A Short Life Larger Than Life

At the Canonization Mass of Maria Goretti, Pope Pius XII said: “There is still in this world, apparently sunk and immersed in the worship of pleasure, not only a meager little band of chosen souls who thirst for heaven and its pure air -- but a crowd, nay, an immense multitude on whom the supernatural fragrance of Christian purity exercise an irresistible and reassuring fascination. Know that above the unhealthy marshes and filth of the world, stretches an immense heaven of beauty. It is the heaven which fascinated little Maria; the heaven to which she longed to ascend by the only road that leads there, which is, religion, the love of Christ, and the heroic observance of His Commandments. We greet you, O beautiful and lovable saint! Martyr on earth and angel in heaven, look down from your glory on this people, which loves you, which venerates, glorifies and exalts you. On your forehead you bear the full brilliant and victorious name of Christ.”

In more recent times, Pope John Paul II, speaking about Saint Maria Goretti, said: “Her martyrdom reminds us that the human being is not fulfilled by following pleasurable impulses, but by living his life in love and responsibility.”

That perhaps is the lesson that cries out from this saintly youth more than all others: Being responsible Christians, being all that God made us to be, following in the footsteps of Christ, hearing and accepting the call to holiness.

I suspect that if Maria Goretti were living in our world today, she would find reading the breviary, praying the Rosary, daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, spending time with our Lord in the Scriptures much more preferable and fruitful activities than all those “pleasurable impulses” that seem to take precedence over our own reaching out to touch the garment of Jesus. Pope Pius XII spoke of “an immense multitude” who are fascinated by the “supernatural fragrances” of saintly people. Indeed, the funeral of Pope John Paul II was the largest in this world’s history. There was mass media coverage of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta when she passed from this world. The limited resources of the 1960’s, compared to today’s technology, gave its all for the passing of Padre Pio.

These great Christian heroes seem to fascinate the world, and when one passes from this life we have a tendency to wait and see who God will raise up next. The truth is that God calls all of us to extraordinary sanctity; maybe not on the world stage, for that requires supernatural humility, but certainly in our own little corner of the world.

Alessandro Serenelli, Maria’s murderer, had a major conversion experience during his incarceration which he credits to a dream he had of Maria Goretti. In the dream he said that Maria had handed to him some lilies that she was gathering, and the lilies suddenly appeared to have a heavenly radiance, and he felt her forgiveness. No surprise that he would dream of her forgiveness since she was concerned for his soul as he was attacking her. She said: “No Alessandro! It is a sin. You will go to hell.” Alessandro Serenelli became a model prisoner and was released from prison three years before his sentence was completed. Unfortunately Maria’s forgiveness did not stretch out to the rest of the community, and Alessandro was forced to live as a snubbed vagabond doing some gardening work at various monasteries. It was at a Capuchin community where he died at the age of 87.

Saint Maria Goretti is a model for all of us, teaching us to prefer Christ to all things. She is also a wonderful role model for our youth, teaching them the importance of chastity and their own dignity as children of God.

Saint Maria Goretti, pray for us!

Fifth Sunday after Pentecost (Extraordinary Form)

“The Liturgy presents to us today a great lesson in Christian charity. We must live in union with one another. We are children of God, and we must love Him and our neighbour, who participates as we do in the divine nature” (The Roman Missal 1962).

Introit (Psalm 26:7, 9)
“Hear, O Lord, my voice with which I have cried to Thee: be Thou my helper, forsake me not, do not Thou despise me, O God my Saviour.” Psalm ibid. 1. “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? Glory be to the Father… -- Hear, O Lord, my voice…”

Great words to begin a Liturgy! Because of our sinfulness, we hope for God’s leniency and His mercy. He Who is Love surely cannot despise. Saint Augustine tells us that God gives both light and strength, so that no enemy can hurt His servants. And with confidence in Him, we praise Him with the Trinitarian doxology: Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto.

Collect
“O God, Who hast prepared for them that love Thee such good things as pass understanding: pour into our hearts such love towards Thee, that we, loving Thee in all things and above all things, may obtain Thy promises which exceed all that we can desire. Through our Lord…”

This prayer reflects the words found in 1 Corinthians 2:9. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, and paradise (cf. CCC 1027). Perhaps we could relate to this better by reflecting on when we were children on Christmas Eve. We knew some goodies were coming our way but were never quite sure what it would be. Now, as adults, but still children of God, this prayer calls us to not only live with that same anticipation and excitement as kids on Christmas Eve, but also to fall head over heels in love with the gift Giver.

Epistle, 1 Peter 3:8-15
The Epistle begins with that beautiful Latin word, “Carissimi” – “Beloved” or even “Dearly Beloved”; and yet it sets the tone for what Saint Peter means by “Be ye all of one mind.” We need to be loved and we need to love. Peter expounds on this by giving examples of how we go about doing that: “Having compassion on one another, being lovers of the brotherhood,” or being lovers of the family of God; being “modest, humble, not rendering evil for evil” but instead giving a “blessing.” This sort of echoes the words of the psalmist: “Turn away from evil and do good” (Psalm 33:15).

These instructions come from our first Holy Father, the Vicar of Christ on earth. These are not mere suggestions, but, as he tells us, “unto this you are called.” These are heavenly commands. We live in a trouble world that could use a heaping dose of love; but when engaged in spiritual battle, there’s bound to be suffering but Saint Peter tells us that when that happens, “blessed are ye.”

He closes with the words we heard often in our modern day from Pope John Paul II: “Be not afraid.” Let us sanctify the Lord in our hearts.

Gospel, Saint Matthew 5:20-24
Our Lord Jesus Christ continues with same theme of Saint Peter. The example that we see offered to us in this very secularized culture is one of which our Saviour instructs us to rise above: “Except your justice abound more than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” Strong words! The Scribes and Pharisees were actually held in great honor by many. We see something quite similar today. People are chasing after an ideology that is very appealing: relativism, being my own god, my own pope, I will decide what’s good for me and what isn’t; there is no such thing as absolute truth. Jesus not only calls us to something different, but something quite difficult and elevated. Saint Thomas Aquinas tells us that our Redeemer delivered such strong words to show us that He desires us to live at a great height of perfection. It is not enough to simply believe, but to keep even the very least of His Commandments. We do this through grace. It is the power of the Spirit of the law at work in the letter of the law.

Jesus also touches on the subject of anger. He says that “whosoever is angry with his brother, shall be in danger of the judgment.” Anger comes in stages but need not ever leave the first stage. Harboring anger leads to more serious stages even to the point to which our Lord says “shall be in danger of hell fire.” Allowing anger to fester makes it quite difficult to heed to Saint Peter’s words: “Sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts.”

“If therefore thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remember that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there thy offering before the altar, and go first to be reconciled to thy brother.” Jesus, even after all His suffering before arriving at Calvary, harbored no anger, nor had anything against anyone; and thus He was able to offer the gift of Himself on the Altar of the Cross. Cultivating a humble heart and the process of conversion of heart is a daily, ongoing process.

Perfect Love

During the time for ordained prayer, the devil is wont to arrive in the soul, causing much more conflict and trouble than when the soul is not occupied in prayer. This he does in order that holy prayer may become tedious to the soul.

The devil often places himself upon the tongues of creatures, causing them to chatter nonsensically, with the purpose of preventing the prayer of the soul.

Do not think that the soul receives… ardor and nourishment from prayer, if she prays only vocally, as do many souls whose prayer are words rather than love. But if you ask Me, whether the soul should abandon vocal prayer, I should reply, “No.” The soul should advance by degrees, and I know well that, just as the soul is at first imperfect, and afterwards perfect, so also is it with her prayer. She should nevertheless continue in vocal prayer, while she is yet imperfect, so as not to fall into idleness. But she should not say her vocal prayers without joining them to mental prayer, that is to say, that while she is reciting, she should endeavor to elevate her mind in My love, with the consideration of her own defects and of the Blood of My only-begotten Son, wherein she finds the breadth of My charity, and the remission of her sins.

I do not wish defects to be considered in particular, but in general, so that the mind may not be contaminated by the remembrance of particular and hideous sins. But as I said, I do not wish the soul to consider her sins, either in general or in particular, without also remembering the Blood and the broadness of My mercy, for fear that otherwise she should be brought to confusion. And together with confusion would come the devil, who has caused it. You know that the pride of the devil cannot resist the humble mind, nor can any confusion of spirit be greater than the broadness of My good mercy, if the soul will only truly hope therein.

The soul… should season the knowledge of herself with the knowledge of My goodness, and then vocal prayer will be of use to the soul who makes it, and pleasing to Me, and she will arrive, from the vocal imperfect prayer, exercised with perseverance, at perfect mental prayer.

Perfect prayer is not attained to through many words, but through affection of desire, the soul raising herself to Me, with knowledge of herself and of My mercy. Thus she will exercise together mental and vocal prayer, for, even as the active and contemplative life is one, so are they.

The soul who wishes to arise above imperfection should await My Providence in the House of Self-Knowledge, with the light of faith, as did the disciples, who remained in the house in perseverance and in watching, and in humble and continual prayer, awaiting the coming of the Holy Spirit. She should remain fasting and watching, the eye of her intellect fastened on the doctrine of My Truth, and she will become humble because she will know herself in humble and continual prayer and holy and true desire.

It now remains to be told to you how it can be seen that souls have arrived at perfect love. This is seen by the same sign that was given to the holy disciples after they had received the Holy Spirit, when they came forth from the house, and fearlessly announced the doctrine of My Word, My only-begotten Son, not fearing pain, but rather glorifying therein. They did not mind going before the tyrants of the world, to announce to them the truth, for the glory and praise of My Name. So the soul, who has awaited Me in self-knowledge, receives Me, on My return to her, with the fire of charity, in which charity, while still remaining in the house with perseverance, she conceives the virtues by affection of love, participating in My power; with which power and virtues she overrules and conquers her own sensitive passions, and through which charity she participates in the wisdom of My Son, in which she sees and knows, with the eye of her intellect, My Truth and the deceptions of spiritual self-love, that is, the imperfect love of her own consolations, and she also knows the malice and deceit of the devil, which he practices on those souls who are bound by imperfect love. She therefore arises, with hatred of that imperfection and with love of perfection, and through this charity, which is of the Holy Spirit, she participates in His will, and coming out of the house through My Name, she brings forth the virtues on her neighbor.

~Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena~

Vianney, Curé of Ars

The folks at Saint Luke Productions are producing the play “Vianney, Curé of Ars” which will be touring the United States. The Curé d’Ars role is being played by a familiar name to Catholic drama, Leonardo Defilippis. He is also the Founder and Director of Saint Luke Productions. On both film and stage he has played various Catholic heroes like John of the Cross and Maximilian Kolbe. Saint Luke Productions also received much attention in recent history with the film, “Thérèse.” You can look at the touring schedule on their website as well as schedule a performance in your area.

Revisiting Sister Nazarena

Back on 30 December 2008, I posted a story on Julia Crotta, also known in religious life as Sister Nazarena. She was a Camaldolese recluse. My post was based on a book I read titled, “Nazarena, an American Anchoress.” Time Magazine also did a story on her. Here’s a look back to that article from 13 April 1962.

In a coarse sackcloth robe worn over a hairshirt, she sits alone in her stone-floored cell. Her food is bread, water, an occasional cooked vegetable. Through a small grilled window she may look into a chapel, and down a narrow passageway there is another barred window where she takes her daily communion. In the cell is a straight chair, a table, a board that serves as her bed and a small washroom with a cold shower. Not since she closed the door behind her 16 years ago has she ever left this confined area.

This austere regime belongs to a 54-year-old American woman, one of the nuns in the Camaldolese Convent in the fashionable Aventine Hill section of Rome. Her name is Julia Crotta; to her sister nuns, who may now and then hear her cough or murmur but never see her, she is known as Sister Nazarena.

All the Camaldolese sisters rise at 4 for prayer, observe silence for most of the day, abstain entirely from meat during Lent and Advent. But Sister Nazarena practices a degree of asceticism that is extraordinary even for her order. She is one of the few nuns in the world with ecclesiastical permission to attempt the hermitlike life known as reclusion. Her only contacts with the outside world are with the priest who daily gives her communion and with the convent abbess who visits her from time to time. This week Sister Nazarena and her sister nuns are busy cutting palm leaves for the Vatican's Palm Sunday. It is a time of "extra strict silence."

Not even her family quite understands why Julia Crotta undertook so arduous a vocation. She was born and raised in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Julia, her family remembers, was a cheerful, fun-loving girl with an aptitude for music. She studied violin and theory at the Yale School of Music, but left to take a four-year liberal arts course at New Haven's Albertus Magnus College for women. "She loved life, dancing, good movies and good clothes," says a brother-in-law.

After college, Julia taught violin and piano, worked in Manhattan. She was briefly engaged to marry, but broke it off and joined a convent of Carmelite nuns in Newport, R.I. The Carmelites were not strict enough for her; she left the convent and went to Rome, where a priest advised her to try the Camaldolese. In 1945 her abbess gave Sister Nazarena permission to attempt reclusion.

Rome's Camaldolese sisters make ends meet by cooking and scrubbing for a local pensioner, and laundering altar linens for a nearby Benedictine seminary. Sister Nazarena shares in the convent work by sewing and cutting the palms; her materials are delivered to her cell by a nun who taps at her door, whispers "Deo gratias," waits long enough for Sister Nazarena to hide in a recess of her cell, then sets the cloth or fronds inside the door.

At night, long after the other nuns have retired, she stays awake to pray; in her cell she has a "discipline" with the tiny whip that certain religious use to scourge themselves in mortification. In her solitary life, Sister Nazarena prays, explains one nun, "for you, for me, for all of us." Solitude with her God seems to agree with her. "She is the most serene person I have ever known," says her abbess Mother Hildegarde. "She is a saint."

Litany of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.

God the Father of Heaven, have mercy on us.
God the Son, Redeemer of the world, have mercy on us.
God, the Holy Spirit, have mercy on us.
Holy Trinity, One God, have mercy on us.

Blood of Christ, only-begotten Son of the eternal Father, save us.
Blood of Christ, Incarnate Word of God, save us.
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Testament, save us.
Blood of Christ, falling upon the earth in Agony, save us.
Blood of Christ, shed profusely in the Scourging, save us.
Blood of Christ, flowing forth in the Crowning with Thorns, save us.
Blood of Christ, poured out on the Cross, save us.
Blood of Christ, price of our salvation, save us.
Blood of Christ, without which there is no forgiveness, save us.
Blood of Christ, Eucharistic drink and refreshment of souls, save us.
Blood of Christ, stream of mercy, save us.
Blood of Christ, Victor over demons, save us.
Blood of Christ, courage of Martyrs, save us.
Blood of Christ, strength of Confessors, save us.
Blood of Christ, bringing forth virgins, save us.
Blood of Christ, help of those in peril, save us.
Blood of Christ, relief of the burdened, save us.
Blood of Christ, solace in sorrow, save us.
Blood of Christ, hope of the penitent, save us.
Blood of Christ, consolation of the dying, save us.
Blood of Christ, peace and tenderness of hearts, save us.
Blood of Christ, pledge of eternal life, save us.
Blood of Christ, freeing souls from purgatory, save us.
Blood of Christ, most worthy of all glory and honor, save us.

Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord.
Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us, O Lord.

You have redeemed us, O Lord, in Your Blood. And made us, for our God, a Kingdom.

Let us pray. Almighty and eternal God, You have appointed Your only-begotten Son the Redeemer of the world and willed to be appeased by His Blood. Grant, we beg of You, that we may worthily adore this price of our salvation and through its power be safeguarded from the evils of the present life so that we may rejoice in its fruits forever in heaven. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Solemnity of the Most Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ

In Egypt, at midnight, God threatened the Egyptians with the tenth plague, by which their first-born should perish, because they kept in captivity His first-born people. But, lest the beloved Jews should share their danger, because they were all in the same place, He found, in His wisdom, a remedy. Behold then a wonderful figure, that you may learn His power in truth. The anger of the divine indignation was expected, and the Angel of Death circled over every home. What, therefore, did Moses do? Kill, he said, a yearling lamb, and sprinkle the doors with its blood. What did you say, Moses? Is the blood of a sheep likely to deliver a reasoning man? In truth, he says, not by what that blood is in itself, but because by it, there is displayed a figure of the Blood of the Lord.

For as the statues of monarchs, mindless and speechless images though they are, have sometimes been a helpful refuge to men endowed with soul and reason, not because they are made of bronze, but because the likeness they bear is a King's. And just so did this unconscious blood deliver the lives of men, not because it was blood, but because it foreshadowed the shedding of the Blood of Jesus. On that night in Egypt, when the destroying Angel saw the blood upon the lintel and on the two side-posts, he passed over the door, and dared not to enter into the house. Even so now much more will the destroyer of souls flee away when he sees, not the lintel and the two side-posts sprinkled with the blood of a lamb, but the mouth of the faithful Christian, the living dwelling of the Holy Spirit, shining with the Blood of the True Messiah. For if the Angel stopped before the type, how much more shall the enemy tremble if he should perceive the reality itself? Would you like to hear more of the power of that Blood? I am willing. Consider from what source it wells up, from what fountain it springs forth. Its fountain is the Cross itself, its source is the Side of the Lord. The soldier opened His Side, and laid open the wall of that holy Temple; and I have found that most noble treasure, and I rejoice to discover the glittering riches.

And so was it done concerning that Lamb; the Jews killed a sheep, and I have learned the value of the sacrament. From the Side flowed forth Blood and Water. I would not, my hearer, that you should pass by the depths of such a mystery as this without pausing; for I have yet a mystical and mysterious discourse to deliver. I have said that the Water and Blood showed symbolically baptism and the sacraments. For from these, the holy Church was founded by the laver of regeneration, and the renovation of the Holy Spirit. Through baptism, I say, and through the sacraments, which seem to have issued from His Side. It was therefore out of the Side of Christ that the Church was created, just as it was out of the side of Adam that Eve was raised up to be his bride. This is the reason why Paul says, no doubt in allusion to his Side: We are members of His Body, and of His Bones. For even as God made the woman Eve out of the rib which He had taken out of the side of Adam, so has Christ made the Church out of the Blood and Water which He made to flow for us out of His own Side.

Saint John Chrysostom