IN A NUTSHELL, FROM ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

In a nutshell, from St. John of the Cross.

St. John of the Cross is not only a Doctor of the Church. He has been nicknamed “the most mystical of all poets, and the most poetic of all mystics.” In fact, his works –- both his poetry and his treatises on spirituality, that have captivated believers and non-believers alike — are considered one of the all-time peaks of Spanish literature.

One of his most accessible works is a collection of sayings, his Dichos de Luz y de Amor, “Sayings of Life and Love.” Relatively brief when compared to his longer treatises on mystical spirituality, this work has deeply influenced later spiritual writers, artists and theologians from T.S. Eliot to Salvador Dalí. Here you will find a selection of five of these sayings you can use in your meditations.

Though the path is plain and smooth for people of good will, those who walk it will not travel far, and will do so only with difficulty if they do not have good feet, courage, and tenacity of spirit.

It is better to be burdened and in company with the strong than to be unburdened and with the weak. When you are burdened you are close to God, your strength, who abides with the afflicted. When you are relieved of the burden you are close to yourself, your own weakness; for virtue and strength of soul grow and are confirmed in the trials of patience.

God desires the smallest degree of purity of conscience in you more than all the works you can perform.

Mine are the heavens and mine is the earth. Mine are the nations, the just are mine, and mine the sinners. The angels are mine, and the Mother of God, and all things are mine; and God himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and all for me. What do you ask, then, and seek, my soul? Yours is all of this, and all is for you. Do not engage yourself in something less or pay heed to the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Go forth and exult in your Glory! Hide yourself in it and rejoice, and you will obtain the supplications of your heart.

Blessed are they who, setting aside their own pleasure and inclination, consider things according to reason and justice before doing them.

WEDDING BANQUET THE MASS

Teenagers often resist attending Mass. A reasonable (if unpopular) parental response is, “As long as you live under my roof and eat the food I provide, you’re going to Mass on Sunday, young man!” It takes decades to begin to love the Mass and to incorporate the Mass into our lives, and a little coercion along Biblical lines can help to reveal the urgency of God’s law.

This is why the temptation to “jazz up” the Mass to “appeal to the young people” is so dangerous.  It replaces the discipline of true love with the appeals of the superficial pleasures of our consumer society. (So help the parents and stick to the liturgical texts and rubrics, Father.)

The Mass, of course, has two major components, the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. During the Liturgy of the Word, we ponder the word of God.  During the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we enter into the saving mystery of Christ and receive Holy Communion, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus. The Liturgy of the Eucharist – the unbloody re-presentation of the Cross and Resurrection – completes the Mass and is the pinnacle of all worship.  The Mass, with its Contemplation and Communion, is a participation in the Kingdom of heaven.

This pattern of contemplation and communion is perfectly compatible with human nature. Before a man and woman exchange marriage promises, they get to know each other, spend time with each other, and listen to each other.  This is an echo of the contemplation of the Liturgy of the Word.

The love of a husband and wife that follows marriage is a reflection of Communion, the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The Sacrament of Marriage is, in the final analysis, a participation in the New and Everlasting Covenant, the marriage of the glorified Christ with His Mystical Body the Church.

The Penitential Rite is crucial to all this. Calling to mind our sins helps to repeatedly consider – and reject – the obstacles to our love for God and neighbor.  The communal Act of Contrition teaches us to repeat the same gesture outside of Mass, asking for forgiveness and being reconciled. The Mass teaches us to conduct our lives God’s way, not our way. This is the stuff of heavenly glory.

The Mass – the contemplation of the Word followed by the happiness of communion with Christ – not only brings us the grace of Christ. The structure of the Mass and honoring the Sunday obligation provides us with a template for every healthy and loving human relationship. Love of God and love of neighbor are inseparable. His happiness is our happiness, in the marriage of the human with the Divine.

In a very practical way, we can test and evaluate our aspirations – and our happiness – every time we attend Mass, the heavenly marriage banquet. But getting it right takes a seriousness of purpose over a lifetime with, please God, a lot of help from faithful clergy.

© 2017 

HAPPY DEATH PRAYERS

Even the saints prayed for a happy death. As humans, we naturally do not seek out death, especially unexpected deaths. Most of us would prefer to die in our sleep, drifting off peacefully into the afterlife. The saints wanted that as well. While many prayed for martyrdom, many more prayed for a “happy death,” ready to welcome Jesus when he came to call them home.

Here are four prayers from different saints who all desired a peaceful departure from this life to the next.

Blessed John Henry Newman

Oh, my Lord and Savior,
support me in that hour
in the strong arms of your Sacraments,
and by the fresh fragrance of your consolations.
Let the absolving words be said over me,
and the holy oil sign and seal me,
and your own Body be my food,
and your Blood my sprinkling;
and let my sweet Mother, Mary, breathe on me,
and my Angel whisper peace to me,
and my glorious Saints (NN.) smile upon me;
that in them all, and through them all,
I may receive the gift of perseverance,
and die, as I desire to live,
in your faith, in your Church, in your service,
and in your love. Amen.

Saint Vincent Ferrer

Lord Jesus Christ,
You do not will that anyone should perish
and never is a prayer made to you without hope of mercy.
You have promised:
“All things that you ask in my name, shall be done for you”.
Therefore, I ask you, O Lord,
for your holy Name’s sake,
to grant me at the hour of my death
full consciousness and the power of speech,
sincere contrition for my sins,
true faith, firm hope and perfect charity,
that I may be able to say to you with a clean heart:
Into your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit:
you have redeemed me, O God of truth,
who are blessed for ever and ever. Amen.

St. Joseph Cafasso                                                                                                           

I place the moment of my death in the hands of my dear Mother Mary, of my good Guardian Angel and of my special protectors, St. Joseph, St. Ignatius and St. Alphonsus Liguori, all of whom I expect to assist me at the hour of my death and in my voyage to eternity.

Come then, welcome death. Come, but conceal thy coming, so that the hour of my death may not give life back again.

It will be no longer death for thee, my soul, but a sweet sleep if, when thou art dying, Jesus assists thee, and if when thou art expiring, Mary embraces thee. Amen.

St. Alphonsus Liguori

Most holy Virgin Immaculate, my Mother Mary, I love you, O most lovable Lady, and because of my love for you, I promise to serve you always and to do all in my power to win others to love you also. In your hands I place all my hopes; I entrust the salvation of my soul to your care. Accept me as your servant, O Mother of Mercy; receive me under your mantle. And since you have such power with God, deliver me from all temptations, or rather, obtain for me the strength to triumph over them until death. Of you I ask the grace of perfect love for Jesus Christ. Through your help I hope to die a happy death. O my Mother I beg you, by the love you bear my God, to help me at all times, but especially at the last moment of my life. Do not leave me, I beseech you, until you see me safe in Heaven, blessing you and singing your mercies for all eternity, Amen. So I hope, so may it be.

SISTER TERESA ANTHONY CARAPIET

Tribute          

SISTER TERESA ANTHONY CARAPIET  FC    

          (15^th. August 1931 – 26^th. October 2017)

               by Angelina Talu Chakrabarty (grand niece)      

   Shortly after finishing High School in Loreto, Bow Bazar, Calcutta, Lorna Carapiet entered the Novitiate in St. Helen’s Kurseong in 1947 at a very young age. She pronounced her first temporary vows on 29^th. September in St. Helen’s, and was appointed class teacher of the little children for some years. It was there that she revealed her sweet playfulness as an entertaining teacher: qualities she evinced all her life.

It is God who gives noble qualities to his creatures. He gave them to Sister Teresa Anthony: a thousand facets ground and burnished by family and teachers, co-religious and friends, the sheen of her pre-possessing personality, and the steadfastness of her friendship. A diamond of the first water, that never let anyone down.

She held positions like assistant and superior in other places like St. Agnes' in Howrah and St. Vincent’s, Kidderpore. She did pioneering work in Jorethang, South Sikkim, getting very many families over to the Catholic faith by the simple expedient of visiting them in their homes. The then Bishop Eric Benjamin praised her at a meeting of the priests and religious in Darjeeling, commending her as the apostle of evangelization, in fact, the only one. Another great achievement was her success over the attempts of the then Marxist government in West Bengal to take over St. Agnes School, Howrah. The case lasted about three to four years, but with the help of reputed lawyers and priests like Fr. Sheehy SDB, the Jesuits and Bishop Alan D’lastic, she came out victorious. This was, indeed, a test case, since if she had lost, the other schools would have been in danger of being taken over by the Marxists. On 29^th. September 2017 she celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, and on 26^th. October 2017 she ascended for her eternal jubilee.

                                                                        

The fact that I am writing this is almost unbelievable. 

It's going to take time to understand that Aunty Lorna won't be around anymore. There are absolutely no words to express this, but when you're someone as special as Aunty Lorna, one must try.

She wasn't just any ordinary woman. Apart from dedicating her life to God, she dedicated her life to every single person she met. She changed so many lives for the better. I know everyone who is sitting here today can testify to the fact that, if you met her just once, you went back home a happy person. 

For my family Aunty Lorna was everything. Every small problem, every big event, every little fact was known to her. Be it a school concert, be it a family problem, or even a trivial fact like potlu or myself got a fever. I remember her coming every month to the house and never once forgetting to bring something for every single member of my family. I ask God for immense strength to help my family and me as we try to recover from this loss. 

There are some things I would like to say to her.

Dear Aunty Lorna, 

You meant the world to me. There is nobody who can take your place. Here onwards I hope you look down on us and guide my family and me through every single step. You are and will always be the pillar of strength that we rest on. Though what I feel now is in-expressible I know that we all should celebrate the beautiful life that you lived. You always made sure we were happy, so every time I think of you I will smile. You touched all our hearts in a way only we understand. 

I hope heaven is filled with Hershey's chocolates, dogs, and beautiful songs that you enjoy singing. I love you and you will always live on in our hearts. Until I see you, somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, where there's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby. 

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POPE BENEDICT XVI'S TEACHING ON PURGATORY

Pope Benedict XVI'S Teaching on Purgatory

10 Years after his encyclical on hope, Spe Salvi, today is a good time to review, or read for the first time, this profound but accessible explanation

This month we are coming up on the 10th anniversary of the release of Benedict XVI’s profound encyclical on hope, a theme that also speaks strongly to Pope Francis, as evidenced by his just-concluded series of Wednesday catecheses on the topic.

Spe Salvi includes eight paragraphs on the theme of our judgment, “as a setting for learning and practicing hope.”

Part of what the German pontiff illustrates in that section is purgatory. He says, “The judgement of God is hope, both because it is justice and because it is grace.”

Here is a four-paragraph excerpt of the section, particularly fitting for our prayer and reflections on All Souls Day. The emphases in bold are our own.

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45. This early Jewish idea of an intermediate state includes the view that these souls are not simply in a sort of temporary custody but, as the parable of the rich man illustrates, are already being punished or are experiencing a provisional form of bliss. There is also the idea that this state can involve purification and healing which mature the soul for communion with God. The early Church took up these concepts, and in the Western Church they gradually developed into the doctrine of Purgatory. We do not need to examine here the complex historical paths of this development; it is enough to ask what it actually means. With death, our life-choice becomes definitive—our life stands before the judge. Our choice, which in the course of an entire life takes on a certain shape, can have a variety of forms. There can be people who have totally destroyed their desire for truth and readiness to love, people for whom everything has become a lie, people who have lived for hatred and have suppressed all love within themselves. This is a terrifying thought, but alarming profiles of this type can be seen in certain figures of our own history. In such people all would be beyond remedy and the destruction of good would be irrevocable: this is what we mean by the word Hell[37]. On the other hand there can be people who are utterly pure, completely permeated by God, and thus fully open to their neighbours—people for whom communion with God even now gives direction to their entire being and whose journey towards God only brings to fulfilment what they already are[38].

46. Yet we know from experience that neither case is normal in human life. For the great majority of people—we may suppose—there remains in the depths of their being an ultimate interior openness to truth, to love, to God. In the concrete choices of life, however, it is covered over by ever new compromises with evil—much filth covers purity, but the thirst for purity remains and it still constantly re-emerges from all that is base and remains present in the soul. What happens to such individuals when they appear before the Judge? Will all the impurity they have amassed through life suddenly cease to matter? What else might occur? Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians, gives us an idea of the differing impact of God’s judgement according to each person’s particular circumstances. He does this using images which in some way try to express the invisible, without it being possible for us to conceptualize these images—simply because we can neither see into the world beyond death nor do we have any experience of it. Paul begins by saying that Christian life is built upon a common foundation: Jesus Christ. This foundation endures. If we have stood firm on this foundation and built our life upon it, we know that it cannot be taken away from us even in death. Then Paul continues: “Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor 3:12-15). In this text, it is in any case evident that our salvation can take different forms, that some of what is built may be burned down, that in order to be saved we personally have to pass through “fire” so as to become fully open to receiving God and able to take our place at the table of the eternal marriage-feast.

47. Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire”. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God. In this way the inter-relation between justice and grace also becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement does not stain us for ever if we have at least continued to reach out towards Christ, towards truth and towards love. Indeed, it has already been burned away through Christ’s Passion. At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy. It is clear that we cannot calculate the “duration” of this transforming burning in terms of the chronological measurements of this world. The transforming “moment” of this encounter eludes earthly time-reckoning—it is the heart’s time, it is the time of “passage” to communion with God in the Body of Christ[39]. The judgement of God is hope, both because it is justice and because it is grace. If it were merely grace, making all earthly things cease to matter, God would still owe us an answer to the question about justice—the crucial question that we ask of history and of God. If it were merely justice, in the end it could bring only fear to us all. The incarnation of God in Christ has so closely linked the two together—judgement and grace—that justice is firmly established: we all work out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil2:12). Nevertheless grace allows us all to hope, and to go trustfully to meet the Judge whom we know as our “advocate”, or parakletos (cf. 1 Jn 2:1).

48. A further point must be mentioned here, because it is important for the practice of Christian hope. Early Jewish thought includes the idea that one can help the deceased in their intermediate state through prayer (see for example 2 Macc 12:38-45; first century BC). The equivalent practice was readily adopted by Christians and is common to the Eastern and Western Church. The East does not recognize the purifying and expiatory suffering of souls in the afterlife, but it does acknowledge various levels of beatitude and of suffering in the intermediate state. The souls of the departed can, however, receive “solace and refreshment” through the Eucharist, prayer and almsgiving. The belief that love can reach into the afterlife, that reciprocal giving and receiving is possible, in which our affection for one another continues beyond the limits of death—this has been a fundamental conviction of Christianity throughout the ages and it remains a source of comfort today. Who would not feel the need to convey to their departed loved ones a sign of kindness, a gesture of gratitude or even a request for pardon? Now a further question arises: if “Purgatory” is simply purification through fire in the encounter with the Lord, Judge and Saviour, how can a third person intervene, even if he or she is particularly close to the other? When we ask such a question, we should recall that no man is an island, entire of itself. Our lives are involved with one another, through innumerable interactions they are linked together. No one lives alone. No one sins alone. No one is saved alone. The lives of others continually spill over into mine: in what I think, say, do and achieve. And conversely, my life spills over into that of others: for better and for worse. So my prayer for another is not something extraneous to that person, something external, not even after death. In the interconnectedness of Being, my gratitude to the other—my prayer for him—can play a small part in his purification. And for that there is no need to convert earthly time into God’s time: in the communion of souls simple terrestrial time is superseded. It is never too late to touch the heart of another, nor is it ever in vain. In this way we further clarify an important element of the Christian concept of hope. Our hope is always essentially also hope for others; only thus is it truly hope for me too[40]. As Christians we should never limit ourselves to asking: how can I save myself? We should also ask: what can I do in order that others may be saved and that for them too the star of hope may rise? Then I will have done my utmost for my own personal salvation as well.