Obedience Isn't Such an Awful Thing

Obedience Isn't Such an Awful Thing

By Fr. Steve Ryan, SDB

From Fr. Steve's The Don newsletter, July 28, 2018

I just left Tampa Thursday morning. After being here for six years and loving it, now I’m going to live the next chapter of my Salesian life in New York. I have a new assignment which comes to me through the vow of obedience. It was issued to me by my religious superior, the provincial. My new assignment was given to me with consideration for my gifts and talents, and there is even a bit of a promotion with it, but… it’s not my first choice. My first choice would be just to stay in Tampa for another six years. However, I have no option – I have to move. Why? Because I took the vow of obedience. You can’t make a vow to Almighty God and then make up your own rules on how and when and where it applies. In a marriage you can’t stand before the altar and tell your spouse that you promise fidelity, permanence, total transparency and unity, then spend the next 50 years doing your own thing. It won’t work. The marriage would be a farce. It’s the same thing for the vows that a consecrated religious takes. Where the “rubber hits the road” is when you live those evangelical counsels in concrete ways.

Ordinand (Deacon Abe Feliciano) promising obedience to his lawful superiors before his ordination 

to the priesthood by Bishop Luc Van Looy, SDB. Photo by Fr. Franco Pinto.

How does a religious sister or brother “take a change” brought about by obedience? There is only one way – take it cheerfully. God has something good awaiting us in the next chapter of our lives. Say it – “Thy Will be done.” God worked great miracles through his Saints because of their humble obedience! By cheerfully going where we are asked to go, we free our hearts, minds and souls for a greater part of God's plan.

When stuff happens in life – like sickness, divorce, unemployment, addiction, accidents, even unexpected deaths – and this stuff is thrown on us directly or indirectly, we have no choice but to deal with it. Deal with the “plate” put in front of you. Eat the plate served. Also, live the commitments you made and deal with the people to whom you’ve made those commitments. When the playing field changes as the game goes along – deal and adapt. Hang in there!

Fr. Steve Dumais SDB said something in our parish bulletin once: By obeying when it’s hard, God gives us a beautiful gift, if we can but grasp its importance. We get to substitute HIS WILL for our will. If we are spiritually open and compliant we can be God-like by accepting humbly. By being cheerfully obedient, just like our favorite Saints, we free ourselves for the totality of the mission – the mission that Jesus wants for us at this present moment in our lives. For a religious brother, priest or sister, it’s the mission which our superior has set before us.

Let’s remember to rely on our Blessed Mother and let’s remember that she always “has our back”. She is such a support for us in remaining obedient to the Will of God! Our total trust in God will allow us to more fully be His instruments. Mary, the Blessed Mother, is the perfect instrument and vessel. She calls us and encourages us. Obedience isn’t such an awful thing! 

History keeps you in touch

“History keeps you in touch with the origins of what you do.”

Interview with British SDB Historian Fr. John Dickson

By Clarence Watts, SDB

(ANS – Johannesburg, South Africa – July 26) – Fr. John Dickson was born in Iran, where his dad was working for an oil company. During a political crisis in Iran, his family was expelled from Iran. He was six weeks old when they were expelled, a refugee at a very young age! This year he celebrates 50 years as a Salesian [August 15]. He is currently rector of the Salesian community in Chertsey, England, governor of a school of 1,500 pupils, and also Royal University chaplain, now in his sixth year. During his stay in Johannesburg for history research, he was interviewed by the Southern Africa Salesian Bulletin, “Don Bosco Echo.”

What is the state of youth in Europe? How do you view the situation?

Youth in Europe. At the university: 47% no religion, 33% Christian, 4% Muslim, 1% Jewish, 1% Sikh, and 2% Hindu. A very secular atmosphere at university.

Young people very strongly long for a sort of relationship, an authentic relationship. Young people are searching for belonging, finding their way. A place that is welcoming.

My role as chaplain: an educational role, to help people understand that people of faith are not peculiar; they are open to life.

I go to Muslim prayer and Hindu prayer; you are there with them, and they want to see that you care about them and pray with them.

History: How did it start and who influenced you?

As a child we had a public library which was free. Every Saturday morning my mother encouraged me, and we would walk to the library; borrow books and read them. It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. I like stories and I like history; I think it is written into my DNA, this love for stories and history. The Scottish people have a passion for sharing stories, similar to the Celts. “If you ask me a question, I will end up telling you a story.” 

My novice master, Fr. Martin McPake, got me interested in historical research. Five years after my ordination, I taught at the seminary; I did my doctorate on the history of Salesians in England.  [Blogger’s note: Fr. John’s dissertation was published by the Salesian Historical Institute in Rome in 1991: The dynamics of growth: The foundation and development of the Salesians in England.  Amazon has 1 copy, paperback, in stock, listed for $39.66.]

History is not just a set of stories; its about life stories of people. Salesians are good at making history but useless at writing history.

What brought you to South Africa?  

I am writing about one of the pioneers of the AFM [Southern Africa] Province, Fr. [William] Ainsworth [d. 2005], who was the first provincial delegate to South Africa [when Southern Africa was part of the Anglo-Irish Province]. He was born in 1908, trained as an engineer, became a Salesian. He was a very open-minded person and a man of fairness. A man of great wisdom.

Why is it important to preserve the memory of Salesian history, our heritage?

If you don’t know the tree which you are a branch of, you are in danger of clipping yourself off. In other words, if you don’t understand where you come from, then the danger is you think you are doing something new, and you end up chopping yourself off from the whole tree.

It is also a question of identity. The history of a province and the history of the Congregation is a question of identity. There must be a dialogue between your present situation you are living in and your origins. As Vatican II said, “Be aware of the deposit of faith and how to adapt to the present times.” If you end up only talking about what happened in the past, you will die, and if you just talk about what is happening in the minute, the present, you just become current and disappear very quickly.

Homily for 17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the

17th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 29, 2018

Ps 145: 10-11, 15-18
Nativity, Washington, D.C.

“You open your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing” (Ps 145: 15).

In the life of St. John Bosco there are at least 3 instances in which he worked a multiplication miracle.  One instance in 1849 involved humble boiled chestnuts, a treat for 600 of his oratory boys returning from a hike to a cemetery on All Souls Day.  Because of a communications lapse, an insufficient supply of the goodies had been prepared.  Don Bosco just ladled them out to every boy like the supply was endless.  And it was.[1]

(art by Nino Musio)

Better known is the time in October 1860 when the Oratory ran out of bread—the baker having cut off credit—and there was but one basket of rolls to give the hundreds of boys for their meager breakfast.  But Don Bosco personally handed out the rolls—not his usual practice.  Every boy got his breakfast, and the one basket was still full at the end.[2]

And there was a feastday in the late 1840s when the sacristan, aware that there were just a few consecrated hosts left in the tabernacle, prepared a big, full ciborium for Mass but then forgot to put it out at the altar.  When hundreds of boys came forward for Communion, Don Bosco was taken by surprise, with almost no hosts to give them.  A quick prayer—and Communion for everyone who came to partake, with the original number of hosts left over.[3]

Ps 145—part of which was our responsory this evening—for ages was a customary prayer of blessing before meals in religious houses and institutions.  As a whole, it’s a prayer of praise to God, the Lord of creation; a praise of God’s dominion established by his providence and his righteousness.  Observing all his wondrous creation and his wondrous deeds, all of humanity responds by glorifying him.[4]  The psalm reminds us of God’s providence toward his people in the past and invokes it in the present.

We just recalled 3 ways in Don Bosco’s life in which God provided for his people, for the poor boys of the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales who were abandoned in one way or another until Christ and his Mother brought them to Don Bosco, 3 ways in which the Lord opened his hand and satisfied the desires of those poor little ones.

God “satisfies the desire of every living thing.”  He gave Don Bosco’s boys chestnuts as a treat; he gave them the bread they needed for the day; he gave them the Bread of eternal life.

In the Scripture readings for today, we hear of God’s providing his people with their bread for the day, miraculously providing it:  Elisha feeding 100 people with a mere 20 barley loaves, and some was even left over (2 Kgs 4:42-44); and Jesus feeding 5,000 men, besides the women and children, with 5 barley loaves and 2 fish (John 6:1-13).  We know, moreover, that Jesus was feeding the crowd with more than bread and fish.  They were coming to him hungering for life—in hope of healing for their bodies, some of them; and healing for their hearts, most of them.  Jesus fed their souls as well as their bodies by teaching them; John doesn’t mention that, but Mark does (6:34), and of course all the evangelists speak extensively of how Jesus taught the people.

A 15th-c. New Testament

with illustration of the miracle

of the loaves and fish

St. John reports that, feeding the crowd with these 5 loaves, “Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them” (John 6:11).  That’s eucharistic language; John even uses the verb eucharistésas for “gave thanks”—foreshadowing what is to come as we continue to read John 6, as we shall do for the next 4 weeks.

While in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus tells the apostles to distribute the loaves and fish to the people, in John Jesus does it personally.  He personally cares for his flock.  There’s no more personal way that he cares for his flock than by feeding us with his own Person in the Eucharist, opening his hands to satisfy the deepest desires of our living souls:  the desire for a union of our hearts with Someone, the desire of our hearts for eternal life.  Jesus will speak of that in coming weeks in relation to the bread that he gives us which is neither barley nor the manna of Moses.

Thru Jesus, God does directly open his hand for his people to satisfy the desires of our souls, thru the Eucharist, thru consolations, thru forgiveness, and in other ways.  But God also uses us—needs us—to be his open hands to satisfy people’s desires.  To paraphrase St. Paul (2 Cor 1:3-4), we can offer to the sorrowful, the lonely, the frightened the same consolations, companionship, and encouragement we have ourselves received, from Christ or from others.  We can commend the virtues of our relatives, friends, and colleagues, encouraging them to persevere in their Christian discipleship.

When we pray in the Our Father that God give us our daily bread, we’re not asking only for the Eucharist but also for the bodily food that we need.  “He opens his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing.”  Certainly God has made the earth rich enuf to satisfy the hunger of every human being.  If some go hungry—and millions do, every day—it’s not for lack of God’s providence but for human selfishness:  the greed of warlords who destroy crops, plunder herds, destroy villages, and compel people to flee for their lives; the greed of wealthy landowners who begrudge their peasant neighbors a patch of land to farm or a living wage; and perhaps even the gluttony of the Western world that grossly overeats and so uses a grossly disproportionate share of the world’s agricultural resources.

In the Our Father we also pray, “Thy kingdom come.”  May the Lord’s dominion be recognized.  May it be present among us.  That could be a prayer for the 2d coming of Christ.  It’s certainly a prayer that we may place ourselves under God’s rule.  Jesus announced that the kingdom of God was at hand.  In part, his kingdom is evidenced by our lives.  One of the formulas for dismissal at the end of Mass is, “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

We who have been blessed with so many material blessings can open our hands to the less fortunate, imitating the Lord of creation who is “holy in all his works” and “near to all who call upon him” (Ps 145:17-18).  Opening our hands might involve offering food for the body, as when the parish has a food drive for the needy at Thanksgiving or other times, or helping with a food pantry or soup kitchen.  Wasn’t it a marvelous thing that Judge Brett Kavanaugh, on the same day that he was nominated to the Supreme Court, kept his appointment to help at Catholic Charities’ soup kitchen, and without any fanfare?  Just helping God open his hand to satisfy the desires of his hungry people.

There are, of course, numerous other desires that people have which we can help the Lord to satisfy.  Feeding the hungry is but one of the corporal works of mercy identified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.  Others include sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, burying the dead, and giving alms to the poor.[5]  There are also 7 spiritual works of mercy.  It seems to me that somewhere in these lists we ought to include also defending immigrants and the victims of racism and speaking up for the unborn and single moms and the genuine needs of the elderly and sick (which do not include assisted suicide).

So, yes, God does “open his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing,” both simple desires like chestnuts and other treats, and serious desires, both material and spiritual.  We may be sure that our Lord Jesus meets some of those desires directly; but, as he did thru Don Bosco some 160 years ago, God often relies upon us to be his open, generous hands.

---

      [1] BM 3:404-405.

      [2] BM 6:453-455.

      [3] BM 3:311-312.

      [4] See José Maria Casciaro et al., eds., The Navarre Bible: The Psalms (NY: Scepter, 2003), p. 463.

      [5] Catechism of the Catholic Church #2447.

Nicaragua Pro-government Paramilitaries Try to Kill Salesian Bishop

Nicaragua Pro-government Paramilitaries Try to Kill Salesian Bishop

Bishop Mata Guevara “Miraculously” Escapes Ambush

(ANS – Masaya, Nicaragua – July 24) – On July 15, in what appears to have been a planned attack by paramilitaries, the car in which Salesian Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara was hit by a barrage of bullets fired by an armed group on the road between Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, to Masaya, where several Salesian works are located. The bishop and his driver miraculously escaped unharmed; the car’s windows and two tires were destroyed by a dozen bullets.

“In all likelihood, that was a failed attack,” says Fr. Francisco Rodriguez “Paco” de Coro, SDB. It seems quite evident that the Church of Nicaragua is in the crosshairs of the violent repression which the Sandinista government of President Daniel Ortega has implemented against anyone who opposes the regime. Bishops, priests, and friars had attempted to act as mediators. Now, because they are working to help the victims and refugees during these tough times, they have been moved to the top of the “black list” of Ortega’s opponents by the so-called “Turbas,” the pro-government groups of paramilitaries, fomented also by different organs of communication that have defined the religious as “traitors.”

This recent attack targeted Bishop Juan Abelardo Mata Guevara, SDB, 72 years old, who has been bishop of Estelí since 1990. He is a former president of Nicaragua’s Bishops Conference and a member of the episcopal commission charged with mediating dialog between the government and civil society. His is one of the most critical voices against President Ortega’s government.

Roberto Petray, the bishop’s assistant, said the bishop “was intercepted by paramilitaries, who fired bullets at the car, breaking glass and trying to set fire to it.” Escaping unharmed, the bishop took refuge in a house, where National Police agents showed up and escorted him safely to Managua.

Source: Vatican Insider and Paco de Coro, SDB

Fr. Vincent Paczkowski, SDB (1955-2018)

Fr. Vincent Paczkowski, SDB (1955-2018)

Fr. Vincent Paczkowski was called home to the Lord, from Surrey, B.C., on the afternoon of July 21 after an illness that appeared in May and required chemotherapy. That, however, did not help his condition, and earlier in July he had it discontinued.

Fr. Vince had just taken up a new assignment at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Surrey in November 2017. He was 63 years old and had been a Salesian almost 43 years and a priest for 32 years.

Vince was born in Jersey City, N.J., to Vincent and Hedwig Paczkowski on April 28, 1955, and was baptized at St. Anthony’s Church in Jersey City. He grew up in Secaucus, where he was confirmed at Immaculate Conception Church. He entered Salesian Junior Seminary in Goshen, N.Y., in 1970. Years later he recalled, “What led me to become a Salesian was when I went on a Salesian vocation retreat, it was the way the Salesian priests and brothers interacted with us especially during recreation time. Their joy and friendliness had an impact on me.” 

After his high school graduation entered St. Joseph’s Novitiate in Newton, N.J., in 1974. He made his first religious profession in Newton on September 1, 1975.

Bro. Vince taught briefly at Salesian High School in New Rochelle, N.Y., and Mary Help of Christians School in Tampa and was on the staff of Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. Following theological studies at the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, from 1982 to 1986, he was ordained at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Pelham, N.Y., on May 25, 1986.

Almost his entire priestly ministry was in parishes as youth minister and assistant pastor: Mary Help of Christians in Manhattan (1986-1995), St. Thomas the Apostle in Harlem (1995-1997), St. Anthony of Padua in Elizabeth, N.J. (1997-2005), Corpus Christi Church in Port Chester, N.Y. (2007-2014), and Our Lady of the Valley (2014-2017). Of this he wrote in 2015, “The ministry that satisfied me the most was my work with youth in theater in a parish setting. I had the opportunity to do this for 18 years, and often I look back at it with great satisfaction.”

Fr. Vince was also on the retreat team at Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw-Stony Point from 2005 to 2007.

Fr. Vince and then-Bro. Mike Eguino entertaining fellow retreatants 

at Don Bosco Retreat Center in August 2010.

At the time of his 25th anniversary of ordination, in 2011, Fr. Vince wrote: “My vocation as a Salesian priest has given me the opportunity to serve God’s people, particularly the young. Throughout these past 25 years, God has shown me in many ways that He has chosen me for this particular mission.”

Fr. Vince's parents are both deceased.  He's survived by his sister.

Services for Fr. Vince will be held on Tuesday, July 24, at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, 10460 139th St., Surrey, British Columbia V3T 4L5, with a wake beginning at 4:00 p.m. and a Mass of Christian Burial at 7:00 p.m.

Also, a wake and Mass of Christian Burial will take place on Friday, July 27,  at Corpus Christi Church in Port Chester, N.Y., where Fr. Vince served as parochial vicar and youth minister for 7 years. The wake will be from 4:00 to 6:30 p.m. and the funeral Mass at 7:00 p.m.

Fr. Vince will be laid to rest in the Salesian Cemetery in Goshen, N.Y., on Saturday, July 28, at 10:00 a.m.

Homily for 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 19, 2009

Mark 6: 30-34

St. Timothy, Banksville, N.Y.

 “The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught” (Mark 6: 30).

In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus sent the apostles out to preach repentance, heal the sick, and drive out demons—with a warning that not everyone would accept them and their message (6:7-13).  Today they return from their mission.  We can’t tell from Mark’s words whether they return elated by some success and warm receptions, or dejected by rejections.  But it seems they had plenty to say—“they reported all they had done and taught”—and maybe there’s a hint here of pride, of losing sight in whose name and by whose power they’ve been doing and teaching.  Some commentators on this passage take note of their reports on what they have done, rather than on what God has done thru them.

The better to understand what’s happening in today’s gospel, we note what precedes this return of the apostles and Jesus’ taking them aside “to a deserted place” (6:31), and what’s about to happen when the crowds follow them to this place.

Sermon on the Mount (Ivan Makarov)

What’s going to happen, and you may already know this, is that Jesus will feed them miraculously.  That’ll be our gospel next Sunday.

What has happened just before the apostles return—our lectionary cycle skips over this—is that King Herod has imprisoned and executed John the Baptist (6:14-29).

Jesus and the apostles, then, have good reason to take a break, to try to go on retreat, as it were.  They have plenty to reflect on:  the apostles’ mission, all that they did and taught, and what it means for them and for Jesus; and the implications of what Herod has done because of what a prophet has taught.  Jesus has warned them that they and their message might be rejected, and boy! have they seen the gravity of the warning, if not in their own travels around the villages of Galilee, certainly in the fate of John.

Coke used to advertise with the slogan “The pause that refreshes.”  (Most of you are old enuf to remember that.)  That’s Jesus’ intent here, for—as Mark comments—“people were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat” (6:31).  This before the age of telemarketing —all those annoying phone calls at dinnertime!

Pausing, reflecting, stepping aside with Jesus is necessary for every disciple.  Our lives are full of doings, of conversations, of travel, or human interactions, of stress.  Our world is chaotic and confusing, sometimes frightening and dangerous.  That’s why businessmen and congressmen make professional retreats.  We disciples of Jesus have to do some of that too.

We need to stop and think about our lives, our actions, our words, our relationships and how all those bear on our being disciples of Jesus.  Are we doing and teaching as Jesus wants us to?  Do we have a personal relationship with Jesus?  In the words of a poster from the 1970s, “If you were put on trial for being a disciple of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

Furthermore, we need to stop and reflect about the world we live in, and our place in it as disciples of Jesus.  There are plenty of King Herods around, people who are unfriendly to the Christian message.  Do they tempt us to trim our Christian sails, to cut moral corners, to be less obvious Catholics?  On the positive side, how are we making the world a better place, a more ethical place, a more humane place, a more just place, a happier place?  A Christian who’s not salt and light for the world, Jesus says isn’t worth anything (Matt 5:13-16).

Jesus and the apostles’ plan for a little down time doesn’t quite work out.  “People saw them leaving and … hastened there on foot from all the towns and arrived at the place before them” (6:33).  Bummer!

So does Jesus tell them all to go away, as you and I probably would do?  Can’t we have a little privacy, folks?  If he let out a primal scream, or even groaned, St. Mark doesn’t say so.  “When he … saw the vast crowd, his heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd” (6:34).  There’s a contrast here between Jesus’ sentiments and those of King Herod.  In the Hebrew tradition, going back to King David, the shepherd boy who became king, the king is the shepherd of his people.  The king stands in God’s place, God being the true King of Israel.  And “the Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Ps 23:1).  King Herod doesn’t give a hoot about the people, as we’ve just witnessed in his treatment of John the Baptist.  Jesus feels compassion for them.  Herod takes care of his pals—John’s destruction came at a lavish party.  But the people are hungry, and as we’ll see next week, Jesus is the one who feeds them.  Herod is no shepherd—which is why Jesus’ “heart was moved with pity for [the crowd], for they were like sheep without a shepherd.”  Jesus is the good shepherd.

But feeding them with bread (and fish) isn’t the 1st thing Jesus does.  There’s something even more fundamental than food for the body.  “He began to teach them many things” (6:34).  The 1st thing Jesus does in his compassion for the crowds is to teach them.  People hunger for sound teaching, for truth—which obviously they don’t get from their Jewish king, who murders prophets; nor will they get it from their Roman overlord—Pontius Pilate will ask Jesus scornfully or perhaps skeptically, “What is truth?” (John 18:38).

When we were children, we certainly longed to be fed—and to be held and loved, and to be entertained.  But we also had insatiable curiosity, didn’t we?  We were always asking our parents questions about the world, about people.  We all have an inbuilt desire for truth, which begins with wondering how things work and such, why is that man doing that or that woman saying that.  But eventually we get to the real meat:  we want to know who we are, why we’re here, where we’re going.  Those are the sorts of things that Jesus addressed, and what the crowds hungered for.  Those are the sorts of things for which we still turn to Jesus and to those whom Jesus has commissioned to do and to teach in his name:  his apostles, the successors of his apostles, our Catholic bishops.  We call them shepherds of the flock of God because they nourish us with the Gospel and with the Gospel’s implications for our own day—with the truth, in other words.  The Church is the continuing compassion of God for the crowds of humanity.

At least it’s supposed to be.  That’s what bishops and priests are supposed to be.  And all of us.  For all of us are the Body of Christ.  We’re all supposed to hunger for the truth, and to do and teach the truth:  to our children, our co-parishioners, our neighbors, our fellow citizens.  We’re all supposed to try to shape our families and our society according to the truth:  to who God is, who we are as human beings made in God’s image.

New Vice Province of Malta Established

New Vice Province of Malta Established

(ANS – Rome – July 19) – During the summer session of the SDB general council, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, Rector Major, with the consent of the council, upgraded the Salesian presence in Malta from that of a delegation of the Irish Province to a vice province.

In view of the appointment of the first superior of the new vice province – which has been placed under the patronage of Mary Help of Christians and will bear the initials “MLT” – the councilor for the Central and Northern Europe Region, Fr. Tadeusz Rozmus, went to Sliema and on July 14 met for consultations with the Salesians of Malta.

By OCHA, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32649324

The establishment of the new vice province occurs almost 40 years since the provincial delegation of Malta was born, dependent on the province of Ireland, and constitutes a further step toward an existence of full autonomy for the Salesian presence in the Maltese archipelago.

“The development of the charism in Malta has been characterized in recent years by a growing, youthful dynamism, by new Salesian vocations, and by great public appreciation toward Don Bosco and his works,” said Fr. Rozmus. “Moreover, the average age of the confreres allows us to hope for the increase of the charism even outside Malta and represents a good prerequisite for future expectations that the creation of the new vice province expresses.”

The decision of the Rector Major was accompanied by a serious and profound discernment, carried out together with the Salesians of the Irish Province and accompanied by the general council. Such a process not only led to the choice of the inauguration for Malta, but also provided the opportunity to express gratitude to the Irish Province.

The fraternal presence of the Irish Salesians, who have always shown great attention for the development of the Salesian charism in Malta, was spoken of and highlighted by many. “The success of the new vice province is, therefore, also their success,” added Fr. Rozmus. “Of course, both sides are very interested in continuing their collaboration, and some points of common interest have already been underscored.”

Currently, the new vice province has 36 Salesians and two novices who are finishing their novitiate in Pinerolo, Italy. Four Maltese youths are carrying out their postnovitiate in Malta, while two others are about to finish the formation course in theology at the Crocetta Faculty in Turin. Various European provinces are also collaborating with Malta, especially in Poland; at this moment there are four Polish Salesians in Malta, who are completing their practical training.

On July 19, the Rector Major, with the consent of his council, appointed Fr. Paul Formosa as the first superior of the Malta Vice Province. He is the current superior of Malta’s provincial delegation.

Fr. Formosa, from Valletta, Malta, was born on October 31, 1960. After completing his novitiate in Dublin, in 1981, he made his perpetual vows in Dingli, Malta, on July 2, 1987, and was ordained in Valletta on July 14, 1989.

After completing his formation in Ireland, he did most of his ministry in the Maltese archipelago, where he served as treasurer at both the Sant’Alfonso Salesian community in Sliema (1991-1995) and Dingli (1998-2007); he also became director of the Dingli community (2001-2007) before returning to Sant’Alfonso as director (2007-2016).

For the province delegation of Malta, dependent on the province of Ireland, he was treasurer (2004-2008) and delegate for youth ministry (2004-2011 and 2012-2017), as well as superior of the delegation from 2011 until his nomination as provincial.

The Maltese Vice Province is the 2d such circumscription erected during the current plenary session of the general council. In June the delegation of Indonesia was so elevated. There are now 90 provinces and vice provinces in the SDB world.

Salesian Cardinal August Hlond Declared Venerable

Rector Major Publishes Letter on Cardinal's Life and Virtues 

(ANS – Rome – July 18) – On May 19, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for Saints’ Causes to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of the Servant of God August Joseph Hlond, SDB, archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw, primate of Poland, cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, founder of the Society of Christ for the Emigrants.

Venerable August Hlond was born on July 5, 1881, in Brzeczkowice, Poland, and died in Warsaw on October 22, 1948.

Regarding the decree, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime sent a letter to the Salesians and the entire Salesian Family in which he traces the stages of Cardinal Hlond’s life, both as Salesian and as archbishop-primate of the Polish Church and then highlights several traits.

Cardinal Hlond was a virtuous man, a luminous example of a Salesian religious, and a generous, austere pastor, capable of prophetic visions. Obedient to the Church and firm in the exercise of authority, he showed heroic humility and unequivocal constancy in moments of greatest trial. He cultivated poverty and did justice to the poor and needy. The two columns of his spiritual life, learned at the school of St. John Bosco, were the Eucharist and Mary Help of Christians.

In the history of the Polish Church, Cardinal August Hlond was one of the most eminent figures for the religious witness of his life, the greatness, variety, and originality of his pastoral ministry and for the sufferings he faced for the Kingdom of God with an intrepid Christian spirit. Apostolic ardor distinguished the pastoral work and spiritual physiognomy of Venerable August Hlond, who, taking as his episcopal motto Da mihi animas coetera tolle, as a true son of Saint John Bosco, confirmed it with his life as a consecrated person and bishop, giving witness of tireless pastoral charity.

In this year in which the strenna invites all to cultivate the art of listening and accompanying, the testimony of Venerable August Hlond shines forth as a true guide and pastor of his people, committed to defending the freedom of the Church and the dignity of man in an era marked by great trials and persecutions, such as Poland experienced under the Nazi occupation first, and then under the Communist regime.

The full text of the RM’s letter is available here.

Rector Major Announces 2019 Strenna

Rector Major Announces 2019 Strenna
“‘So that my joy may be in you’ (John 15:11). Holiness for you, too!”

(ANS – Rome – July 13) – On July 13 Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime presented the 2019 Strenna for the Salesian Family. “This is a great opportunity to offer several notes for the development of the theme. There is no other pastoral element that the Rector Major offers, in the name of Don Bosco, to the whole Salesian world.” The theme for the Salesian Family’s journey in 2019 is, “‘So that my joy may be in you’ (John 15:11). Holiness for you, too.”

Although it is the Rector Major’s task to prepare and present the text each year, Fr. Fernandez emphasizes that this strenna “is the fruit of a dialog in the world council of the Salesian Family which, fortunately and by grace, has much to do with this ecclesial moment of the [youth] synod, and also with the last appeal that the synod document launched on the theme of holiness.”

The document presented on the 13th to the Salesian world consists of nine sections. In the seventh, the Rector Major insists on an essential reality of holiness, and he does it through a question: “What does ‘holiness for you too’ mean?” It is an exciting topic that this question offers, and even more exciting is the answer proposed to each Salesian Family member. “Holiness is not an optional ‘extra,’ and a goal only for some. It is life to the full, according to God’s plan and gift. It is therefore a path of humanization.”

Daily sanctity has become a reality in the lives lived to the full through the Salesian charism. We are thus invited not to forget that in the course of history Salesian holiness has become visible, embodied with people’s proper names: Zeman, Stuchly, Lustosa, Zatti, Srugi, Sandor, Lunkenbien and Simão Bororo, Comini, Anna Maria Lozano, Laura Vicuña, Alexandrina Maria da Costa, among many others.

Fr. Fernandez goes on to say that the presentation of Strenna 2019 “is a magnificent opportunity to be in harmony with the summons that the Holy Father addresses in his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et exsultate, which has much to do with our Salesian charism. Don Bosco was a great teacher in this sense, with the ability to inspire and accompany his children on the paths of daily holiness.”

“What is important is to be holy, not to be declared as such,” emphasizes the Rector Major. “The canonized saints are like the façade of a church; but the church contains many precious treasures inside, which remain invisible, however.”

The full presentation of the Rector Major’s strenna for 2019 is available on the sdb.org website.

Homily for 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

July 15, 2018

Eph 1: 3-14
Our Lady of Lourdes, Bethesda, Md.

“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … chose us in him” (Eph 1: 3).

Street scene in Ephesus
By Ad Meskens - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8905604

This morning we begin 7 weeks of Sunday readings from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, to his Christian converts in the city of Ephesus in the Roman province of Asia Minor, on the west coast of what is now Turkey.

One commentator describes this letter as “a general exposition of the Christian vision of salvation history:  the plan of God, set from all eternity, realized by Christ, unfolds in the Church.”[1]

The 1st word in today’s passage that strikes me is chose.  I don’t know whether kids still play “choose-up games” of basketball, baseball, or football, but that was a familiar ritual of my boyhood.  Of course, everyone wanted to the 1st one chosen by one of the captains, and there was always the dread of being the last one—or not being chosen at all.

Well, good news!  You’ve been chosen!

If you’re familiar with RCIA, you’ve often heard the word elect, which means those chosen for Baptism—chosen by “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” to be joined to Jesus Christ thru the mystery of Baptism.

You are therefore among the elect, those whom God has chosen thru his Son, whether you entered Christ’s Church thru RCIA or, more likely, as an infant.

Paul explains why God has chosen us, and reason is awesome:  “to be holy and without blemish before him” (1:4).  You already know that Baptism makes a person “holy and without blemish.”  It takes away every stain of sin, both original sin and—in adults—actual sin, personally chosen sin.

You may remember that as part of the rite of Baptism, the godfather or sponsor goes to the Easter candle, symbol of Christ the light of the world, and lights a small candle that’s presented to the newly baptized with the instruction to keep the light of Christ ever burning brightly in his or her life.  In other words, to remain “holy and without blemish.”

And that’s what we spend the rest of our lives trying to do.

We’re not 100% successful, of course.  But God chose us in his Son Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ doesn’t abandon us.  Baptism comes to us thru his Church, and his Church remains at our side—or we remain within his Church—with the Church’s constant help:  prayer, sacraments, the example and intercession of the saints, and brotherly support, so that the holiness of Christ might be restored to us as much as it may need to be.

The Preaching of Saint Paul at Ephesus (Eustache Le Sueur, 1649)

Paul explains this call of God further.  God chose us “before the foundation of the world” (1:4), he says.  God knew us and elected us before the 1st day of creation.  He always had us in mind, always desired us.

For what?  Well, for holiness.  But more:  “for adoption to himself” (1:5).  Having been sanctified—or justified, in Paul’s usual wording—we’re fit “for adoption to himself,” to be made sisters and brothers of Jesus, members of God’s own family.  How awesome is that?  A lot better than being the 1st kid picked by the team captain!

Next, Paul reminds us that this divine plan to adopt us is “in accord with the favor of his will” (1:5).  Other translations render this as the “pleasure” of God’s will, or his “generous” will.  Paul uses further the word grace twice in the next couple of verses (1:6-7).  God freely gives us a favor, a grace—given out of his own goodness and pleasure, not because we deserve to be adopted, not because we merit salvation.  He “forgives our transgressions” (1:7), our sins, “with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us” (1:7-8).  In his kindness, his goodness, he offers us mercy and redemption; he bestows holiness upon us, adopts us in Christ, and gives us the helps to live holy lives and remain united to our brother Christ our Lord.

So we come to this Eucharistic celebration each week to solidify our union with Christ and thru him to say “thank you” to his Father.

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    [1] Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993), 5:139.

Provincial Convokes Provincial Chapter for March 2019

Provincial Convokes Provincial Chapter for March 2019

Fr. Tim Zak

Fr. Tim Zak, our provincial, in a letter on July 11 convoked a provincial chapter to meet at Don Bosco Retreat House in Haverstraw, N.Y., March 19-23, 2019.

The chapter's main focus will be to discuss the theme for the Congregation's next general chapter, the 28th, which will meet during Lent 2020.  That theme is "What kind of Salesians for today's young people."  The Rector Major wishes that theme to be considered from three angles:  the priority of the Salesian mission among today's young people; the profile of the Salesian for today's young people; and collaboration with lay people in the mission and in formation for the mission.

There are also some juridical or legal matter that will be considered, e.g., the structure of the general council and its various departments.

The provincial chapter will also have the task of electing the province's delegate to the general chapter, to accompany the provincial, and a substitute in case the delegate is unable to attend for some reason.  And the chapter will review the Province Handbook (guidelines and procedures for many areas).

Every community and confrere in the province will spend the next several months discussing the general chapter theme and providing fodder for the provincial chapter, which will in turn send its input to those who are preparing GC28.

Fr. Mike Mendl at his editorial work 
in New Rochelle in 2008

(photo by Jo Ann Donahue).

Fr. Provincial and his council nominated your humble blogger for the responsibility of moderator of the provincial chapter.  He said (and wrote) some very nice things about the blogger (having nothing to do with this blog), but we shall not repeat them here.  Your humble blogger was taken by surprise and was reluctant to say "yes," but he felt obliged to do so.  Our Rule doesn't spell out precisely what the moderator's duties are, but in general he is to coordinate all the planning for the chapter, encourage the active participation of the confreres in discussion of the theme, and oversee the timely election of delegates to the chapter.

Fr. Tim appointed an all-star roster of confreres to serve on the preparatory committee assisting yours truly: Fr. Tom Dunne, Bro. Bill Hanna, Fr. Luc Lantagne, Fr. Dave Moreno, Fr. Tom Ruekert, and Fr. Steve Shafran.  That group includes 3 former provincials and the moderator of the last chapter, and all together is an assembly of vast experience and commitment to the Salesian mission of working for the salvation of the young and the poor and those who have never received the Gospel.