Salesians Assist Displaced People in Congo

Don Bosco Is Present 
among Thousands of Displaced People near Goma

(ANS – Goma, DRC – December 5, 2022) – “One gesture, one life” is the leitmotiv of the urgent interventions that the Salesian coordination of the East Delegation of the Central Africa Province are carrying out in collaboration with the Salesian NGO International Volunteers for Development (VIS). Since the beginning of October 2022, these small gestures for the little ones have been necessary to help the almost 28,000 people who have arrived at the Don Bosco Ngangi Salesian center in Goma, people fleeing the violence and war that are ruining the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

As a first support activity, these people were given water to refresh themselves after the long walks to escape the fighting. Furthermore, to improve night-time safety, the site was supplied with electricity, brought from the Salesian house.

100 children under five, including a dozen newborns and their accompanying mothers, are fed a tonic soup every day. 110 children aged between 6 months and over 4 years received pharmacological and prophylactic treatment for the elimination of worms and parasites, offered by the medical staff of the Ngangi Center clinic. Also, more than 80 families receive a dry ration of rice enriched with various seasonings every day.

Sparks of charity and compassion also touched about 20 elderly people, including 2 octogenarians from the distant territory of Rutshuru, who were welcomed into the Salesian center. These 2, in fact, had not found a place in the site taken over by the displaced persons, and were therefore in a condition of extreme vulnerability; now, however, their situation is gradually stabilizing: also improving, the health and psychophysical balance of some widowed women, 2 of whom are mothers of 8 children under the age of 10 who are assisted in the Don Bosco center.

Many small gestures towards the “little ones” which correspond to many lives saved, and which seem to give full effect to the model of virtuous actions indicated by Jesus in his famous parable on the final judgment (Matt 25).

At the same time, it is also necessary to stop the causes of injustice that are causing this situation. During his last visit to Goma, at the end of November, Fr. Guillermo Basañes, superior of the Salesians of the Province of Central Africa, gave a stern warning: “War kills, but indifference also kills!” Then he encouraged the gestures of compassion and support made by his confreres in the war camp of Kanyaruchinya, about 6 miles north of Goma, and in the Don Bosco Ngangi camp.

 

Homily for 3d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Advent

Dec. 11, 2022
Entrance Antiphon
Is 35: 1-6, 10
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Rejoice in the Lord always…!  Indeed, the Lord is near” (Ent. Antiphon).

(source unknown)

This day, the 3d Sunday of Advent, is called Gaudete Sunday on account of the 1st word of the Entrance Antiphon in Latin, Gaudete, “Rejoice”!

The Church signals joy to us by allowing the use of rose-colored vestments and, traditionally, lighting a rose-colored candle in our Advent wreaths.  Somber purple is put aside for a day.  This happens on only one other day, the 4th Sunday of Lent.

Why rejoice?  The antiphon, which is a quotation from St. Paul’s Letter to the Philippians, gives us the answer:  “The Lord is near” (4:4-5).  We’re halfway thru our season of waiting, of anticipating our annual festive remembrance of the birth of our Savior.  Thru his incarnation in the womb of the Virgin Mary and his birth at Bethlehem, God’s Son came near us, lived among us, walked among us, spoke with us, brought relief to human sufferings—as Jesus points out in the gospel today (Matt 11:4-6)—and offers us hope of “attaining the joys of so great a salvation” (Collect), i.e., final and eternal relief from our sufferings.  We hope, as Isaiah prophesies, to “return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy” (35:10).

In Zion we hope to be among Christ’s people, “celebrating always with solemn worship and glad rejoicing” (Collect).  Our anticipation of that, our confidence that our Lord Jesus is near us even now, is reason to rejoice, now, in this season, and always:  “Rejoice in the Lord always.  I shall say it again:  rejoice!” (Phil 4:4).

Our Lord Jesus came at Bethlehem to save us.  His active ministry was one of saving people, curing their bodily, mental, and spiritual illnesses.  He promises to come again, this 2d coming in glory with judgment and the completion of the redemption of us faithful people.  “Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord,” St. James urges.  “Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand….  Behold, the Judge is standing before the gates” (James 5:7-9).

Of course, we don’t know the Lord’s timetable for the 2d coming, for the Last Day, for the universal judgment, however soon—in our human terms—St. James or St. Paul expected it.  But in the face of the world’s skepticism or indifference toward God’s coming into our human history and pointing us toward our final destiny, during Advent we give witness that

We did not come from nothing, and we are not going nowhere….  God has entered history for our salvation, breaking death and freeing us from sin. Each of our lives, and the whole of creation, has an author, a purpose, and an ultimate destination. Everything we do, each life we touch, and each day of our lives moves us closer to that final end.  There is tremendous meaning and worth in that, and tremendous freedom.[1]

We testify that “the Lord God keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed [and] sets captives free. . . .  The Lord shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, thru all generations” (Ps 146:6-7,10).  This is God’s promise in Christ for Judgment Day.

We know, moreover, that our Lord Jesus comes to us even now.  He comes to us symbolically when we celebrate a feast like Christmas.  He comes to us really, truly, physically in his sacraments, which use tangible, physical signs like bread, wine, water, oil, and human touch to express the inner, spiritual realities of his presence—above all in the Holy Eucharist, which is our Lord literally and truly dwelling with us, coming to us, making himself one with us as we taste his flesh and blood.

Lord, come and save us! (Responsorial Psalm).  Stay near us; be our “everlasting joy.”

---

[1] Ed. Condon, The Pillar newsletter online, Dec. 9, 2022: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKKXpNWZncnZcBDtFMrjVWkbWcSMjNLZLPqBvWWQjNvllDZTMssFwKrgMxlwHGxcMkxv

Another Cold Adventure with NYC Friends

Another Cold Adventure with NYC Friends 

Two weekends ago, I camped a Fingerboard Shelter alongside a fine group of backpackers up mostly from NYC.  On Saturday, Dec. 10, I met up with most of the same group of new friends, plus a few more--9 others all together, under the leadership again of Ingrid and Richard.  It was even colder (no higher than 35 degrees) as on that other weekend, but with ample sunshine and scarcely any wind.

We met at the Silvermine Lake parking lot in Harriman State Park.  They were planning an overnite tenting adventure and were laden with backpacks, while I could only do a day hike with a knapsack.   Despite their packs, they set a quick clip while I, laden with twice as many years (and, evidently, more recalcitrant legs and lungs) as most of them, huffed along behind.

We went west up the Menomine Trail (1.5 miles) to the Long Path and made the short, steep ascent to the Stockbridge Shelter (1200', almost 500' up from Silvermine Lake).   We stopped for lunch there

A large Boy Scout troop (114 from West Milford, N.J.) was set up there; it's a great spot to camp at.

We continued north on the LP another 2.2 miles, crossing Rte 6 (Long Mountain Parkway) into the parking lot.

Before my friends continued their trek (another 3 miles or so on the LP), we took a couple of group photos.  Ingrid was shooting one and isn't in this photo, and most of the group are looking toward her.  (Maybe I'll eventually acquire the photo I shot for her with her phone.)

I said farewell there and returned to Silvermine via the Nawahunta Fire Road, most of which I'd not been on before.  This track ascends steadily for about half a mile to 958', mostly along a narrow trail between rhododendron and eventually opens up to views of a ridge on the left and hollows and swampy stuff on the right; and, at last to a fine view of a big marsh with Stockbridge Mountain beyond.

The road goes by the long-abandoned Lewis Mine (.3 mile from 7 Lakes Drive).  This old woods road is a more direct route between Silvermine and Long Mountain, 2.2 miles, than the LP-Menomine combo.  So my total hike was 6 miles, lasting 3.5 hours (including lunch).  Once back at the car, I treated myself to some hot Ramen noodles on this day that didn't get much above freezing in spite of vigorous sunshine.

No, I didn't pack the stove and fuel with me on the hike; I left them in the car.  And yes, this time I had my utensils with me.

https://link.shutterfly.com/Zkl4nraWEvb

Homily for the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception

Homily for the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Dec. 8, 2022
Collect
Eph 3: 1-6, 11-12
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.

“O God, … you prepared a worthy dwelling place for your Son” (Collect).

(Velasquez)

We celebrate today the greatest wonder of God’s grace, what he did in the soul of Mary of Nazareth, “preserving her from every stain” of sin.

The collect is careful to credit Mary’s grace of sinlessness to the power of Christ’s death.  It’s our joy and our blessing that the power of his death also touches us whom the Father “has blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him” (Eph 1:3-4).

Yes, the Father has chosen each of us no less than he chose Mary.  He has cleansed us after the fact of our sin, both original sin and personal sin, but his cleansing “by virtue of the death of [his] Son” is real.  Because it’s real, the Father is forming us, too, into “worthy dwellings for [his] Son.”

In the 1st reading, the man blames the woman for tempting him to disobedience, and he also blames God for putting her in the garden with him (Gen 3:12).  It’s not my fault—it’s hers, and yours too!  And the woman blames the snake for deceiving her (3:13).  It’s our human propensity to blame everyone but ourselves for our failures.

It’s ironic, then, that our pardon and our redemption can come only when we confess our failures.  Then the Lord can do marvelous deeds (Ps 98:1), even making us “holy and without blemish” (Eph 1:4), like Mary.  For that is “the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will” and enables us to praise the glory of God (Eph 1:11-12), like obedient, cooperative Mary.

Obedient, cooperative Mary now intercedes for us, her guilty, contrite brothers and sisters that by the grace of her Son we “may be cleansed and admitted” with her to God’s presence (Collect), to dwell with him and with her without fear, without shame (cf. Gen 3:10), and ultimately without sin because that is God’s purpose for us in Christ.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Advent

Matt 3: 1-12
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx
Dec. 4, 2022
Blessed Sacrament, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“He will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Matt 3: 12)

by Mattia Preti

In today’s gospel we meet St. John the Baptist, the forerunner or advance agent for Christ.  We’re preparing to celebrate Christmas, remembering that Christ was born into our human history 2 millennia ago.  John is preparing “Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan” (3:5), i.e., the people who lived in those places, for the appearance of Christ.  Jesus has been living quietly, secretly as it were, in Nazareth for a quarter century following the Holy Family’s return from exile in Egypt (cf. Matt 2:19-23).  Now his public appearance and his announcing of God’s presence among us is about to happen.  John’s mission is to get people ready for that.

Readiness for the coming of the kingdom of heaven, John proclaims, begins with repentance (3:2).  One must admit one’s sinfulness and decide to break away from it.  There’s no room for sin in God’s kingdom.  Bp. Robert Barron comments:

“Repent” … might be a dirty word to many people today, but it cuts to the heart of every one of us, precisely because we all know that our lives are not where they are supposed to be.  We have all fallen short of the glory of God; we have all fallen into patterns of self-absorption and addiction.  So let us hear John’s word today:  “Repent.”  It’s a command to turn around, to start to move in a new direction.[1]

The next step in getting ready for the kingdom is to practice virtue.  John commands, “Produce good fruit as evidence of your repentance” (3:8).  Saying, “I’m sorry” for my sins is insufficient; it’s only a start on the journey into the kingdom of heaven.  I must make an effort to change my behavior, my manner of speaking, even my way of thinking.  Instead of gossip, I must speak well of others, or at the least, not tell harmful tales about others or attribute bad motives to what they do.  Instead of lying and fibbing, I must be truthful.  Instead of impure actions, I must be chaste, restrained, respectful of others.

John points out that his baptisms in the Jordan River are symbolic:  “I’m baptizing you with water, for repentance” (3:11), i.e., as an outward sign of your interior sorrow for your sins and purpose of amendment; or perhaps as a sign to stir up those motives in your hearts.  But John’s washings are only symbolic; they don’t effect what they symbolize, a cleansing of the soul, as Christian Baptism does.

That’s because “the one who is coming after” John “is mightier….  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:11).  The power of the Holy Spirit given by the one who will follow John—viz., Jesus—will cleanse your sins.  The fire of the Spirit will purge your soul.  Repent, for he is at hand!

Then comes an ominous warning:  “His winnowing fan is in his hand.  He’ll clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into his barn, but the chaff he’ll burn with unquenchable fire” (3:12).  The baptism of fire by the Mighty One who’s coming will result in an unending burning of the chaff separated from the wheat that will be saved.  That’s an agricultural image that John’s audience would have understood instantly.  After wheat was harvested, the stalks were laid out on a threshing floor and beaten until the heads of grain were separated from the stalks.  Then the farmers would use winnowing fans, rake-like tools, and toss it all into the air.  The wind would blow away the light-weight stalks and husks, while the heavier grain would fall back to the floor, to be gathered up and eventually pounded into good flour for baking bread.

One way of reading this ominous-sounding verse is to take it as a promise of judgment between righteous people—those who’ve repented of their sins—and evil people, who’ve not repented.  The wheat will be saved, and the chaff will be condemned to everlasting hellfire.  It’s similar to Jesus’ parable of the Last Judgment in Matt 25, in which the Son of Man separates the faithful sheep from the wicked goats.

      Bp. Barron, however, in another writing, offers an alternate reading of the verse:

So the Christ, John the Baptist is telling us, will shake us up, separating out what is good in us from what is wicked.  The process, like that of dividing wheat from chaff, will be time-consuming and labor-intensive, but the end result will be the elimination of dross within our bodies and our souls.

The bishop then attributes this winnowing of our personal wickedness from our souls to the working of the Holy Spirit within us, burning out the evil.[2] In traditional Catholic theology, that’s called purgatory, in which we’re purged or cleansed of our sinfulness and made worthy of being gathered into the Lord’s barn, into the heavenly kingdom.

Of course, the Lord also works to cleanse us even in this life.  Our sufferings from illness, injury, disappointment, heartache, or anything else; our freely chosen acts of penance; our reception of Christ’s grace in the sacraments—these touch us with the fire of the Holy Spirit.  When our sins afflict us and burden us, the Holy Spirit comes to our rescue by connecting us to our Lord Jesus and, as today’s Collect prayed, “gain[s] us admittance to his company,” to eternal life among his friends in the kingdom of God.

[1] The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels (Park Ridge, Ill.: Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, 2020), p. 40.

[2] Reflection for the 2d Sunday of Advent, Magnificat (Yonkers, December 2022), p. 57.

Fingerboard a Hot Spot on a Cold Day

Fingerboard Shelter a Hot Spot on a Cold Day

("Hot" as in popular.)

On Nov. 25-26, I hiked from the Lake Tiorati parking lot to Fingerboard Shelter, a distance of about 1.5 miles, part of it an ascent to the ridge.  One car was in the parking lot when I arrived.  The ridge overlooks the lake from the west, 

and the trail is traversed by both the Appalachian Trail and the Ramapo-Dunderberg Trail.  Morning rain had let up by then.  The sun came out for a while, then clouds, a passing shower, clouds, strong wind, temps dropping to 37 overnite. 

I had the shelter to myself from arriving at 11:30 a.m. to about 1:00 p.m.  In that time I ate my lunch (sardines on crackers, canteen water).  I was more than chagrined that I’d forgotten my utensils; I used a chopstick that I’d brought along as part of my kindling wood to maneuver the fish onto the crackers.  Then I worked hard to gather and cut firewood.  The Sven saw adds almost a pound to my pack, but it’s worth it!

A single chap came, set up his tent, then came up to socialize.  His name was Richard, and he was kind enuf to offer me a spare plastic spoon he had.  He was waiting for other backpackers, who came an hour later, having hiked in from Rte 17, where they’d all come up by train from NYC.  They were a very fine bunch of young and middle-aged adults.  The whole group totaled 8, and each had his or her own tent.

Richard was a co-leader of the group (along with Ingrid from Brooklyn). He’s an Army vet who served in Afghanistan.  They were all happy to come into the shelter to start their suppers (and get out of the wind), some of them to consume them there, and to enjoy the great fire I had going and conversation among us all.  I tried to light tea candles, which added to the atmosphere until the wind blew them out.  But Richard had a candle lantern that did stay lit. 

(This is actually a shot from a 2009 campout at Fingerboard.)

A second group of backpackers, a family, camped on the other side of the shelter.  They kept to themselves.  Late in the afternoon, around 3:30, a slightly crazy trio of teens with a dog came along.  They asked to borrow a lighter to cook supper (salmon steaks) on the ridge.  They had no map or flashlights except their phones, and weren’t even sure of their trail to Lake Tiorati (they’d come up from the other side on either the AT or the RD). Oy veh!

My supper of Ramen noodles with chicken slices added was definitely easier to consume with a plastic spoon than it would've been with a piece of curved bark.

The drink is Crystal Lite.

The sun had set around 5:00 p.m., and by 6:30 all of my new friends were gone to their tents.  I stayed up reading the Divine Office and America till 9:00, feeding the fire as well.  For the nite I was warm in my sleeping bag with an additional liner (first used on a sub-freezing campout with Scouts in Illinois); but sleeping on a wooden platform isn’t easy, and as usual I slept only in fits and starts.  I had to get up at 4:48 a.m. for Mother Nature’s sake, which is when I found out that it was 37º.

The sun woke me up at 6:45. 

Gradually we all retrieved our bear bags and had breakfast.  

My new friends were planning 2 more days of hiking, eventually totaling perhaps 20 miles over 3 days.  Yikes!  They headed down the Hurst Trail toward Lake Tiorati at 9:00 a.m., except Richard, who was heading back to Lake Kanawauke and New Jersey.

Sign posted on the main trail where the Hurst Trail 

cuts downhill to the shelter and on toward the lake.

After Divine Office, I packed up methodically (of course!) and hiked out at 9:30, a little ahead of the family foursome ("Happy hiking" exchanged).  I met 13 hikers on my trek back to the car, most of them day hikers.  In the Tiorati lot this time were many dozen cars—it was a gorgeous day for hiking.  There were also a few bikers out on 7 Lakes Drive.

December Message of the Rector Major

THE MESSAGE OF THE RECTOR MAJOR

Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime

THE POWER OF THAT DEFENSELESS BABE CONQUERS ALL THE POWERS OF THE WORLD

This year more than ever before, we realize the truth of these words of Isaiah: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: to them that dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, light is risen.”

Dear readers of Salesian media, friends of the Salesian charism,

We stand at the threshold of Christmas. How beautiful is everything that Christmas brings! In the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “Dear friends, the solemnity of the Nativity of the Lord which we shall soon be celebrating invites us to practice this same humility and obedience of faith. The glory of God is not expressed in the triumph and power of a king; it does not shine out in a famous city or a sumptuous palace. It makes its abode in a virgin’s womb and is revealed in the poverty of a child. In our lives, too, the almightiness of God acts with the force — often in silence — of truth and love. Thus faith tells us that in the end the defenseless power of that Child triumphs over the clamor of worldly powers.” (General Audience of Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2012) “In the night of the world, let us still be surprised and illumined by this act of God which is totally unexpected: God makes himself a Child. We must let ourselves be overcome with wonder, illumined by the Star that flooded the universe with joy. May the Child Jesus, in coming to us, not find us unprepared, dedicated only to making exterior reality more beautiful.” (General Audience of Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2010)

I think that preparing for Christmas and Christmastide, with the season’s different feastdays and parties, touches the hearts of most of us deeply. Perhaps some people do not understand in their hearts what this wonderful Mystery of God’s Presence – his Love – means, tho many do. That notwithstanding, Christmas is always a beautiful time of humanity, of grace, of the desire for peace, and of hope.

Even as we stand in the light and beauty of Christmas, of the Mystery of the presence of God, we are not unaware that we are truly living “a night of the world.” We are living in a time of pain, of despair, of war, of deaths. How timely are Pope Benedict XVI’s words, tho he wrote a decade ago, years before the moment in which we are living now.

-        We cannot ignore the war that is taking place in Ukraine.

-        We do not forget the thousands and thousands of lives that have been cut short as a result of the sin of war and the death that it sows everywhere.

-        We do not ignore that thousands and thousands of people are displaced in Ukraine and that other hundreds of thousands of people live hidden in subhuman conditions, without light or heat and with little food.

-        In addition to Ukraine, there are currently 29 other war and guerrilla hotspots in the world suffering the same effects of death and desolation.

-        More than 35,000 murders occur annually in some Latin American nations.

-        The number of the poor in Europe (we who thought we were completely secure) has increased by more than double the number when compared with 2 or 3 years ago.

-        We have not managed to end world hunger; instead, it has increased.

-        Catastrophic fires and floods, the result of climate change on our suffering planet, warn us with increasing frequency and power.

-        At the most recent summit on the climate, the nations that pollute the most were not even present, as if the problem had nothing to do with them.

Can’t what I have just described be defined as a “night of humanity”? Pope Francis himself speaks without hesitation of a third world war, covert in one way or another.

So, where can we find, discover, experience the fruits of the Incarnation and that first Christmas more than 2,000 years ago? And where can we experience the life that comes to us from the Resurrection of the Lord?

Christmas at Ushaia, Tierra del Fuego (ANS)

Do we have a reason for hope? Or does the dark night keep us from finding it?

During this time, Pope Francis has returned often to the topic of hope, urging us to look at our life with new eyes – especially now that we are undergoing a severe trial – with the eyes of Jesus, “the author of hope.” The certainty that the darkness will turn into light will help us overcome these difficult days. Hope is “a virtue that never disappoints: if you wait, you will never be disappointed” (Pope Francis). It is a virtue that surprises even God. In one of his poems, the great French Catholic writer Charles Peguy puts these words into God’s mouth: “The faith that I love most, says God, is hope.... What surprises me ... is hope.”

Indubitably, though we are faced with so much night, there is also so much life: the life that Mary of Nazareth brings to us in her newborn Son. The life of so many children whom mothers bring to light with immense love, in God’s Name. The life of so much anonymous generosity on the part of millions of people every day who reach out to their neighbors, to the needy, and to the elderly who are alone. Life is what so many anonymous people give away when they fight so much darkness and pessimism in silence. Life is, it seems to me, what is sown every day in thousands and thousands of Salesian presences around the world where, through a gesture, a smile, a piece of bread or a plate of rice, or in a moment of encounter, light and hope are sown instead of death from bombs. All this, I believe, is the fruit of Christmas, of the Incarnation of the Son of God, of the Resurrection, and of the God of life – for he always has the last word.

Blessed Christmas,

Fr. Angel

Homily for Tuesday, Week 1 of Advent

Homily for Tuesday
Week 1 of Advent

Nov. 29, 2022
Collect
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, New Rochelle

Today’s Collect petitions the Lord God to grant us his compassionate help.  We acknowledge our need because on our own we’re not able to avoid sin or sin’s penalties.  We need his compassion because our former ways taint us.

A sinful woman experiences Jesus' compassion

(Stained glass, St. Catharine Church, Spring Lake, N.J.)

Our former ways might have changed for the better long ago when we made a firm decision for Christ.  Our former ways might have been as recent as yesterday or even this morning when we grew impatient or were careless about our prayers.

We pray also for consolation.  The presence of the Son of God should console us.  That’s why we await his coming—not at Bethlehem, for that’s already happened, but his coming in grace, in power, to save us now out of his compassion in spite of our weaknesses in the face of trials and temptations.

Come, Lord Jesus!  Come and save us!

Don Bosco's Successor Visits New Rochelle Province

Don Bosco’s Successor 
Visits New Rochelle Province

From Monday, Nov. 21, until Friday, Nov. 15, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, 10th successor of St. John Bosco as Rector Major of the Salesians and head of the entire Salesian Family, visited the Eastern U.S. and Canada Province.

Fr. Angel’s journey was continuing from his visit to the San Francisco Province, Nov. 15-21.  The entire visit to the U.S. completed a visit in 2018 to the New Rochelle Province that had to be confined to Canada because he wasn’t able to secure a visa in time.

On this occasion, Fr. Angel 1st arrived in Washington, D.C., and visited Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School and Work-Study Program in Takoma Park, Md. On the evening of Nov. 21, he met school leaders and major supporters. On the morning of Nov. 22, he met the students, celebrated Mass with them, and toured the facilities. Then he took Amtrak to New Rochelle, arriving at the provincial center by 4:30 p.m.  On this first day in the province, he was accompanied by Fr. Hugo Orozco, general councilor for the Interamerica Region.

In New Rochelle on the 22d, Fr. Angel greeted each confrere and gave the Good Nite after Evening Prayer.  

Then he took part in the gala celebration of the 75th anniversary of Salesian Missions at the Green Tree Country Club, praising the mission office’s work on behalf of poor and endangered young people around the world and thanking the donors who make that work possible.  He also honored a dozen longtime employees (25 years or more). One of the highlights of the evening was Salesian Missions’ presentation of a check for $2 million to be used for Salesian youth work in the poorest and most difficult countries.

Fr. Tim Ploch, Fr. Angel Fernandez, Fr. Tim Zak

260 Salesians, employees, vendors, and benefactors attended the celebration.  He happily called Fr. Tim Ploch, director of the provincial center community, his “personal translator.”  The 2 have a long, warm relationship from the 6 years when Fr. Ploch was on the general council.

On Wednesday, Nov. 23, Fr. Angel presided over a Thanksgiving prayer service in the gymnasium of Salesian High School, including words of encouragement and appreciation for both students and staff. 

He visited the school chapel, which had been consecrated in 1926 by St. Louis Versiglia, Salesian martyr-bishop, and he blessed the school’s new STEM center.  

Then he met in the school cafeteria with student leaders from Salesian, Don Bosco Prep (Ramsey), and Mary Help of Christians Academy (North Haledon).

Fr. Angel with Salesian alumni and animators

Continuing, the Rector Major met briefly in the provincial house with 2 Don Bosco Volunteers, then toured Salesian Missions and spoke to the staff.  He returned to the school cafeteria for lunch with about 30 young graduates of Salesian schools, dialoguing with them about their dreams, how they’ve benefited from their Salesian education, and how they can continue to serve the Church and society.

After a break, Fr. Angel met with the provincial and council for about 90 minutes.  Then he proceeded to St. John Bosco Parish in Port Chester for an open-invitation Mass for the Salesian Family at 7:00 p.m.  

About 400 people came, including representatives of the local groups of the Salesian Family:  SDBs, FMAs, Salesian Cooperators, ADMA, and Canção Nova.  He celebrated Mass in Spanish; Fr. Tim Zak, provincial, translated his homily.  There was outstanding warmth and vibrancy between Fr. Angel and the congregation.  He expressed his appreciation for the parish’s diversity, and indeed the diversity and openness he had seen wherever he went in the U.S.

A reception in the parish hall followed the Mass.  There, as he did everywhere, the Rector Major greeted anyone who approached and posed patiently, even enthusiastically, for photos.

Wednesday was a long day.  So was Thursday, Thanksgiving Day.  Fr. Angel left New Rochelle for the Salesian Sisters’ provincialate in Haledon, N.J., where he greeted all the sisters, including the aged and infirm, then celebrated Mass with the 2 FMA communities (also North Haledon).  He took a look at the Sisters’ new chapel and gave it a blessing.

Then it was on to Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey for a Thanksgiving prayer service in the school’s main chapel with 86 SDBs from all over the U.S. part of the province and Thanksgiving dinner in the school cafeteria.  There was a lot of photography on this occasion, too, including big group shots and individual takes with the RM.

Fr. Angel moved on to the formation house in Orange, from which 3 of the young confreres took him on a short tour of Manhattan.  Someone later remarked, “Can you imagine the superior general of any other congregation going along as a tourist with 3 young men in formation?”  He is indeed an approachable and charismatic man!

On Friday the Rector Major celebrated Mass and met more formally with the formation community, including men from Tampa, Marrero, Chicago, and Maryland who are still in formation; then with just the formators.

Thruout his visit to the province, the Rector Major noticed the evident signs of joy and fraternity among the confreres, including those in initial formation and. He encouraged all to continue to develop a deep sense of God who gives meaning and purpose to our lives and vocation. 

He exhorted the province to be provocative in our vocation proposal to young people.  He observed that during his visits to the 2 U.S. provinces (East and West), he had met young people who expressed their desire to be Salesian religious.  He added that we also must be present to accompany young people in their vocational journey. 

Your humble blogger taking notes while the RM speaks.

Homily for 1st Sunday of Advent

Homily for the
1st Sunday of Advent

Nov. 27, 2022
Matt 24: 37-44
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“Jesus said to his disciples:  ‘You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come” (Matt 24: 44)

The Last Judgment (Viktor Vasnetsov)

We’ve begun Advent, our 4 weeks of preparing to commemorate and re-live the birth of our Savior.  We’re beginning a new church year and a new cycle of Sunday readings in which we’ll hear mostly from St. Matthew for the next 52 weeks, as we’ve just heard from St. Luke for the last year.

Despite all the commercialism that will surround us during this season, Christmas doesn’t come until the 1st Christmas Masses on Dec. 24.  We do well to keep the season in perspective:  we’re waiting; we’re preparing.

We remember and we celebrate the coming of God’s Son in our human flesh—a historical event that occurred in a specific place on a specific day.  We don’t know the specific date or even the specific year, but that it occurred is a historical certainty.  Jesus of Nazareth was born to a young woman named Mary in Bethlehem in the Roman province of Judea toward the end of the reign of King Herod.

That was Christ’s 1st coming.  But in these early Advent days, Jesus advises us of his 2d coming, an event that hasn’t happened yet and therefore an event we can’t remember or celebrate, but one we anticipate with the certainty of faith:  “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” (Creed).  We’re waiting; we’re preparing.

We anticipate or look for that coming, that Last Day of human history, also with hope, hope that Christ’s redemption will be completed in us.  It will be completed in us if we, as St. Paul urges us, “awake from sleep” and “throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light” (Rom 13:11-12).

In his warning about his 2d coming, Jesus recalls the days of the great flood as recorded in Genesis 6-9, when only faithful Noah and his family stood in God’s favor and were saved from destruction.  “So it will be also at the coming of the Son of Man” (24:37).

Two Women Will Be Grinding at the Mill (Alfred Elmore)

Then Jesus appeals to some familiar, everyday scenes:  farmers in their fields, women grinding grain to make bread.  How many people go about their daily business—standing on a subway platform, going to a nite club, going to Walmart, going to school—when suddenly they’re snatched away from among other commuters, other partiers, other shoppers, other students.  “One will be taken, and one will be left” (24:40).  We’ve seen this too many times.  But these times are reminders that we must stay awake, for we don’t know on which day our Lord will come (24:42).

We can’t know when the Lord will come in his glory and history will end.  The verse immediately before today’s reading says, “Of that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone” (24:36).  Not even Jesus in his humanity knows when his Father will send him back to us.

But we do know this:  for every one of us, our personal history will end—perhaps with ample warning, e.g., following a long illness; perhaps with the suddenness of an accident, an assault, a heart attack.  “You do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

One book about the death of Pope John Paul I, now Blessed John Paul I, is called A Thief in the Night.  Whether or not he knew the hour of night when the thief was coming, Pope John Paul was prepared and went home to Jesus in peace.  That’s our prayer for ourselves, and Advent is a season for us to get ready, to put our souls in order.

In his latest column,[1] Bp. Robert Barron makes this suggestion to us for Advent:

Wear the world lightly.  The reason that we feel spiritual anguish is that the deepest desire of our heart cannot be met by any merely worldly good.  We look to something beyond our ken and capacity precisely because we realize, consciously or unconsciously, that the hungry soul cannot be satisfied by any amount of esteem, riches, power, or pleasure.  The attainment of any of these goods produces a momentary bliss followed by a letdown, a disappointment.  But this truth mustn’t be allowed to depress us; rather, it should compel us to adopt the spiritual stance that the spiritual masters call “detachment.” This means enjoying wealth and then letting it go; using power for good but not clinging to it; taking in honor and not caring a whit for it.  It is to adopt the attitude that St.  Ignatius of Loyola calls “indifference.” Advent is a privileged time to practice this virtue.

Above all, Advent is a time to focus our eyes and our hearts on Christ, so that we might—as this afternoon’s Collect prayed to God the Father—“run forth to meet your Christ with righteous deeds at his coming” and be “gathered at his right hand” among the flock of the blessed.

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     [1] “Entering the spiritual space of John the Baptist,” The Pilot online, 11/23/22: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?pli=1#inbox/WhctKKXpMTlWtsBKcvcMQrDdSgcTXJXVpFJmqZSxtkqZLJMzVtpwJLJtjzGJbdffdtglWVl