Homily for 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
4th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 31, 2021
1 Cor 7: 32-35
Mark 1:21-28
Holy Name of Jesus, New Rochelle, N.Y.                                

“I should like you to be free of anxieties” (1 Cor 7: 32).

One of our prayers before Holy Communion echoes St. Paul’s thought.  We ask the Father to grant us peace, and keep us free from sin and safe from all distress.  The translation of the missal that we used before 2011 didn’t say “distress”; it said “anxiety.”  The prayer links anxiety or distress with sin, and it seeks the Lord’s peace to save us from these—from anxiety and from sin.

Today we hear some of Paul’s thoughts on marriage.  All of his teaching, on marriage and everything else, is based on our relationship with Christ.  If one is to be anxious, he says, he or she ought to be anxious to please the Lord.  In this regard, it doesn’t matter whether one’s married or not.

Paul does see some danger in marriage.  The danger is in losing focus:  one becomes anxious about pleasing one’s spouse.  Of course, a husband should want to please his wife, and a wife her husband.  Each must care about the other’s welfare and happiness—or it’s not an authentic marriage but an arrangement for self-gratification.  Yet a married couple has many legitimate anxieties concerning their children and all sorts of practical matters like home, health, safety, education, meals, even vacations and entertainment.  As if I needed to tell you!  These aren’t frivolities, and Paul wouldn’t tell you they are.

What is he telling us?  Not to be divided, “for the sake of propriety and adherence to the Lord without distraction.”  Stick to the Lord without distraction.  St. Matthew quotes Jesus as telling his disciples, “Don’t think that I’ve come to bring peace upon the earth.  I’ve come to bring not peace but the sword,” by which he means compelling us to make a decision for him or for others.  “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” (Matt 10:34-38).  These are hard words.

Regardless of our state of life—married, single, celibate, or widowed—we are to live for the Lord, to put Jesus at the center of lives:  our family life, our professional life, our leisure life.  I recall a couple of scenes in the portrayal of St. Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons.  In one scene, his old friend the duke of Norfolk urges him to swear Henry VIII’s oath for the sake of their friendship, to come along for friendship’s sake, rather than being so obstinate and angering the king.  More asks Norfolk whether, when he’s condemned to hell for violating his conscience, Norfolk will come along with him for the sake of friendship.  In another scene, More’s wife Alice comes to him in prison and pleads for him to yield to the king and come home to her and his children.  He gently tries to explain to her that he can’t surrender his own self, by which we know he means his faithfulness to Christ.

In the gospel story we heard (Mark 1:21-28), the demon who possessed the unfortunate man in the synagog challenged Jesus:  “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?” (Mark 1:23).  “What do you want from us?”  “Why are you bothering us?”  We might note that the unclean spirit uses the plural us.  The devils are many and powerful.  But not against our Lord Jesus.  Their question is related to Paul’s teaching.  What does Jesus want of us, married, single, celibate, or widowed? 

But they needn’t turn us away from the people we love.  When we find ourselves feeling anxious, we need to ask why?  Is the anxiety the result of our concern to please someone other than Christ?  Does what distresses us involve sin in some way?  Is the shortcoming in ourselves, in some form of selfishness?  Or does the anxiety flow from our genuine, loving concern for someone, and if so, have we turned that anxiety over to the Lord in prayer?

We love the people we love for the sake of Jesus, and we point them toward Jesus, we try to model the words and behavior of Jesus.  In the sacrament of matrimony, husband and wife aim to love each other the way Christ loves the Church—tenderly, compassionately, sacrificially, totally.  There’s no division in that, and if there’s anxiety it’s not between spouses but for the sake of one’s spouse or children—how to provide for them, keep them safe, and so on.

“What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?”  Christ wants our total selves.  He wants our hearts.  And we’ll experience all kinds of anxiety or distress until we surrender to him, let him cleanse our sins, resolve to live for him.  In the immortal words of St. Augustine:  “You have created us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”

Our Task Is to Give Hope and Work for Justice

Rector Major says, “Where we are, our task is to give hope and work for justice.”

by Marina Lomunno, writing for Avvenire 

(ANS – Rome – January 27, 2021) – A few days after the closure of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2021, held online for the first time, the Rector Major, Fr. Angel Fernandez Artime, speaks. “This pandemic that is afflicting our humanity will end, but there are other chronic pandemics that as Christians we have a duty to help eradicate: wars, mafias, hunger, poverty that is dehumanizing those who are forced to emigrate to give a future to their children and are tortured or die in the cold, youth unemployment, etc. Here, then, is our task where, as the Salesian Family, we are called to be present: to give hope and work for justice to ‘give more to those who have had less,’ as Don Bosco recommended and Pope Francis reminds us.”

“This year’s strenna,” continues Don Bosco’s successor, “has as its theme, at a moment when there is so much suffering, that of the duty of hope in the face of a world reality that challenges us and that we cannot ignore: as the Salesian Family we are called to be good citizens and respect the anti-contagion rules; but also good Christians and, where help is needed, not to shut ourselves up at home, but to stay close to those in difficulty – safely. And that is what we are doing in our works, there where war is looming, or here in Rome, as in our parish of the Sacred Heart, where in the evening young people bring food, blankets, and comfort to those who do not have a roof to sleep under. A boost to solidarity, as we have heard from the testimonies from around the world, which in these months of the Covid-19 emergency has also resulted in the collection in our works of 9 million euros, which we will send to our missions in 68 countries, to finance 120 micro-projects for young people and families.”

Fr. Fernandez also underlines how a first testimony of hope of the 2021 Spirituality Days was the possibility, which never happened before, of involving and meeting thousands of people who share the charism of Don Bosco: “The crisis caused by the pandemic has been transformed, thanks to the creativity of our works that are carrying out many online initiatives, in an opportunity for encounter and communion using modern technologies. I’m convinced that Don Bosco, who was a missionary, today would use the web to communicate good, to bring the message of Jesus all over the world. Not everything is bad in the web if we put it at the service of mankind. We have also experienced it in recent days, announcing the 2021 Strenna in all our works, from the generalate of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, reaching 198,000 people as far away as Oceania.”

Homily for Wednesday, Week 3 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Wednesday
3d Week of Ordinary Time

Jan. 27, 2021
Heb 10: 11-18
Provincial House, New Rochelle

“This priest offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God” (Heb 10: 12).

(Velasquez)

Christ’s priesthood is a main theme of the Letter to the Hebrews.  We missed some treatment of that theme the last 2 days because of proper readings.  Today’s reading shows us the excellence of Christ’s priesthood in contrast with the priesthood of the Jewish temple.

The priests of the Law of Moses “stand daily at their ministry,” the author says (10:11).  They stand—always on their feet—because their service is never done.  They offer sacrifices day after day because the sacrifices have no lasting effect; “they can never take away sins” (10:11).

Christ, by contrast, is seated; his work is done (10:12).  He offered one sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice, that effectively took away all the sins of humanity, that made perfect those whom he has consecrated thru that sacrifice—made them perfectly clean, perfectly holy (10:14).  He is seated—a position of power and authority, which derive from his position “at God’s right hand” (10:12).

His lordship over humanity and all creation will be complete when “his enemies are made his footstool” (10:13) as he sits enthroned.  His enemies, we know, are sin, death, and Satan and his allies.  They’re already doomed by the “one sacrifice for sins” (10:12), and with those already forgiven, “there is no longer offering for sin” (10:18).

Christ has given us the grace beyond all graces of making his one sacrifice and its effects universally present in time and place.  So we are privileged to come to his altar and take part in his self-offering; to share in his redemption.

While there’s only one priesthood of the new covenant—his—he shares his priesthood with all the baptized, so that we make his sacrifice our sacrifice; we offer him as our sacrifice.  As priests we partake of the sacrificial meal.  Daily we’re consecrated anew for his service and for—someday—a place in his eternal presence.  How blessed we are!

Indeed, may our sins and evildoing be remembered no more (11:17).  May we live Christ’s priesthood not only around his altar but wherever we are, “offering ourselves,” as St. Paul says, “as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, our spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1).

Salesian Martyrs of the Nazis

The Salesian Martyrs of the Nazis

International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed on January 27.  This international event commemorate the victims of the Holocaust (1933-1945). Among the millions of victims of the Shoah there are also thousands of Catholic priests and numerous Salesians.

Among the Salesians, we remember:

Blessed Joseph Kowalski, arrested in Krakow with 11 other confreres on May 23, 1941. He became serial number 17,350 of Auschwitz. In 1942, when Fr. Joseph refused to step on a rosary, he was subjected to grueling work and subsequently tortured and killed.

Servants of God of the Salesian Congregation, Fr. John Swierc and 7 companions (from Karol Wojtyla’s parish of St. Stanislaus Kostkain Krakow) who belonged to the Krakow Province and were martyred at different time in Auschwitz. The eight who died in Auschwitz are: Fr. Swierc, Fr. Ignatius Antonowicz, Fr. Ignatius Dobiasz, Fr. Charles Golda, Fr. Francis Harazim, Fr. Louis Mroczek, Fr. Wlodzimierz Szembek and Fr. Casimir Wojciechowski.

Fr. Francis Miska from the Salesian Province of Pila, catechist in a vocational school, director, military chaplain. Interned in the Dachau concentration camp, he died of ill-treatment and torture on May 30, 1942.

Blessed Francis Keşy, layman, and 4 youthful companions, martyrs. They were animators of the Salesian youth center in Poznan, passionate about music, theater, and sports and were engaged in catechesis and united by an intense spiritual life. In September 1940 they were arrested, accused of belonging to an illegal organization. Sentenced without a regular trial and without the possibility of defense, they gave a heroic example of faith and Christian life. They forgave their executioners according to the most genuine spirit of the Gospel.

Among the Salesians there are also some identified as Righteous among the Nations, a term used to indicate non-Jews who acted heroically to save even a single Jew. One of these is the Venerable Joseph August Arribat, who during the German occupation of France did not hesitate to host families and young Jews.

Editor's note:  I heard or read somewhere that Fr. Ricaldone, rector major (1932-1951), put the word out that the SDBs should work to save Jews, partisans, and other threatened by the Germans.  I don't know the details, and of course there wouldn't be a paper trail for such an instruction.  It is well known that past pupil Blessed Albert Marvelli liberated Jews in Rimini from boxcars destined for the death camps.

Pastoral Assignments for 2021-2024

Pastoral Assignments for 2021-2024

On January 26 (his patronal feastday), Fr. Tim Zak, provincial of the Eastern U.S. and Canada Province, announced 15 obediences, of which 12 are for the triennium 2021-2024.  11 of those 12 required confirmation by the Rector Major.

Fr. Dominic Tran

Five confreres were appointed to the provincial council, three of them for the first time, one to a new position on the council, and one returning to the council.  Fr. Dominic Tran will become vice provincial, replacing Fr. Steve Ryan.  Fr. Mike Conway, already a councilor, will become province treasurer, replacing Fr. Dennis Donovan.  Fr. Lou Molinelli will return to the council after a long interval and will replace Fr. Abe Feliciano as the province's youth ministry delegate.  Fr. Dave Moreno, provincial secretary, will remain in that responsibility but become a member of the council for the 1st time.  Also new on the council will be Bro. Bill Hanna.

   Fr. Mike Conway

Frs. Ryan, Donovan, and Feliciano and Bro. Tom Dion will leave the council--the priests taking on entirely new assignments.  Fr. Ryan will become the new director of Abp. Shaw HS in Marrero, La. (replacing Fr. Molinelli).  Fr. Donovan will become director of the Marian Shrine-Don Bosco Retreat Center in Haverstraw, N.Y. (replacing Fr. Jim McKenna).  Fr. Feliciano will become director of Don Bosco Prep in Ramsey, N.J. (replacing Fr. Jim Heuser).  Bro. Dion will remain in Ramsey (it seems) with responsibility for the prenovitiate program.

For the present, no one has been named delegate for formation, a position that has been held by Fr. Ryan.  Fr. Tran said that for now he will continue as the province's director of vocations.

In addition to those named above, 2 new directors were appointed:  Fr. Tim Ploch for the New Rochelle community (replacing Fr. Bill Ferruzzi) and Fr. Manny Gallo for the so-called Washington community (replacing Fr. Conway).  Two directors were confirmed in office:  Fr. Pat Angelucci for a 3d term leading the Port Chester, N.Y., community and Fr. Franco Pinto for a 2d term in Tampa.

Provincial councilors and directors are appointed for 3-year terms.

   Fr. Jim Heuser

Three other obediences were announced.  Fr. Jim Heuser, leaving Ramsey, will move to New Rochelle as president of Salesian HS, succeeding Fr. John Serio.  Bro. Bill Hanna also will move to New Rochelle to become the community's treasurer, replacing Fr. Rich Crager.  Fr. Crager will return to Tampa as treasurer, replacing Fr. Joe Hannon.  These assignments do not have a specified term.

Nothing was announced concerning Frs. Ferruzzi, Serio, or Hannon.

The new assignments are effective with the beginning of the new pastoral (and fiscal) year, July 1.

Homily for 3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
3d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 24, 2021
Mark 1: 14-20
Christian Brothers, Iona College, New Rochelle, N.Y.

Wouldn’t you like to say, “Zebedee, a penny for your thoughts”?

“Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God” (Mark 1: 14).

In the 1st verse of his Gospel, Mark proclaimed that Jesus is personally the good news from God.  He gave us a brief account of John the Baptist’s ministry, which laid the groundwork for Jesus, and then the briefest report of Jesus’ baptism, retreat into the desert, and temptations—all that in 12 verses.

Now Jesus bursts upon the scene.  Immediately there’s an ominous note.  The forerunner’s been arrested.  Mark’s Greek word, paradothenai (1:14), means “handed over.”  It’s the same word that will be used to report Jesus’ fate:  he’ll be handed over to his enemies and put to death.  What John has begun, Jesus will continue, and he’ll meet the same fate.

Jesus teaching at lakeside (James Tissot)

His message is the same as John’s:  Repent!  It’s also different:  John announced that someone more powerful was coming.  Jesus announces that the kingdom, the rule of God, is at hand.  “The time is fulfilled” (1:15)—all that the prophets foretold, all that John preached, has come.  It comes in the person of Jesus.  “Believe in the gospel” (1:15); believe that God rules in Jesus Christ, that Jesus teaches God’s ways, that Jesus opens up God’s kingdom to all who desire entry.

Mark tells us, “Jesus came to Galilee” (1:14).  He’s been away from his home territory.  Mark’s already told us of his baptism at the Jordan and his 40 days in the Judean wilderness.  John’s Gospel tells us more:  that Jesus and his disciples spent some time in “the region of Judea” baptizing like John the Baptist, and perhaps not far from where John was, because people take note of them both (John 3:22,26).  This follows Jesus’ 1st encounter with his future apostles, part of which we heard in last Sunday’s gospel (John 1:35-42).

John’s report of what happened around the Jordan indicates that Jesus had already begun to assemble a group of followers.  Perhaps this wasn’t yet in a decisive form.  Perhaps Jesus himself was testing out his message of repentance and of God’s kingdom.

John moves Jesus and his disciples from the Jordan by way of the wedding at Cana, where, after the miracle, “his disciples began to believe in him” (2:11).  It’s only a start.

Mark then presents 2 determinative scenes:  1st, Jesus’ decisive preaching, and 2d, a decisive call addressed to 4 disciples.  At least 2 of the 4 had been with Jesus at the Jordan and then at Cana, namely, Simon and Andrew.  We may reasonably speculate that John, son of Zebedee, was the unnamed disciple who with Andrew had followed Jesus to that 1st afternoon encounter prompted by John the Baptist (John 1:35-39).

Calling Simon and Andrew (source unknown)

It would indeed be remarkable if a complete stranger showed up at the lakeside and, out of the blue, invited 4 fishermen who didn’t know him, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men,” and they did just that (Mark 1:16-20).  That would strain belief.  We may believe there was already some acquaintance between them; some preparation for the call had been made, just as our vocation directors do today before issuing an invitation to apply for a candidacy program.

Simon and Andrew, James and John make a commitment on the spot.  Jesus’ clear invitation, his unambiguous proposal, draws a response.  They leave their livelihoods behind—their boats and their nets.  They leave their status behind—their positions as proprietors of a small business partnership (cf. Luke 5:7-11) doing well enuf to hire people.  James and John leave their father behind, at least symbolically breaking a family tie and foreshadowing what Jesus will teach later about not loving mother and father more than him (Matt 10:37).

We have to note, however, that in spite of that abandonment of livelihood, status, and family, of their readiness to go where Jesus will lead, their conversion is only beginning.  They have far to go on their path of repenting and believing the gospel.  At Cana they’d only “begun to believe in him.”  They have far to go in putting away their ambitions, competitiveness, and desire for power and possessions, as we see repeatedly in the gospels.

That long conversion process isn’t unlike our own, is it?  We commit ourselves to follow the poor, chaste, and obedient Christ and to be fishers of human beings for the kingdom, and then spend years and years trying to purify our motives, to improve our practice of the counsels and of fraternal charity, and to be more generous and enthusiastic apostles.  The conversion of Simon and Andrew, James and John wasn’t instant and total.  They persisted, and the grace of God did the rest—as it will for us.

A final thought on what it means for Jesus to make them “fishers of men” (1:17), which I take from a commentary[1]:

In the Bible, the sea evokes a fearful place that strikes the imagination and on which it is dangerous to venture—a lair of monsters, a destructive force.  To pull people out of the sea is not to drag them in a net out of their natural element, but to snatch them from a bad world, to free them from the powers of evil, for the kingdom of heaven when, on Judgment Day, the sorting out will take place (Matt 13:47-50).

As Mark will specify in ch. 3, the reading we heard on Friday, Jesus calls the disciples to be with him, to join him in driving out demons, and to open up the kingdom to humanity (vv. 13-19).

Amid a dangerous, hostile world, a culture in so many ways inimical to Jesus’ good news, that’s just what he’s summoned us to as apostolic religious.  By the grace of God, may we be faithful disciples and zealous apostles.  Thru us may Jesus catch a lot of fish.

---

    [1] Days of the Lord: The Liturgical Year. Vol. 5. Ordinary Time, Year B (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1993), p. 31.

Homily for Day of Prayer for Protection of Unborn Children

Homily for the Day of Prayer 
for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children

January 22, 2021
Collect
Ursulines, Willow Dr.

We prayed that we may remain faithful to the sacred trust we have from God to be stewards of creation, and that we may be constant in safeguarding the dignity of every human life (Collect).

As stewards of creation, we have a responsibility for the entire created world, as Pope Francis reminds us often.  The earth is our common home, and environmental protection is a life issue.

But today’s emphasis is, rightly, on the protection of the unborn.  We can’t assemble this year for peaceful protest, but we can pray and lobby for just laws and public policies.  Pres. Biden has announced the commitment of his administration to science and to truth.  We pray that he will grasp the science and the truth that an unborn human being is a human being and deserves protection.

We can advocate for programs that make it easier for women to raise children; perhaps some of you already take part in such programs.  We can argue for laws and policies that empower women to resist unjust male pressures.

The protection of human life is, as Card. Bernardin argued, a seamless garment.  You know that very well, that upholding the right to life of the sick and the aged and someone of a different race or national origin, even of a criminal, is all part of a complete attitude of respect for life that includes the unborn child.  There are a lot of demons that must be driven out of our society (Mark 3:15).

There is a further aspect to “safeguarding the dignity of every human life” that we have to keep in mind and practice.  That’s the dignity of the people we live with!  Too often our attitudes, words, and behavior assault our sisters and brothers:  judgments, gossip, jealousy, petty lies, standoffishness, etc.  In their own way, these are life issues, too.  Let’s strive to love one another, which affirms life.

Salesian Digital Library Relaunched

Salesian Digital Library Relaunched

(ANS – Rome – January 22, 2021) – In 2006, Fr. Tarcisio Scaramussa, general councilor for communications at the time (now bishop of Santos, Brazil), started a project for the digital preservation of Salesian materials. Fifteen years later, the principles that were established then have proved their permanent validity and the site, known as the Salesian Digital Library - or SDL - was recently relaunched, thanks to work that renewed the site’s visual presentation, updated the underlying software, and significantly expanded the contents: currently there are over 200,000 resources, in a broad sense, but their number is potentially infinite!

Among the principles established for this work are the following:

• The software has to be open-source, so that it is never subject to proprietary limits;

• Bit-level preservation of all digital objects has to be ensured to keep the original files intact;

• It is necessary to ensure that authenticity and sources were maintained;

• It is necessary to ensure adequate retention of information;

• The site has to be an institutional site, so that its existence is guaranteed by the Congregation itself.

The underlying software (known as Greenstone Digital Library Software) has been and continues to be developed and distributed with the collaboration of UNESCO and the NGO Human Info.

The SDL’s most recent update (late 2020) has been enriched by an excellent and complete search engine, which allows the user to find easily any word, phrase, or paragraph, in both the title and the contents of any document present. If, for example, one were to go to the collection of the issues of the Salesian Bulletin (under the main heading “Salesianity”), then every word becomes searchable in all the individual issues from the first edition of Don Bosco in 1877 to the most recent in 2020!

The navigation process has also been greatly improved, making it more intuitive, in six languages, and by groups, and the graphic design is also more user-friendly. In general terms, the site is presented in the six main languages ​​of the Congregation, but the language, script, and digital format of its contents are potentially unlimited.

The new SDL presents the user with six large icons of main headings (Don Bosco, Salesianity, Salesian Holiness, World Level, Multimedia, Headquarters). Each heading then provides access to the collections – up to now 43 collections, each containing thousands of digital objects: texts, images, audio, video.

The new SDL was presented on January 22 to the general council of the Congregation by the administrator of the sdb.org site, Bro. Hilario Seo, SDB. The official launch will take place on January 24, the feastday of St. Francis de Sales.

You can reach the new SDL from sdb.org (in the “Resources” section of the top menu of www.sdb.org) or directly at: http://sdl.sdb.org

With this relaunch of SDL, the Department of Social Communication hopes to be able to give a strong impulse for the Salesians to take a step forward in the digital transformation, or to digitize objects and save digital materials in a shared way, to facilitate the creation of new resources through shared digital work.

Holy See Authorizes Causes of Louis Bolla and Rosetta Marchese

Holy See Authorizes Causes 
of Louis Bolla and Rosetta Marchese

(ANS - Vatican City – January 20) – On December 16, 2020, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints communicated to Archbishop Carlo Castillo Mattasoglio of Lima the Holy See’s authorization to open the cause for beatification and canonization of the Servant of God Fr. Louis Bolla (1932-2013), SDB, missionary among the Shuar and Achuar of Ecuador and Peru. Similarly, dated January 13, 2021, authorization was granted to open the cause of the Servant of God Mother Rosetta Marchese (1922-1984), FMA, former superior general. The communication came from Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, vicar general of Pope Francis for the diocese of Rome.

Fr. Bolla and Mother Marchese are part of the charism born with Don Bosco and are witnesses of that hope which is a plant with deep roots, which start from afar; roots that grow stronger through difficult seasons and paths that require a lot of sacrifice.

For the whole Salesian Family they are a strong stimulus never to lose hope, but rather to cultivate a hopeful gaze toward life and never to extinguish hope in one’s own heart. They are lights that invite us to bring the joy of the Gospel to every corner of the earth, with Don Bosco’s own apostolic passion.

Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2021

Salesian Family Spirituality Days 2021

In the face of the challenges of the present time, “God accompanies us”

(ANS – Rome – January 18, 2021) – “Technical means will facilitate our meeting, but what unites us strongly is the great spiritual network of the Salesian spirit living among us all. And we are united by the message of hope that today’s Don Bosco, Fr. Angel, addresses to us with this year’s strenna.” With these words, the central delegate of the Rector Major for the Salesian Family, Fr. Joan Lluis Playà, introduced the activities of the 39th Annual Salesian Family Spirituality Days.

Subsequently the Rector Major spoke. In his greeting to the thousands of people connected from home, he did not fail to convey his enthusiasm: “I must tell you that I am overwhelmed by a great emotion. It’s a unique, special, new, different moment. It’s the first time in our history that the Salesian Spirituality Days have been held for the whole world together, from Asia to the Far West,” he said.

The strenna video developed in collaboration by ANS and IME Comunicazione was then broadcast.

The Rector Major again took the floor to offer his comment. He recalled the extraordinary prayer moment presided over by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square on March 27, and then illustrated the different ways in which the world is looking at the pandemic crisis. He stressed the need to give an appropriate response on the part of the Salesian Family that has to do “with our charism and our faith, and with a certain vision of life and of human beings.”

Thus faced with all the problems of the pandemic-generated crisis, he indicated examples of holiness in the Salesian Family, and summarized: “God accompanies us.”

Bishop Derio Olivero of Pinerolo spoke on the theme “Hope in Action.” In his remarks he produced a careful analysis on the “reduction of hope” in contemporary society, but he indicated the way out via faith in God and in the relationships that form the identity of each person.

The joint session on Saturday, January 16, was opened by a retrospective on the message of hope, still relevant today, which comes from the figure of Fr. Paul Albera, the 100th anniversary of his death being celebrated this year. Then, as part of the review, “The Voice of the Groups of the Salesian Family in the World,” various testimonies were heard from all continents and the Salesian regions, and from numerous groups of the Salesian Family: a lively and faithful representation of how, united by their roots in Don Bosco, despite the diversity of their specific charisms, the different groups keep hope alive with solidarity with others and fidelity to God.

On January 17 the Rector Major presided over the concluding Eucharist of the 39th SFSD. Referring to the liturgy of the day, Fr. Angel stressed that it is Jesus who satisfies “the thirst for meaning,” the search yesterday of the first disciples, today of every Christian or person who approaches the faith, because it is He who “gives fullness to what gives meaning to our life.”

Then he concluded: “Today we, the Salesian Family of Don Bosco, want to be those disciples who hear You say: ‘Come and see.’ And that it can be said of us continuously that ‘we went, we saw, and we stayed with Jesus.’”

Photos of the Salesian Family Spirituality Days are available on ANSFlickr.

The videos of the common sessions remain available on the ANS Facebook page.

Homily for 2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
2d Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan. 17, 2021
John 1: 35-42
1 Sam 3: 3-10, 19
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx, N.Y.                         

“Jesus turned and saw them following him and said to them, ‘What are you looking for?’” (John 1: 38).

In today’s readings we hear of 2 calls or 2 invitations.  The Lord calls young Samuel in the middle of the nite with what will become his vocation to be a prophet and leader in Israel.  Jesus invites 2 disciples of John the Baptist to come with him and see where he’s staying.  These calls or invitations speak to us, too.

Samuel’s call from God was completely unexpected.  As the Scripture says, “At that time Samuel was not familiar with the Lord, because the Lord had not revealed anything to him as yet” (1 Sam 3:7).  He was fortunate in that his master, the priest Eli, discerned what was happening and guided him in how to respond to the Lord’s call.  He was blessed in his openness to God’s call:  “Speak, for your servant is listening” (3:10).  Thus he became the Lord’s servant, the Lord’s prophet, the Lord’s agent for Israel’s deliverance from their enemies.

by Ottavio Vannini

The 2 disciples of John the Baptist of whom we read today were already seeking the ways of God; that’s why they were with John at the Jordan River, listening to his preaching.  St. John the Evangelist identifies one of them as “Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter” (1:40).  We’d like to know who the other was, but John tells us nothing—not even whether it was a guy and not one of the women who eventually became followers of Jesus.  For that matter, he doesn’t tell us even that this 2d person became a follower of Jesus, as we know Andrew did.

But Jesus calls them both, invites them both, to “come and see” (1:39), and more than just to “see.”  “They stayed with him that day” (1:39), and you can believe they were talking about John the Baptist, God, sin and conversion, the spiritual life.  Bp. Robert Barron takes up the verb “stay” or “remain”—2 ways of translating John’s Greek—and states that Jesus “remains” attached to his Father’s will.  The bishop suggests that the 2 disciples “stay” with Jesus in seeking God’s will.  That’s the Christian vocation, which Andrew grasps enuf to become an apostle immediately:  “he first found his brother Simon and told him, ‘We’ve found the Messiah.’ … Then he brought him to Jesus” (1:41-42).  A committed Christian doesn’t keep Jesus to himself but wants others to know Jesus, too.

So the readings present us with 2 takes on vocation.  The 1st, based on Samuel, is one’s particular calling in life.  Most of you perceived a calling to marriage, to living as signs of Christ’s unbounded love for the Church, and vice versa—the beautiful sacrament of matrimony.  You didn’t perceive that call thru a mysterious voice in the middle of the nite.  You didn’t, did you?  Probably you perceived a pitter-patter of your heart and a growing perception that this is the one, this person will make my life complete.  Like Samuel, you may have received some guidance from a wise elder, a parent or older sibling.  (Or maybe there were arguments about your choice, and you listened to your heart and, I hope, your conscience.)  You probably didn’t say to yourself, “This person will help me grow in my relationship with Jesus, will help me become a saint; and together we’ll journey to heaven.”  But that’s what Christian matrimony means.

I didn’t hear a voice in the nite, either, that led me to become a Salesian and a priest.  I tested an interior inclination that was God’s silent way of speaking to me, and over years of formation and advice was tested by my companions and my superiors, who eventually ratified God’s call, that God was calling me to be his servant in this fashion.

The 2d take on vocation, the one of Andrew and his anonymous companion, is the vocation of following Jesus.  All of us were given that vocation when we were baptized.  Andrew and the other disciple took a cue from John the Baptist and made a conscious decision to follow Jesus, to stay with him, to listen to him.  As baptized people, we took new steps in discipleship thru our first Communion and Confirmation, and we reaffirm our discipleship in daily prayer, Sunday Mass, the holy Eucharist, Scripture reading, ongoing conversion in the sacrament of Penance, and trying to live out what Jesus teaches us about love of God and neighbor.   We also share our faith (like Andrew) with our family and, as St. Peter writes in his 1st Letter, are to be “always prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you,” a hope that he identifies as confidence that Christ is our Lord (3:15), our master.  We owe ultimate allegiance to no other person, government, political party, fellowship, or to fame or fortune or anything material.

One aspect of our calling as disciples of Christ has been highlighted in recent weeks by numerous commentators.  In the Collect of today’s Mass we asked God to “bestow your peace on our times.”  We Christians have a role in making peace in our times.  You know how severely divided the people of our country are at this time.  Whether we’re Democrats, Republicans, socialists, or independents; disciples of Trump or Biden-voters—we have to help our country heal.  A deacon friend of mine has made the theme of his homily for today:  when something we love is broken, we want to fix it.  It’s hard enuf to cope with the pandemic and economic woes; demonizing the political opposition doesn’t help anyone.  We have to see the fundamental human dignity of everyone—not just the unborn or the immigrant or the person of a different color but also the one we disagree with in politics, and together with that person seek the common good of all our people, seek solutions to the grave problems that we have concerning health, education, the economy, international tensions, and so much else.  We often sing the hymn “Make me an instrument of your peace.”  How can Christ use me to “bestow peace on our times”?  What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus in America today, not only as a parent, a spouse, a child, a student, a worker—but as a citizen?

Homily for Saturday, Week 1 of Ordinary Time

Homily for Saturday
1st Week of Ordinary Time

Jan. 16, 2021
Heb 4: 12-16
Mark 2: 13-17
Provincial House, New Rochelle

“The word of God is … able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart” (Heb 4: 12).

That God’s word knows our innermost selves is both frightening and consoling.  It’s frightening to know that “everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account” (4:13)—every thought and desire polluted by sin:  our pride and arrogance, our lusts, our harsh judgments, our jealousies, our resentments, our callous indifference, etc.  We don’t want to see or admit these to ourselves, much less have them “naked and exposed” to the eternal Judge, with the threat of public revelation on the Last Day.

The Last Judgment by Giotto (Scrovegni chapel)

This is not even to mention our words and deeds, especially those we wish to forget and bury somewhere.

The Dies irae[1] speaks to us, tho it’s no longer part of a funeral Mass:

               Dreaded day, that day of ire, . . .

               Fright men’s hearts shall rudely shift,

               As the Judge thru gleaming rift

               Comes each soul to closely sift. . . .

               Death and nature stand aghast,

               As the bodies rising fast,

               Hie to hear the sentence passed.

And so on, for 19 stanzas, which do include some pleas for mercy mingled with the dread.  In fact, there are some strong and confident pleas for mercy.  E.g.,

               Thou, O awe-inspiring Lord,

               Saving e’en when unimplored,

               Save me, mercy’s fount adored. . . .

               Mary’s soul Thou madest white,

               Didst to heaven the thief invite;

               Hope in me these now excite.[2]

The Dies irae was composed in the 13th century.  Much earlier the author of Hebrews voiced his confidence in Jesus’ mercy, the Judge’s all-seeing knowledge notwithstanding :  “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses….  So let us confidently approach the throne of grace…” (4:15-16).  The word of God which discerns the depths of our hearts knows our failings, yes, but also our struggles, our aspirations, our resistance to our weaknesses, our interior victories, the prayers we’ve offered silently, virtuous acts done against our inclination or preference.  This is consoling.  This gives us confidence in the Judge who “shares our blood and flesh” and was “like his brothers and sisters in every way,” as Hebrews said on Wednesday (2:14,17).

We hear more from God’s word, his Word made flesh and blood, that consoles and gives us confidence:  “I came to call sinners” (Mark 2:17).  He came to be with us, to let us share his company, to enjoy our company.  He “was eating with sinners” (2:16)—which is what he plans to do at the banquet of eternal life, which will be populated almost entirely by the sinners he’s saved because we “confidently approach the throne of grace.”

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     [1] The Latin text appears in an appendix to LOH vol. 4.
     [2] F.X. Lasance and Francis Augustine Walsh, OSB, The New Roman Missal in Latin and English (NY: Benziger, 1946), pp. 1503-1504.

Salesians Expand Parish Church in Lungi

Salesians Expand Parish Church 
in Lungi to Meet Needs

(ANS – Freetown – January 13, 2021) – Salesian missionaries with St. Augustine’s Parish, located in Lungi, Sierra Leone, have partially completed construction of a new church, thanks to donor funding provided by Salesian Missions in New Rochelle. As the number of parishioners and the size of the community have increased, Salesian missionaries embarked on a multi-phase project to expand their outgrown church.

St. Augustine’s Parish is one of the poorest parishes in the archdiocese of Freetown, and parishioners are making personal efforts to bring the building to completion. The church is still in need of funding to complete the last phase of the project, which includes windows, doors, flooring, painting, plumbing, and electrical work. Salesian Missions is seeking donor funding to help finish this project.

The church serves more than 700 members of the Catholic community of Lungi, where the Salesians arrived in 1986. With the larger church, this number is expected to grow. In addition, more than 150 youths come to the parish compound to attend activities at the Don Bosco Youth Centre from Monday to Saturday. The parish also has two schools, St. Augustine’s Pre-School and St. Augustine’s Primary School.

“We appreciate the funding donors have provided to date to help with the construction of this church,” said Father Gus Baek, director of Salesian Missions. “With the construction of the building, Salesians in Sierra Leone are now in need of funding to finish the internal parts of the church to make it operational for the community. Our donors are generous, and we hope to provide the funding to finalize this project.”

Salesian missionaries have been serving in Freetown, the capital, since 1994, when American Fr. John Thompson, SDB, began working to rehabilitate former child soldiers through the organization Don Bosco Fambul. Don Bosco Fambul has become one of the country’s leading child welfare organizations—offering food, clothing, crisis intervention services, shelter, educational opportunities, long-term counseling, and family reunification.

Food security in Sierra Leone is undermined by chronic poverty. The U.N. World Food Program reports that over half of the population lives under the national poverty line of earning approximately $2 per day. According to the 2016 Global Hunger Index, Sierra Leone also faces an alarming level of hunger with nearly 38 percent of children younger than 5 years of age suffering from chronic malnutrition.

Young people also face significant challenges in accessing education. With too few teachers and many school buildings destroyed in the war, resources are thin. Persistently high illiteracy rates mean that an estimated 70% of Sierra Leone’s youths are unemployed or underemployed.

Source: MissionNewswire 

France Honors Mother Yvonne Reungoat

France Honors 
Mother Yvonne Reungoat

Official French  Gazette

(ANS – Rome – January 11, 2021) – The Mother General of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sister Yvonne Reungoat, has been honored by France’s Legion of Honor. She is a native of France.

In the special edition of the Official Gazette of the French Republic, dated January 1, 2021, regarding promotion and appointment to the National Order in the Legion of Honor and in the National Order of Merit, it is reported:

“The appointment of Officier of the Légion d’Honneur is conferred on the Mother General of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, Sister Yvonne Reungoat.”

The motivation for the conferment: “For more than a year now, the entire French population, and that of many countries around the world, has found itself facing the serious health crisis of Covid-19, with great consequences at the humanitarian, educational, and social levels. Many citizens have committed themselves professionally and voluntarily in the fight against the virus, at all levels and in all sectors of activity. ”

The Legion of Honor is the highest honor established after the French Revolution. Currently it rewards, according to different degrees, the eminent merits acquired in service to the French nation.

In July 2012, Mother Yvonne was awarded the Medal of Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor.

The FMA Institute is close to Mother General, for the appointment conferred on her by the French Republic, which will have its positive effects not only in France, but throughout the Salesian world committed to transmitting the values of the Gospel to young people.

Half a Century of Salesian Presence among the Achuar

Half a Century of Salesian Presence 
among the Achuar

(ANS – Quito – January 11, 2021) – The Salesian presence in the Ecuadorian Amazon with the Achuar ethnic group began almost 50 years ago with the great Italian missionary Luigi Bolla, who took the indigenous name of Yankuam’Jintia: Bright Star of the Path. He was the first to live among the Achuar, sharing his life and the Gospel among them. Half a century after the first contact with the Achuar people, Salesian mission work continues to focus on evangelization, education, and human, social, and cultural promotion.

Fr. Luigi Bolla (1932-2012)

Mission work among the Achuar people was accepted from the very start and soon paid off. Not only has it succeeded in ending the wars between tribes and families, but it has also provided an opportunity to help new generations through education.

In 1988 it was the Achuar themselves who asked the Salesian missionaries to found a mission in Wasakentsa. Leading the project were Fr. Bottasso and the late Fr. Broseghini. A day school and a boarding school for the education and formation of Achuar youths were the initial pillars of this mission.

The Wasakentsa Mission, however, is not limited to teaching and training 110 students in the school. It also has 80 interns and 50 Achuar university students who come from far away. Furthermore, as a mission and as an outgoing missionary Church, it supports 49 other Achuar communities that exist throughout this vast territory. It has a population of about 5,000 inhabitants, with many children and adolescents (40% of the population) who dream of studying and having a more dignified life.

Even today, these communities can be visited only on foot, as there is no road. You cross rivers, swamps, hills, fallen trees, mud; one walks in the rain and the heat, among wild animals – all this to be able to meet people there, in their communities, to share the Word of God and celebrate the Eucharist.

The objective is to provide the population with a space for formation in human, cultural, and Christian values. For this reason, mission work does not take place only in church, but in any and all other sites and locations, even while working hard or playing sports with children, teens, and parents.

During the pandemic and the lockdown, everything was more difficult. There have also been infections and deaths among the Achuar community, but the Salesian missionaries have never stopped being among them and with them to help the Achuar.