2014 Michael A. Boccardi Memorial Trek-o-ree

2014 Michael A. Boccardi Trek-o-ree

The 2014 Michael A. Boccardi Trek-o-ree took place on November 1, based from Durland Scout Reservation in Putnam Valley, N.Y.

This year's trek involved the Algonquin and Manitou districts of the Westchester-Putnam Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

The trek is named in memory of Scoutmaster Michael Andrew Boccardi from Troop 40, Mt. Vernon, N.Y., who was actively involved in the planning of the annual trek-o-ree for WPC's former Four Rivers District.  Mike was among those lost on 9/11.  See NYT obit notice and Remembering and Troop Forty Remembers.

Troop Forty brought a contingent of 12 Scouts, 5 Scouters, and 1 dad up to Durland on Friday nite for our usual fun of pitching tents on a pitch-black campsite (no. 37 in this case)--lit up by car headlights and a few lanterns.  There weren't very many other troops camping out on this nite that had rain and wind in the forecast.

Part of our encampment on Saturday a.m.

We got the tents up--3 for the boys, besides one that had to be discarded because of some problem with it, and individual tents for each adult--before any rain came.  We got a fine fire going, but most of the Scouts retreated to their tents pretty quickly on account of the cold and the occasional spritz of rain.  I'm sure I saw some snowflakes, too.

There was a steady rain for a half hour or so in the wee hours of Saturday morning, and day came cool and raw.  I overslept and said a very quick Mass right inside my tent, fearing the weather outside.  It was in the low 30s inside my tent!

The Scouts got up later than planned, too, and we all had a cold breakfast before hustling ourselves down by car to the Sperling Center around 9:15 a.m.  (The coffee took a long, long time to perk--the propane bottles were seriously affected by the cold.)

We were afraid we'd be late for the trek's start.  True, some hardy souls had departed at 7:30 for Graymoor and a 10-mile northbound hike on the Appalachian Trail.  But we 18 were the 1st crew out for the 5-mile hike that was to start at South Highland Rd.  We got our instructions from the 2 Scouters directing the day--instructions that included leaving fewer cars at the tiny parking spot where the hike was to begin.  So Assistant Scoutmasters Carl and Jim--how reluctantly I can't say!--agreed to skip the hike and stay in camp with a warm fire, after helping to transport the rest of us to the starting point.

As we started, I gave the Scouts a brief orientation to the AT and to how the trail blazes work.  We had both veteran hikers and novices with us.

I'd just been over our 5-mile trail a month earlier (http://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-trail-of-10000-acorns.html), and in fact we reached my 2d-nite camping spot less than 10 minutes into our hike.  The firewood I'd gathered but not used was still piled next to the little fire ring, which I pointed out to our gang of 12 boys and 3 other adults (Scoutmaster Tunji, ASM Mike, and dad Dave).

Freshening up in a little stream

The day remained mostly cloudy, and it was breezy, but (thank God) there was no rain.  We had no trouble following the AT blazes; the only trouble was one lad who suddenly claimed that he was asthmatic, didn't have an inhaler with him, and needed some extra attention.  (By the hike's end he was doing just fine.)

Are we there yet?

Head waiting for the tail to catch up

We hiked along at a good pace--considerably faster than I'd done with my full pack on Sept. 30--stopping now and then to let the slower folks catch up.  We weren't on the trail an hour before 1 or 2 of the boys wanted to eat lunch, but we held off on that till about 11:30, a short distance before reaching Dennytown Rd. 

Lunch

At Dennytown Rd. we refilled our water bottles at the spigot.  Then it was another 45 minutes or so, up to and along a long ridge, before we reached Sunken Mine Rd.  Then we had half a mile down the road to the trail back into Durland and another mile to the Sperling Center.  We were done around 2:00 p.m.

The swamp north of Dennytown Rd.

The only other hikers we met on the trail were a troop from northern Westchester, not even one of the 12 supposedly involved with the trek-o-ree.

We retrieved our cars from South Highland Rd., and everyone settled into camp to have a 2d lunch, gather firewood, and enjoy the roaring fire. 

Some serious rain showers passed thru, and we finally decided that we'd better have Mass at the Sperling Center rather than at Site 36A as originally planned.  Word of the change was spread, but in the event only our troop, Crestwood 1, and the trek organizers came to Mass at 4:30--the Mass of All Souls Day, at which appropriately enuf I made sure to mention Mike Boccardi in my homily.

We finished at 5:15 and went back to camp, where the Scouts dithered about supper, which consequently wasn't ready till 7:00, with the further consequence that we were all late for the campfire.  That event had perhaps half a dozen troops in attendance and was relatively short--reasonably enuf, given the wind and the cold.  A couple of the Scouters stayed back to mind our fire.

When we returned to camp at 8:30, a good number of the gang stayed around the fire.  By now there were some serious gusts of wind, and a tarp that Pelham 1, camped above us on the same site, had put up over their kitchen area flapped furiously all nite.  There were still a few rain showers.

I went to bed, tired and not wanting to get any wetter than damp--my condition up till then.

It was a blessing that DST ended overnite, and we got an extra hour of sleep.  Not that I slept very well; seldom do when camping.  The wind whipped all nite, and that Pelham tarp was about 30 feet from my head.  The temperature went down to the low 30s again.  But those things weren't my problem; my back never found a comfortable position, so I just tossed and turned for 9 hours.

I got up at 6:00, a.m. and again the coffee took a long time.  The boys were a little slower getting up.  There was plenty of cold breakfast again (to which I added a couple of packets of oatmeal), and the Scouts broke camp pretty quickly and got the site policed well.  We were ready to leave shortly after 9:00, which I needed to do to get to Mass at St. Vincent's Hospital.  The sun was shining gloriously, and the wind still blowing strong (in fact, ASM Jim had had to chase after his tent after he unstaked it).

No injuries, no quarrels, no one lost, and just about everyone enjoyed the hike.  A good trip.  A good tribute to our friend Mike Boccardi.  May he rest in peace!

Homily for Feast of Christ the King

Homily for the Feast of
Christ the King
Nov. 23, 2014
Matt 25: 31-46
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison, N.Y.

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, … all the nations will be assembled before him” (Matt 25: 31).

The Last Judgment
by William de Brailes (fl. ca. 1250)

The feast of Christ the King is the last Sunday of the Church’s liturgical year.  As the year ends, the Church wants us to think about other endings.  Last Sunday and today we’ve heard gospel parables about God’s final judgment of the world, and of each of us individually.

Last Sunday’s parable of the servants entrusted with investing their master’s money might be read as referring to the disciples of Jesus in particular.  Today’s parable brings “all the nations,” every human being and not just Christians, before the throne of judgment.  There Christ, the Son of Man, sits as king, separating good people from bad, as a shepherd separates sheep from goats at the end of the day to send them to their proper shelters for the nite (25:32), and Christ, the king, decrees the reward of the just and the punishment of the wicked.

We could be shocked at the criterion by which the nations are judged, the sheep set on the right and the goats on the left.  No one is asked, “Do you believe in God?”, which is the 1st question posed to us when we come for Baptism and when we renew our baptismal promises on Easter Sunday; or “Do you claim Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?”, which seems to be the favorite standard of evangelical Christians.  As some ancient Christian writers observed, even the devils believe in God and know that Christ died and rose to save mankind.  Those aren’t the questions that the king asks the nations, are they?

No, the criterion is whether one has acted as a child of God, regardless of whether one has ever acknowledged God’s existence; whether one has acted like a disciple of Jesus Christ, regardless of whether one ever heard his name.  So much for those exclusionists who—falsely—maintain that only Christians will be saved!

The king calls “blessed by my Father” (25:34) those who practiced the works of mercy and calls them to eternal life.  No need for me to repeat the list of those works of mercy, which you just heard 4 times.  You probably could quote them back to me now.  And the king condemns to hell—to “the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (25:41)—those who ignored the works of mercy.  If they had any excuses, the king isn’t listening; doesn’t even give them a chance to offer excuses.  “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire” (25:41).  Is there a more dreadful sentence in the human vocabulary?

This parable, this teaching of Jesus, brings out the requirement that everyone, regardless of faith, practice love of neighbor, treat everyone with dignity, look after those who are less fortunate.

But it points especially to our obligation as followers of Jesus to do those things.  It’s not sufficient that we come to church on Sundays; not sufficient that we recite the Creed once a week, no matter how firmly we believe what it says.  (And one of the things it says is, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”)

The staff and other regulars here have already heard me say more than once what our bishops have been saying for almost 3 years in the face of certain rules imposed by the federal government.  The practice of the works of mercy is an essential part of our faith, not an optional part, not an extracurricular program.  Running hospitals, nursing homes, schools, Catholic Relief Services, etc., is just as much a part of our religious practice as our Sunday worship and our catechism classes.  Under our Constitution, the government has no business telling us which of our practices are religious—and thus exempt from the government mandate to provide immoral services to our employees or patients or clients, or to cooperate in providing immoral services—and which practices are not religious and therefore must cover those immoral services that government officials want to think are part of “health care.”

Jesus’ parable concerns all of us, and not just the Church as an institution with hospitals, schools, nursing homes, orphanages, emergency relief, etc.  All of us are obliged to do works of mercy according to our own means and opportunities.

We might feed the hungry by volunteering in a local soup kitchen or making sandwiches for the teens who are taking part in Midnite Run; by donating money to CRS to that they can feed refugees from the wars in Syria and Iraq; or teaching youths a trade or skill that will help them earn a livelihood.

We might visit the sick—or the elderly—starting with our own families; or take part in some kind of outreach at a hospital or nursing home; or volunteer for blood drives (as donors or workers); or help out at a shelter for battered women or women with a problem pregnancy.  Eucharistic ministers bring Holy Communion to the homebound.  You who work or volunteer here have a privileged opportunity that enables you to live Jesus’ command every day; try to do that mindfully and not just as a job or a task.

How do we welcome the stranger?  What’s our attitude toward immigrants?  toward anyone who’s different from us—different in color, gender, age, religion?  Do we do our best to treat everyone as a brother or sister, not only when we speak to them but when we speak about them when they’re not around?  Are there immigrant kids in our local school who could use a tutor in English or some other subject, whom we might help?  With what manner do we answer someone who asks us for directions in a store or on the street?

We’d go crazy if we felt obliged to be actively involved in every single work of mercy:  feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, welcoming the stranger, visiting the sick and the prisoner, not to mention works that Jesus doesn’t list, like instructing the ignorant.  No one can do everything.  There’s only one Savior!  But we do have to recognize Jesus in needy people who come our way or whose situation is set before us, e.g., in a special collection at church or after a natural disaster like the earthquake in Haiti; and we have to respond to them as we would to Jesus, within our own circumstances.

Homily for 33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
33d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Nov. 16, 2014

Prov 31: 10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Matt 25: 14-30
Ursulines, Willow Dr., New Rochelle

“Give her the reward of her labors, and let her works praise her at the city gates” (Prov 31: 31).

I dare say that in this congregation you seldom hear a homily on Proverbs 31!  But why shouldn’t you, O spouses of Christ?

Knowing, as we do, how the Lectionary is constructed, we know that the Proverbs reading is paired with the parable from St. Matthew (25:14-30).  In these last Sundays of the church year, the Scriptures are turning our attention to the last days and to the impending judgment—judgment on the world, judgment on us.  So this morning we hear one of Jesus’ parables of judgment, and Proverbs transports us to the ancient world’s place of judgment, the city gates.  Both readings refer to rewards for industrious and faithful people, the servants of a wealthy merchant who invest his money wisely; and “a worthy wife [whose] value is far beyond pearls.”

Both readings also use the word “fear.”  “The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Prov 31:30); i.e., she reverences and obeys him, which is the mark of her wisdom, the incentive for her behavior, and the reason for praising her.  The 3d servant in the parable fears his master in the sense of being afraid of his wrath—and acts so foolishly as to incur that wrath (Matt 25:25-26).

So, how does a wise woman (or man) behave?

1. “Her husband, entrusting his heart to her, has an unfailing prize” (31:11).  Love binds them to each other.  They trust each other.  They talk intimately to each other.  They prize each other.  That’s a mark of true marriage, whether earthly or mystical, and it’s the goal of every Christian—to attain a complete union of heart, mind, and soul with Jesus, and thru Jesus with the Father.

2. “She brings him good, and not evil, all the days of her life” (31:12).  What do we bring to the Lord?  Whatever our calling in life, we aim to bring him good deeds—to invest his blessings wisely and return them to him with profit (to go along with the message of the parable).  In our Baptism we profess a life of conversion, of renouncing the devil and all his works, and of walking with Jesus, who “went about doing good” (Act 10:38) and giving evidence that God was with him.

3. “She obtains wool and flax and works with loving hands” (Prov 31:13).  Interesting variants in translations here!  The Lectionary gives her loving hands, but the NAB text, and Msgr. Knox’s, read skillful hands; the JB gives us eager hands, and the KJV and RSV willing hands.  The Douay Version translates the Vulgate literally, “she … hath wrought by the counsel of her hands,” which an old commentary interprets to mean “with alacrity,” i.e., with “cheerful readiness.”  The Anchor Bible renders the phrase “delights to work with her hands” and offers an alternate, “of which her hands make beautiful things.”  I’m no Greek scholar, but the LXX seems to say that “she makes useful things.”  (I could show you the Hebrew text too, but I can’t read it or tell you what it means.)  The point would seem to be that “a worthy wife,” or a good disciple, does what she does eagerly and willingly.  In the context of Proverbs, she loves her husband and family, and that love compels her to work diligently and efficiently to provide for them, and not to work like a drudge (compare with the older brother in the parable of the Prodigal Son).  We all have our duties, our responsibilities—in the household of the community, perhaps still in some apostolate.  How do we carry them out?  What willingness, what love, what alacrity do we bring to these tasks?  Are they just chores, or something more, thru which we’re happily serving the Lord?

4. “She reaches out her hands to the poor, and extends her arms to the needy.”  The worthy wife, the faithful disciple, is concerned not only with those in her immediate charge but with the wider community, with the less fortunate, with those whom the OT often refers to as the widow, the orphan, and the stranger; with those whom Jesus will put in front of our noses in his parable next week, the parable that follows this week’s in Matthew 25.  While charity must begin at home, with the people we live with, it must also extend to others; and I’m sure it does for you, who attend to immigrants and the elderly, among others.

5. “Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting” (Prov 31:30). Well do we know that!  We know what lasts:  “Faith, hope, and love remain; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Cor 13:13).

6. “The woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Prov 31:30).  Not only the woman, of course.  The ultimate praise for a good life is not that one is beautiful or talented or industrious; it is that one has served the Lord in one’s state of life with one’s attributes, talents, and industry, and served him with love or alacrity.

7. “Give her a reward for her labors, and let her works praise her at the city gates” (Prov 31:31).  For all our troubles on earth, a little piece of heaven will be enuf compensation, Don Bosco used to say.  Do we work for the reward—some metaphorical gold star or golden crown?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps we interpret the reward to be simply being with our Beloved.  We’ve all observed couples who are never happier than when in each other’s company.  We might look at Mary sitting at the Lord’s feet, having “chosen the better part” (Luke 10:42).  Is there a better reward than to be with Jesus forever?  Can there be higher praise than hearing the Divine Judge pronounce, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.  Come, share your master’s joy” (Matt 25:21)?

 

Homily for the Anniversary of the
Dedication of the Lateran Basilica
Nov. 9, 2014
Collect
Iona College, N.R.
St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon

“O God, from living and chosen stones you prepare an eternal dwelling for your majesty” (Collect).

Today we celebrate one of those feasts that supersedes our usual Sunday celebrations.  In the liturgical books it’s titled “Dedication of the Lateran Basilica.”

So, what’s the Lateran Basilica?  What’s a basilica?  Why is this one called the Lateran?  And why celebrate it, or the dedication of any church?  If you can answer those questions, you’re ready for Jeopardy.

Basilica originally indicated certain Roman official buildings; the name itself is Greek and means “king’s hall.”  In Christian usage it refers to Christ, the king of kings.  The term also refers to the architectural style of those old Roman buildings, which I’ll spare you.  Now the word refers not to a style but to a church’s honorary designation as a papal church—a title that might be bestowed because of the church’s particular historical, devotional, or artistic merit.  Local examples include Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral on the Lower East Side and Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark.  The main campus church at the University of Notre Dame is Sacred Heart Basilica.  A church need not be a cathedral to be named a basilica, nor are all cathedrals basilicas.

In Rome there are 4 major basilicas and many minor ones.  The major ones are the destinations of frequent pilgrimages, especially the most famous:  St. Peter’s in the Vatican.  The others are St. Mary Major, St. Paul Outside the Walls (at Paul’s tomb, outside the ancient city walls), and the one we celebrate today, formally known as St. John Lateran.

(© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons)

You’d be surprised to learn that the Lateran is the most important of the basilicas.  Why?  Because it’s the cathedral church of Rome, the proper church of the bishop of Rome, the Pope’s own cathedral.  The Lateran Palace, next to the church, was the papal residence from the 4th century until 1309, when a French Pope decided to move to Avignon.  While the Popes stayed at Avignon, until 1377, fire destroyed the Lateran buildings; so when Pope Gregory XI decided to return the papacy to Rome, there was no Lateran to return to, and he settled instead in the Vatican palace, and there the Popes have remained.  Besides, the Vatican was more defensible against Roman mobs and enemy armies; if you know anything about the history of the papacy, you know the significance of that.

The property on which the Lateran church and palace are built, given to the Church by the Emperor Constantine, had once belonged to a noble Roman family named the Laterani; hence part of the name.  The church is dedicated to St. John the Baptist; hence the rest of the name.

Why celebrate the anniversary of a church’s dedication, which every diocese does for its cathedral—in New York we celebrate St. Patrick’s dedication on Oct. 5—and every parish church is supposed to do?  Because the building is a major symbol:  a symbol of the Church proper, i.e., the people of God, and of Jesus Christ himself.

As for the latter, we heard Jesus refer to his own body as a temple (John 2:19).  And for the former, we followers of Jesus are part of his body and thus part of the temple.  St. Paul calls us the body of Christ.  In the reading that we heard this evening/morning, he calls us “the temple of God” and the dwelling place of the Spirit of God (1 Cor 3:16).  It’s not the building itself that we honor, but what goes on in that building:  the forming and the building up of the Body of Christ thru the celebration of the Eucharist and the other sacraments and thru the worship that we offer to the Father thru Christ in the Holy Spirit.

The Collect alludes to the words of 1 Peter 2:5:  “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God thru Jesus Christ.”  The Collect calls us “living and chosen stones,” and it says that from these stones God the Father “prepares an eternal dwelling for [his] majesty.”  God plans to dwell eternally in us as his temple—an indwelling that began with our Baptism and that continues thru our life as Christ’s disciples.  The Preface will refer to “this house of prayer”—either the basilica that we celebrate today or this particular church building—and note that God “is pleased to dwell in” it “in order to perfect us as the temple of the Holy Spirit.”

All of that is true of any church building—this chapel, a parish church, a cathedral.  Why are we celebrating the cathedral church of Rome?  Every cathedral represents the bishop’s teaching authority; it’s the site of his cathedra, his chair for teaching and ruling, for shepherding, the People of God.  As bishop of Rome the Pope is Peter’s successor and bears Peter’s responsibilities:  to safeguard the teaching of Jesus handed down to us by the apostles, to guarantee the unity of the faithful around that teaching.  At the beginning of the 2d century, St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote that the Church of Rome “presides in charity” over all the other local churches.  Thus the basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral church of Rome, has often been called “the mother church of Christendom.”  It’s the seat of Peter’s authority living today.  From this chair Peter speaks, guarding the truth of the Gospel.  From this chair Peter guides the flock of Christ toward “the holy dwelling of the Most High” (Ps 46:5), “the heavenly Jerusalem” where we shall be the “eternal dwelling” of the Divine Majesty (Collect).

Inscription at St. John Lateran: "Most Holy Lateran Church, the mother and head of all the churches in the city and the world," (© Marie-Lan Nguyen / Wikimedia Commons)

 

Cardinal Dolan Brings His Enthusiasm for Don Bosco to Salesian High

Cardinal Dolan Brings His Enthusiasm for Don Bosco to Salesian High

by Fr. John Serio, SDB, and Fr. Mike Mendl, SDB

Fr. John wrote the bulk of this story for the province newsletter, E-Service. Fr. Mike edited it in his role as newsletter editor and added some substantial material as well as the photos.

Anticipation turned to reality in New Rochelle on Wednesday, November 5, as the long-awaited visit of Cardinal Timothy Dolan to Salesian High School occurred. The visit was long-awaited in two senses: the invitation to the cardinal to celebrate Mass with the school community and visit with the students and faculty was issued a year earlier, and it was the first visit of a New York archbishop to the school since Cardinal Cooke came in 1971.



Lorraine Danza, John Flaherty, Fr. John Serio, and Michele Turner
greet Cardinal Dolan and his party at the school entrance.

His Eminence was greeted at the school entrance by John Flaherty, principal, veteran faculty member Lorraine Danza, and a delegation of office staff and students. After riding in a Salesian school bus to Holy Name of Jesus Church, where Salesian’s school Masses are celebrated, Cardinal Dolan was greeted again by a delegation of students. When he entered the church, all heads turned as the congregation strained to get a look at their archbishop.

During the Mass in honor of St. John Bosco’s 200^th anniversary of birth, Cardinal Dolan spoke of his great devotion to St. John Bosco, first inculcated by his 2^nd grade teacher, Sister Mary Bosco. He spoke enthusiastically of the contributions of the Salesians to the life of the archdiocese and of his joy at meeting Salesian High School alumni all over the archdiocese, living out many careers and vocations, including as diocesan priests. He noted the presence of three SDB seminarians who are Salesian alumni: Deacon Mike Eguino, Bro. Steve Eguino, and candidate Mike Agovino. He thanked the teachers for their service and had them stand, which earned them a hearty round of applause from the students.

In his homily proper, the cardinal related that Don Bosco wanted his boys “to live well in order to die well”–to live this life in a manner that prepared them for the life of eternity with the Lord. The joy of this life, he said, is only a hint of what God has in store for us in the next life. He said that St. John Bosco’s genius was to prepare young people for eternity.

At the end of Mass, Student Council President Dan Seda welcomed His Eminence and offered him gifts of Salesian apparel, a copy of Fr. Mike Mendl’s history of the start of Salesian work in New York (The Zeal of the Salesians Is Just the Thing*), which the cardinal asked Fr. Mike to autograph, and a monetary gift which the cardinal said he would donate to the Inner City Scholarship Fund. Of course, the cardinal offered the students (and faculty!) a cardinal’s holiday—which received applause that exceeded “hearty.”

Frs. John Serio, Bill Ferruzzi, Matt DeGance, Dennis Donovan, Dominic Tran, and Marty Biglin (Holy Name’s pastor) concelebrated.

After greeting the students and staff of Holy Name School, the cardinal returned to the Salesian campus and toured the main building. He entered the library and some classrooms to interact with students and teachers, and ate lunch with members of the History Club (photo below). During lunch he questioned students and teachers about the previous day’s general elections and the role of religious ministers in the political life of the country. He called political service noble and urged the application of one’s principles to politics. He cited the example of Don Bosco in 19th-century Italy’s political and religious situation.

The cardinal used his conversations with students not only to show them the friendly and joyful visage of the Church but also to praise the education they’re getting at Salesian and offer more catechesis. For example, in a junior class that is reading and discussing The Red Badge of Courage, he spoke about the role of conscience in the story and linked conscience to natural law. On a lighter note, he let a freshman class with a New York Mets banner on the back wall know that he remains a St. Louis Cardinals fan (and flaunted some of the cardinal red of his mozzetta).

The cardinal steps into Scott Cerasuolo's class discussion of The Red Badge of Courage.

In Sr. Barbara Wright's freshman math class: 
Never mind the Mets poster on the back wall--I'm still a Cardinals fan!

The members of the G-5 mission directors group also came by for a short conversation and blessing by His Eminence. The cardinal lauded the Salesians’ missionary works and relished a conversation in Italian with the two visitors from Turin and happily recalled meeting Bro. Jean Paul Muller in Rome a few weeks ago.

The cardinal warmly greets the participants in the meeting of Salesian mission office directors
from New Rochelle, Madrid, Bonn, Turin, and New Delhi, and the
general councilor for the missions and the treasurer general of the Congregation.

It is not every day that the local ordinary comes to spend time with our community. He seemed really to enjoy his time with our community, wanted to know everything that he could about us, and evidenced his love for Don Bosco and devotion to Mary Help of Christians. Multiple times Cardinal Dolan invoked the Help of Christians in prayer and called out, “Viva Don Bosco!” We are grateful for the time he spent with us and will look forward to being with him again at the Graduates Mass in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the spring and for the priestly ordination of Salesian alumnus Michael Eguino, SDB, class of 2002, on June 27, 2015.

*The book by your humble blogger is "The Zeal of the Salesians Is Just the Thing...": Founding the Salesian Work in New York. Written for the 1998 centennial of the SDB work on the East Coast, it studies the establishment of the SDBs in New York in historical context, from 1883 to 1908. ISBN 0-89944-174-2. It may be ordered from Salesiana Publishers (914-636-4225; butterfly10801@yahoo.com).

Homily for All Souls Day

Homily for
All Souls Day
Nov. 2, 2014
Collect 1
Scouts, Putnam Valley
St. Vincent’s Hospital, Harrison

“May our hope of resurrection for your departed servants find new strength” (Collect).

Each year we have this solemn day of prayer for the people we call “the faithful departed”; our prayer a little while ago called them the Lord’s “departed servants,” and of course if they were his servants, they were faithful.  If they were faithful and if they served the Lord, we might ask why we pray for them.

It’s no coincidence that this day of prayer is set in the calendar on the day after All Saints Day, our yearly celebration of all the countless, mostly anonymous men and women who have faithfully followed Christ in this life and now have attained eternal life with him in heaven.

So who are these “faithful departed” whom we both honor and pray for today?  They are our brothers and sisters who have died but, because of their sins—we might say more accurately, perhaps, because of their sinful inclinations and habits and attitudes (we all identify with that, don’t we?)—aren’t yet worthy of coming into God’s presence in heaven.  Nothing unclean, nothing unworthy, nothing imperfect may come into God’s presence.  So these good but not perfect people are still being cleansed, scrubbed clean, so to speak.  You know how after the Scouts clean the pots after supper, someone has to finish the job till they’re truly clean enuf to use for the next meal.  Similarly, the “faithful departed” for whom we’re praying are still having their souls scrubbed, their of love of God and of others perfected, so that they may join the angels and saints in heaven—those who’ve already reached a perfect way of loving and have no stain of selfishness left to them.  (We all know how selfishness clings to us!)

Purgatory, by Annibale Carracci (d. 1609)

We call this place or state of cleansing, of purification, “purgatory,” which means simply the “cleaning place” or “cleaning operation.”  Naturally, since we’re still alive, we don’t know how God purifies these people who are future saints.  I’m sure it’s not like going to the dry cleaners or into the dishwasher!  We do know that these souls, whom we sometimes call the holy souls because they have been faithful servants of the Lord, long to have their sins and their sinfulness completely cleaned away so that their salvation will be complete.  We use an analogy sometimes, that they get purified in the fire of God’s love; God’s love washes over them, perhaps painfully—because they see their own faults in his light.  And seeing our faults is always a painful thing, as we know from our experiences with parents, principals, bosses.  And God’s searing love cleans them, makes them perfect, makes them worthy of heaven.

So we pray for them, or as you often hear it expressed, we pray for the souls in purgatory.  That’s what we do on All Souls Day and thruout the month of November, which is the “month of the poor souls,” and we’re encouraged to pray for the faithful departed always.  You may notice that we do pray for them at every Mass, after the consecration of the bread and wine into Christ’s Body and Blood, when we make various intercessions.

Our faith tells us that all Christ’s faithful servants will be raised up with Christ to eternal life, the life of the resurrection.  St. Paul says, “if we have grown into union with him thru a death like his [which means dying to sin], we shall also be united with him in the resurrection” (Rom 6:5).  Our opening prayer expressed that hope, that confidence we have in God’s faithfulness to his promises, e.g., what Jesus says today:  “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day” (John 6:40).

This is our prayer for all the faithful departed, and in particular for deceased members of our family, deceased friends, [deceased Scouts and Scouters—and we remember in special way Scoutmaster Michael Andrew Boccardi, who is memorialized in our annual trek-o-ree.  Mr. Boccardi was an Eagle Scout in Troop 40 Mt. Vernon and eventually became 40’s super-dedicated Scoutmaster for 6 or 7 years, and a friend to many of the Scouters here.  He was among those killed at work on 9/11.  May he and all who perished on that awful day rest in peace with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and be raised up with him on the Last Day!]

Salesian Volunteer Programs

Salesian Volunteer Programs

Many SDB and FMA provinces sponsor programs that enable young people--and some not so young, too--to volunteer their services, their time, their attitudes, and their love for less advantaged youngsters in other parts of the world.  For example, such volunteer programs exist in the U.S., Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Korea, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, and the Czech Republic, to list those that come readily to my mind.

We've blogged here every August about the Salesian Lay Missioners, a program of Salesian Missions in New Rochelle that sends volunteers presently to Bolivia, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and sites in the U.S.  For example, go to http://sdbnews.blogspot.com/2014/08/salesians-commission-20-lay-missioners.html

The SLM Website provides a "blogroll" whereby you can follow posts from many of the volunteers about their lives, activities, spiritual reflections, challenges, friendships, and apostolates.

Salesian Volunteers, the program of the San Francisco Province, has just come up with a fine promotional video.  This program places volunteers in California and Mexico.

Both U.S. programs--the one in New Rochelle and the one in California--take volunteers from anywhere in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. See their Web sites for more information!

Homily for 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Oct. 26, 2014

1 Thess 1: 5-10

St. Ursula, Mt. Vernon

“You became imitators of us and of the Lord, receiving the word in great affliction, with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia” (1 Thess 1: 6-7).

We began reading 1 Thess last week, and so we know that the “us” and “we” of today’s reading are Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, who have brought the Gospel to Thessalonica.  Their preaching seems to have been very successful, and if Paul’s testimony in this passage is true, that success would seem to be in part because the missionaries have backed their preaching by their actions:  “You know what sort of people we were among you” (1:5), people worthy of imitation.

If the whole Church is missionary, as the 2d Vatican Council has reminded us, and Pope Francis has reminded us; if all of us are to be evangelizers of the people and the culture that we inhabit—then the 1st form of our preaching is necessarily our lifestyle, our example, and not our homilies, catechism lessons, radio programs, Facebook, etc.  Contrariwise, the scandalous lives and words of some Christians serve to drive some people out of the Church and to alienate some who weren’t believers to begin with.

St. Paul
St. Mary's Church,
Fredericksburg, Va.

Paul takes that role-modeling a step further:  “You became imitators of us and of the Lord.”  “The Lord” here refers to Jesus, whom every Christian is called to imitate, on whom every Christian is supposed to model himself or herself.  Paul is also saying that he and his collaborators are doing exactly that, so that by imitating them the believers at Thessalonica are at the same time imitating Jesus.

Isn’t that the way we’re all supposed to live, sisters (and brothers)?  to live so that people see Jesus in our actions and words, and are attracted to imitate those admirable actions and words?  In recent years, how many kids have wanted to be no. 2—not Avis, but Derek Jeter?  They pretend to hit like him, field like him, throw like him, and perhaps hope someday be a Yankee like him.  Shouldn’t young people look at their parents, their teachers, their church leaders, their coaches or Scouting leaders, and see role models whom they want to imitate and who are worthy of imitation?  If we don’t provide good models of Jesus and the saints for them, then we leave them only athletes and entertainers to look up to.

Paul says that the Thessalonians “received the word in great affliction, with joy in the Holy Spirit.”  That seems like something of a contradiction, affliction and joy both coming from the word—the word of the Gospel that Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy have preached.

How might God’s word afflict us?  By calling us to conversion!  Who finds change easy and welcome, especially moral change?  Even we who already profess to be Christians find it hard to shake off our sins, to renounce our vices.  Doesn’t the idea of going to confession, admitting our guilt out loud and committing ourselves to greater fidelity, afflict many of us, maybe most of us?

Secondarily, God’s word is a source of affliction for those who take it seriously because a serious Christian life is a sign of contradiction in the world.  We don’t feel at home in our contemporary culture, do we?  We’re afflicted, or conflicted.  We may feel pressured to conform; as kids may be pressured to engage in inappropriate behavior, so may adults be.

At the same time, the word of God gives us “joy from the Holy Spirit.”  We receive the word of forgiveness, of reconciliation with God, and of God’s offer of eternal life—all reasons for profound joy and peace of heart.

That kind of joy is contagious.  “You became a model for all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia.”  By imitating Paul and his companions, by imitating Christ, by committing themselves to conversion of life and taking on the hostile world, the Christians of Thessalonica have themselves become models for other believers.  While Paul may be exaggerating to some extent about how far their fame has spread, still, it’s no little thing that all the local churches of mainland Greece, such as those at Philippi and Corinth, look up to them.

“From you the word of the Lord has sounded forth,” Paul continues (1:8).  Paul uses a word suggestive of a trumpet blaring out a regal command or a battle signal, something really noticeable, something one must pay attention to.  The Thessalonians haven’t kept their faith quietly to themselves, like the ill-fated servant in Jesus’ parable (Matt 25:14-30) who buried his master’s gold talent in the ground, carefully preserving it but also leaving it barren and useless.  Rather, they’ve let the whole world—at least the Christian portion of it—know that they’re disciples of Jesus Christ.

What that “sounding forth” entailed is a bit hard to say.  Did they send out missionaries?  Did they send messengers of fraternity to the other Christian communities?  Did they send financial assistance to the needy?  Were they outstanding hosts of travelers coming from the other churches on either ecclesiastical or personal business?

Whatever it was, “in every place your faith in God has gone forth” (1:8).  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if that could be said of us?  that everyone knows what committed and faithful Catholics we are, by our words and even more by our actions?  We might think now of some of the tributes paid to the late Fr. Benedict Groeschel not only for his TV appearances, his books,  his homilies, or his teaching but also for his work for and among the poorest people of our nation;

Fr. Ben Groeschel, St. Joseph's Seminary
April 22, 2009

or of the tributes paid to journalist Jim Foley, whom ISIS murdered in August and who was a very committed Catholic.  One of Foley’s peers wrote of him:  “Foley was a devout Christian who, unlike most journalists I've known during my almost four decades in the field, was unapologetic about his heart for social justice and the inspiration he found for his beliefs in the New Testament.”[1]

How does our faith go forth—to our children and grandchildren, the people we work with and socialize with, even our fellow parishioners?

Finally, Paul gives a bit, a tiny bit, of a summary of the Gospel that he preached in the middle of the 1st century:  “you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to await his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the coming wrath” (1:9-10).

There you have the conversion:  “turning from idols to serve the living and true God.”  In the case of the people of Thessalonica, there was a literal turning away from idols, the pagan gods of Greece, to serve the one and only God.  A lot of our contemporaries commit themselves to different sorts of idols, different false gods, that they serve ambitiously and enthusiastically.  Those gods include money, power, fame, and pleasure in many, many forms.  A lot of Christians serve those gods, too, and all of us pay them homage from time to time—those moments that we call “sin.”  Following Jesus means giving ourselves wholeheartedly—ambitiously and enthusiastically—to serving God alone; exactly as Jesus says in the gospel today (Matt 22:34-40).  Our conversion into Jesus’ disciples is an unending process of learning to do that, repenting of our slip-ups, starting again, doing our best to “love the Lord our God with all our heart” and to practice love of our neighbor.

All of which we do because we believe Jesus is risen, and we await his return, when he’ll lead his followers into eternal life, “delivering us from the coming wrath” of God’s judgment on unrepentant sinners (judgment that was illustrated in Jesus’ parable 2 weeks ago when a guest who refused to clothe himself in the repentance that opens up for us the banquet of heaven was thrown out of the feast).  That’s also why, like the Thessalonians, we evangelize, live the Gospel publicly—so that we may be models and our joyful good example may lead others toward eternal life with our Savior Jesus Christ.

An adapted version of this homily was delivered to the Ursuline nuns at their Willow Drive convent, Oct. 26, 2014.

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        [1] David McKay Wilson, The (Westchester County, N.Y.) Journal News, Aug. 24, 2014, on-line.