The Ascension

Posted by admin on May 18, 2012 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

Jesus is Still With Us!

It seems like there are never enough of us sisters to carry out the work of evangelization we want to do for God and the Church. More than once I’ve heard sisters jokingly say, “I wish I had the gift of bi-location.” I’ve said it, too. Truly, if I could be in two places at once then I would be able to get twice as much stuff done, right? On second thought, I think I better thank God that bi-location isn’t possible.

Unlike us, our loving God is everywhere. We celebrate the feast of the Ascension when Jesus goes to be with his Father in heaven. If we look at this feast from a simply human viewpoint, it could be a cause for sadness. Jesus is leaving Earth for heaven. Imagine yourself standing with the group of disciples looking up into the sky as Jesus ascends. What might you be feeling? The good news is that the Jesus ascends only after giving us a promise: “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20).

Sometimes it can be hard to discern the Lord’s presence. Wars, suffering, injustice, and hatred are all part of this world of ours. Even so, the Resurrection comes after the Cross. Peace, generosity, self-giving, and love live in the hearts of people. Yes, Jesus is still very much with us. You don’t have to go very far to find him. He’s present in the Blessed Sacrament in your neighborhood church but he’s also present in the people you encounter every day. Just take a good look around and you’ll see. My prayer is that you may find Jesus in those people and that they may find him in you. God bless!

By Sr. Hosea Rupprecht, fsp

Pauline Center for Media Studies

How to Reshape Your Life

Posted by admin on May 8, 2012 in Featured | 0 comments

Lectio Divina for Sunday of the Fifth Week of Easter

by a Daughter of St. Paul

Lectio: John 15:1–8

Meditatio: “Ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.”

What a marvelous promise, especially coming from God! When friends ask us what they can do for us, we don’t dare request something beyond their capability to give. But this is God asking—and God can give us anything we ask. So why does it seem that our prayers are not always answered? Jesus gives us a clue when he talks about being the true vine in the vineyard of his Father, the Vinedresser.

One year I was in Italy right before the grape harvest, when the vines bore ripe, full bunches of grapes. I bit into a grape, and cool sweet juice squirted into my mouth. I asked someone why this vine bore such big, sweet grapes. He explained how the vinedresser pruned the vine, binding drooping tendrils and trimming off branches to focus its growth. Contemplating the grapevine, I realized that “asking for what we will” presupposes trusting the Vinedresser. If I had been there when the vinedresser was chopping off branches and tying up tendrils, I may have disagreed with his method. Yet, obviously he knew how to bring an abundant harvest to that vineyard.

The word of God trims us so that we bear fruit. Our fruit grows through life in Christ. Attached to Christ, the true Vine, we feel the sap of Scripture and sacramental life flow toward fruits being formed in our lives. The Spirit of Christ flows through us and in us. Saint Paul writes that we do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express (see Romans 8:26). Jesus says that we glorify God when we bear much fruit. We bear fruit when we trust the Vinedresser and stay attached to Jesus, the true Vine—who is pruned and bears abundant fruit. Through baptism we are incorporated into the true Vine. All that we do is transformed into worship—with Jesus we become Eucharistic grapes squeezed into wine to share with a thirsty world.

Oratio: Jesus, when I cling to you, the true Vine, you transform me. Your life flows through me in the sacraments, in your word, and in prayer. You changed water into wine at the wedding of Cana at the request of Mary. I pray with Saint Paul that it be no longer I who live, but you who live in me (Galatians 2:20). May my life flow out toward others as your sweet, vivifying wine.

Contemplatio: The word of God and Eucharistic Communion completely reshape my life.

My Vocation is Love

Posted by admin on May 8, 2012 in Featured, Uncategorized | 0 comments

“To me, he has given his infinite mercy.”

If Jesus Christ rose from the dead and is alive, he must be living somewhere, and we must be able to locate his address so that we can meet him and make contact with him. If there is no place to contact him, then affirming Jesus’s resurrection can remain on the level of mere discussion. Of course, there are special places where we can meet Jesus—I’m thinking in particular of the Eucharist and the Gospel. But I wonder if I would immediately give these two addresses to someone who expresses the desire to “see” Jesus. Reading the Gospel may not be the first way to find him, but it is by no means the last!

I believe that if Jesus is living today he can be met in those men and women we call the saints, persons who can say with St Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20). So the first step to “seeing” Jesus is to meet the saints and observe how they live. Only after that should we read the Gospel in order to understand what makes that person tick, what makes him or her a saint, that is, one in whom the risen Christ is living.

If Thérèse of Lisieux were still alive, I would advise all who wish to meet such a saint to go and visit her now and then. Her life is not that far removed from our own time. In fact, Céline, one of her sisters, died in 1959. But unless you’re very attentive, you can pass by a saint without realizing it. This is what happened with Thérèse. Most of the nuns who lived with her didn’t suspect that they were living with a saint, perhaps the greatest saint of modern times. One of them even wondered what good could be written about her after her death. We don’t have to wait for saints to be canonized before meeting them. There is a crowd of anonymous and “non-commissioned” saints who are living out in the world as well as in convents, but they are so well hidden that God alone knows their beauty. Yet I can assure you that if the Holy Spirit is living in you, he will give you “the eye” to see and meet them. You will have no trouble tracking them down, for they resemble Jesus Christ, and like him they are gentle and humble.

Now, if you’re looking for a specific and easy-to-find saint’s address, I recommend that of Thérèse of the Child Jesus. Call her, pray to her, ask her for a grace, or tell her that you would like to meet her. It doesn’t matter how you approach her—the important thing is simply to get in touch with her. As a priest, I can attest that you will never pray to her in vain. You’ll very quickly feel her presence, especially if your prayer is humble, confident, and persevering.

Her presence and her mission

You will probably not see her physically, as did some soldiers at the front, but I can guarantee that those who begin to discover Thérèse’s presence in their lives and in their hearts will be drawn to love her, pray to her, and sense her spiritual nearness. She had only one great desire, to see Jesus living in her, and that very desire intensifies love. I say this not only because of the experience of those who pray to her, but also because of the conviction Thérèse herself had before she died. She was convinced that “her premature death would not mark the beginning of an early retirement.”(1) She knew that she would come back to earth because she was not dying, but entering into life.

Thérèse wrote to Fr. Roulland, a missionary inChina, “If I am going to heaven soon, I will ask Jesus’s permission to visit you in Su Tchuen, and we will continue our apostolate together.”(2) And on February 24, 1897, she wrote to Abbé Bellière, her other spiritual brother:

I do not know the future. However, if Jesus grants my presentiments, I promise that I will still be your little sister in heaven. Our union, far from being broken, will become deeper. Then there will be no more enclosure, no more grilles, and my soul will be able to fly with you to the distant missions.(3)

Furthermore, she was very keenly aware of her posthumous mission; not only was she certain that she would come back to earth, but she felt that she would spend her heaven making Love loved. During the night of July 16–17, 1897, at two o’clock in the morning, after another hemorrhage, she said:

I feel that I am about to enter into my rest … But I also feel that my mission is going to begin, my mission to make God loved as I love him, to give my little way to souls. If God grants my desires, my heaven will be spent on earth, until the end of time. Yes, I want to spend my heaven doing good on earth. This is not impossible, since from the very heart of the beatific vision, the Angels watch over us.(4)

She went even further in her presentiment of her mission, since she was also convinced that she would answer those who would pray to her by allowing them to experience the power of her intercession with the Father. Some time before she died, a life of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga had been read in the refectory of theCarmel. It told how he had cured a dying priest by strewing a shower of roses on his bed. Coming out of the refectory, Thérèse had leaned on a piece of furniture and said to Sr. Marie of the Sacred Heart, “And I too, after my death, will let fall a shower of roses.”(5)

Such a statement, some might say, borders on the absurd, or could be taken as a sign of delirium. This was not the case with Thérèse, who had her feet firmly planted on the ground. She knew that God is all-powerful and that nothing is impossible for him. Besides, having refused him nothing on earth, Thérèse was sure that God would refuse her nothing in heaven. This is why everyone would love her. On September 14, 1897, after she had unpetalled some roses over her crucifix, she noticed that a few petals had fallen from her bed onto the infirmary floor. Thérèse directed very seriously, “Gather up these petals carefully, my little sisters; they will help you perform favors later. Don’t lose any of them.”(6)

“To make you loved” (Act of Offering)

So what, exactly, is this mission of Thérèse? I will reply with the very words of her Act of Offering: “O my God! Blessed Trinity, I desire to love you and to make you loved”(7) As we have said above, she herself described that mission: To make God loved. If you are not afraid of paraphrasingSaint Augustine: “I loved Love before loving what it was,”(8) you could say that Thérèse’s passionate desire had been “to make Love loved.” She tells us that on June 9, 1895, “I was given the grace to understand more than ever before how much Jesus wants to be loved.”(9) Thérèse believed in love and surrendered herself to it with absolute confidence.

Excerpted from the Introduction of My Vocation Is Love. To read more click here.

St. Thérèse’s Little Way: My Anchor in Life

Posted by admin on May 8, 2012 in Staff Picks | 0 comments

St. Thérèse pray for us!

Ever since I can remember, I have been interested in the lives of the saints. Since my middle name is Theresa, and I was told that my patron saint was the Little Flower, even as a child I wanted to learn about her life. I came across the book Storm of Glory and as soon as I started reading it, I immediately felt a connection to her. Thérèse’s stress on loving God in all the little things, doing the ordinary in an extraordinary way, and having the utmost confidence in God and his love for each of us gave me so much hope in an otherwise tense and difficult family situation. Over the years, when life’s struggles threatened to overwhelm me, I would retreat to Thérèse’s biography. With time I noticed that I always felt better after reading a few paragraphs of the book. I can’t say I remember “receiving any roses,” but I had a strong sense that St. Thérèse was with me.

After entering the Daughters of St. Paul, I had other saints to get to know and a new spirituality on which to focus. St. Thérèse faded into the background. More than 15 years passed before I felt inspired to read her autobiography The Story of a Soul. I have to confess, I was hesitant about picking up the book. What if I discovered I no longer felt such a strong connection with the saint who had helped me through all those stormy childhood years? Quickly enough, however, as I began reading I found that Thérèse was, indeed, still the saint for me. Her “little way” was accessible and hopeful, assuring me that God is divine love stooping down to embrace me. Her way is one of confidence and love.

Several years later I told God that I needed a huge grace in my life. Out of nowhere I was suddenly given the opportunity to accompany a group of young people on pilgrimage to World Youth Day in Paris. The first part of that trip included visiting Lisieux, since it was the hundredth anniversary of St. Thérèse’s death. There are no words to describe my joy as I walked through the rooms of the house where she lived. It was like her autobiography come to life. Every room held a part of her story. We prayed in the church where she made her First Communion. We visited the Carmel where she spent nine hidden years. The most significant place for me was the Basilica where her reliquary was on display. I could actually reach in and touch my rosary to it. The Basilica was large, and we spent several hours there. In the late afternoon just before it was time to get back on our bus, I ran up the hill to the Basilica once more to bid farewell to Thérèse. In having to depart Lisieux I felt heartbroken at losing her a second time.

When we got to Paris and settled in I decided to go walking. To my amazement and joy I discovered that we were only a few blocks away from Our Lady of Victories, the church which played a large part in Thérèse’s life. If that was not enough, the Reliquary itself had just been brought there from Lisieux. A sense of happiness, peace, and relief washed over me, as I realized I had not lost St. Thérèse and never would.

The Little Flower has remained an anchor in my life. This month you also might like to make friends with Thérèse. Below you’ll find some great books for adults and kids alike on the life and spirit of this great saint. May you walk in her “little way.”

In Christ,
Sr. Bridget C. Ellis, FSP
Director, Daughters of St. Paul Choir

Do you want to know how much you’re worth?

Posted by admin on Apr 27, 2012 in Lent-Easter, News | 0 comments

Lectio Divina for Sunday of the Fourth Week of Easter

by a Daughter of St. Paul

Lectio: John 10:11–18

Meditatio: “A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”

After showing the film Gran Torino to a group of people, I asked them how they would explain it to someone who had never seen it. One man shot up his hand and said without hesitation, “it was about Jesus giving his life for me.”

In Gran Torino, Walt Kowalski saves his Hmong neighbors, Sue and Thao, from the ongoing threat of gang violence. He confronts the armed gang members, knowing that they will most likely open fire. As he suspects, this confrontation provokes the gang members to shoot the defenseless Kowalski. After I saw the movie, I put myself in Sue and Thao’s place as they watched the lifeless body of Kowalski being placed in the ambulance. Not only were they now safe, but they also knew just how much they meant to Kowalski. They were worth so much to him that he had been willing to die for them. While it is true that Kowalski is not Jesus, stories like this can help us understand what Jesus did for us.

In this passage, Jesus tells us that a good shepherd is willing to lay down his life for his sheep. He emphasizes this by saying that he lays down his life willingly. Jesus knows that in a world in which we daily face the consequences of sin, we are terrorized by what we have experienced and continue to experience. That is why he laid down his life for us—to save us from an eternity of facing those consequences.

Jesus’ life and death are God’s way of communicating to us how much we mean to him, how much he loves us. Jesus knows us intimately because he too knows what it is like to face the consequences of sin. He knows how terrifying it is. And to save us from that, he laid down his life. He loves us to the point of death.

Oratio: Jesus—you died for me. You died for me. You died for me. This is so overwhelming that I can’t sit with it for very long. It makes me uncomfortable. If I allowed this reality to sink in, I would have to give up the shame I feel in the pit of my stomach. I would have to admit that I am truly precious, that my life has inestimable worth, and that I do not need to be afraid of you. You are the only one who truly knows me. I mean so much to you! Help me to know you better. For you are the only one who can save me from what terrorizes me. Amen.

Contemplatio: You loved me. You gave your life for me.

Excerpted from Easter Grace: Daily Gospel Reflections. Be prepared for Ordinary Time with Ordinary Grace: Daily Gospel Reflections Vol I.

Welcoming Mary into Your Life

Posted by admin on Apr 27, 2012 in Staff Picks | 0 comments

For Catholics, the month of May is a time when we think about devotion to Mary, especially in the form of praying the rosary. What makes the rosary such a special prayer? While many answers could be given, three aspects stand out.

1) The rosary is a simple, concrete way of expressing devotion to Mary. As our mother in the order of grace, she is always present on our spiritual journey. Mary consoles us in sorrow, rejoices over our blessings, and always leads us to Jesus. On Calvary Jesus entrusted his mother to John, who represents every disciple. Just as John welcomed Mary into his life, we too welcome Mary into our lives of discipleship. And just as Mary intervened atCanato obtain a miracle for the newlyweds, she is always ready to intercede for us too. Her maternal mediation obtains countless blessings and graces.

2) In a unique way, the rosary combines simple vocal prayer with contemplation. This makes it suited for people at all stages of the spiritual life. The heart of the rosary is meditation on the mysteries of Christ. The recitation of the Hail Marys provides a sort of “background music” that makes contemplation easier. In modern terms, we could call it a form of centering prayer. This is a simple form of prayer in which a person gently focuses attention on God while repeating a word or phrase. Although the main purpose of prayer is to deepen our relationship with God, it can even benefit our physical health. A study reported in the December 2001 issue of the British Medical Journal found that persons who prayed the rosary experienced a calming effect that lowered their respiratory rate and benefited their hearts.

3) Finally, the rosary has been strongly recommended by the popes throughout the centuries. In many Marian apparitions that the Church has approved, such asFatima, the rosary played a significant role. Praying the rosary for world peace has been a frequent theme of these messages.

We Long to Hear Jesus’s Voice: “Peace”

Posted by admin on Apr 27, 2012 in Lent-Easter, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Lectio Divina on the Gospel of the Sunday of the Third Week of Easter

By a Daughter of St. Paul

Lectio

Luke 24:35–48

Meditatio

“Peace be with you…”

Imagine the apostles and disciples gathered in the upper room on Sunday night. In this very room, four days earlier, the apostles had eaten supper with Jesus, the supper that was his last. He told them, “My peace I give you …” (John 14:27). They feel anything but peaceful now! Jesus had been shackled and tortured; he was “crucified, died, and was buried.” And now—all these reports (even from Simon!) that he has been seen, brimming with life.

“Let’s try to pray,” someone says, “the way he taught us.” It is the least they can do to try to keep his memory alive among them. “Our Father,” begin one or two voices, “who art in heaven.” Others join in, “Hallowed be thy name.” At “Thy kingdom come,” a new presence is felt in the room. For the eleven it is like that mysterious moment Thursday evening when they had eaten the bread and drunk from the cup: “My body … my blood … my peace I give you.” It is as if they can even now hear his voice! “Peace be with you. . . .” Then they realize: they are, indeed, hearing his voice.

“Peace be with you” on the lips of the risen Jesus is the answer to our prayer: “Thy kingdom come.” That kingdom is the fullness of peace—not simply absence of conflict, but (in the words of the classic definition) the tranquillity of order. Peace is to the universe what health is to the body: order; the way things are supposed to be. Not static, rigid, lifeless, but a condition of life so full it cannot be threatened or undermined by any power in this world. In him of whom the “law, prophets, and psalms” spoke, in his glorified human body, the body born of Mary, the universe is again set in right order—and an even better order than before! God really can “make all things (all things!) work together for good” (cf. Romans 8:28).

Oratio

Jesus, your greeting of peace reminds me of the angels’ song at your birth: “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace” (Luke 2:14). In the manger, too, you could say, “Touch me: my flesh and bones are real: I came to bring you peace.” So often I need to hear your voice and accept your gift of peace, and accept the tranquillity of an order centered in you, who have already “conquered the world” (John 16:33). You’ve been through the worst that this world (and the next) can offer, and you come to us to say, “Peace be with you.”

Lord, I accept! Establish your kingdom of peace in my mind and heart, especially in that area where I most need peace today. Make me a witness of heavenly peace to the ends of the earth.

Contemplatio

Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth!

Excerpted from Easter Grace: Daily Gospel Reflections. Click here to look inside and read free chapters.