Homily for Saturday, Week 6 of Easter

Homily for Saturday
6th Week of Easter

May 11, 2024
Acts 18: 23-28
Provincial House, New Rochelle

The reading from Acts today begins with Paul taking a break in Antioch between his 2d and 3d missionary journeys (18:23).  Then, like a good provincial, he sets out—his 3d journey—to visit the disciples in the little towns in the interior of Asia Minor where he’d preached on earlier trips.

At this point, Luke diverts from Paul to introduce us to another missionary, Apollos, and bring into his story again the distinguished couple Priscilla and Aquila.

Icon depicting Sts. Epaphroditus, Sosthenes, Apollos, Cephas, and Caesar

Apollos came from the large Jewish community in Alexandria, where the Scriptures had been translated into Greek in the 3d century B.C.  That origin may account in part for his being “an authority on the Scriptures” (18:24).  It may have been in Alexandria that he became acquainted with the teachings of Jesus and the preaching of John the Baptist (18:25).  As we would hear in Monday’s reading but for our feast of Mary Mazzarello, Apollos wasn’t the only one in Ephesus who didn’t know Jesus’ teaching in full and the gift of the Holy Spirit (19:1-7).

In Apollos’ case, Paul’s friends Priscilla and Aquila, who’d been Paul’s hosts in Corinth and shared his tentmaking trade (18:2-3), enlighten Apollos and, presumably, have him baptized.  Then the church in Ephesus encourages him to take his eloquent preaching and debating to Corinth.  There he greatly helps the believers (18:27), in effect becoming a collaborator in the work Paul had begun.  Paul would later write to the Corinthians, “I planted [the Word], Apollos watered, but God caused the growth. . . .  We are God’s co-workers” (1 Cor 3:6,9).

What happened in Ephesus illustrates the gradual process that coming to a mature faith in Christ usually entails.  Apollos comes to know Jesus in stages, and his abilities then can be effectively directed.  He’s assisted by patient teachers, Priscilla and Aquila.  The episode also illustrates what Paul teaches about the different roles of believers in building and maintaining Christ’s body.  And it illustrates the cooperation of everyone involved and cooperation between the Ephesian and Corinthian churches.

Unfortunately, that kind of cooperation and collaboration broke down in Corinth ere long, as Paul’s letters evidence and, later, the letter of Pope Clement.  Who knows how much the factions in Corinth hampered the spread of the Gospel?  Unfortunately, the Church in our day, too, is often hampered by factions rather than demonstrating clearly enuf that we all belong to Christ and are God’s co-workers.  At times that may also be a defect in our own apostolic work; it’s at least something to be on guard against.

Well do we pray, then:  “O Lord, shape our minds … that, trying always for what is better, we may strive to hold ever fast to the Paschal Mystery” (Collect)—and may be faithful, patient teachers and preachers of the Mystery.

Homily for Solemnity of Ascension

Homily for the Solemnity 
of the Ascension

May 9, 2024
Collect
Eph 1: 17-23
Mark 16: 15-20
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

by Dosso Dossi

“The ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation” (Collect).

We celebrate today not only something that Christ did but also what his action means for us.  By his incarnation, he joined himself forever to all that’s human.  By his resurrection and ascension, he lifts up all that’s human.

The Fathers of the Church remarked that God became man in order that man might become God.[1]  They don’t mean that in an essential or—to use a word from the Creed—a consubstantial sense but in a spiritual sense.  We’re adopted into God’s family.  “Where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope” (Collect).

St. Paul prayed that we attain “the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones” (Eph 1:18).  We aspire that the fullness of Christ fill us and all humans in every way (1:23); that we become all that God created us to be, images of the Son keeping company with the Son forever.

Even as he physically departed our company in time, he charged us to spread the Good News “to every creature” (Mark 16:15).  Pope Francis once told a child that perhaps our pets will be with us in heaven.  I don’t suppose Christ means for us to preach, literally, to our dogs and cats and all the wild creatures.  On the other hand, St. Francis is supposed to have done something like that, and Martin de Porres was known to commune with the mice in the granary.

Be that as it may, we’re certainly commanded to make the Gospel known; to make known God’s love for us and his eternal plan.  Christ isn’t distant from us as we do that but accompanies us thru his Holy Spirit.  In an Ascension Day sermon, St. Augustine preached:  “While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him.  He’s here with us by his divinity, his power, and his love.  We can’t be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.”[2]  By loving God our Father thru Christ, and by loving Christ’s Body here on earth—our brothers at St. Joseph, our staff, our visitors—we make Christ present now and anticipate the glory that we’re called to share in an eternal future.

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[1] E.g., St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation.

[2] Sermo de Ascensione Domini, LOH 2:921.

Homily for Tuesday, Week 6 of Easter

Homily for Tuesday
6th Week of Easter

May 7, 2024
Acts 16: 22-34
John 16: 5-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your household will be saved” (Acts 16: 31).

Following the usual pattern of Paul’s missionary work, he and Silas have some initial success in preaching the Gospel at Philippi.  Then opponents arise and make trouble for them.  There’s a great disturbance, and the apostles are arrested, beaten, and jailed.

The pattern changes with the intervention of what insurance people call “an act of God,” an earthquake.  The apostles’ jailer is frightened—not by the earthquake but by the mysterious powers Paul had displayed in the exorcism that led to the civic disturbance (16:16-22), now followed by this disturbance of the earth.  In the face of what the gods are doing, the jailer seeks salvation or safety.

Paul, of course, sets him straight.  The Lord Jesus is the key to salvation.  Or, in terms of today’s gospel, he offers us divine righteousness, being made right with God.  Thru Christ, “the ruler of this world has been condemned” (John 16:10-11).  The dark powers of evil have lost, and the gods of Greece are useless.  The God of Israel has won our redemption.

We prayed in the collect that we might share in Christ’s resurrection, in his victory over the Devil and whatever dark powers there may be.  “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” is how victory comes about.  That’s a 2-step process:  belief in our minds and hearts, complemented by putting our belief into action—not necessarily in the form that Paul and Silas did, but at least as Jesus told us yesterday:  “You also testify” (John 15:26), i.e., you also bear witness that Jesus is the way by which we come to the Father, and we walk his way by obeying his command to love one another (John 15:17).

Closing the Diocesan Phase for Nino Baglieri's Beatification

Closing the Diocesan Phase of the Beatification Process of Nino Baglieri

(ANS – Modica, Italy – April 30, 2024) – It has been 12 years since the start of the diocesan process of beatification and canonization of Nino Baglieri, Volunteer with Don Bosco (CDB). That process began on March  3-4, 2012, in the presence of the then-Rector Major, Fr. Pascual Chavez. Now the diocesan phase of the process, an important moment of investigation, study, research, and information collection, is coming to an end: the closing rite of the investigation has been scheduled for May 5,  in Modica, in Nino’s home parish of St. Peter.

March 3-4, 2012, are dates to remember; it was a great event that involved the entire city of Modica and the diocese of Noto, and not only because of the request to start officially the long process of the diocesan investigation into Nino Baglieri’s cause, but also because it was the Rector Major who requested the introduction of the process, visiting these places for the first time.

The rite was presided over by the ordinary, Bishop Antonio Staglianò, in the presence of bishops emeritus Salvatore Nicolosi and Giuseppe Malandrino, who had known Nino Baglieri during his lifetime. In addition, Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, postulator general of the Causes of Saints for the Salesian Family, who in all these years has followed the cause, was present.

In recent years, the tribunal appointed by the bishop and the theological censors and the historical commission have taken all the necessary steps. The historical commission, in particular, has researched, collected, studied, and presented the many documentary sources pertaining to the cause: Nino’s personal documents (civil, religious, medical, etc.); writings – published or not – of the Servant of God (such as letters and his fundamental “boccascritti” (written by  mouth) notebooks and diary); significant writings to the Servant of God and writings about the Servant of God (from books to articles, from reports of thanks to many attestations of the good done by Nino and initiatives in his honor). The historical commission has delivered envelopes to the tribunal  with over 15,000 pages of writings, as well as a report that illustrates the work done, evaluates the sources, and presents a first critical biography of the Servant of God.

The court focused its attention on hearing, under oath, from over 100 witnesses: family members, friends (including those of Nino as a teenager), and acquaintances. They accurately reported facts, events, words, and experiences with Nino.

Now a new stage is added to this process: the closure of the diocesan investigation. Once this phase is completed, all the documents produced by the diocese will be sent to the Vatican to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to begin another phase of the process, where both that dicastery and the Salesian general postulation will work on the next stages.

To make the most of these moments, the diocese of Noto, together with the local Salesian Family, has decided to create different opportunities for reflection.

The program included a free showing of the musical Sulle ali dell’Amore (“On the Wings of Love”) on Thursday, May 2, curated by the Cinecircolo Giovanile Socioculturale at the Garibaldi theatre in Modica.

In the morning of May 3, the film on Nino Baglieri will be screened at some educational institutions, while in the afternoon, at the Palazzo della Cultura, a journalist seminar will be held open to citizens, entitled: “Communicating the sacred: The cross and the light. The case of the Servant of God, Nino Baglieri.”

On Saturday, May 4, eve of the closing of the diocesan inquiry, Fr. Cameroni will preside over a meditation and prayer across the places of Nino Baglieri.

The most important moments are scheduled for May 5-6. On the 5th, in St. Peter’s Church in Modica Bassa, the bishop of Noto, Bishop Salvatore Rumeo, will preside over the Eucharist with the closing rite of the diocesan investigation.

On Monday, May 6, the feast of Saint Dominic Savio for the Salesian Family and the anniversary of Nino’s fall from the scaffolding on which he was working, from which came the paralysis that accompanied him throughout his life, there will be a celebration at the Salesian oratory in Modica, presided over by Fr. Chavez, at the end of which there will be a moment of fraternal agape typical of the Salesian tradition.

Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
6th Sunday of Easter

May 5, 2024
John 15: 9-17
Villa Maria, Bronx                       
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Assumption, Bronx

More, by Holbein

When Sir Thomas More’s son-in-law complimented him in 1525 on his friendship with Henry VIII, More replied with foresight, “I believe he favors me more than any other subject in England…. However, … if my head could win him a castle in France, it should not fail to go.”  More’s faithfulness to his conscience, the sanctity of marriage, and the unity of the Church did cost him his head 10 years later.

When Pontius Pilate was trying to save Jesus from the chief priests and Sanhedrin, they threatened him by telling him, “If you release him, you are not a friend of Caesar” (John 19:12).  They’d accuse him to the emperor in Rome of tolerating a threat to Roman rule, and Tiberias Caesar wouldn’t take kindly to that, any more than Henry VIII took to Thomas More’s Christian principles.

Christ before Pilate (Mihaly Munkacsy)

The friendship of powerful persons may be fickle.  It may depend on how useful we might be to them.  That’s true also of some of our ordinary relationships, unfortunately.

But it’s not true of Jesus.  Knowing, as he did, who was about to betray him, who would soon deny even knowing him, who would run away and hide when he was arrested, he nevertheless called his disciples friends—friends he’d personally chosen, friends to whom he’d revealed everything he’d heard from his Father, friends for whom he’d lay down his life (John 15:13-16).

Those assurances of Jesus at the Last Supper are addressed to all of us.  From eternity the Son of God has chosen us to be his friends, not slaves.  He doesn’t use us for his own purposes but dies for us in order that he might raise us up to eternal life alongside himself.  “No one has greater love than this, to lay down his life for his friends” (15:13).

Bp. Robert Barron has written that “a true friend is someone who has seen us at our worst and still loves us … when I am most obnoxious, most self-absorbed, most afraid and unpleasant.”  He observes that we sinners “murdered the Lord of life, and he answered us not with hatred but with compassion.”*  That’s Jesus’ love for Simon Peter and the rest of the 12.  The only one who lost out was Judas, who rejected Jesus’ friendship, still offered even as the traitor kissed him, and Jesus addressed him as “friend” (Matt 26:50).

In spite of our sins, Jesus still addresses us as his friends and invites us to dine with him in the Eucharistic banquet and in the eternal banquet of heaven.  He asks only that we accept his friendship and extend his friendship to everyone in our lives:  “Love one another as I love you.   You are my friends if you do what I command you:  love one another” (15:12,14,17).  Then, in his love and friendship our joy will be complete (15:11) forever.

Last Supper (Dagnan-Bouveret)

* “I Have Called You Friends,” The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels (Park Ridge, Ill., 2020), p. 552.

Homily for Thursday, Week 5 of Easter

Homily for Thursday
5th Week of Easter

May 2, 2024
John 15: 9-11
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

“As the Father loves me, so I also love you” (John 15: 9).

The Holy Trinity (Antonio de Pareda)

Love is in the present tense in those words of Jesus to his disciples—to us.  The Father has loved the Son eternally and continues to love him in time, to love the Son incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth.  That love is complete, perfect, and without limit.

And that’s how Jesus, the Son incarnate, loves us.  He’s loved us eternally, before we existed—now that’s a mystery of faith—and loves us now that we do exist.  We are the reason for the incarnation:  “God so loved the world,” which means above all the people in the world, “that he gave his only Son” (3:16), so that the Son might share their eternal love with us.  The Last Supper begins with Jesus’ “loving his own in the world and loving them to the end,” which could also be translated as loving them to the utmost or the extreme (13:1)—as much as the Father loves him.

The Son responds to the Father’s love by keeping his commandments, especially the commandment to love us and to save us even tho we don’t deserve it, except in the sense that God wants us to be loved and to remain in his love—here, now, and for eternity.  When Jesus tells us to have faith in God and faith also in himself (14:1), part of that faith is belief in their love for us.  Don’t we often find that unbelievable?  Part of our growth in discipleship is just to believe that God truly loves us, that Jesus Savior of the world truly loves us, has chosen us, and desires that his joy remain in us—completely (15:11), to the utmost.

Message of the Rector Major for May

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, SDB

 

MARY HELP OF CHRISTIANS

FROM HERE TO THE WORLD

 

Dear readers of Salesian media,

My affectionate and cordial greetings during this Easter season. 

In a world in turmoil, agitated by armed conflicts and no small amount of violence, we continue to declare, announce, and proclaim that Jesus is Lord, raised by the Father, and that he LIVES. We strongly need his Presence in hearts willing to welcome him.

At this same moment, I’m able to look over the content of this May’s Salesian Bulletin, always rich and filled with Salesian life, for which I’m grateful to those who make it a reality. Reading its pages before writing my greeting, I found presented so many Salesian places around the world where Mary Help of Christians has come.

One of the 2 domes of the basilica of MHC, Turin
(shot by your humble blogger, 2009)

I must confess to you that when I’m inside the magnificent basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Valdocco, in this holy place where everything speaks of the presence of God, of the maternal protection of our Mother, and of Don Bosco, I struggle to imagine how those words of the Help of Christians to Don Bosco became reality: “from here” – from this Marian shrine – “my glory will go out to the whole world.” (Hic domus mea; inde gloria mea.) But thus it is.

In these ten years of service as Rector Major, I’ve visited hundreds of Salesian presences in the world where our Mother is present. 

Now, I wish to speak to you again about my most recent experience. It was on my last visit to our Salesian presences, the one among the Xavante people in Brazil, that I was able to “touch with my own hands” God’s Providence and the good that continues to be done there, as well as among all of us.

I was able to visit several villages and towns in the state of Mato Grosso. I visited San Marcos, the village of Fatima, and Sangrandouro. We also visited some others near these three large centers, including the first settlement we made among the Xavante people. The Xavante are a people who were stricken with diseases and in danger of extinction, but thanks to the help of our missionaries, the medicine they brought, and the dozens of years spent among this people, accompanying them, today the Xavante count more than 23,000 members. This is Providence, this is the proclamation of the Gospel, and, at the same time, it’s journeying with a people and their culture, preserved until today, as has never happened before.

The rector major with Xavante people this year
(ANS)

I had the opportunity to speak before various civil authorities and am grateful for all that we can do in collaboration for the good of this people and of others. At the same time, I’ve allowed myself to recall with simplicity, but also with honesty and legitimate pride, that those who’ve accompanied these peoples for 130 years, as the Church has done – in this case through the sons and daughters of Don Bosco – are worthy of a respected reputation and of attention to their words.

We’ve done everything we can to join with the voices of those calling for land for these villagers. Accompanying these peoples and defending their land and their Faith (in this case with the Boi-Bororo) led to the martyrdom of Salesian Rudolph Lunkenbein and the Indian Simão in Meruri.

Traveling hundreds of miles by road, I was happy to see so many signs that announced: “Indigenous Reservation Territory.” I think this is the best guarantee of peace and prosperity for this people.

What does what I’m describing here have to do with Mary Help of Christians? Well, simply everything, since it’s difficult to imagine a century of Salesian presence (SDBs and FMAs) among the Xavante Indians without our handing down love for the Mother of our Lord, who is our Mother also.

In San Marcos, all, or almost all, of the villagers, together with us guests, ended the day of our arrival with a procession and the recitation of the holy Rosary. The image of the Virgin was illuminated in the middle of the night and in the midst of the jungle, amid the elderly, adults, young people, and many mothers who carried their children on their backs in large baskets in which the little ones slept as we made our pilgrimage. We made several stops at different neighborhoods of the village. Undoubtedly, our Mother also was walking through the village of San Marcos and, no doubt, through many others also blessing her indigenous sons and daughters.

I can’t know for sure whether Don Bosco dreamt of this scene of the Virgin in the middle of the Xavante village, but, without a doubt, in the beating of his heart, lived this desire – for this people and for many others – whether from Patagonia, from the Amazon, or on the Paraguay River.

It’s that desire and that missionary dream that’s been coming true in the Amazon for 130 years.

On the coming feast of Mary Help of Christians, on May 24, at different times, Mary Help of Christians will be present in the hearts of her sons and daughters all over the world – first in Taiwan and East Timor, then in India, in Nairobi (Kenya), in Valdocco (Turin), in the Amazon, and in the small village of San Marcos. To the world, this is a nothing, but to this people who’ve come to know the Help of Christians, it’s an entire world.

Happy month of our Lady. Happy feast of the Help of Christians to all – from Valdocco (Turin) to the whole world.

With affection,

Fr. Angel

Critical Edition of Don Bosco's Letters Completed

Critical Edition of Don Bosco’s Letters Completed

(ANS – Rome – April 30, 2024) – With the publication of the 10th volume of the critical edition of Don Bosco’s letters (Rome: LAS, 2024), the very ambitious project of the Salesian Historical Institute (ISS), launched at its foundation in 1982, has come to an end. Volume 10 collects in the 1st part the letters from 1887, January 1888, and about 80 letters not included in the previous volumes (having been found after earlier volumes were printed); the 2d part consists of the indexing of names of people, places, correspondents, subjects, in order to facilitate searches within volumes that would easily remain dusty on library shelves at a time like the present, in which history seems to have lost much of its appeal.  

As with the previous volumes, each letter is enriched with initial information that specifies the documentary value of the edited text (original draft, or autograph, allograph, without signature, with imitated signature...) and below by 2 sets of apparatus: the critical “author variants” apparatus useful for a better interpretation of the text and understanding of the usus scribendi of Don Bosco; and then the historical and biographical apparatus to contextualize some events, note significant expressions, connect the letters sent to the same correspondent, identify with precision the thousands of characters mentioned, but unknown to the greater story.

Fr. Francesco Motto
Turin, October 2009

Steering the vessel into port – in those dangerous seas with waves that can never be tamed that are the correspondence of personalities who have left indelible traces in history, such as Don Bosco – was Fr. Francesco Motto, a co-founding member of ISS, for 10 years its coordinating secretary and for 20 years its director. Collecting from all over the world, reading, comparing, deciphering, reconstructing, demystifying, and indexing with painstaking patience a bulk of 4,682 letters, mostly manuscript and arduous to read, was an undertaking that required determination and temerity from the curator in its initiation, passion and courage as he went ahead, and confidence and perseverance in its completion. And so from today we have an essential tool to know and “taste” the human, spiritual, charismatic, pedagogical, cultural dimension of an extraordinary life of Don Bosco. From today it is available to everyone, the Salesian Family and the Church in particular, a heritage of papers, reflections, and resonance of his tough daily life, year by year, month by month, day by day, it would seem, also able to help stem the ever-rising tide of fake news, that is, of expressions attributed to Don Bosco but never seriously documented.

The new Epistolario, in its paper and digital versions already largely available on the ISS website, with its 64% of unpublished letters, is obviously intended to replace the previous edition by Fr. Eugenio Ceria from the 1950s and the texts collected in the various volumes of the Biographical Memoirs.

It can be reasonably assumed that the new edition could last for decades, subject to the need to supplement it with the increasingly rare finds of letters that have escaped the searches of the past 4 decades.

Diocesan Inquiry for Sr. Antonietta Bohm, FMA, Closes

Closure of the Diocesan Inquiry 

for Servant of God Antonietta Böhm, FMA

(ANS – Cuautitlan, Mexico – April 29, 2024) – On April 28 2024 in the cathedral of San Bonaventura at Cuautitlan, Mexico, after the Mass presided over by Bishop Efrain Mendoza Cruz, the closing session was held to solemnize the conclusion of the diocesan Inquiry into the life, virtues, fame of holiness and signs of the cause of beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Antonieta Böhm, professed sister in the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. The following members of the tribunal took their oath: the bishop; Fr. Omar Nemesio Montoya Garcia, episcopal delegate; Fr. Adolfo Martinez Melo, promoter of justice; María de Lourdes Jasso Arredondo, notary; Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, SDB, postulator general for the causes of the Saints of the Salesian Family, and the vice postulator, Sister Maria Guadalupe Chaaluvez Rodriguez, FMA.

The archetype was then delivered with the original documents to be kept in the diocesan archives, and two copies (transcript and public copy) delivered to Fr. Gabriel Cruz, SDB, a member of the Salesian General Postulation, to be passed on to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

In the homily Bishop Mendoza, referring to the Sunday gospel of the vine and the branches, stressed how Mother Antonietta Böhm was a living and fruitful branch united to Christ, who bore fruit and accepted the prunings of life.

Sister Phyllis Neves, general visitor and councilor of the FMAs, addressed a greeting message on behalf of the Superior General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Mother Chiara Cazzuola.

An artistic event followed as a tribute to Sister Antonietta Böhm: “Semilla de amor” (Seed of Love), performed by former students of the Laura Vicuña Educational Center, accompanied by the Effetà musical group.

Antonietta Böhm was born on September 22, 1907, in the town of Bottrop, Germany. In Essen she met the FMAs, who had arrived in Germany in 1922, and was fascinated by their serene and apostolic lifestyle. In 1926 she began her postulatancy in the house at Eschelbach and continued her novitiate in Italy at Nizza Monferrato. In 1928 she made her first profession and then remained in Italy for the study of music in Turin; in addition, she was assistant to university students in Pisa and novices in Casanova.

After her perpetual profession, which she made in Turin on August 5, 1934, she began her missionary life: first in Argentina (1934-1965), then in Peru (1965-1969) and Mexico (1969-2008). She was a music teacher, nurse, vicar, local superior, provincial. Everywhere she showed herself to be a strong woman, available to listen and always confident in the help of God and Mary Help of Christians. She consolidated the existing works and opened new ones with a view to the future.

She spent the last 30 years of her life, from 1979, in the Villa Spem community in Coacalco as vicar and then superior. These were the fruitful years of the apostolate as a spiritual guide and of social commitment to the poor. In 1973, Mother Ersilia Crugnola had given her a statue of Mary Help of Christians as a gift, and she had invited her to send her maternal blessing. At first, Sister Antonietta shielded herself and did not want to accept but, when a person who had been blessed was completely healed, her fear disappeared. Sister Antonietta said, “From the first blessing until now, our Lady works day and night, and so her mission extends through mail, fax, and email and arrives in different places in Mexico and in many other parts of the world.”

As she relyied on Mary’s help and blessing, extraordinary graces occurred. In 1985 she began the Obra Sabatina, which consisted of the distribution of food to the neediest, and until 2000 she personally followed up the entire organization. Then she calmly accepted the lack of strength and allowed herself to be treated, edifying the novices and all those who frequented the house. She died on April 27, 2008, in Coacalco, Mexico.

The testament she leaves is one of ardent love for Jesus, unlimited trust in Mary Help of Christians, welcoming kindness, and generous and serene availability to the mission for the extension of the Kingdom of God in various cultures, families and people’s hearts.

Homily for Memorial of St. Pius V

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Pius V
Tuesday, 5th Week of Easter

April 30, 2024
Collect
Acts 14: 19-28
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

God, in his providence, “raised up Pope St. Pius V” to safeguard the faith and provide “more fitting worship” by the Church toward God (Collect).

Pius was elected Pope just 3 years after the Council of Trent concluded.  He undertook a serious implementation of the council, thus both safeguarding the faith and organizing fitting worship of God.  He oversaw the publication of a catechism for the Church and the reform of the breviary and the missal, and he fostered the training of priests in seminaries.  He put together a naval coalition to oppose the invasion of Europe that the Turks were planning, and thru the intercession of our Blessed Mother the Christian fleet smashed the Turkish fleet, quite unexpectedly, in the Gulf of Lepanto.

Pope St. Pius in the late 16th century was doing what Paul and Barnabas did in the 1st:  proclaiming the Good News in spite of hardships and even danger, strengthening the spirits of the disciples, and appointing presbyters for the service of Christ’s flock (Acts 14:21-23).

We don’t use Pius’s liturgical books any longer, and his catechism has been supplanted by other formats and methods.  The way we train the Church’s ministers is very different.  But his principles remain:  it’s important to present clearly the truths of the faith, promote faithful living of the Gospel, prepare priests and other ministers for service of God’s people, and worship God thru Christ with beautiful liturgy based on the Church’s ancient traditions.

Homily for Memorial of St. Catherine of Siena

Homily for the Memorial of
St. Catherine of Siena

April 29, 2024
Collect
Salesian HS, New Rochelle

If I asked you who are the greatest saints of the Middle Ages, I hope you wouldn’t ask me when were the Middle Ages.  Perhaps you might suggest St. Francis of Assisi and today’s saint, Catherine of Siena. 

Monument to St. Catherine, Rome

St. Catherine was born in 1347 and died in 1380—a very short life by our reckoning.  But she lived fully and accomplished much.  The prayer for her memorial notes 2 qualities:  “her contemplation of the Lord’s Passion and her service of [God’s] Church.”

Catherine gave herself entirely to God from her earliest years and had an intense prayer life.  Like many people in her time, she focused particularly on Christ’s passion.  He let her know that prayer wasn’t enuf:  she also had to put her love for him into action.

Catherine began by caring for the sick and the poor in her city.  But observing the sad state of the Church and of public life, she became active in public affairs.  The Popes had been living in France for 70 years.  Italy was torn by wars between the city-states.  Many bishops and priests were corrupt, caring more for wealth and comfort than for their flocks, and some led sinful lives.  While always respectful of the Church and its leaders, Catherine and her followers undertook campaigns to mediate wars and to reform the Church.  She wrote hundreds of letters and traveled to meet the Pope and other leaders in person.  Solidly grounded in Jesus Christ our Savior, she was able to achieve partial success in her efforts and left us a body of writings that caused Pope Paul VI to declare her a doctor of the Church and Pope John Paul to name her a patron saint of Europe.

When our lives are similarly grounded on Christ thru prayer, the sacraments, and the Scriptures, our union with Christ will enable us, too, to bring his love to our brothers and sisters in practical charity, respect for everyone, honest living, and the use of our abilities and opportunities to serve the common good of our country and God’s Church.

Getting to Know Catacombs of St. Callistus

Getting to Know the Catacombs of St. Callistus

Useful for the 2025 Jubilee

(ANS – Rome – April 25, 2024) – As the 2025 Jubilee Year approaches, the Salesians at the Catacombs of St. Callistus retrace their history and highlight the activities they carry out in Rome and in particular within the complex making up the catacombs.

The Catacombs of St. Callistus are among the largest and most important in Rome. They arose in the middle of the 2d century and are part of a cemetery complex that occupies an area of 38 acres, with a network of tunnels almost 12 miles long, on several floors, and reach a depth of more than 70 feet. Dozens of martyrs, 16 popes, and many other Christians were buried in them.

Pope Pius XI, who had met Don Bosco and sensed the good that the Salesian Congregation could do by welcoming pilgrims and visitors to this important place for the Church in the early centuries, decided to entrust custody of the Catacombs of St. Callistus to the Salesians of Don Bosco in 1930.

Since then, many Salesians have cared for and continue to care for pilgrims at the catacombs, and some of them rest in a small cemetery at the entrance of the district. Today there are 16 Salesians from all over the world who make the catacombs known, in many languages, to visitors and pilgrims.

What is proposed is not so much a touristic and archaeological visit, but a real spiritual journey experienced through the symbols, tombs, testimonies, and history of this place.

Here, in fact, in a journey that lasts an average of 45 minutes, the stories of the martyred popes who rest in the Crypt of the Popes are told, the most sacred and important place of these catacombs, called “the little Vatican” because 9 popes and, probably, 8 dignitaries of the Church of the 3d century were buried there. Not only that, passing through the so-called “sopratterra” there are two basilicas with three apses, called “Tricore.” In the eastern one, Pope St. Zephyrinus and the young martyr of the Eucharist, St. Tarcisius, were probably buried.

Also of great importance is the Crypt of Saint Cecilia, patron saint of music. Of noble Roman family, she was martyred in the 3d century. Buried where her statue now stands, she was venerated here for at least 5 centuries. In 821 her relics were transported to Trastevere in the basilica dedicated to her.

Inside the Catacombs of St. Callistus, you can also admire ancient frescoes dating from the early 3d century, which symbolically represent Baptism and the Eucharist.

During the visit, each group can stop either in a crypt or in a surface chapel for a brief moment of prayer or for the celebration of Mass. Even just praying, with the litanies of the saints and martyrs of St. Callistus, evokes a world of sensations and faith.

To facilitate the visit, the catacombs also have a large parking lot, a refreshment point, and large open spaces for play, lunch, and moments of conviviality and encounter.

Added value is the presence, in the same area, of the Salesian postnovitiate, where you can find hospitality for the night, a hot meal, and meeting rooms.

For more information on the Catacombs, to learn more about their history, and to book a visit, you can visit the website.

Homily for 5th Sunday of Easter

Homily for the
5th Sunday of Easter

Collect
1 John 3: 18-24
April 28, 2024
John 15: 1-8
The Fountains, Tuckahoe*
Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx    

The Resurrection (icon)

We prayed in the collect this morning that God “constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us.”  The paschal mystery is the Easter mystery, the mystery of our Lord Jesus’ passover from death to eternal life.  The mystery is God’s plan for each of us:  that with Christ and thru Christ each of us should pass thru the sufferings of life, thru death and the grave, to resurrection on the Last Day and an eternal life of happiness, friendship, contentment, and joy, all without end, without limit.

We began that long journey with Baptism, when God made us new persons, sisters or brothers of our Lord.  In symbol we died—buried in water—and rose from the water spiritually alive.  Sin was put to death, forgiven and washed away.  We’re reminded of Baptism whenever we use holy water or make the sign of the cross.

Our baptismal cleansing is renewed and reaffirmed whenever our sins are washed away again by repentance, confession of our sins, and absolution from Christ’s priestly minister.

We prayed, further, that God protect us, protect our life in Christ, so that we might flourish, bearing much fruit.  At the Last Supper, Jesus spoke at length about our bearing fruit because of our connection with him, like branches on a grape vine (John 15:1-8).

(Wikimedia Commons)

What kind of fruit does Christ expect us to produce?  St. John’s letter suggests “deeds and truth” (1 John 3:18).  Truth leads us to have confidence in God, who is “greater than our hearts” (3:20) and who saves us thru Christ’s Easter mystery—saves us from our sins, from “whatever our hearts condemn” (3:20).

In truth, God has bestowed on us a measureless dignity.  The Church recently released a teaching document called “Infinite Dignity.”  Every human being has a claim to dignity, for we’re all created in the image of God.  In truth, then, our deeds must show “love for one another just as he commanded us” (3:23).  Truth must be translated into action.  Or, as St. John writes, we must keep God’s commandments; that’s how we remain in him (3:24).

One commandment forbids killing people (except in self-defense).  Would we attack the image of God?  So the Church reminds us over and over that war, abortion, euthanasia (“mercy killing”), and revenge are serious sins, crimes against humanity, crimes against the truth of who we are.

Similarly, racism, discrimination against women or people of a different religion, human trafficking, indifference toward the poor and refugees are offenses against human dignity, against the image of God in individual people.

It it’s true that God created people as male or female—the book of Genesis says so very clearly (1:27)—then our human dignity involves our sexuality, our being female or male.  Contrary to what’s regarded as politically correct, homosexual behavior and transgenderism smack up against God’s revelation, God’s creation, God’s plan for human beings.

People who push a gay agenda twist language—twist truth—by saying it doesn’t matter whom you love.  Of course, we’re commanded to love everyone.  But it’s obvious that we don’t express love for everyone in a sexual manner.  We can love a lot of people deeply, even passionately, without being sexual about it. 

The Creation of Eve (Raphael Coxie)

People who push a trans agenda also twist language—twist truth—e.g., by talking about “gender assigned at birth”—as if gender’s something that comes out of the sorting hat at Hogwarts.  God doesn’t arbitrarily “assign” our maleness or femaleness.  He deliberately creates us individually as women or men, body and soul, whole persons.  After creating us that way, he also redeems us that way, and that’s how we’ll go, eventually, into eternity.

Our deeds have to reflect God’s truth—about our relationship with him, about who we are, about the rest of creation.  This is how we “love one another just as he commanded us” (3:23).  If we remain fastened to the vine who is Jesus Christ, then we’ll have Easter life coursing thru us and will bear the fruit of good deeds, deeds that are true.

* Big chunks removed for this congregation.

Restoration of Belltowers of Basilica of MHC Begins

Restoration of the Belltowers of the Basilica of Mary Help of Christians Begins

(ANS – Turin – April 26, 2024) – The scaffolding that will allow the restoration and conservation of the 2 belltowers of the basilica of Mary Help of Christians in Turin was erected on April 24.

In the previous extensive conservation and restoration of the entire basilica, which was organized into three lots in 2004-2008, the belltowers weren’t included. As a result, in April last year it was necessary, through the intervention of a crane, to secure the angels above the two belltowers, ultimately detaching the dangerous wings of the Archangel Gabriel placed on the belltower on the right side and the flag, also dangerous, of the Archangel Michael, on the left looking at the facade of the basilica.

The process then began for the design of the renovation and conservation of the belltowers, with their cupolas and the 2 statues, together with the statue of our Lady placed on the first cupola, the largest. The concert of bells from the towers also will be renovated.

The rector major of the Salesians and the treasurer general, Bro. Jean Paul Muller, encouraged this project, which was approved by the general council in June 2023. The treasurer general has created a working commission composed of the provincial treasurer of the Piedmont Province, the director of the Mary Help of Christians community, and the rector of the basilica.

“The basilica of Mary Help of Christians,” Bro. Muller writes, “is the central place of our devotion to the Help of Christians, who has always accompanied us and will accompany us in all the challenges thruout our history.”

Last summer, major works and various inspections began immediately, and in these first months of 2024, after analyzing the estimates of 5 companies, one company was chosen for both the structural works and the belltower system. All this is still a sign of Providence, that these works begin and should end in the bicentennial year of Don Bosco’s dream at nine years of age.

“Soon a fundraiser will be organized,” explains Fr. Michele Vivano, rector of the basilica, “certain that Mary Help of Christians continues to be our treasurer, as she was for Don Bosco, if we continue to be her devoted children.”