A Habit for Sharing the Gospel

About ten years ago, my sister and I, both Daughters of St. Paul, had gone to visit our parents, who lived in the Sacramento area. One weekday morning they took us to a church other than their usual and ushered us into the Eucharistic chapel for Mass. A mere two seconds before Father appeared at the altar, an elderly woman tapped one of us on the shoulder and in a stage whisper gushed, “It’s so nice to see the nuns with their clothes on!”

The habit. One of the most tempestuous issues that swirled around the changes in religious life a few decades ago wasn’t even a fundamental one. But because of its visibility and what it represented for many, including religious themselves, it dominated news articles and broadcasts, family table conversations, and community meetings everywhere. It found its way into every major Church document on consecrated life and plenty of congregational Chapter documents. It sparked lightning bolts of ire in its day, and even now you can hear distant rumbles of a storm that is moving on. The online chats fer or agin, or the occasional remark born of either nostalgia or bitterness resuscitates more than just memories. In addition, a growing number of newer religious communities opt for religious dress, and recent national vocation reports point to its importance for young people in discernment, indicating that the phenomenon, though less intense, won’t die soon.

Clearly Hollywood hasn’t gotten its fill of icons “of the cloth”—women and men. Without words, fabric speaks volumes, symbol of either the sacred or perverted. The Sound of Music, Trouble With Angels, Sister Act, The Da Vinci Code, Doubt—here, robes are front and center. Keep your eyes open, though. Even on the periphery, in film or on TV, you’ll see garb and its accompanying attitudes and lifestyle more or less authentically portrayed. Those of us who’ve been “in” for a few years readily spot the directors who’ve done their homework.

So a few weeks ago in Boston, when we were asked for an interview for an online fashion magazine, we grinned and groaned. As you can see from the video and the accompanying article on StylelikeU.com, these fashionistas, a journalist and photographers from New York, wanted us to share the meaning of our “uniform” and what it says about our life. The Sisters of St. John the Baptist in Staten Island, the first community they interviewed, suggested that we might have a fashion statement to make too, since the heart of our mission is, of all things, media. The team joined us for Mass and lunch to learn more about us.



One of our sisters in Chicago was in the library last Thursday when a man in his thirties approached her to ask a question. “What’s this about the world coming to an end in a couple of days?”

“It’s a good thing I read the Internet,” she told me afterward, tongue-in-cheek. “I saw that morning that the world was going to end on Saturday. So I had my digital prompting.”

“First of all,” she answered him, “I feel sorry for all those people who sold everything in view of the end of the world, something that’s not even going to happen this weekend.”

“I know what you mean,” he agreed. “But what do you think about that?”

“Well, it’s not a new concept; it’s been around for 2,000 years. Even St. Paul had to deal with it. You remember his letter to the Thessalonians, the people who stopped working because they thought the end of the world was coming? And St. Paul told them to get back to work. That was 2,000 years ago, and this world is still around. Actually even if we knew the world was going to end in two days, I feel God would want us to continue living as human beings since that’s how God is glorified—by living as the human beings God wants us to be.”

That seemed to satisfy him. It was her clothing that told him that here was someone who just might be able to untangle a thorny question…and even go beyond what he had expected, happy to oblige.


The emblem worn by every
Daughter of St. Paul: the Word of
God we share, along with the
means we use--book, radio tower,
and film reel, symbols of all media.

So, besides its ability to simplify our lives, the Daughters of St. Paul have a unique motive for wearing an identifiable sign of our consecration. In an image-oriented culture, it seems to us entirely appropriate for women who are consecrated for a media-related mission to evangelize even by the way we dress. When they see us, people think of God, whether they love him or not, whether they’re Catholic or not. Especially in recent years, I’ve been mistaken for a Muslim wearing a hijab. In the Atlanta Airport, a beautiful woman from the Middle East fingered my veil with admiration, saying that her friend had been looking for something similar and could I tell her where I got mine. Such encounters can jumpstart a sharing of faith.

One of the sisters in the video above mentioned “respect.” How often I’ve heard people invoke that as a reason for us to wear a habit! While no doubt, Sister wasn’t thinking quite along that line, it does recall that far too many have missed the whole servant aspect of religious life, whether we’re in direct ministry or not. The habit should remind people that we have dedicated ourselves, not to privilege, (though God knows we’re grateful for every seemingly small kindness!) but to witness.


FSPs from Ivory Coast
and Congo


Besides, the kind of “respect” that Sister referred to is not characteristic of all North America. In huge swaths of it, indifference and even occasional verbal abuse, pertaining to our life-choice or to the Church, are not unknown, even in so-called “liberal,” tolerant regions. Secularism exacts a toll in unfamiliarity with, and certainly ambivalence toward, the meaning or value of any religious symbol. Relentlessly, though, the habit or uniform of religious reminds people who are inured to the divine—yet who long for their own personal relationship with it—that such a relationship is possible. Indeed, it is the goal of every human life.
 

An Indian Daughter
of St. Paul


In habit or out of it, a life of vowed poverty, chastity, and obedience is a sign of the transcendent, of what begins here for us all and continues without end. The garb is a startling symbol of such a sign.

Why so many different kinds of habits? Some short, some long, some trim, some full…not to mention the colors and styles. The habit of monastic and cloistered religious lingered long past the emergence of apostolic, or active, religious communities. Since these latter had no other model on which to base their lives until Canon Law changed to accommodate the evolution in consecrated life, they often followed the rules, practices, and styles that preceded them, and in matters of clothing, integrated elements of lay dress common at the time of their founding. We have only to think of Mother Seton with her widow’s cap.
 
Then Vatican II called for religious to modify their garb, to continue being for our times the signs of distinction they were meant to be, rather than of the separation they had often turned out to be. So religious discarded outmoded styles, and picking up on the lay motifs of their founding years, often donned secular dress—not exactly what the Council seemed to intend. One of the marvels of life in the Church is the multiform way in which the Spirit of God graces the Body of Christ, bringing life to the world through it. Time will tell where wisdom lies.

One of Jehovah’s Witnesses once plucked at my sleeve, chiding me for wearing something that would not save me. Obviously she assumed that I had placed my trust in a piece of cloth, but she was a good reminder to me of the One I do believe in. How often this “simple, modest, and poor” attire does just that, not only for others, but also for us. There’s a kind of cyclic flow to it. What I wear expresses who I am and what I value, then returns to reinforce the dynamic within me that dares to express itself.

Not a bad fashion statement, after all.

How Does the Garden Grow?

Anyone who’s ever tended a garden knows that when a seed or bulb is tucked into the ground, something mysterious happens. We walk by it, drive past it, chat or do business near it, even play on top of it, and it does its growing thing, regardless. Jesus once commented, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come” (Mk. 4:26-29).

The hibiscus is S. Korea's
national flower.

Off and on for the past twenty years, Korea has sent its Daughters of St. Paul to bless the U.S. with their energetic and cheerful presence, especially among thousands of Korean immigrants. Especially in areas where American Daughters either are not present or are not positioned to evangelize this population, these sisters have been using both their technological and spiritual creativity to develop new ways of sowing the Gospel seed, primarily among Korean-speaking adults, who have almost no Catholic media resources.

Their preferred methods have been book and media exhibits in parishes, as well as retreats that integrate the Pauline mission with parish goals. The latest stint began a year ago this month. To date, nearly 50 parishes have been visited, mostly in the Midwest, South, and Southeast.

The retreats, multimedial and prayerful, attempt to address some of the issues facing immigrants from the perspective of faith: inner healing, bridging the generational gap, and resetting priorities in pursuing the American Dream. They’ve been designed to help people rediscover the value of their families, regain gratitude, and recommit themselves to be the light and salt of the world, bringing light to others in the process.

I bet you didn’t know that. Even we’ve hardly noticed the tilling they’ve been quietly been about, unless we get a shout from the field. Such is the work for the Kingdom.

Those whose lives have been touched, though, do notice. Jinmin Kim, who attended a retreat last June, said he felt greater courage to confront his problems and believed that the prayerful experience was a time of love and grace from the Lord. After a play on the Prodigal Son, a couple confessed that after twelve years in a difficult marriage, they had considered separating, but had recently decided to give it another chance. “As we watched the play that you’ve just put on,” they confided, “we prayed and decided that we would go back to God who understands our difficulties so that he may open our hearts and unite us in him.” A media version of the Way of the Cross prompted a woman to share: “It felt as if Jesus was being crucified by my side. I realized that whenever I hurt my neighbors through my words or actions, I am actually crucifying Jesus living inside of them.”

A combination of film and Lectio divina (a time-honored way of praying with Scripture) modeled a new way of prayer and life for another woman. “I used to complain about how little I was given, but as I watched this video, tears ran down my cheeks as those complaints changed to ‘I am such a happy person’ and ‘I had so much given to me.’

Sr. Gemma Hong, FSP

"Later that evening at Lectio divina, I met the Lord within his own words. [Sr. Gemma] said, ‘Calm your thoughts. Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance, take in his words thoroughly and carefully, and listen to him. Words that make you happy, words that make you sad, and words that make you uneasy. Keep them close to your heart, and he will come to you through them.’

“After that, I experienced a different side of God, which enabled me to see a side of my husband I had never seen before. The Lord’s words led us to love each other more. I always planned to meditate with his words, however hectic my life may have been, even for a mere thirty minutes a day. It was difficult to keep my promises, and I was prone to give up after several days. But this retreat has shown me such an easy way to be with the Lord. I wanted to keep meeting him.”

At the moment Sr. Gemma Hong is the only FSP in that fertile field. Wisely she has built up an entire network of co-workers who drive, offer accommodations, visit local places, and conduct exhibits. “I can't carry on my mission without them,” she says emphatically. She is studying possibilities for these and other Korean-speakers in North America to connect with the Pauline Web site based in Seoul, so they can regularly use its catechetical and spiritual resources.

Meanwhile her books and other media, even those from years gone by, seem to keep the faith-plant alive. A woman approached a parish exhibit table and recognized her as the same sister she had bought a book from when she was a non-Catholic teen in Korea. Déja-vu! When she immigrated to the U.S., her neighbors invited her to another Christian church where they thought she might feel at home. Sr. Gemma smiles, “Then she remembered the book she had bought from a nun in high school and decided to go to the Catholic church instead.”

She hopes to remain in the States for another three years. For now, she’ll join us for her annual retreat and a rest. Then back in the saddle to plant or tend the Gospel in the mid-Atlantic states or on the West Coast.

Sr. Gemma reminisced over the past twenty years of mission in North America, very thankful for God’s providence in every “precious” moment. She wants to “visit all over the USA and Canada to evangelize with St. Paul’s mind to immigrants who do not have access to books, CDs, DVDs, etc., in their own language. I want to spread media culture that states that Christ alone is our hope and in him there is real peace, truth, life and freedom.”
                                                       **************



Back row: Sr. Majorina, Sr. Leonora, Sr. Margaret E.
Front row: Sr. Patricia, Sr. Karen Marie

The province of the U.S. and English-speaking Canada extends heartfelt thanks to its out-going provincial government: Sisters Margaret Timothy Sato (provincial superior), Marie James Hunt, Karen Marie Anderson, Joan Paula Arruda, Mary Domenica Vitello, secretary Anne Eileen Heffernan, and treasurer Nancy Michael Usselmann.

At the same time, our province welcomes the incoming government: Sisters M. Leonora Wilson (provincial superior), Karen Marie Anderson, Patricia M. Maresca, Margaret Edward Moran, and Majorina Zanatta. The secretary and treasurer are yet to be determined.

Healing the Wound

Lorraine Lee

For untold billions around the globe, the death of Osama bin Laden last week conjured up images of 9/11. Probably very few, if any, relived that day more vividly than New Yorker Patricia Reilly, whose 37-year-old sister, Lorraine Lee, died in Tower 2 of the World Trade Center, where she had worked.

Since May 2, Patricia has been interviewed by networks, blogs, and print media probing her reactions, memories, and feelings, as if to put a frame around her emotional profile. A mixture of grief and relief characterize her remarks; she struggles to find words to reassure her daughter, Lori, who was named for her aunt. How do you explain such a turn of events to an eight-year-old?

In talking with Patricia this week though, I heard a deeper story flow like an underground stream that has coursed through these past ten years and given life to her and others in unpredictable ways. Osama’s death “didn’t bring Lorraine back. There is no such thing as closure,” she says. But in the years following 9/11 “the blessing is that you do have happiness.” Her star gifts: Lori’s birth in 2003 and the family foundation named for Lorraine.

“Lori is named after her. So she feels so connected with her aunt, even though she didn’t know her. Lorraine sent her to us. Lori was new life in our family." (Patricia and her husband, Brian, also have two sons: Thomas, 22 and Michael, 24.) "Every person in our family has a deep connection with her. She gave new joy to my mother; she made her laugh and want to get up the morning.

Lori and Patricia

“She always wants me to tell her the story of her Aunt Lorraine. Sometimes I don’t want  to tell the story. I just love her and hug her and help her see that the world is a good place and that Lorraine is with God. And we’re going to see her again some day. Like her grandfather and uncle: They want to be with us, but they want to be with God more than they want to be with us. We will too.”

Kimberly Schuler, author of I Will Remember You, published in March by Pauline Books & Media, would applaud how Patricia is walking with Lori in this experience. The book assists children, ages 7-12, through the grieving process while helping them to honor the memory of their loved one.  It reassures them in their feelings of loss and provides a safe space where their hopes can be expressed and their memories can be treasured. Patricia adds, “Literature is important for families when everyone suffers.”

That family suffering is being transformed through the Lorraine Greene Lee Memorial Foundation, that her brother, Tommy, established also in 2003. Each year the family holds a golf outing and raises approximately $25,000. They then use the monies to fund projects that support life and faith, especially in young people. The St. Francis de Sales School for the Deaf, Trailblazers Camps, summer initiatives for inner city kids, and the Cross Road Foundation of Staten Island, that helps women in crisis bring their pregnancies to term, all flourish because Lorraine Lee, who never could have children of her own, gives them life.

Patricia learned about the film that the Daughters of St. Paul are producing on their founder, Blessed James Alberione. “We believe his story should be told,” she declared. “Media have progressed” in the ten years since the death of her sister, who “didn’t even have a cell phone.” In addition, Lorraine’s “faith and family were so important to her and guided her life, so [the film] would be something to support, so that other people can learn about him and grow in their faith, especially young people who may be struggling and looking for that connection.” This month the foundation intends to donate $1,000 toward the documentary in Lorraine’s memory. In turn, the film will list her name in the credits, along with others willing and able to contribute a similar amount on their own behalf or someone else’s. (Click here to donate.)

“Through her faith, I had a lot of faith after 9/11,” Patricia reflects. “[Lorraine] was devout. Every Tuesday she had adoration at 9:30 P.M. It would have been her turn that night. It gave me a lot of comfort knowing she was in the state of grace.” With a great sense of humor, Lorraine plunged into what she dubbed the “parades, parties, and picnics” of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Knights of Columbus—she had been a Columbiette. Her husband hadn’t professed any faith for years, but “he said it was through her example of love and faith that he became a Catholic before her death. Now he’s a Eucharistic minister at Holy Child in Staten Island and teaches CCD.”

Last week President Obama met Patricia and other surviving family members at the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, NYC. “He hugged me. He was very genuine.” The next time she prays for Lorraine, he—and we—will be right there with her.

“...Nothing can fill the gap when we are away from those we love, and it would be wrong to try and find anything.  We must simply hold out and win through...leaving the gap unfilled preserves the bond between us.  It is nonsense to say that God fills the gap: God does not fill it, but keeps it empty so that our communion with one another may be kept alive, even at the cost of pain...the dearer and richer our memories, the more difficult the separation.  But gratitude converts the pangs of memory into a tranquil joy.”
                          --Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers From Prison, The Macmillan Company, 1967

“How merciful the Lord is with those who repent but there will always be the chance that we may not always be happy with the Lord forgiving and sparing our own enemies. Something we need to ask the Lord to help us with, sometimes every day.”
                                                                                                           --Kerry McMasters

“When the President noted that the military operation to take down Bin Laden had commenced at 3:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, that irony was not lost on me either: In many Catholic Churches, people were, at that exact hour, commemorating the Feast of Divine Mercy with the communal praying of the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Voices raised in chant-song, “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world!” Repeated ten times, these faithful implore the relentless Mercy of the Divine.”
                                                                                                             --Lisa Burke*
                                     * Originally published by Catholic Online here and reprinted with permission.

“Even though the event of 911 was horrific, we should not forget the outpouring of charity, altruism and love for neighbor that overshadowed the evil in the days and months after 911. Its hard to stay angry, unless you really want to - and love (NOT time) heals all wounds, if we let it.”
                                                                                                       --Kurtis D. Welton

                                                    

We’re happy to report that, thanks to the generosity of you, our friends and donors, $4,280 was sent to our sisters in Japan to rebuild the Sendai community’s house and Pauline book and media center. The Sendai community already sent their thanks and promised prayers for all of you.

“…As We Forgive…”

Unless you’re a Dominican—or you listened on Friday to a wedding homily by an Anglican bishop at Westminster Abbey—last week’s memorial in honor of St. Catherine of Siena went largely unnoticed. That’s because it fell during Easter Week, when each day, even Friday, is a solemnity, the highest ranking feast on the Church calendar. Solemnities dwarf even giants like Catherine.

Pauline Books & Media just published Paths of Holiness: Wisdom From Catherine of Siena. The book is the latest in its series, the Classic Wisdom Collection, an encounter with the spiritual masters of Catholic tradition. For its inspiration and entertainment value, the introduction by Sr. Lea Hill is worth the book. That makes the section “On Reconciliation” a real bonus. Part of Catherine’s exhortation to Charles V, King of France, is quoted in “Weekly PauLine” on the right sidebar.

In the current socio-political climate, it should gives us pause. Last year it was moving to listen to three of our sisters—Elizabeth Borobia, Raymond Marie Gerard, and Sharon Anne Legere—tell of reconciliation retreats they had led in Boston parishes over the previous months. It’s no secret that this archdiocese has had more than its share of crucifying incidents, so the healing has been all the more poignant.

Outreach was directed to those parishes that suffered either because of clergy sex abuse or parish mergers. The purpose was to bring people together around Luke’s Gospel story of the resurrection appearance on the road to Emmaus (Lk. 24:13f., as it happens, this Sunday’s selection). A multi-media experience, it led people to a personal and communal meeting with Christ in the Word and Eucharist. At one church, parishioners whom the sisters trained to give the mission with them later assumed leadership roles in the community that they hadn’t had before. At another, one woman who had considered not attending said, “Now I understand what Church is really all about—not a building but a community.”

Extending and expanding the reach of the missions was the book and media display that accompanied each one. The hunger for the Word of God awakened by the mission was fed there and facilitated other forms of inner healing. Quite a few said, “I will never read Scriptures the same way again.”

Does such healing of individuals have a cosmic counterpart? Or does the pragmatic nature of “life in the real world” preclude this? Monday’s edition of Ad Age Mediaworks studied the front page of a dozen U.S. newspapers that reported the death of Osama bin Laden. Headlines ranged from matter-of-fact announcements to vengeful, even crude, gloating. The most vitriolic appeared, not surprisingly, in New York. The display of sanctioned hatred, the dancing in the streets, stunned one Boston Globe letter writer into asking what had happened to “her” America.

No doubt most of us remember where we were on 9/11. What stayed with me was the Scripture from Mass the Thursday morning after that terrible Tuesday. Jesus’ challenge in the Gospel reading from Luke was searing: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you and pray for those who maltreat you.” I felt “slapped on one cheek,”  not by al-Qaeda, but by Jesus, and I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to “give him the other”! What in the name of God does this mean two days after my country was attacked? Our chaplain, too, found it hard to wrap his mind and heart around the passage. Sr. Elizabeth told me how several of our sisters in Latin America e-mailed her that they were praying that text with us. Clearly the Word was doing its job. Like Jacob wrestling with the messenger of God, we are meant to grapple with the message of God.

Now with the death of Public Enemy Number One, we have a chance to revisit that message—if we dare. I think we can, accompanied by the now Blessed John Paul II, in his encyclical, The Mercy of God (nn. 4-6).

We often see love and mercy as the opposite of justice. Actually, says John Paul, justice is fulfilled through mercy! He defines justice, not as the act of giving people what they deserve, but as faithfulness to who we are by restoring others to who they are meant to be. In Gospel-speak, that’s summed up in one word: salvation. God isn’t satisfied to leave us in our fallen condition; because of who he is—Love—he is driven to remake us in his image again. This is what grace—God in us—does. This is salvation.

There’s more. In the prodigal son story, the father, to be true to himself, to who he was as father, felt moved, almost obliged, by love and hesed, (faithfulness) to restore his son to himself by reaffirming the young man’s sonship. Through mercy the father (God) made things right again (justice) between himself and his son.

Commenting on the story, John Paul recognizes that mercy doesn’t ignore what went wrong or refuse to hold people accountable for their actions. Individuals and societies must be protected. We see that in his own life, when he visited his assailant in prison to extend his forgiveness. After that meeting, Mehmet Ali Acga  remained behind bars, but to the extent that he accepted the forgiveness given to him, he was free.

There once was a violent man who was so committed to his own idea of God that he imprisoned men and women who refused to accept it and had them executed. What must it have been like to be the son or daughter, brother or sister, husband or wife of one of these martyrs, when Saul of Tarsus—later Paul the Apostle—flipped over to The Way, gave up his jihad, and started preaching on behalf of the God of those martyrs? The process of forgiveness became their journey, not just his, even after his conversion. Human nature being what it is, my guess is that his conversion actually made it harder. Remember the prodigal’s big brother (Lk. 15:11f.).

Conversion of St. Paul,
Caravaggio

What if Osama bin Laden had returned genuinely repentant? What would my reaction have been? Would I have asked Caesar for mercy, or would I have demanded that our gladiators finish him off? What does this say, not only about our sense of mercy, but now about our sense of justice?

Justice is not done to families who lost loved ones, simply because a man has died. The world must protect itself against threats, but this is not the heart of  justice. Neither is revenge. Justice will not be done until hearts are changed—“theirs” and “ours.” A reductionist view of justice—giving people what they deserve—is a dead end. Deciding what people deserve varies, depending on which side of the fence they’re on. Who gets to decide? The victor?

Joan of Arc led her army to victory, but wept at the deaths of France’s enemies, because they died unreconciled to God, “unrestored” as John Paul’s might have said. John Paul II, Antoinette Bosco, Corrie Ten Boom, the Amish community who reached out to the man who senselessly butchered its children, and Rwandans who now share the secret of inner healing with other Africans are just some of our world’s contemporary icons of forgiveness. I was awed by comments of Harry Waizer reported in Monday’s New York Times. The man had sustained third-degree burns in the World Trade Center, but when asked, he said he couldn’t bring himself to rejoice over the death of yet another person (and he used that word), even if it was bin Laden.

The Passover ritual, which celebrates God’s salvation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, concludes with God’s exhortation to pray for the Egyptians who had drowned in the process, since “no one shall celebrate the destruction of any of His human creations.”  Maybe, as pundit Jon Stewart confessed, it’s too early and we’re too close to be rational at this moment. Perhaps being rational is not where we need to be. We can start by being prayerful. That certainly is what Pope Benedict is recommending, seeing in this event a call to reflect on our responsibility to others and to God.

And this Friday, go to the movies. A new film, There Be Dragons, premieres in select cities.

From the Web site: “Roland Joffé, the director who brought us the highly acclaimed and deeply spiritual film The Mission has returned to his roots with the epic movie There Be Dragons, a powerful story of war, tragedy, love and redemption. Set during the turmoil of the Spanish Civil War [1930s], Dragons tells the story of two childhood friends who become separated during the political conflict to find themselves on opposite sides as war erupts.

“One chooses the path of peace and becomes a priest while the other chooses the life of a soldier driven by jealousy and revenge. Each will struggle to find the power of forgiveness over the forces that tore their lives and friendship apart.”

The priest happens to be Josemaria Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. I attended the pre-screening last fall, and like several in the audience, could not have definitively told you what the movie was primarily about. I understand that some improvements have been made, but I haven’t viewed the finished product yet.

The cinematography is worthy of a Joffé film and vividly portrays the violence of the age. For that reason it is by no means a film for children. I found the fiction a little too unconvincing, yet was convicted by the message. It is less a film about Escrivá—in fact, it is no longer being billed as such—than a portrayal of the destructiveness of vengeance and the healing power of reconciliation. Definitely worth seeing and absorbing.

“I think Roland’s message is a lesson in how we can go beyond the ego, transcend the human flaws that we all live with and threaten to imprison us. I think it’s about how can we do that not just as people, but as societies” Actor Charlie Cox (Escrivá).

                                            Prayer for World Leaders    

God our Father, through the intercession of Blessed John Paul, grant the leaders of nations a clear vision of the dignity of all peoples and a commitment to seek the well-being of all. Give our world leaders the perseverance needed to work through the complex issues of governance. Bless them with integrity of thought, word, and deed so that their efforts will always flow from your plan of justice and mercy. Protect them in times of danger. Comfort them in times of discouragement.
     May Blessed John Paul’s example inspire them to solidarity with the poor and working people, and to a tempering of their power and influence with true compassion. Amen.
From: Prayers to Blessed John Paul II 

The Day the Lord Has Made

Every Easter I get a uniquely personal treat. I appreciate the chocolate bunnies and jelly beans as much as the next person. But this gift is special and doesn’t come in a basket.

This year it took the form of a startling insight into the liturgy, and of course, into life. In his Good Friday homily Fr. Art Coyle asked if we had ever noticed that the Holy Thursday liturgy has no definitive ending—we process with the Eucharist to the altar of repose, where everyone remains to pray privately. The Good Friday liturgy has no introduction or formal ending; the ministers process and recess in silence. The Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday has no specific introduction; the blessing of the new fire and paschal candle ritual replace it. It’s as if the three days meld into one. Karen Sterling, our receptionist, commented that “it even feels like one day.” Historically and liturgically the paschal mystery is one event.

I’d gotten the historical and theological part; I’d just never connected it with the liturgical part. I never appreciated how, even in this, the language of liturgy expresses something so profound, that words could not do justice to the reality; it has to be acted out.
 

Sr. Irene's planter blooms at the
"right time."


Since antiquity, the Greeks have had two words to distinguish two meanings of time: chronos and kairos. The first indicates measured, chronological time, like “day” in the sense of 24 hours. The second is trickier. It’s not tied to the first, but means “the right time,” like “day” in the sense of the one, perfect moment, when something advantageous can happen.

Kairos testifies that life is not lived solely within the parameters of life’s structures or dynamics; much less is it defined by them. It points to another dimension. There God acts, inspires, directs, saves. It’s not that God doesn’t work through those structures. Just the opposite. Kairos IS salvation: God moves in time, without being constrained by it.

This is the deep meaning of Christ’s Resurrection for the here and now. Because he lives, there is never a chronos that is not also a kairos. Regardless of what my conscience charges me with, there is never a moment of my life when God cannot save me (1Jn. 3:20): “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation” (2Cor. 6:2). Hope. This is the gift wrapped in the “day” of salvation. It’s not for nothing that during Easter Week the Church sings Psalm 118: “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad.”

When our friend Patrick Hitchcock was in college, he stopped going to church for awhile. As he gradually felt the gnawing hunger for God in his life, he went back. Now, as an investment advisor in California, he’s making his own connection between the “day” of liturgy and the “day” of life. He told me that together with Easter Sunday, the symbolism in Good Friday’s Veneration of the Cross is always the high point in his observance of Holy Week. “It’s a physical thing to kiss the cross. It’s a stark reminder that [Christ’s] passion was such that he allowed himself to be crucified for us. What more can someone do than give his life for someone else? Mary washed his feet with her tears. What more can we do symbolically to say that through the cross and resurrection is salvation? It leaves me kind of breathless, really. It’s an acknowledgement of our utter helplessness without Christ.”

As you flip on the right sidebar through the photo slideshow of our Holy Week/Easter Week celebration in Boston, may you see your own faith and hope mirrored there. May they always be your life.                                                      
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Sunday, May 1, is a moment of another kind: Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. During the Second World War, six million Jews and up to four million other unwanted and unvalued human beings were systematically eliminated, including political and religious prisoners. Dachau alone held 3,000 Catholic deacons, priests, and bishops, some of whom were ordained behind Nazi backs. That number does not include the vast number of laity and religious. I remember meeting a man in Cleveland, who had been a 16-year-old guard in one camp that had held 300 nuns at the time of his conscription. One has been canonized so far, Jewish Edith Stein, who also became Carmelite Sr. Benedicta of the Cross.

A holocaust of an even larger scale, a real global genocide, is the subject of yet another film from Spirit Juice Studios, to premiere in Chicago also on May 1. Sure to be controversial, To Be Born  communicates something about the uniqueness of each human life.

To Be Born is about a young woman faced with an unplanned pregnancy who seeks to have an abortion. In the midst of the procedure, she finds herself in a regrettable situation when she hears her unborn daughter begin to describe the chilling details of what is happening. Film and screening details: www.tobeborn.com or http://www.facebook.com/#!/tobeborn.
                    
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In the midst of this, a kairos moment. We love any excuse for a party: birthdays, anniversaries, beatifications, holidays….

Wait. Back up. Beatifications? As in Blessed John Paul II? That’s right. How could the U.S. publisher of his documents, audiences, and even a few biographies (including some for kids) not celebrate the day he’s held up internationally as a model to imitate and a Christian to venerate. As if most of us in the world didn’t recognize that already. But Sunday it’ll be official. With canonization sometime in the future, he’ll be listed on the Church’s honor roll, inducted in heaven’s hall of fame. But beatification is the word for now: He’s made the grade. And we intend to celebrate, first on Sunday as a community, and then Monday, with our 45 lay co-workers at Pauline Books & Media. Got any ideas for your own party?

The Passion Then and Now

Rob Kaczmark and Danny Hidalgo from Spirit Juice Studios are the cinema artists behind our upcoming documentary on Blessed James Alberione, founder of the Pauline Family. You know the one—the preview they made with screenwriter Sr. Helena Burns is a permanent fixture on the right side bar of this blog.

Well, they did it again, this time for the Paulists, in collaboration with Outside da Box. At just over five minutes, Palm Sunday is a quickie for teens, but packs such a punch that even adults are left reeling—or weeping, as safety coach and Facebook friend David Sarkus unabashedly admitted on my Wall.

From the Palm Sunday Web site: “Brothers Julio and Marvin become restless during the reading of the Passion, and begin playfully slapping one another with palms they received upon their visit to church. Unsurprisingly, their mother is not amused with their behavior. After a brief scolding, the two simmer down only for a moment before they agree to a wager with one another: who can shout ‘crucify him’ the loudest. Once arranged, the younger of the brothers gets overwhelmed by the experience.”

In just nine days, the flick on YouTube has received almost 9,000 views. What is it about his passion that, as Jesus predicted, would draw everyone to himself, when he would be “lifted up” from the earth? (cf. Jn. 12:32) It can’t just be a morbid fascination with torture or death. We can glut ourselves with such depictions anywhere. Neither is it the politics or intrigue, common enough in any thriller. It probably doesn’t even have much to do with the fact that it happened to God: even those who don’t completely share our convictions are often inexplicably attracted by something beyond simple curiosity.

The fact of the matter is, the paschal mystery is at the core of our faith and of who we are as redeemed persons. We pick up the Liturgy of the Word each day and read the texts through the prism of this, the greatest drama the world will ever know. In fact, how Mark’s Gospel has been described is true to some extent of each of the four: “a passion narrative with a long introduction.” The New Testament apostolic letters, as well as texts from the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), take on their full richness of meaning in light of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ.

“All because of us. All because his Father asked him to love us to death,” says Jesuit Bob McMillan. “Not just to heal our ills—a wart, a backache, a foot problem—but to recreate us.” His obedience earned goodness for us and showed us goodness and does goodness in and through us. “We may look awkward at it. We may not make it look easy or flashy, but we can do it.” Like any little kid at a ballet recital or on the baseball diamond, we who are “imitators of God, as beloved children,” (Eph. 5:1), may stumble in the attempt, but God is busting buttons that we’re even trying.

This may surprise you, but there’s a huge chance that Christ is beckoning you to plunge with him into the passion this year as you never have. Why not ask him how? It might be to attend one of the services of Holy Thursday or Good Friday, or of the Easter Vigil, that you didn’t plan to attend. It might be to spend an extra fifteen minutes with the Word at a set time each of these next ten days during Holy Week and Easter Week and notice if there’s a recurring theme in the Word or the season’s symbols just for you—light in the darkness, the new life of spring, the empty tomb…. It might be to finally carry out that act of almsgiving you promised you’d do at the beginning of Lent, or to take the first steps toward a reconciliation with someone you know—and really do love. Whatever it is, it’s worth letting him take the lead and just attentively follow. Our community will pray in these days that you will let him surprise you with peace and joy. If you think of it, would you do the same for us?

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Our sisters in Sendai, Japan, are beginning the process of recovery of their home and media center which were severely damaged in last month’s earthquakes. Thanks to your generosity, we’ve been able to raise $3,694.00 for them.

We will complete this fundraising project on Mother’s Day, May 8. So, if you haven’t yet donated as you had planned, the window of opportunity is still open for another two weeks. You can donate securely online here. Or if you prefer to send a check, you can make it out to the Daughters of St. Paul and mail it to my attention (Sr. Margaret J. Obrovac, FSP) at 50 St. Paul’s Ave. Boston, MA  02130.

Questions? E-mail me at margaretjo@paulinemedia.com or call 617-676-4423.

Regardless of what you may choose to do materially, we ask you to continue praying with us for the Japanese people. Prayer suggestions have been prepared by our sisters with audio and visual accompaniment also at http://www.pauline.org/, on the right side bar. The site also includes suggestions for talking with children about this natural disaster especially.

For additional Catholic information, including the initiatives of the Holy See and the current spiritual climate in Japan, refer to the Fides News Agency.

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From http://www.paoline.org/ (Daughters of St. Paul international site):

The Pakistani Christian Masihi Foundation has declared 20 April as a day of prayer and fasting for Asia Bibi.

On that day, every Christian in the world is invited to light a candle and say a prayer for this Pakistani woman who has been condemned to death for blasphemy and who is currently being held in the Sheikupura prison in Punjab. Informed about the initiative, Asia [said], “I am grateful to the Masihi Foundation for having organized this event, which gives me the hope that perhaps I will live. I feel loved by the Catholic Church and all the Christian communities throughout the world. I am proud to be the daughter of such a loving and merciful community. I want to send a message of peace and love to the whole world.”

Paul Bhatti, the brother of Shahbaz Bhatti, the recently-slain minister for religious minorities in Pakistan, has also lent his support to this event. Like his deceased brother, Paul Bhatti is Catholic and is a special councilor for the country’s religious minorities.
“I want to assure every-one that I am working with the [Pakistani] government and religious minorities to find a solution to this problem,” he said, “so as to prevent other innocent people from becoming victims of the current law concerning blasphemy.”

The Windex Index

Now that non-essential government jobs are once again secure, the pastor of Our Lady of Infinite Mercy Church fielded a call earlier this week from the IRS.
“Is this Msgr. Santoro?”
“It is.”
“Can you help us verify some financial information?”
“I can.”
“Do you have a parishioner named Matthew Conte?”
“We do.”
“Is it true he made a $10,000 contribution to your parish?”
Silence.
“He will.”

As a civic virtue, fiscal honesty is as lauded as transgressions against it are despised, especially when done by someone else! At this time of year fudging a little on a tax return is a hard temptation to resist. Who would know, really? And if this becomes an annual gamble, the next question is: How long can I get away with it? I might justify it on any number of pretexts, but tax evasion is not something to wink at, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us in its section on economic activity and social justice.

Much is made these days of transparency, disclosure, and justice—rightly, I think. The interesting thing is that for it to “take” in us and in society, it can’t be imposed from without. It springs from within. It’s an attitude, a way of life. That’s not to say that laws are unnecessary: not everyone is equally devoted to the way of God. It means that to the degree that we are open, forthright, and in the case of us Christians, aware that our baptismal consecration has made us Christ’s, to that degree we are likely to live in truth without being forced to by law.

This is what Paul referred to in his letters to the Romans and the Galatians. He would not deny the goodness of the Torah and its Mosaic law, much less of law in general, but saw it as an outgrowth of a life lived in the Spirit. This Spirit makes us “living Words” of God, through the power of Christ shining in our lives. This power is ours through Baptism, by which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come and make their home within us (cf. Jn. 14:23; Mt. 28:19). If the Trinity lives in us, God makes us transparent witnesses to the risen Christ, who is himself the radiant light of the Gospel.

This transparency involves mind, will, heart, spirit, and even body. Blessed James Alberione, our founder, wrote: “Even if the sun is shining brilliantly, its light cannot pass through a grime-encrusted windowpane. The Gospel shines brilliantly—“I am the light of the world”—but if that light cannot shine through us because our heart and life are not in order, then what will happen?” He adds other words of Jesus from Mt. 5:14: “You are the light of the world,” then concludes: “[Jesus] means to say: ‘Think of it! I have been the light of the world, but now it is you who are the light of the world.’”

The Church’s pastors, teachers, and administrators—clergy, religious, and lay—are called to this transparency, too! It’s not just something mandated for others. Otherwise, where would be the credibility? How then could the Church as a whole be a transparent witness to the risen Christ to a world that rightly expects it of her?

The Constitutions, or rule, of the Daughters of St. Paul impress this upon us, especially where they describe what our chastity and poverty should be. It is imperative for us who are expressly called to mission, “to become a communication of Christ’s love even in the demanding field of social communications” growing in “a great respect for the human person and for authentic values,” and rejecting “the temptation to change the means of mission into instruments of power, profit, or ambition.” Justice and love for our sisters, our co-workers, and all those we serve has to govern our decisions, just as they inform our prayer and our message.

So, come June, when that tax refund is dropped into your bank account or mailbox, and the sun shines just a little brighter, may you accept it with a heart that’s more free, more at peace, and more ready, even practically speaking, to bless the One who lives there.

True Blue

“Blue Bloods” might give a nod to NYPD Catholicism, but for a shout-out, you had to be in the City last Sunday. The New York Police Department Holy Name Society honored service in its ranks, past and present, at its  93rd annual Communion Breakfast. Cardinal Egan’s Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral opened the celebration, followed by awards and fellowship at the Hilton. Of course, a parade led by bagpipes and drums strutted down 5th Avenue the long way from church to hotel, to the delight of residents and tourists alike. We were blessed with early spring weather, nippy but sunny.

I say “we,” since the Pauline Family—Society of St. Paul, Daughters, Sister Disciples, and Cooperators of New York—joined in the celebration for the first time. Sgt. Brian Reilly, commanding officer of the chaplain’s unit, and HNS President Jason Maggio arranged for us to serve 1,200 officers and their families through Pauline exhibits and a ten-minute presentation on Blessed James Alberione, our founder and model/intercessor for the media. Partway through the talk, I paused long enough for the media technicians to project the preview of the upcoming film on the massive screen behind me. (Scroll down at right to watch the preview everyone watched.)


With police commissioner Raymond Kelly, HNS President
Jason Maggio, NY Daily News columnist Denis Hamill,
and MC Desmond Stokes

I’ve shown that clip several times in the past fifteen months, but only the NYPD burst into applause—sustained applause. In fact, I had to “break it up” by resuming my remarks. And Alberione isn’t even Irish! That presentation, an intro-duction to Fr. Alberione, was also an introduction to the Pauline Family, since most had never heard of us before, in spite of our 79-year history in the Big Apple. A handful of women and men religious in a city of eight million can get overlooked.

The city can be justly proud of the saints and “saintables” who walked its streets, truly New York’s Finest: Mother Seton, Mother Cabrini, St. John Neumann, Pierre Toussaint, Dorothy Day, her friend Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Isaac Hecker, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Walter Ciszek, S.J., Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II (to be beatified next month), Cardinal Terence Cooke, and now, Blessed James Alberione. In fact, he and Venerable Thecla Merlo, the Daughters’ co-foundress, who is also up for beatification, visited New York several times and prayed in St. Patrick’s Cathedral for their Pauline communities and for the people they served.

 Sgt. Brian Reilly keeps stride with
retired assistant chief Thomas Sweeney.

As the preview says, Alberione has something to say to our digital age. New York media professionals, educators, parents, clergy, and all those who dedicate themselves to the protection and sanity of an information rich and media saturated society—can find in Alberione a model and patron saint. His story needs to be told. How else will our young people know that there is an intercessor and model for them, as they work to build a media culture on faith and values or to discern their own vocation in such a world? How else will people discover that someone has paved the way for them to grow as faith-filled human beings in an ever more wired—and wireless—world?

 

Edward Cardinal Egan greets officers
after Mass. Go to my Facebook Wall
(Margaret Obrovac FSP)
for more photos.


Br. Peter Lyne, our Pauline brother with a book display there that day, told me that the one title he sold out of (and he had brought several copies) was When You Hurt. People in any helping profession, law enforcement included, understand human pain. The Pauline Family, which carries on the work of Alberione, demonstrates what he lived for—the conviction that media can and should be used for the good of the human heart and human society. People who work for justice get that.

A Sister Disciple of the Divine Master from County Westmeath, Ireland, now serving on Staten Island, was taken with the warm fraternity of the NYPD that day and their interest in the signs and symbols of faith, especially among the young men and women. Sr. Ann Breen said that “with so many distractions they can get discouraged.” So in her mission as a Sister Disciple, she told me, she prays for the safety of the police force, for guidance and wisdom as they go out every day, and especially for perseverance in faith.

 If people make good on their pledges toward the production of the film over the next two or three weeks, we'll be able to look forward to having raised $4,600 from this event. Legendary talk show host Joe Franklin offered to announce the campaign on his program on Bloomberg Radio this weekend. After fifty-five years on the air, he still has a loyal following, even though he claims he goes “way back, back to when the Dead Sea was still sick.”

With a little help from our friends, we’ll be hearing from police-related consultants and organizations as possibilities open up. With only about twelve months left in the campaign and still almost $50,000 to raise, we hope those possibilities surface soon!

Do you feel you would like to be part of this moviemaking venture? Click here to get updates and to make a contribution. A little incentive: Anyone who donates $1,000 will be listed in the credits at the end of the film. Or you can do that in memory of someone who has died, and that person’s name will be listed. Consider adding this project to your prayer intentions, so that it can be finished on schedule and it might do the good it’s meant to do. A prayer like that, guaranteed, will be reciprocated!

"Media Literacy Missionaries"

Friday was an adventure, and not just because six of us were breaking out of the house. The ninth annual Northeast Media Literacy Conference at the University of Connecticut ran from 8:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M., packed with two keynote addresses, three workshops sessions with fifteen topics to choose from, and a panel presentation by four of 23 international guests from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe. These guests were media educators participating in a three-week tour of the U.S. as part of the State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program. According to the U.S. Embassy’s press release, “the IVLP is the U.S. Department of State’s premier professional exchange program. It seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through carefully designed short-term visits to the U.S. for current and emerging foreign leaders.” It marked the first time that the State Department sponsored a media literacy event.

Press “Pause.” What exactly is media literacy? Like traditional literacy, at its most basic level it’s the ability to decode communication symbols to understand and analyze the message being communicated. In the case of print, those symbols are letters and words. In our day with the variety of media within our reach, those symbols also include images, sounds, movements, colors, rhythms, and techniques.



Renee Hobbs, keynote presenter

 But there’s more. Media literacy presupposes the skills of understanding the communication systems and the cultures that are shaped by these media—whether print, broadcast, recorded, or digital. It also involves knowledge of the political, social, and economic powers behind them.

If you’re thinking that’s plenty, wait. To be really literate we need to not only have access to media and understand them and the culture, but we have to be able to evaluate them, conform our behavior to the values we’ve adopted, and then produce media messages, communicating in turn, not only for our own benefit, but for the community, family, work environment, and in our case, the Church.

“Resume Play.” The sheer scope of this aspect of modern life explains the array of topics related to this year’s theme at the conference we attended: “Media Literacy in a Digital Media Age.” We divided up the sessions among us so we could benefit from their richness and share that with each other: pediatrics and digital devices, media literacy in middle school, Facebook and mood management, trends in kids’ media, Internet privacy, toxic media, and the influence of media and incarceration are only some of the entries we found on the menu.

What we walked away with was a more complete tool kit for our mission, plus direction for planning. Three of us, in fact, serve on our FSP province’s ad hoc committee for media literacy education, or MLE, (“media mindfulness”). We’re preparing a proposal for implementing MLE at all stages of our own life, from vocational discernment through to the “senior years.” Of course, we’ll be offering mission strategies for integrating Gospel values with the principles of MLE: How do we draw people to discover the message of faith through their media encounters, then deepen it, live it, and pass it on?

Like last year—was it because the nuns were there?—one of the presenters referred to MLE educators there as “media literacy missionaries.” If my barometer reading of the room was accurate, I would say that, with its distorted image of the self-righteous Bible-thumper, “missionary,” is not the word most of the people there would ever choose to describe themselves. Yet, with MLE’s imperative to conform one’s behavior to one’s principles, as well as to exercise social responsibility, they were all, in an MLE sense, regardless of the prayers they say or the rituals they practice, as “missionary” as we were.

Several international guests were visiting from countries where the Daughters of St. Paul and the priests and brothers of the Society of St. Paul carry out their media mission for the Gospel: Romania, India, Uganda, Philippines, Russia, United Kingdom. These Paulines labor within very different political, religious, and educational environments, within diverse media parameters, attempting to bring the Church’s religious and social teaching to bear on public policy as well as into people’s private lives. Listening to and talking with the conference’s visitors, I sensed that in spite of our different perspective on ethics, spirituality, and human and religious values, when it comes to the goals of media literacy, they share a great deal in common with Paulines everywhere. Here at home, too, we can continue to work so that together, challenges can be met, and both persons and society can hear “good news.”

Photos courtesy of Thomas Goodkind, Ph.D., Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut. See all the photos at http://www.facebook.com/neagschool.

Water of Life

In case you missed the United Nations’ World Water Day yesterday, you’re not alone. I did too, until Sr. Christina mentioned it at supper. It’s part of the Decade for Action—Water for Life, stretching from 2005 to 2015. Celebrated annually around a set theme, it’s meant to implement UN environmental resolutions adopted at Rio de Janeiro in 1992, raise consciousness surrounding the availability and quality of fresh water worldwide, offer resources for education and advocacy, and inform the world community about activities carried out by countries and organizations.

So what? With almost six feet of snow in Boston this winter, it’s hard to picture a water shortage anywhere. I can filter all the water I want. I have hot water for a shower. Can I be—am I—concerned about fresh water anywhere else? In the words of Kofi Annan, United Nations Secretary-General, “We shall not finally defeat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, or any of the other infectious diseases that plague the developing world until we have also won the battle for safe drinking-water, sanitation and basic health care.” As we have seen in recent years, viruses and epidemics are not confined to developing nations or by any geographic boundaries.

Intrinsically related to this are social justice issues, especially economic ones, the very issues that religious communities, Vatican leaders, and episcopal (bishops’) conferences have directed our attention to over the past several years. When whole populations are at risk of losing sustainable living conditions because of exploitation and consumerism, we need to step back and ask a few questions of ourselves, our media, and our society. When my brand of bottled water becomes a status symbol, it’s time for a reality check. When our kids, media-induced, demand one brand over another (as one grandmother told me last year), it’s time to share with them what we really value as believers and set a different standard.

                                      
This year’s theme for World Water Day was “Water for Cities.” It’s safe to say that when the UN Water group picked it, a tsunami in Japan was not on their minds. The resulting water shortage not only in villages, but in hard hit cities like Sendai, makes such a theme worth pondering. If nothing else, we’re less likely to take what we have for granted.

The day before yesterday we received the first direct report from our Sendai community: “Water was restored to us after four days. For the first three days we went to get water at a well, standing for three or four hours in line to get our bottles filled with drinkable water. We receive two bottles and we give away one. Our good bishop came one day to bring us 60 liters of water. How moving it all is!”

Grace before meals has always been a part of my life, but it wasn’t until I entered religious life that I watched sisters bless themselves even before having a snack. Some, in what I considered fervor to the extreme, made the Sign of the Cross even before taking a sip of water. A few still do. While that isn’t part of my devotional life, I thought again this week of how it can well express a deep spiritual sense and profound gratitude for the creature that St. Francis called “Sister Water, so useful, humble, precious and pure” (Canticle of the Creatures).


It’s significant that our Japanese Daughters of St. Paul speak of their experience in communal terms. From their testimony about how they share, their concern for each other is clearly moved by sincere love: it’s not limited to their own needs alone, but empowers them to reach out to the wider community. Here’s how they describe the source of their compassion:

“We stay very willingly together: there is mutual comfort, support and aid. Each sister is doing whatever she can. Living this experience of sisterly love is so precious, and a gift we give each other throughout the enormous difficulties we are facing.

“Every new morning we repeat, ‘Lord, today too, you have given us life! Thank you!’

“We are in the month of March, and it is still cold like winter – for two days we have had a pretty heavy snowfall. It almost feels like we are being tormented. But we still have our house and our sisters, and above all the Lord is with us.

“In the city more than 7,000 people have perished. The refugees already number 350,000. They have lost their loved ones and their homes, and now in addition to these great catastrophes, atomic radiation is threatening. It will take a long time to recover from this. We live in the hope that the reading from St. Paul spoke of in this morning’s Liturgy [2Tm. 1:8b-10].

“Once again we thank you with all our hearts for keeping near to us with your concern.”

This is the water of life.

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As I mentioned in last week’s blog post, if you would like to financially support the ministry of the Daughters of St. Paul that will evolve over the months ahead, assist with their material needs, or help them plan for recovery, you can donate securely online at www.pauline.org, or send a check, made out to the Daughters of St. Paul, to my attention (Sr. Margaret J. Obrovac, FSP) at 50 St. Paul’s Ave. Boston, MA  02130. Questions? E-mail me at margaretjo@paulinemedia.com or call me at 617-676-4423.

Regardless of what you may choose to do materially, we ask you to continue praying with us for the Japanese people. Prayer suggestions have been prepared by our sisters with audio and visual accompaniment, also at www.pauline.org.