Five women came into contact with the

Transcription

1 cdp >congregration of divine providence Five answer call for congregation Five women came into contact with the Sisters of Divine Providence and later made the decision to knock on the door at Our Lady of the Lake Convent (one at the Mother House in Querétaro, Mexico) and asked permission to enter and live among the Sisters. As Pre-Novices, they were able to discern their call with prayer, spiritual direction and ministry. Sisters María Cruz de la Cruz, Kate Fitzgerald and Misty Garriga have completed the Novitiate program and professed annual vows. They continue to deepen their commitment and call to religious life and serve in their respective ministries. At the end of the summer of 2015, Megan Grewing became a Novice and thus, given the title of Sister. She shares her thoughts about the congregation, They are an extremely progressive order. With them, I can use my career as a counselor Two years after becoming an Affiliate, (the first step of discernment), Christina Chavez entered the Pre-Novitiate program and gives her reason for wanting to become a member of the Congregation of Divine Providence (CDP) I feel so connected with the CDP Sisters. I admire the Sisters. They are such strong, successful, joyous women. They are making a difference and helping people. Like them, I want to personify the love of Christ out in the world and make a difference in people s lives. The congregation prays for its two Affiliates Ana Lourdes González Morales (in Mexico City) and Melissa Cessac. These women felt the call to deepen their discernment to religious life by living among the members as they live their personal life in their respective jobs. Melissa, who works for Project Quest says, I am overjoyed that the community I was led to is the Congregation of Divine Providence. The first time I visited, everything I had been searching for was placed before me, and I knew that this would be the place God chose for me. Above: Sisters Misty Garriga and Kate Fitzgerald, Melissa Cessac (Affiliate), Sister Megan Grewing (Novice) and Christina Chavez (Pre-Novice). Below: Christina Chavez (Pre-Novice) receives Our Lady of Providence medal from Superior General Sister Ann Petrus, CDP OCTOBER 2015 TODAY S CATHOLIC 9

2 CSB >Congregation of St. Brigid (brigidines) Brigidine Sister s 50 years enriched by those struggling with poverty by Agnes Oman CSB Celebrating a milestone in one s life gives one the opportunity to reflect. Little did I know that cold February day as I made my way to a town called Tullow, Ireland to enter the Brigidine Sisters how adventuresome my life with the Oman Lord would be! So with the openness and eagerness of youth, my companion Sister Stephanie and I headed to San Antonio for our second year novitiate training. Life as a professed sister began as a teacher at St. Luke and St. Paul Schools. Later, the opportunity to study at the Pastoral Institute at Incarnate Word drew me more towards pastoral ministry. I I appreciate these experiences, the people I have encountered, and the faithful God who has accompanied me on this journey of 50 years. worked as a DRE at Holy Spirit and St. Anthony of Padua parishes. It was an enlightening experience ministering with catechists, parents, liturgy committees and the RCIA. After Vatican II, one of the phrases that struck me was preferential option for the poor. My dream became a reality in 1989 when I traveled to Mexico to experience the work of our sisters ministering there. I ended up going to Altotonga, Veracruz to work in a rural parish with 24 ranchos. I worked with the catechists of the various ranchos and the coordinators of the Basic Christian Communities. I was privileged to live with a family for four years. I learned much about the struggles, the joys and sorrows as well as the importance of popular religion and how faith sustained the people. My time in Mexico was followed by a move to Salisbury, Maryland to be part of the Hispanic Ministry team for the Diocese of Wilmington. I worked with three different Hispanic immigrant communities in the area. One of their greatest needs was to have someone accompany them through the maze of unfamiliar systems. It was a challenging experience, but gratifying to help people understand a different culture. Empowering the people to develop lay leadership by taking responsibility for the community was a highlight of this ministry. I came away with a deeper appreciation for the struggles the immigrants encountered as they tried to give their children a better life. Now, back in San Antonio, it is wonderful to volunteer at St. Timothy Parish with the Senior Nutrition Program, Sisters in Christ and the RCIA. My adventure with the Lord continues. I appreciate these experiences, the people I have encountered, and the faithful God who has accompanied me on this journey of 50 years. 10 TODAY S CATHOLIC OCTOBER 2015

3 CSC >Congregation of holy cross BRO filmmakers travel around the world to tell their stories, showing the challenges they face and reasons for choosing such a counter-cultural lifestyle. BRO: Men with Hope to Bring A film about ordinary men living the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience Brother Nich Perez, CSC, a graduate of St. Mary s University and a former teacher at Holy Cross of San Antonio, has created this feature-length documentary exploring the lives of a group of men in the Catholic church called religious brothers. Devoted to God through ministry and prayer, they make a difference in the world by being present and available to the people and communities they serve. Some would say they are the best kept secret of the church. What does it really mean to be a Catholic religious brother? The BRO filmmakers travel around the world to tell their stories, showing the challenges they face and reasons for choosing such a countercultural lifestyle. What empowers them as they joyfully and faithfully live their vows in a secular world? This film addresses these questions and more as it uncovers why they are men with hope to bring. If you would like to receive a free DVD of BRO: Men with Hope to Bring, simply write to Brother Jonathan at Holy- CrossVocations@earthlink.net. Ave Crux, Spes Unica! OCTOBER 2015 TODAY S CATHOLIC 11

4 HCG >Hermanas Catequistas guadalupanas My call to consecrated life By Sister Virgina Clara Ruiz, HCG I was born in San Antonio and I am the third of 17 children. My first experience with nuns was not a pleasant one. I must have been about 5 years old and I did not remember seeing nuns in my short life. One day, I was Ruiz playing on the neighborhood grounds, and all of a sudden, my brothers began to scream, The black devils are coming! I turned to see two ladies in long black dresses. I went into the house crying. My mom, alarmed, asked me, What s wrong? I told her, The devils are coming! What devils? she asked. I said, They are walking in the grounds. She looked and said, Who? The nuns? Quien? Las monjitas? I answered, The black things out there. My mom, very upset, told me and my brothers, How can you call las monjitas, devils? They are nuns! She told us, Never again will you call las monjitas, devils. They are very special ladies because they belong to God and they live among us as if they were angels of God. Those words left a very deep impression in my heart. I NEVER forgot them. In 1944, we moved next to Immaculate Conception Parish. There, I met for the first time, Madre Antonia. My parents told us that she had been exiled by the Mexican government during the religious persecution. She was a Franciscan nun. Sometimes, she would ask my mother if I could accompany her to visit the families, something that made me very happy. One day, I asked my mother, Mama, can I belong to God alone? She looked at me surprised but replied, Hay hija, eso solo Dios los sabe (O daughter, only God knows that). One day, I said to Madre Antonia, I want to be a nun like you. She advised me to pray to St. Francis of Assisi and say six Our Father s, six Hail Mary s and six Glory Be s. Madre Antonia also said, I will pray for you so that nothing may keep you away from your dream. One day, our parish pastor announced new Sisters would be coming. They arrived at our parish on Feb. 13, We went to the church to meet them. They were the Hermanas Catequistas Guadalupanas. From the time I was 15, I helped the Sisters in teaching catechism. One day, I told one of the Sisters I wanted to be a nun. That same day she spoke to her superior and she, in turn, spoke to me and then my parents. After my parents spoke with the Sisters, my father spoke with me in private. He wanted to persuade me not to go to Mexico, but to enter a convent in San Antonio. I told him, Daddy, I do not want to teach in schools or work in hospitals. I want to be a missionary so I can teach the word of God to many people, not only to a few. My parents gave their permission so I could enter the convent in Saltillo. Days before entering the Novitiate, Jesus María Echavarría (in the process of canonization), the third bishop of Saltillo and founder of my Order, spoke to us (Postulants) to give us our new names. When he addressed me, he said, Your name will be Clara of Assisi. I learned about the life of St. Clara of Assisi and how St. Francis had been the spiritual father of St. Clara from reading the life of saints in the convent. My devotion to St. Francis and St. Clara has become greater through the years. Thanks to their intercession, the Lord has granted me the grace to persevere in my vocation as a religious. From the bottom of my heart, I pray: Thank you, Lord, for all your love, your kindness and mercy that you have had for me all these years. Thank you for giving me the graces and wisdom to fulfill my mission among your people. Thank you for putting in my heart the strong desire to consecrate my life to you. Thank you, Lord, for everything. 12 TODAY S CATHOLIC OCTOBER 2015

5 blessed junípero > canonization & Controversy Why Junípero Serra matters today By Bishop-Elect Robert Barron Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles The canonization of Blessed Junípero Serra in Washington, D.C. the first ever to take place on American soil generated, as I m sure you know, a good deal of controversy. For his defenders, Padre Serra was an intrepid evangelist and a model of Gospel living, while for his detractors, he was a shameless advocate of an oppressive colonial system that resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Indians. Even many who typically back Pope Francis see this canonization as a rare faux pas for the Argentine pontiff. What should we make of all this? It might first be wise to rehearse some of the basic facts of Serra s life. He was born in 1713 on the beautiful island of Mallorca off of the Spanish coast, and as a very young man, he joined a particularly severe branch of the Franciscan order. He quickly became a star in the community, recognized for his impressive intellectual gifts and his profound spirituality. After many years of study, he earned his doctorate in philosophy and commenced a teaching career, which culminated in his receiving the Duns Scotus Chair of philosophy. When Padre Serra was 36, he resolved to abandon his relatively comfortable life and promising career and become a missionary in the New World. He undertook this mission out of a sincere and deeply-felt desire to save souls, knowing full well that he would likely never return to his homeland. After spending a few years in Mexico City doing administrative work, he realized his dream to work with the native peoples of New Spain, first in Mexico and then in what was then called Baja California (Lower California). When he was around 50 years old, he was asked by his superiors to lead a missionary endeavor in Alta California, more or less the present day state of California. With the help of a small band of Franciscan brothers and under the protection of the Spanish government, he established a series of missions along the Pacific coast, from San Diego to San Francisco. He died in 1784 and was buried at the San Carlos Borromeo Mission in Carmel by the Sea. Much of the disagreement regarding Junípero Serra hinges upon the interpretation of the mission project he undertook. Though it is certainly true that the Imperial Spanish authorities had an interest in establishing a strong Spanish presence along the Pacific coast in order to block the intrusion of Russian settlers in the region, there is no doubt that Serra s first intention in setting up the missions was to evangelize the native peoples. What fired SEE NEXT PAGE OCTOBER 2015 TODAY S CATHOLIC 13

6 blessed junípero > canonization & Controversy FROM PAGE 13 his heart above all, was the prospect of announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who had never before heard it. There is no question his missions provided the institutional framework for that proclamation. Moreover, the missions were places where the Indians were taught the principles of agriculture and animal husbandry, which enabled them to move beyond a merely nomadic lifestyle. I find it fascinating, by the way, that there was nothing even vaguely analogous to these missions on the other side of the continent. Though, by our standards they treated the native people in a rather patronizing manner, the Spanish evangelized and instructed the Indians, whereas the British settlers in the American colonies more or less pushed them out of the way. Critics of Serra s project claim that Indians were compelled to join the missions, essentially as a slave labor force, and were baptized against their will. The consensus of responsible historians, however, is that both of these charges are false. In fact, the vast majority of the Indians recognized the advantage of living in connection with the missions, and only about 10 percent of those who had come to missions opted to leave. To be sure, those who left were hunted down and, upon their return, were sometimes subjected to corporal punishment. Indeed, there...declaring someone a saint is not to declare him or her morally flawless, nor is it to countenance every institution with which the saint was associated. is real evidence that Padre Serra countenanced such violence. In one of his letters, he speaks of the need to punish wayward Indians the way a parent would chastise a recalcitrant child, and in another document, he authorizes the purchase of shackles for the mission in San Diego. Certainly, from our more enlightened perspective, we would recognize such behavior as morally wrong and it is no good trying to whitewash the historical record so as to present Serra as blameless. Having acknowledged this, however, it is most important to note that the lion s share of the evidence we have strongly indicates that Serra was a steadfast friend to the native peoples, frequently defending them against the violence and prejudice of the Spanish civil authorities.very much in the spirit of Bartolomé de Las Casas, the great 16th century defender of the Indians, Serra insisted, again and again, upon the rights and prerogatives of the native tribes. In one case, he spoke out against the execution of an Indian who had killed one of Serra s own friends and colleagues, arguing that the whole point of his mission was to save life, not to take it. As Archbishop Jose Gomez has argued, this represents one of the first principled arguments against capital punishment ever to appear in Western culture. One might ask why Pope Francis who certainly knows all of the controversy surrounding Padre Serra went ahead with this canonization. He does so, I would speculate, for two reasons. First, he understands that declaring someone a saint is not to declare him or her morally flawless, nor is it to countenance every institution with which the saint was associated. Secondly and more importantly, he sees Junípero Serra as someone who, with extraordinary moral courage, went to the periphery of the society of his time in order to announce Jesus Christ. Serra could have pursued a very respectable career in the comfortable halls of European academy; but he opted to go, at great personal cost, to the margins and this makes him an extraordinary model of a Pope Francis style missionary. Was Padre Serra perfect? By no means. Was he a saint? Absolutely. Bishop-elect Robert Barron is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries. 14 TODAY S CATHOLIC OCTOBER 2015

7 IWBS > Congregation of the incarnate word and blessed sacrament Postulants join Victoria community This is an interesting time in the church as we look afresh at our society and world through the eyes of Pope Francis. Moreover, exciting things are happening in our congregation. As the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Victoria, Texas prepare to celebrate 150 years since their foundation in Victoria, we marvel at the struggles and accomplishments of our earlier members. We look back nearly four hundred years to France to the origin of our spirit and charism to make the Incarnate Word known and loved in the world. Our foundress, Jeanne de Matel was deeply committed to her call to found an order of women religious which demanded that she live a very active life. She must have realized in her life that to live in the depth of oneself the life of Christ and, through Him, the life of the Trinity is generally called contemplation. Yet, this is most truly and supremely action. (Peyriguere, Voice from the Desert p. 124). In Mother Jeanne de Matel s time, the church required all women s religious orders were to be cloistered. Although she was a woman of deep contemplation, she did not receive the habit until she was on her deathbed. She had denied herself this desire, so that she could more ably minister to the four monasteries that she had founded. Today, her order is no longer cloistered. Yet, our foundress contemplative experience is clearly being carried forward into our time by her daughters, the Sisters of our IWBS community in Victoria. Postulant Anita is attracted by Jeanne de Matel s deep, contemplative prayer life where God invited her into the interior life of the Trinity where she received indescribable favors. (Like a Crystal Vase p.8). Postulant Robin is excited and filled with hope for the future after she has reflected on how the Holy Spirit has guided the order throughout the centuries. May that same Holy Spirit continue to lead us in our quest to make the Incarnate Word known throughout the world. Anita Schori, left, and Robin Reinhold make an Act of Consecration as they become Postulants. Sister Stephana Marbach, right, IWBS Superior General witnesses their Act of Consecration. IWBS Postulants Robin Reinhold and Anita Schori contributed to this article. OCTOBER 2015 TODAY S CATHOLIC 15

8 msf > Missionaries of the holy family Taking time to discern our call in life By Father James Wasser, MSF Director of Formation In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 15, we find the elders questioning Jesus as to why his disciples avoided washing their hands before they sat down for supper. Jesus response to them was that they were so caught up in their traditions that they failed to recognize him, the savior, in their midst. Here, Jesus is letting them know they have their priorities in life all mixed up! They need to respect tradition and also discern what s important in their lives. Now, when we consider priorities in our own lives, have we ever thought about how maybe God calls us to serve him? Maybe we are already caught up in services to God and church through other ministries or maybe through our example that we reflect in the work place. Do we feel we are satisfied in our lives? Do we believe greater strides could be accomplished by us for God, if we only tried? Have we really ever considered the religious life? Maybe God wants us to make an adjustment in our priorities of life. Are you willing to recognize this possibility of vocation in your life? You won t know the answer to this question unless you search your heart and give the possibility of a religious vocation a real honest consideration. In this way, we are recognizing our priority of serving God and his people, unlike the Pharisees and Scribes in the Gospel. If you would like to further discern this possibility of a religious vocation, please give me a call and let us walk together down the road to religious life. The Sacrament of Marriage is a vocation, giving birth to the Religious vocation. Pray for Holy Vocations: Parents are the primary educators of children. Missionaries of the Holy Family 3014 Oregon Avenue Saint Louis, MO (888) Order our new Holy Family Prayer Book: Prayers for Every Family from Liguori Publications, available in English and Spanish, (800) TODAY S CATHOLIC OCTOBER 2015