Council for Culture, to head this year’s Lenten spiritual exercises. The cardinal, who is frequently named as a potential candidate for being selected as the next Pope, has chosen the Psalms as the subject of his reflections. Just days before starting the retreat, he shared how he felt about leading it. “On the one hand, I’m excited about this experience because it is the first time that the head of a dicastery speaks to his colleagues as well as to the Pope,” Cardinal Ravasi said Jan. 31. “On the other hand, I also believe that there is a sort of familiar atmosphere, not just because of the relationship I already had with the Pope before he even became Pope and came to Rome,” he said. “But I also think that I would like to propose again the big founding topic through a single book, the Book of Psalms. Because in the end, prayer reveals the true face of God and the true face of man,” he added.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI used his second to last Angelus to tell thousands of pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square that Lent is a “spiritual battle.” Lent, he said, “always involves a battle, a spiritual battle, because the spirit of evil naturally opposes our sanctification and seeks to divert us from the way of God.” Pope Benedict has just 11 days left as head of the Catholic Church until his almost unprecedented resignation takes effect Feb. 28. Over 35,000 people have officially registered with the Pontifical Household to bid him farewell. The Pope, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace, explained that the Lenten “spiritual battle” is the reason why the Gospel of the first Sunday of Lent relates each year to Jesus’ temptations in the desert. He reflected on the Sunday gospel, which tells how Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil after having received the Holy Spirit in his baptism at the Jordan river. “Upon starting his public ministry, Jesus had to expose and reject the false images of the Messiah that the tempter proposed,” said the Pope. “But these temptations are false images of man and during all times undermine the conscience, disguised and proposed as affordable, effective and even good,” he added. Pope Benedict said the evangelists Matthew and Luke reveal three temptations of Jesus, but differ only in the order in which they present them. He said the core of these temptations is always to exploit God for some lowly ends, giving more importance to success or to material goods. “The tempter is sneaky: he does not go directly to evil, but to a false good, making one believe that the true reality is power and that this meets one’s basic needs,” said the pontiff. “God becomes secondary in this way, (he) ultimately becomes unreal because he no longer matters and thus vanishes,” he added. Pope Benedict said that faith is what is ultimately at stake in temptations because God is at stake. “But in hindsight we are at crossroads -- do we want to follow the ‘I’ or God? The individual interest or the real good and what is really good?” said the Pope. “As the Fathers of the Church teach us, temptations are part of the ‘descent’ of Jesus in our human condition and in the abyss of sin as well as of its consequences,” he said. He explained that Jesus is “the hand that God has tended to man, the lost sheep, to bring him back to safety.” But the pontiff said we do not have to fear facing the fight against the spirit of evil since “Jesus took our temptations to give us his victory. The important thing is that we do this with him, with the Victor,” he said. Pope Benedict said Lent is a time of “conversion and penance” and a “favorable time to rediscover faith in God as the criterion of our life and the life of the Church. The Church, which is mother and teacher, calls all her members to be renewed in the spirit, to re-orientate closely to God, denying pride and selfishness in order to live in love,” he said. He then greeted the pilgrims in different languages. He told the Italian pilgrims their attendance in such large numbers is “a sign of affection and spiritual closeness that I have been shown these days.”

Monday, February 11, 2013

Pope Benedict XVI told a gathering of cardinals February 11 that he no longer has the strength to carry out his ministry and will resign on February 28. "I have convoked you to this Consistory, not only for the three canonizations, but also to communicate to you a decision of great importance for the life of the Church. After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry," Pope Benedict said. He made his remarks in Latin to a meeting of cardinals who were gathered to vote on whether or not to canonize three people. The last pontiff to resign was Celestine V, who left office almost 600 years ago. At a quickly arranged press conference, Father Federico Lombardi told the media that there is no sickness the Pope is suffering from that is behind this decision. "It's something that happens normally in people with advanced age, " the Vatican spokesman said. Pope Benedict observed his lack of strength "over the past few months and courageously came to this decision," the spokesman said. He also stressed that Pope Benedict made the decision after carefully examining his conscience and the responsibilities of his office. "This is an absolutely personal decision made with his conscience before God," he remarked. Fr. Lombardi said Benedict XVI respects the decision of his predecessor and that with his suffering he offered a great testimony to the Church.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

In societies that have largely forgotten or abandoned Christianity, Catholic schools are often seen as vital tools for reintroducing faith to the wider culture. Principal Jim Bailey of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School can testify to this. He was in the process of entering the Catholic Church when he became the principal of the South Anchorage elementary school in 2008. “Being principal strengthened my desire to join the church,” Bailey told the Catholic Anchor. He credits the Catholic school experience and its immersion in faith with influencing him. It is a phenomena he sees occur with many parents who send their children to Catholic school. This year, Bailey said the school has at least three parents going through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults — the process by which adults are introduced to the Roman Catholic Church. “And that’s fairly typical,” Bailey said of parents who come to the faith through their contact with the school. Evangelization, he said, is the natural outgrowth of being part of a Catholic school community. Non-Catholics or inactive Catholics may send their children to Catholic schools for academic reasons, smaller class sizes or better discipline, but often the faith component draws them in unexpectedly, Bailey observed. Stacy Reiman, the mother of a kindergartner at Holy Rosary Academy in Anchorage, agrees. Her young son, Nicolas, was baptized at a school Mass on January 17. When Nicolas asked his mom if he could be baptized as a Catholic, she was willing because “it’s something I’ve been gravitating towards for some time.” Raised an Episcopalian, Reiman said she has been pondering the direction of her faith and “anytime I’d have a question about something, I’d Googled it and discover that the Catholic answer seemed to conform to my own thoughts.” But she wasn’t sure how far to involve her family — husband Robert, son Nicolas and her two preschool-aged daughters. Then came Nicolas’ request, which Reiman views as “a bit of a sign” and clearly the result of his school environment. “From the first day I walked into the school, I felt embraced by a warm community of believers who welcome you into this family,” she said. “It’s the most loving community I’ve encountered since I moved to Anchorage.” She also said she appreciates the pro-family atmosphere of the Catholic school. Holy Rosary principal Catherine Neumayr thinks a welcoming environment and an emphasis on prayer help draw people into the faith through Catholic education. Holy Rosary students maintain a list with prayer requests, and frequently school Masses are offered for people in need in the community. This adds an element to Catholic education that public schools don’t offer. In addition to prayer for families in need, the Catholic school also offers assistance with care and casseroles. Father Scott Garrett, pastor at Sacred Heart Church in Wasilla where Our Lady of the Valley School is located said he has seen “quite a few people come into the church through their association with a Catholic school.” Father Garrett is himself a convert, and his best childhood friend was also non-Catholic. “He married a Catholic, but never went to church,” Father Garrett said. “But after they sent their kids to Catholic school, he became a devout Catholic.” When people become involved with what their children are learning, they begin to appreciate the faith in a whole new way, Father Garrett explained. Perhaps one of the greatest conversion mechanisms is the Mass itself. Some people who attend their children’s weekday Mass come because they want to see their children in a liturgical role, as a reader or cantor. They might never ordinarily attend Sunday Mass much less a weekday Mass, but find themselves drawn by the church’s liturgy in ways they never expected. “When we brought the school (from a strip mall in Wasilla) onto the church property this year some people in the parish were a little hesitant,” Father Garrett recalled. “But when the school kids became involved in the Friday parish Mass, I couldn’t believe the unity it brought to the whole parish and to those who attend that Mass.” Tom Sorci, principal of Lumen Christi High School in Anchorage, said that on the very morning the Catholic Anchor called him for comments, “I had a parent come to me and say he’d like to become a Catholic.” Moreover, like other school principals, Sorci has seen many Catholic parents become more engaged and active in their faith as a result of being involved with Catholic schooling. Sometimes the Catholic school plants a seed in students and families that may bloom later, Sorci said.