Eucharistic Stations Of The Cross -- An Excellent Companion For Lent

First Station - Jesus Is Condemned To Death

V. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

R. Because by your holy Cross, you have redeemed the world.

Jesus is condemned by his own people by the very ones he showered with his favors. He is condemned as a fomenter of rebellion, he who is goodness itself; as a blasphemer, he who is holiness itself: as one seeking power, he who made himself the least of all. He is condemned to die on the Cross, like the lowest of slaves.

Jesus lovingly accepts this sentence of death: He came down to this earth in order to suffer and die and to teach us to do the same.

In his Holy Eucharist Jesus is again condemned to death: primarily in his graces, which are rejected; in his love, which is slighted; in his sacramental state, by the unbeliever who denies him, by horrible sacrilege. By unworthy Communion, the bad Christian sells Jesus Christ to the devil, delivers him up to his own passions, casts him at the feet of Satan, king of his heart, and crucifies him in his sinful body.

Jesus is more cruelly treated by bad Christians than by the Jews. In Jerusalem he was condemned only once but in the Blessed Sacrament he is condemned every day and in thousands of places, and by an appalling number of unjust judges.

And yet Jesus allows himself to be insulted, despised, condemned: he still continues his sacramental life in order to show us that his love for us is without condition or reserve, that it is greater than our ingratitude.

O Jesus forgive, I beseech you, all sacrileges! Should I ever have committed any, I want to pass my life making reparation for them and loving and honoring you for those who despise you. Grant me the grace to die with you!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

V. Have mercy on us, O Lord, R Have mercy on us.

May the souls of the faithful departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.

Holy Mother, pierce me through. In my heart each wound renew Of my Savior crucified.

Second Station - Jesus Is Made To Bear His Cross

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

In Jerusalem the Jews lay a shameful and heavy Cross upon Jesus. It was the instrument used at that time for the punishment of the basest of men. Jesus joyfully takes upon himself this overburdening Cross; he receives it eagerly, kisses it lovingly, and bears it with meekness.

In this way he wishes to make it sweet to us, lighten it for us, and consecrate it in his Blood.

In the divine Sacrament of the altar, bad Christians lay a much heavier Cross upon Jesus, one much more shameful for his Heart. This Cross is their acts of irreverence in the holy place, their distracted thoughts, their coldness of heart in his presence, their lukewarm devotion. What a humiliating Cross it is for Jesus, to have children so lacking in respect, disciples so worthless!

Jesus also bears my crosses in his Sacrament. He places them on his Heart to sanctify them; he covers them with his love, with his kisses, in order to make them attractive to me, but he wants me to carry them for him, to offer them to him; he is even willing to listen to the outpourings of my grief, to let me weep over my crosses and ask help and consolation of him.

Oh, how light is the cross that comes by way of the Holy Eucharist! How beautiful and radiant it comes forth from the Heart of Jesus! How good it is to receive it from his hands and to kiss it after him! To the Eucharist then I will run for refuge in my troubles; to him will I go for comfort and strength; to him will I go to learn to suffer and to love!

Forgive, O Lord, all who treat you irreverently in your Sacrament of love! Forgive my moments of indifference, of forgetfulness in your presence! I wish to love you; I do love you with all my heart!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Third Station - Jesus Falls The First Time

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Jesus has lost so much blood during the three hours of his agony and beneath the blows of the scourge, he is so weakened by the cruel night passed under the guard of his enemies, that after walking a short distance he falls beneath the weight of his Cross.

How many times Jesus Eucharistic falls in particles of the Sacred Species without anyone being aware of it!

But what makes him fall from grief is the sight of a soul sullied by mortal sin!

Ah, how much more painfully Jesus falls in a young heart that receives him unworthily on the day of its First Holy Communion! He falls on that icy heart which the fire of his love cannot melt; on that proud and dissembling spirit without being able to touch it; in that body which is but a tomb full of rottenness.

Alas, ought we to treat Jesus like that the first time he so lovingly visits us? O God! So young and already so guilty! To begin so soon to be a Judas! How painful to the Heart of Jesus must be the sin of this sacrilegious First Communion!

O Jesus! I thank you for the love, which you showed me in my First Communion: never shall I forget it! I am yours, wholly yours, for you are wholly mine: do with me, as you will.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Fourth Station - Jesus Meets His Holy Mother

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Mary accompanies Jesus to Calvary. She endures a real martyrdom in her soul on the way; but when one loves, one desires to suffer with the beloved.

Today, on his way of suffering, Jesus Eucharistic often meets with the children of his love the spouses of his Heart, the ministers of his grace among his enemies. But far from consoling him as Mary did, they join with his tormentors in humiliating, blaspheming, and denying him.

How many are the apostates and renegades who forsake the service and love of the Holy Eucharist as soon as that service calls for a sacrifice or for an act of practical faith!

O Jesus, my good Savior, with Mary my Mother, I will follow you amid humiliations, insults, and injuries, and make amends to you with my love!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Fifth Station - The Cyrenian Helps Jesus To Carry His Cross

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Jesus was giving way more and more beneath his burden. The Jews, wishing to have him die on the Cross in order to complete his humiliation, urged Simon of Cyrene to help him bear the Cross. The latter refused and had to be forced to take upon himself an instrument of death so ignominious in his eyes. He yielded and merited that Jesus should touch his heart and convert him.

Jesus calls people to him in his Sacrament, and almost no one responds to his invitations; he invites them to his Eucharistic Banquet, and they have a thousand pretexts for refusing to come to it. The faithless and ungrateful soul refuses the grace of Jesus Christ, the most excellent gift of his love. He has his hands full of graces but nobody wants them; people are afraid of his love!

Instead of the honors due to him, Jesus receives most of the time only disrespect. People are embarrassed at meeting him in the streets; they turn quickly away as soon as thy see him; they have not the courage to give him the outward evidences of their faith.

O divine Savior, can this be so? Alas! It is only too true, and I feel the reproaches of my own conscience. Yes, often, bent upon an earthly pleasure, I have refused to hear your call; often, in order not to be obliged to amend my ways, I have rejected the invitation of your table with which you in your love have honored me.

I regret it from the depths of my heart; I know that it is better to let everything else go than by my own fault to miss a single Communion, the greatest and the sweetest of your graces. Forget the past, dear Savior, and accept my resolutions for the future and by your strength help me to keep them!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Sixth Station - A Holy Woman Wipes The Face Of Jesus

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

The face of the Savior no longer looks human; the executioners have covered it with mud, spittle, and blood! He, the splendor of God, is unrecognizable, and his divine Face is covered with defilements. Holy Veronica braves the soldiers. Beneath the pollution she has recognized her Savior and her God, and moved with pity, she wipes that august countenance. Jesus rewards her by imprinting his features upon the cloth.

O divine Jesus, your adorable Sacrament is greatly outraged, insulted, and profaned, and where are the compassionate souls who will make up for these abominations? Ah, it is saddening and appalling that so many sacrileges should be committed so lightly against the sublime Sacrament. It would seem that Jesus Christ is nothing more among us than an unregarded or even contemptible stranger!

It is true that he veils his face beneath the appearances of very weak and lowly species: that is in order that our love may discover in them his divine features. O Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, Son of the living God and I adore your holy Face, full of glory and majesty, beneath the Eucharistic veil! Lord, I beseech you to imprint your features in my heart, that wherever I go, I may carry Jesus with me, Jesus Eucharistic!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Seventh Station - Jesus Falls The Second Time

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

In spite of Simon's help, Jesus succumbs a second time to his weakness, and it is a cause of new sufferings for him. His hands and knees are wounded by his falls on this laborious way, and the ill treatment inflicted by his executioners increases with their rage.

Oh, how ineffectual is human aid without the help of Jesus Christ! And how many falls are in store for him that relies on others!

How often the God of the Eucharist falls nowadays by Communion in lukewarm and cowardly hearts that receive him without reverence, and let him go without an act of love and gratitude! Thus Jesus' stay within us is fruitless because of our coldness.

Who would dare to receive one of the great of the earth with as little attention as the King of Heaven is every day received?

Divine Savior, I apologize to you for all my Communions that have been lukewarm and without devotion. How many times I already have received you in my heart. I thank you for them and I mean to be faithful to you in the future; only give me your love, that is enough!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Eighth Station - Jesus Consoles The Holy Women Who Weep For Him

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

It was the Savior's mission in the days of his mortal life to comfort the afflicted and the persecuted. He desires to be faithful to it at the very time of his greatest sufferings. Thus he forgets himself and dries the tears of the holy women who weep over his sorrows and his passion. What goodness!

Very few people come to visit and to adore Our Lord in his Sacrament of divine love. And even fewer people remember to offer him reparation for their own sins and for those of all mankind. He is with us day and night, alone. Oh, if his eyes could weep, what tears they would shed for the ingratitude and neglect of his own! If his Heart could still suffer, what torments he would feel at seeing himself forsaken in this way, even by his friends!

Yet, for all that, as soon as we come to him, he receives us with kindness, listens to our complaints, to the often very long and selfish tale of our woes, and he forgets himself to comfort us and strengthen us. O divine Savior, why do I so often depend on human consolation instead of coming to you? I feel that this wounds your Heart, which is jealous of my own. In your Holy Eucharist be my only consolation, my one confidant! One word, one look of your loving kindness will suffice for me. Let me love you with all my heart, and then do with me as you will!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Ninth Station - Jesus Falls The Third Time

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

How greatly Jesus suffered in this third fall! He lies overcome by the weight of his Cross, and his executioners with all their cruelty can hardly raise him up again.

Jesus chooses to fall a third time before being lifted up on his Cross, as though to give evidence of his regret at being unable to carry it over the whole world.

Jesus will come to me a last time in Viaticum before I also leave this land of exile. Lord, grant me this grace, the most precious of all and the completion of all the graces of my life!

But, oh, let me receive you worthily in that last Communion so full of love!

How terrible is it when one dying receives Holy Communion for the last time in the state of mortal sin! In this way he adds the crime of sacrilege to all his past sins, who receives unworthily him who is going to judge him and thus profanes the Viaticum of his salvation!

In what a grievous state Jesus must find himself in a heart that detests him, in a spirit that disdains him, in a sinful body that is given over to the devil!

But what will be the judgment passed on these unhappy souls? One trembles at the thought. Forgive them, O Lord forgive them! We beg of you for all the dying: grant that they may die in your arms after they have received you worthily in Viaticum!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Tenth Station - Jesus Is Stripped Of His Garments

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

How much he must suffer in this cruel and pitiless stripping off of his garments! They tear off his clothing that has stuck to his wounds, they reopen them, they tear his flesh.

How much he must suffer in his modesty, treated as one would blush to treat a low wretch and a slave, who dies at least in the shroud that is to cover him in the grave!

Jesus is, as it were, stripped of his garments also in his sacramental state. Not satisfied to see him stripped, through his love for us, of his glory and his divinity, of the beauty of his humanity, his enemies rob him of the honor of divine worship, pillage his churches, profane his sacred vessels and his tabernacles, and cast him on the ground.

He, the King and Savior of men, is delivered up to their sacrilegious will as on the day of his Crucifixion. By allowing himself to be stripped thus in the Holy
Eucharist.

Jesus wishes to lead us to the state of voluntary poverty, wherein we may be clothed with his life and his virtues. O Jesus Eucharistic, be my only possession!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Eleventh Station - Jesus Is Nailed To The Cross

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

What agony Jesus endures when he is nailed to the Cross! Without a miracle of his power, he could not have suffered it and lived.

But the wood to which Jesus is nailed on Calvary is without fault or defilement, whereas in an unworthy Communion, the sinner crucifies Jesus in his guilty body. It is as though one were to attach a living body to a corpse that is in a state of corruption.

On Calvary, he is crucified by his declared enemies; here, by his children, who crucify him in hypocritical devotion.

On Calvary, he is crucified but once; here every day and by how many Christians!

O divine Savior, forgive me for having failed to mortify my senses; most cruelly do you atone for my fault!

You desire, by your Holy Eucharist, to crucify my nature, to immolate the old man without cease and to unite me to your own crucified and resurrected life. Grant, O Lord, that I may give myself to you without reserve or condition!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Twelfth Station - Jesus Dies On The Cross

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Jesus dies in order to redeem us. His last mercy is the forgiveness he grants to his executioners; his last gift of love is his Holy Mother; his last desire is the thirst for suffering; his last act is the abandonment of his soul and his life into the hands of his Father.

In the Holy Eucharist, Jesus continues to love with the love he showed to me at his death. Every morning he is immolated in the Holy Sacrifice and loses his sacramental existence in them that receive him: in the heart of the sinner. He dies for that soul's condemnation.

From his Host he offers me the graces for my redemption, the price of my salvation. But in order that I may share therein, he wishes me to die with him and for him.

Grant me that grace, O my God, the grace of dying to sin and to self and of living only to love you in your Holy Eucharist!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Thirteenth Station - Jesus Is Taken Down From The Cross And Placed In The Arms Of His Mother

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Jesus is taken down from the Cross and confided to his Mother, who clasps him to her heart and offers him to God as Victim for our salvation.

Now it is for us to offer Jesus as Victim on the altar and in our hearts for ourselves and for others. He belongs to us. God the Father gives him to us; he gives himself to us, so that we may offer him for our salvation.

How unfortunate it is that this infinite price lies unused in our hands because of our indifference!
Let us offer him in union with Mary and pray this good Mother to offer him with us.

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Fourteenth Station - Jesus Is Laid In The Sepulchre

V. We adore you, O Christ, etc.

Jesus chooses to undergo the humiliation of the tomb, and he is given over to the custody of his enemies; he is still their prisoner.

But it is in the Holy Eucharist that Jesus is, as it were, entombed; he remains there not just for three days, but for all time, and we are the ones he asks to guard him. He is our prisoner of love.

The corporal covers him like a shroud; the lamp burns before his altar as before the place of the dead; around him reigns the silence of death.

When Jesus comes into our heart in Holy Communion, he is as if entombed within us. Let us make ready for him a sepulchre that is worthy of him, one that is new and white, unoccupied by earthly affections; let us anoint him with the perfume of our virtues.

Let us come to do him homage for those who do not come; let us adore him in his tabernacle, forgotten by those who call themselves his friends; let us beg of him the grace of recollection and of death to the world, that we may lead a hidden life in the Holy Eucharist!

Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.

Saint Casmir Of Poland -- A Champion Of Catholic Orthodoxy

It is from a court that we are taught today the most heroic virtues. St. Casimir is a prince; he is surrounded by all the allurements of youth and luxury; and yet he passes through the snares of the world with as much safety and prudence, as though he were an angel in human form. His example shows us what we may do. The world has not smiled on us as it did on St. Casimir; but how much we have loved it! If we have gone so far as to make it our idol, we must now break what we have adored, and give our service to the sovereign Lord, Who alone has a right to it. When we read the lives of the Saints, and find that persons who were in the ordinary walks of life practiced extraordinary virtues, we are inclined to think that they were not exposed to great temptations, or that the misfortunes they met with in the world made them give themselves up unreservedly to God's service.

 Such interpretations of the actions of the Saints are shallow and false, for they ignore this great fact—that there is no condition or state, however humble, in which man has not to combat the evil inclinations of his heart, and that corrupt nature alone is strong enough to lead him to sin.

But in such a Saint as Casimir, we have no difficulty in recognizing that all his Christian energy was from God, and not from any natural source; and we rightly conclude that we, who have the same good God, may well hope that this season of spiritual regeneration will change and better us.

St. Casimir preferred death to sin. But is not every Christian bound to be thus minded every hour of the day? And yet, such is the infatuation produced by the pleasures or advantages of this present life, that we every day see men plunging themselves into sin, which is the death of the soul; and this, not for the sake of saving the life of the body, but for a vile and transient gratification, which is oftentimes contrary to their temporal interests. What stronger proof could there be than this, of the sad effects produced in us by original sin? The examples of the Saints are given us as a light to lead us in the right path—let us follow it, and we shall be saved. Besides, we have a powerful aid in their merits and intercession; let us take courage at the thought that these friends of God have a most affectionate compassion for us, their brethren, who are surrounded by so many and so great dangers.

The Church, in Her Liturgy, thus describes to us the virtues of our young prince:

St. Casimir was the son of Casimir, King of Poland, and of Elizabeth of Austria. He was put, when quite young, under the care of the best masters, who trained him to piety and learning. He brought his body into subjection by wearing a hair-shirt, and by frequent fasting. He could not endure the soft bed which is given to kings, but lay on the hard floor, and during the night, he used to privately leave his room and go to the church, where, prostrate before the door, he besought God to have mercy on him. The Passion of Christ was his favorite subject of meditation; and when he assisted at Mass, his mind was so fixed on God, that he seemed to be in one long ecstasy.

Great was his zeal for the propagation of the Catholic Faith, and the suppression of the Russian schism. He persuaded the King, his father, to pass a law forbidding the schismatics to build new churches, or to repair those which had fallen to ruin. Such was his charity for the poor and all sufferers, that he went under the name of the father and defender of the poor. During his last illness, he nobly evinced his love of purity, which virtue he had maintained unsullied during his whole life. He was suffering a cruel malady; but he courageously preferred to die, rather than permit the loss of his chastity, when his physicians advised him that he could if he would only marry.

Being made perfect in a short time, and rich in virtue and merit, after having foretold the day of his death, he breathed forth his soul into the hands of his God, in the twenty-fifth year of his age, surrounded by priests and religious. His body was taken to Vilna, and was honored by many miracles. A young girl was raised to life at his shrine; the blind recovered their sight, the lame the use of their limbs, and the sick their health. He appeared to a small army of Lithuanians, who were unexpectedly attacked by a large force, and gave them victory over the enemy. Pope Leo X was induced by all these miracles to enroll him among the Saints.

In honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St. Casimir frequently recited the long Latin hymn Omni die dic Mariae (Every day say to Mary), a copy of which was by his desire buried with him. This hymn, part of which is familiar to us through the English version, "Daily, daily sing to Mary," is not uncommonly called the Hymn of St. Casimir, but it was most likely composed by St. Bernard.

The nobles of Hungary, dissatisfied with their king, Matthias Corvinus, in 1471 begged the King of Poland to allow them to place his son Casimir on the throne. 

The Saint, at that time not fifteen years old, was very unwilling to consent, but in obedience to his father he went to the frontier at the head of an army. There, hearing that Matthias had himself assembled a large body of troops, and finding that his own soldiers were deserting in large numbers because they could not get their pay, he decided upon the advice of his officers to return home. The knowledge that Pope Sixtus IV had sent an embassy to his father to deter him from the expedition made the young prince carry out his resolution with the firmer conviction that he was acting rightly. 

King Casimir, however, was greatly incensed at the failure of his ambitious projects and would not permit his son to return to Cracow, but relegated him to the castle of Dobzki. 

The young man obeyed and remained in confinement there for three months. Convinced of the injustice of the war upon which he had so nearly embarked, and determined to have no further part in these internecine conflicts which only facilitated the further progress into Europe of the Turks, St. Casimir could never again be persuaded to take up arms though urged to do so by his father and invited once more by the disaffected Hungarian magnates. He returned to his studies and his prayers, though for a time he was viceroy in Poland during an absence of his father. An attempt was made to induce him to marry a daughter of the Emperor Frederick III, but he refused to relax the celibacy he had imposed on himself.

Enjoy thy well-earned rest in Heaven, O St. Casimir! Neither the world with all its riches, nor the court with all its pleasures, could distract thy heart from the eternal joys it alone coveted and loved. Thy life was short, but full of merit. The remembrance of Heaven made thee forget the earth. God yielded to thee the impatience of thy desire to be with Him, and took thee speedily from among men. Thy life, though most innocent, was one of penance, for knowing the evil tendencies of corrupt nature, thou didst have a dread of a life of comfort. When shall we be made to understand that penance is a debt we owe to God, a debt of expiation for the sins we have committed against Him? 

Thou didst prefer death to sin; obtain for us a fear of sin, that greatest of all the evils that can befall us, because it is an evil which strikes at God Himself. Pray for us during this holy season, which is intended as a preparation for penance; impress our minds with the truths now put before us during this Liturgical Season. The Christian world is honoring thee today; repay its homage by thy blessing. Poland, thy fatherland, once the bulwark of the Church, which kept back the invasion of schism, heresy and infidelity, is now in great need of thy prayers.

The Eucharist Should Be The Focus Of The Lenten Season

This Lent must be a "Lent of the Eucharist" in our devotional lives.

During the Lenten season we ought to participate in the weekly parish devotion of the Stations of the Cross.

This can be achieved in various ways. For one thing, for those who have access to a perpetual adoration chapel, but have not committed to a regular time of adoration, now should be the time to do so. Such a Lenten commitment would not only strengthen the spiritual life in the short-term, but would also continue beyond Lent for the perpetual uplifting of the soul well into the future.

Those without access to eucharistic adoration might perhaps commit to regular visitation to their parish church for personal prayer before the tabernacle of our Lord.

During the Lenten season we ought to participate in the weekly parish devotion of the Stations of the Cross. We ought to offer a personal prayer of thanksgiving, as we consider that the very same Lord Jesus whose suffering and death are commemorated in this devotion is present to us in the Eucharist.

As we attend the Mass and hear the priest say, “This is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” we must know that we are looking upon the very same Christ who walked that Way of the Cross so long ago. He who suffered so much for us, who died and rose again, is truly and physically with us still in this marvelous and most mystical sacrament.

We are reminded that we cannot look upon the events of our salvation as ancient history. Nor do we have to look into the history books even to find the Lord Jesus. To look upon the Eucharist is truly to look upon the Lord of Lent and Easter.

May this Lent be transformed by our knowledge that to find the Lord Jesus, we need only to find the Holy Eucharist. “I will not leave you abandoned,” the Lord promised us. That promise has been fulfilled.

Shrove Tuesday and The Blessed Sacrament

Shrove Tuesday is the last day of what traditionally was called "Shrovetide," the week preceding the beginning of Lent. The word itself, Shrovetide, is the English equivalent for "Carnival," which is derived from the Latin words carnem levare, meaning "to take away the flesh." (Note that in Germany, this period is called "Fasching," and in parts of the United States, particularly Louisiana, "Mardi Gras.")

While this was seen as the last chance for merriment, and, unfortunately in some places, has resulted in excessive pleasure, Shrovetide was the time to cast off things of the flesh and to prepare spiritually for Lent.

Actually, the English term provides the best meaning for this period. "To shrive" meant to hear confessions. In the Anglo-Saxon "Ecclesiastical Institutes," recorded by Theodulphus and translated by Abbot Aelfric about AD 1000, Shrovetide was described as follows: "In the week immediately before Lent everyone shall go to his confessor and confess his deeds and the confessor shall so shrive him as he then may hear by his deeds what he is to do in the way of penance."

To highlight the point and motivate the people, special plays or masques were performed which portrayed the passion of our Lord or final judgment. Clearly, this Shrovetide preparation for Lent included the confessing of sin and the reception of absolution; as such, Lent then would become a time for penance and renewal of faith.

While this week of Shrovetide condoned the partaking of pleasures from which a person would abstain during Lent, Shrove Tuesday had a special significance in England. Pancakes were prepared and enjoyed, because in so doing a family depleted their eggs, milk, butter, and fat which were part of the Lenten fast.

At this time, some areas of the Church abstained from all forms of meat and animal products, while others made exceptions for food like fish. For example, Pope St. Gregory (d. 604), writing to St. Augustine of Canterbury, issued the following rule: "We abstain from flesh, meat, and from all things that come from flesh, as milk, cheese, and eggs."

These were the fasting rules governing the Church in England; hence, the eating of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday.

Keep in mind, for this same reason, Easter was celebrated with decorated eggs and fresh breads.

Another interesting note surrounding the Easter egg, just as an aside, is that it symbolized the resurrection: just as a little chick pecks its way out from the egg shell to emerge to new life, so Christ emerged from the tomb to new and everlasting life.

One last point: When the "carnival" or "mardi gras" became for some people a debauched party, the Church tried to restore the penitential nature of this time. In 1748, Pope Benedict XIV instituted the "Forty Hours of Carnival," whereby prayers were offered and the Blessed Sacrament was exposed in churches during the three days preceding Ash Wednesday. In a letter entitled, "Super Bacchanalibus," he granted a plenary indulgence to anyone who adored the exposed Blessed Sacrament by offering prayers and making atonement for sins.

As we prepare to begin Lent, perhaps after a hearty dinner of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, may we take time for extra prayer, particularly the Stations of the Cross, and various penances to overcome our weaknesses and to atone for our sins.

First Church Dedicated To The Divine Mercy To Be Built in 82 Years in Vietnam

Catholics from a Vietnamese diocese with a lack of priests and churches expect to deepen their faith by building their subparish's first church.

On April 30 2019, Father Peter Phung Van Ton, vicar general of Hung Hoa Diocese, presided at a special Mass starting the construction of a church at Dong Lac subparish in Yen Bai city.

The ceremony was joined by 22 priests and attended by 1,000 Catholics. Representatives of local authorities offered flowers and congratulations to the subparish. Father Ton, who used to provide pastoral care to the subparish, said the construction of the church “is a special grace of Divine Mercy given to the area where local Catholics have had enormous difficulty in doing faith practices.” Joseph Nguyen Van Dac, a former lay leader, told ucanews.com: “Today we are very happy that our dream church comes true.” Dac, 81, said that when the subparish was established in 1937 it had only six families comprising 20 Catholics who moved to the area to escape severe famine in Nam Dinh, Phu Tho and Thai Binh provinces.

They had to attend Masses at other places until 1985 when they erected a wood-and-leaf chapel. He said for decades they had no money to repair the dilapidated chapel, while a few people remained faithful because two other local churches were ruined during the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Many people moved to other places to avoid the fighting. Dac, whose family was among the first Catholics who moved to the area, said that since 2000, when roads were built to connect the city with Hanoi and other places, people have had good businesses and improved their material life. People have also moved to the area.

The subparish now serves 230 Catholics. Dac said the new Gothic-styled church dedicated to Divine Mercy has an area of over 300 square meters based on a 3,000-square-meter hill offered by his parents. He said the cross-shaped church would cost an estimated 4 billion dong (US$173,000).

Local Catholics have donated 1 billion dong and will continue raising funds for the rest. Many Catholics hope the new church, due to be completed in 2022, will be a Divine Mercy center for Catholics in the province and nearby areas to worship Divine Mercy because there is no such center in the area.

Joseph Nguyen Van Uoc said many people including his family have to travel to a Divine Mercy pilgrim center in Ho Chi Minh City. The father of 10 said many people could not afford to visit the center. Each trip costs 3-5 million dong. Uoc, who runs a butcher’s shop, said he will encourage some of his children who have abandoned Catholicism to go to church again.

After the Mass, attendants were given pictures of Divine Mercy and copies of Divine Mercy prayers. Peter Nguyen Ngoc Bang, head of the subparish council, said Dong Lac subparish is one of nine subparishes belonging to Yen Bai parish. Three priests serve the parish and two other parishes with 3,900 Catholics. Hung Hoa Diocese has 240,000 Catholics in 115 parishes and 600 subparishes and mission stations served by 146 priests. Half of subparishes and mission stations have chapels in bad conditions or have no churches.

Credits : UCA News 

Devotion To The Blessed Sacrament In Communist and Socialist Vietnam

Teresa Bui Thi Luu spends one hour a day "talking with Jesus" in front of the eucharistic host in her home church in Pleiku City, in Vietnam's Central Highlands.

"I believe Jesus in the Eucharist accompanies and blesses my family," said the woman in her 60s from Thang Thien Catholic Church.

Luu, a former fish trader, said her Buddhist mother-in-law died in 2017 and the funeral was held on the same day as her daughter's already-scheduled wedding. Because her late husband was the eldest son, by tradition Luu had to take responsibility for helping arrange the Buddhist funeral.

"I prayed to Jesus to help me to hold well the two events and he answered me. I had enough time to attend my daughter's wedding at the church after the funeral," she said.

She said her in-laws appreciated her careful arrangements for the funeral and the wedding. Many of her co-members in the local Eucharistic Adoration Association also attended the events.

Sr. Maria Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan said Servants of the Blessed Sacrament sisters founded the eucharistic association in 2005 at their motherhouse based in Bien Hoa City, in the southern province of Dong Nai.

Lan, who has been in charge of the association since it was established, said it at first had nine members but now draws 1,041 members from seven parishes and nine mission stations in Pleiku City. Members include Kinh majority and various ethnic minority groups.

The association has 8,000 members throughout Vietnam.

Lan, about 60, said the association aims to help promote devotion to the Eucharist, the "great mystery of faith," to live by it and to bear witness to it.

"We teach them to fully comprehend the holy sacrament, how to hold eucharistic adoration sessions and compose prayers for eucharistic adoration," she said.

The Servants of the Blessed Sacrament work in eight of 26 dioceses in the country.

Luu said her husband admired her good qualities and faith life, and embraced Catholicism before his death nine years ago.

She said her children also adore Jesus in the Eucharist and try to live a good life to persuade their father's relatives to embrace Catholicism.

She said she is grateful to the association that has helped improve her spiritual life since she joined in 2009.

Lan, the former head of the community that was established in Pleiku in 2000, said association members gather to attend eucharistic adoration on the first Thursday of the month at the nuns' convent, and hold weekly sessions at churches and chapels on other Thursdays.

Many eucharistic adorers collect in groups to worship the Eucharist every day. At some parishes, they take turns to adore the Blessed Sacrament in one-hour shifts around the clock on Sundays.

"Many people try to visit the Eucharist at churches on their way home after working on the farm in the evening," she said. The association also attracts members from other Catholic associations — Legion of Mary, Couples for Christ, choirs and catechists.

She said candidates must be 18 years old and follow a period of probation from six months to one year before becoming full members.

The sister said association members cooperate with nuns to reconcile couples married outside the church back into the church, to bring nonpracticing Catholics back to faith life, to teach catechism to those who want to embrace Catholicism, and to put children with disabilities under the nuns' care at the convent.

Sr. Maria Tran Le Trinh, head of the Blessed Servants, said the lay association is successful at uniting members from various ethnic groups in loving and worshiping God.

"It is important that they feel peace at their soul and regularly attend Mass and receive the Eucharist," Trinh said.

She said they visit members who are ill or have been injured in road accidents, or need consoling after a death in the family. "We attend funerals of dead members and pray for them on a monthly and yearly basis," she said.

They also bring more people into the association so they, too, can benefit from its impact.

Trinh said Tho, an association member from Thang Thien Parish, died last year, and her husband and children did not want other members to visit their home to pray for her. Because they are Communist Party members and work for government agencies, they feared that their jobs would be compromised.

However, the nun said, other members bravely came to offer incense to Tho, said prayers and sang hymns. Tho's relatives were moved by their actions and have developed an interest in Catholicism.

Petrus Ksor Juh, a Jarai ethnic member from Plei Chuet Parish, said he entered the association a few years ago at Lan's invitation.

"We feel God's love in us and get closer to God while attending eucharistic adoration sessions," the man in his 60s said, adding that his wife also joined the association.

He said all local members who work hard on farms try to attend eucharistic adoration for one hour at the church on Sunday evenings.

Growing Catholic Church In Timor - Leste Could Have A Fourth Diocese

Dili Diocese under Bishop Virgilio do Carmo da Silva alone has more than half-million Catholics.

According to the bishop of the largest diocese in Timor-Leste, or East Timor, the youngest Asian nation has the potential for a fourth diocese to care for its growing Catholic population.

Salesian Bishop Virgilio do Carmo da Silva of the capital Dili, spoke about the possibility of a new diocese in four to five years.  Dili Diocese, that was established in 1940, alone has over half-million Catholics in its 28 parishes.  Dili serves six districts, while Baucau and Maliana Dioceses serve four and three districts, respectively. According to Bishop Virgio, some parts of his diocese require further development.

Out of East Timor’s 1.3 million population, 97 percent or some 1.26 million are Catholics, making it the ‎most Catholic nation in Asia, ahead of the Philippines where Catholics form nearly 81 percent.‎

Pope Francis appointed Bishop Virgilio the bishop of Dili on Jan. 30, 2016, after the post was vacant for about a year following the resignation of the late Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva.

Growth in Vocations:

Dili Diocese has a minor seminary, and its national major seminary serves Baucau and Maliana dioceses.  Bishop Virgilio, 49, said that the number of seminarians has continued to grow, with three to four new ordinations each year.

Our Lady of Fatima Minor Seminary, established in 1936, currently has 254 students, slightly up from 250 in 2016.  In 2015, Dili Diocese had 149 priests, 646 religious men and women, and 90 seminarians.  Noting the high level of priestly perseverance, Bishop Virgilio said the country’s 3 dioceses currently have 120 seminarians in the major seminary.

The Church for the People :

Dili Diocese has always sought good relations with the government.  Bishop Virgilio, who studied philosophy and theology in the Philippines, said that the East Timorese government recognizes the  
 Catholic Church as a Civil Society Group.

The Church stood up against brutal occupation after the Indonesian military invaded in 1975 when longtime Portuguese colonial rule ended.  "The Church suffered with the people, struggled with them, journeyed with them, identified itself with them," Bishop Virgilio said, adding, “they felt more like being part of the Catholic Church."

East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 following a 1999 United Nations-backed referendum.  "Now the government recognizes the Catholic Church as its partner in serving the people for development," Bishop Virgilio said.  “In times of political tension, political leaders listen to the voice of the Church,” he added.

Credits : UCA News. 

In Vietnam, Catholic Christianity Gains Quietly

Rev. Peter Phuc fulfilled a lifelong dream: He went to Rome. With nine other priests he spent three weeks visiting churches and museums, though he didn't make an official visit to the Vatican, with which Vietnam has no diplomatic relations.

His eyes sparkle with the memory of his first foreign trip, which speaks to the lighter touch exerted by Vietnam's communist rulers on his faith. In 1980, when he was ordained at a closed-door ceremony, Roman Catholic priests ran the risk of being labeled subversives and sent to labor camps.

None were permitted to travel overseas to study.

Today, his 19th-century cathedral is packed with worshippers on Sundays, and Catholic seminaries are expanding. New churches are mushrooming in this corner of Northern Vietnam where Catholicism has sunk deep roots. Fr. Phuc is amazed at the rapid growth. "In the past 10 years, almost every year a new church is built. I can't keep track," he says.

Religion is still a sensitive subject in Vietnam. The US accuses it of violating the rights of believers, particularly ethnic minority Christians in rural highlands. Vietnamese officials say they respect religious freedoms and point to recent legislation that bans forced conversions and gives equal protection to all faiths.

"Vietnamese citizens have the freedom to choose their religion. All religions are equal under the law," says Nguyen Thi Bach Thuyet, a member of the Government Committee for Religious Affairs.

Of the six official religions recognized by Vietnam, Catholicism ranks second behind Buddhism. It has between 5 million and 7 million followers, concentrated mostly in the south, and is reportedly becoming more popular among young urban Vietnamese who are enjoying the fruits of the country's rapid economic growth.

Despite a steady thawing in relations, the government continues to keep close tabs on the Catholic Church. It insists on vetting clergy appointments and priesthood candidates, and as recently as 2001 imprisoned a Catholic priest, since released, after he sent written testimony to the US Congress on religious freedom in Vietnam.

Leaders of other faiths remain behind bars, says the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan agency, which designates Vietnam a "country of particular concern." They include the elderly leaders of an outlawed Buddhist sect imprisoned in 2003 and accused of possessing "state secrets," a capital offense.

By contrast, Catholics are enjoying greater freedom in Vietnam. Some say the country's economic liberalization is helping by opening the country to a free flow of ideas and information that is part and parcel of a modernized society. "Integration into the world means opportunities for dialogue with each other, it brings us together," says the Rev. Joseph Dang, secretary of the Vietnam Bishops' Council at Hanoi's cathedral.

For many here, Catholicism is still associated with the French colonizers whose rule crumbled in 1954, prompting Vietnam's division. At that time, nearly 1 million refugees fled to southern Vietnam, the majority of them Catholics. Phat Diem's cathedral, a curious Sino-Vietnamese-French structure with tiered pagoda roofs, became a rallying point for departing families. Today, about 15 percent of the local population is Catholic, say provincial officials.
Those who remained behind after 1954 clung to their faith, despite the strictures of communist rule.

At a church in nearby Gia Xuan, elderly worshippers recall how, for decades, overworked priests bicycled between parishes to give services. Mass was canceled when US warplanes bombed the area, but the church never closed its doors. Then, in 2004, a full-time priest was finally appointed to this parish of some 3,000 worshippers.

Nguin Thi Sau, a stooped retired farmer in a lilac blouse and black scarf, says that before the war the church had two priests and was always packed. She spends most afternoons inside its cool stone walls. "I come here and I read my Bible. Then I go home," she says, fingering her prayer beads.

Phuc says he was surprised to find out on his trip to Rome that church attendance was falling across Europe. He hopes that Vietnam's next generation - the majority of its more than 83 million people were born after reunification in 1975 - won't follow this trend.

"Our youth are at a crossroads between East and West. They need the advice of their elders. If they stumble, who will rescue them?" he asks.

Mainland China's Catholics In The 21st Century

From the point of view of an American Catholic, the Chinese Catholic church has three astonishing characteristics: the depth of its devotion, the strength of its hierarchical culture, and the bitterness of its divisions. It is at once inspiring and disturbing, and, in true yin/yang fashion, the disturbing and inspiring aspects are closely interrelated.

The first and most important astonishing characteristic is the level of devotion found among Chinese Catholics.

In the northern port city of Tianjin, where Teilhard de Chardin once made his home and where I carried out ethnographic research on the church in 1993, the cathedral is filled to capacity every Sunday, starting with the 7:00 A.M. and ending with the 7:00 P.M. Mass. The morning liturgies are High Masses, which last about two hours, including Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament which follows. The singing is extraordinary. The whole congregation joins their voices with great gusto to the excellent choir, and the stone walls of the cathedral fairly reverberate with the music. On major feast days, worshipers spill out into the surrounding courtyard. For the Easter Vigil, many spend the whole night in the church.

As a sociologist, I would not have anticipated the vigorous revival of Catholicism that has emerged in the period of "reform and opening" begun by Deng Xiaoping in 1979. Christians were bitterly persecuted during the Cultural Revolution (1966-67). Church buildings were shuttered or torn down. Priests and nuns were imprisoned. Anyone who openly dared practice the faith risked personal calamity. I and most of my academic colleagues assumed that, for better or worse, this would have virtually wiped out Christianity in China. But the 3 million Catholics of 1949 have now grown to about 10 million.

Missionaries who had spent their lives in China often acknowledged that many in their flock were "rice Christians" who had joined the church mainly to get material benefits, and were in any case only superficially educated in the doctrine. Although some heroic missionaries like Vincent Lebbe (1877-1940) had pushed vigorously for the establishment of a national hierarchy, many other foreign missionaries resisted the idea on the grounds that most local Chinese clergy were neither well-educated nor reliable enough to take full responsibility for church leadership. How could poorly educated rice Christians survive brutal persecution and reemerge with an energy and enthusiasm that would put most American Catholics to shame?

Sociologically, the answer is linked to the "rites controversy" debacle of the eighteenth century. The Jesuits had advocated an accommodation between Catholicism and Chinese culture--in particular that Chinese Catholics could still carry out the rituals of ancestor veneration central to the Confucian tradition. The Franciscans and Dominicans argued that these rites amounted to ancestor worship and could not be permitted. In 1715, Pope Clement XI, ruling against the Jesuits, issued an edict that forbade Chinese Catholics from taking part in their traditional rituals. This was a disaster for the fledgling mission to China, for the emperor declared Catholicism a heterodox religion and expelled most missionaries.

The church only began to grow again in the nineteenth century, when evangelists worked under the cover of Western imperialism. But the price of being a Chinese Catholic was still to cut oneself off from the ritual customs of one's society. Although the Vatican ended the rites controversy in 1939 by declaring that Catholics could indeed participate in some of the Confucian rites (such practices are now carried out in Taiwan), Catholics in mainland China, especially in the countryside, refuse to take part in traditional funeral rites.

Funeral rituals define one's connection to the clans which are the basis of rural Chinese social structure. Anyone who cannot participate in such rituals will be truly alone in a world in which survival still depends on the solidarity of extended families. Thus, missionaries in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries refused to accept individual converts, for fear that the converts would quickly backslide. Instead, missionaries aimed to convert whole lineages, or even whole villages, all the members of which would be tied to a common chain of descendants commemorated through traditional Catholic sacraments. As a consequence, rural Catholics live in separate enclaves from non-Catholics.

Within these rural enclaves--and the vast majority of Catholics are rural residents--some Catholics are "true believers," while others are "lax." But even for the lax, their Catholicism is an indelible identity.

Even if one never prays or receives the sacraments, even if one leads a scandalous moral life, one will have to be buried as a Catholic. It will be the only way to express one's social identity as a member of a particular family and lineage. In a world defined by blood and belonging, Catholic identity is inescapable.

When people are persecuted and discriminated against for an identity they cannot discard, even if they want to, the persecution tends only to deepen their commitment to their identity. This is what happened to China's rural Catholics beginning in the 1950s with the establishment of the Catholic Patriotic Association, an effort by the Communist party to control the church. As a consequence of this attempt to subordinate the church, many lax Catholics became secretly defiant Catholics.

And true believers sometimes became genuinely heroic martyrs. Rural Catholicism developed the solidarity, the intense group consciousness, of a persecuted ethnicity. When the government relaxed its strictures on religious practice in 1979, Catholic communities often asserted themselves with great fervor, rebuilding and refurbishing churches and joyfully celebrating the formerly proscribed rituals.

This enthusiasm spilled over into urban Catholic communities. In contrast to their comfortable, individualist coreligionists in the United States, the persecuted Chinese Christians became much more vibrant in their faith. What from a liberal Catholic perspective seems like a disastrously wrong decision in the rites controversy became, ironically, the foundation for a heroically devout Chinese Catholic community.

The Greatest and Best Valentine --- This One Is For Keeps !!!!

Valentine’s Day is dedicated to Love. Details of the origins of Valentine’s Day are lost in the mist of centuries, but two recurring versions speak of St. Valentine as an early priest who was martyred for upholding the sacredness of marriage. Due to an imperial edict in pagan Rome forbidding soldiers in active duty to marry, he performed wedding ceremonies in secret.

Consequently, apprehended and sentenced to death, while in prison, he miraculously cured the daughter of his jailer of a serious complaint. Both father and daughter converted. Before execution, he is supposed to have written the healed girl a note of farewell signed, “Your Valentine”.  This note is the ascribed origin of our own Valentine Celebration.

But in the flurry of hearts, candy boxes and red roses, one great Valentine, He who, ultimately is the origin of every true, selfless love, remains in the background.

Yet, no Heart ever beat with more love than His. No one ever proved love as He did.

Just as we have the need to make our sentiments of friendship and love visible in the shape of hearts, from paper hearts, to candy hearts, to jeweled hearts, so with Him.  As if not able to hide His love for humankind any longer, He decided to make it visible.

The Devotion to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus has origins even more ancient than those of the priest and martyr Valentine.

The first to hint at this devotion was St. John Evangelist when he spoke of the pierced side of the dying Lord, pointing to His wounded heart.

In the Middle-Ages, the idea of the Love of Jesus symbolized by His Heart was personally practiced by many a sage and saint.

St. Gertrude is considered one of the early heralds of this devotion, along with her sister St. Mechtilde.

St. John Evangelist once appeared to St. Gertrude, and revealed that, at the Last Supper, on leaning his head on the heart of the Lord, he was given an intimation of this devotion, a devotion to remain hidden, and only revealed when hearts would grow cold.

In June of 1675, Our Lord appeared to a young nun of the Order of the Visitation, Margaret Mary Alacoque. He was radiant with love, His burning heart exposed. He said, “Behold the Heart that has so loved mankind…instead of gratitude, I receive from the greater part, only ingratitude…”

He asked for a devotion of reparation to His heart wounded by so much ingratitude and indifference, for the receipt of Holy Communion on the first Friday of the month (having made a good Confession if necessary), and the observance of the Holy Hour.

He promised amazing blessings to those who display an image of Him with His Sacred Heart exposed in their homes. He also asked for a feast day dedicated to the devotion of His Most Sacred Heart to be celebrated on the Friday after the octave of Corpus Christi, which devotion the Church subsequently established.

Thus, it was through the humble religious, St. Mary Margaret Mary Alacoque that the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Our Savior was made public, and the world given the greatest and truest of all Valentines.

Ash Wednesday 2020 ----- An Ancient Practice That Thrives In Modern Times

In more ways than one, Ash Wednesday — which will be celebrated on Feb 26 this year — leaves a mark.

That’s because not only are Catholics marked with a sign of penitence with ashes on their foreheads, but the rich symbolism of the rite itself draws Catholics to churches in droves even though it is not a holy day of obligation.

Almost half of adult Catholics, 45 percent, typically receive ashes — made from the burned and blessed palms of the previous year’s Palm Sunday — at Ash Wednesday services, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University.

Parish priests say they get more people at church that day than almost any other — excluding Christmas and Easter — and the congregations are usually much bigger than for Holy Thursday or Good Friday services.

“Virtually every parish that I’ve worked with will have more people come to Ash Wednesday than almost any other celebration,” said Thomas Humphries, assistant professor of philosophy, theology and religion at St. Leo University in St. Leo, Florida.

“We talk about Christmas and Easter as certainly being the most sacred and most attended events during the year, but Ash Wednesday is not even a day of obligation. In terms of liturgical significance, it’s very minor, but people observe it as overwhelmingly important,”. 

Humphries said part of the Ash Wednesday draw is the “genuine human recognition of the need to repent and the need to be reminded of our own mortality. Having someone put ashes on your head and remind you ‘we are dust and to dust we shall return’ is an act of humility.”

He also said the day — which is the start of Lent in the Latin Church — reminds people that they are not always who they should be and it is a chance to “stand together with people and be reminded of our frailty and brokenness and of our longing to do better.”

“This practice is particularly attractive to us today because it is an embodied way to live out faith, to witness to Christian identity in the world, ” said Timothy O’Malley, director of the Notre Dame Center for Liturgy at the University of Notre Dame, where he also is a professor of New Testament and early Christianity.

He said that’s the only way to explain why millions of people identify themselves “as mortal sinners for an entire day.”

Jesuit Father Bruce Morrill, the Edward A. Malloy professor of Catholic studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee, thinks the appeal of Ash Wednesday is partly because participants receive a “marker of identity” as Catholics.

The day also has rich symbolism, he said, of both flawed humanity and mortality. He pointed out that even though a large percentage of Catholics do not go to confession they will attend this very penitential service because they “get a sense of repentance and a kind of solidarity in it.”

“Clearly it touches on a deep sense of Catholic tradition in a way few other symbols do,”. 

For many, it also links them to childhood tradition of getting ashes. It also links them, even if they are unaware of its origins, to an ancient church tradition.

The priest said the use of ashes goes back to Old Testament times when sackcloth and ashes were worn as signs of penance. The church incorporated this practice in the eighth century when those who committed grave sins known to the public had to do public penitence, sprinkled with ashes. But by the Middle Ages, the practice of penance and marking of ashes became something for the whole church.

Ash Wednesday also is one of two days, along with Good Friday, that are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholic adults — meaning no eating meat and eating only one full meal and two smaller meals.

The other key aspect of the day is that it is the start of the 40 days of prayer, fasting and alms giving of Lent.

“Ash Wednesday can be a little bit like New Year’s Day,” Father Mike Schmitz, chaplain for Newman Catholic Campus Ministries at the University of Minnesota Duluth, told CNS in an email.

He said the day gives Catholics “a place to clearly begin something new that we know we need to do.”

Miracles Of The Eucharist at Lourdes -- Today Is The Feast Of Our Lady Of Lourdes

Since the National Pilgrimage of 1888, the great pilgrimages of Lourdes presented a peculiar characteristic: a Eucharistic demonstration in which the Divine Sacrament causes Its glory and Its power to shine more strikingly. Of course Jesus Our Savior was never forgotten amidst the pious homage tendered by the crowds to His Most Holy Mother. 

It must also be remembered that if Mary worked miracles upon souls and bodies, it was always through the omnipotent virtue of Her Son—Who is God, the sole Author of all these wonders. But that year, as the Journal de Lourdes remarks: "It has pleased our good Mother to efface Herself that Her Divine Son might shine forth in the Eucharist."

The 21st of August, 1888, was for the National Pilgrimage a day of trial: there were few cures, and towards evening a terrible storm prevented the torch-light procession from taking place. At the sight of the saddened, though not discouraged, pilgrims an inspiration from Heaven had suddenly dawned in the heart of a pious ecclesiastic. 

Why should not the Blessed Sacrament receive a triumphant ovation? And as the God of the Eucharist was being carried among the sick, why should not the multitude address Him with the same acclamations, the same prayers which in the days of yore had obtained the miracles which occurred during the mortal life of the Savior? This plan was, of course, favorably accepted.

The next day, at four o’clock in the afternoon, Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament was leaving the Basilica preceded and followed by a great number of the Faithful bearing tapers in their hands. After Benediction, given in the Grotto, the invocations began, with an animation, a stress, an enthusiasm quite indescribable. A spirit of Heaven-sent rapture descended upon the crowd. From all the pallets, from all the beds, from all the vehicles where human infirmity lay prone and suffering, something heart-rending, supplicating, came forth; and as though by a unanimous impulse, the crowd called upon the Son of the Immaculate, as of yore did the paralytic and the blind man of Jericho, "Lord! if Thou wilt, Thou canst heal me!" 

But now, behold! in front of the Grotto eight of the sick have arisen! How describe such things? 

When the Magnificat was intoned, triumphant, prodigious, no one could restrain his tears. And every year after, in the numberless processions that unwind themselves near the blessed Grotto, the same enthusiastic faith bursts forth; the same ardent prayer on the part of the Faithful, the same prodigies of merciful power on the part of Jesus Christ present in the Blessed Sacrament take place. It is Mary at Lourdes who has really prepared the Eucharistic triumph of Her Son. (Les Miracles historiques du Saint Sacrement, par le P. Eug. Couet)

Modern "science" has for a long time sought the secret of the cures in the waters of the spring at Lourdes. The temperature of the water, its composition, all has been brought forward. "How do we know," said one 'scientist', "that in certain circumstances a bath in ice water might not save a consumptive?" And so it happens that, by one of those seeming whims of Providence, the original plan of Lourdes seems abruptly modified; a new appeal makes itself felt.

It is not only in the baths, where the patient is surrounded by a certain mystery—it is during the procession of the Blessed Sacrament, in the full light of day, under the eyes of a thousand witnesses that the cures take place.

They wanted to keep our God a silent Prisoner, enclosed in the Tabernacle. Behold! He comes forth. He passes through the crowds, His divine rays more resplendent than gold and precious stones, dazzle our eyes, bring back life to those who are dying on their beds, leading them after Him triumphant and transformed; they penetrate the crowds and warm hearts and souls frozen and benumbed for years. Miraculous cures, miraculous conversions! Who can enumerate them?

It is interesting to study these manifestations which have been spreading since the year 1888. With them, all that constitutes the real life of the pilgrimages is developed; the crowds are greater; the Communions are more frequent, for that is the hearth from which supernatural life draws nourishment.

It was in 1888 that for the first time we kept statistics of the cures which occurred where the Blessed Sacrament passed. That year they reached a proportion of sixteen per cent—about a sixth; seven cures at the processions to forty at the baths. A great number of cures remained unreported as to place and manner. Often a cure begins at the baths and terminates at the procession; more rarely, a cure begins at the procession and is completed at the baths. 

 In a great number of cases where there had been no results at the baths, the cure took place before the Blessed Sacrament instantly.

The first cure mentioned to us was that of Nina Klin, a young woman of twenty-two, just out of the Paris hospitals. A container holding 25 pints of sulphuric acid had been spilled over her and she had been deeply burned. The nerves of the leg had been compressed in the scar, and for ten months she had been unable to move at all. Every treatment had been tried in vain—massage, electricity—no results had been obtained. Nina Klin had come with the National Pilgrimage. She was twice immersed in the baths, but felt no improvement. 

 On August 22 she was lying on a mattress in front of the Grotto when the Blessed Sacrament passed beside her. She was suddenly lifted up by a violent impulsion, and jumping from her bed she broke through the litters that surrounded her and followed the procession with an assured step.

Since 1888 the proportion of cures which have taken place at the passing of the Blessed Sacrament has continually increased at Lourdes. They rose rapidly from one-sixth to one-fifth, one-quarter, one-third, and at last to one-half, which was exceeded in 1894 and in 1898. We find, in this last year, forty cures at the procession as against thirty-five at the baths. There were a few fluctuations in 1891, 1892 and 1895, but as an average during those ten years the cures at the processions increased to sixty per cent.

The sick, however, did not wait for our statistics to notice these coincidences. They hasten to come and group themselves in the Esplanade of the Rosary. They prefer to come there during the pilgrimages to take part in the great Eucharistic manifestations, for they know that many cures will be incontestably proved during these ceremonies.

In 1889 we find some very interesting cures. Here is a young blind girl, Mary Louise Horeau, nineteen years old, who does not distinguish the day from the night. She has to be both led and fed. She had suffered from recurrent Keratitis, deeply seated eye trouble, her eyes having lost their clarity. She has not been able to get near the Grotto, so she waits by the baths, having begged her friend to notify her the moment Our Lord comes near her. 

The Blessed Sacrament arrives surrounded by the acclamations of the crowd. "Here He comes!" says the friend of the poor blind girl. The sick one falls upon her knees. "Lord," she cries, "if Thou wilt, Thou canst cure me! Lord, make me see!" Instantly a blinding light crosses her line of vision; she feels a very acute pain, and her eyes are opened. She distinguishes the Grotto, the kneeling crowd—and Jesus, radiant with glory, Who has blessed her. Her sight is restored; she can see the finest, most delicate objects. We examine her eyes; they are limpid and perfectly clear.

Mrs. Facq, from Pont-à-Mousson, mother of ten children, forty-four years old, who had been paralyzed for five years: she was carried to the baths in a fainting condition—dying. Should they bathe her while in such a state? But there is no hope, the Sisters say, if the Blessed Virgin does not cure her! Eight of the Lady Helpers go to work. They undress the poor patient. She is immersed in the water. Once in, the hiccoughs begin; her lips grow livid. It is the agony—the end. The prayers for the dying are recited. At that moment the little bell announcing the approach of the Blessed Sacrament is heard. 

Quickly they carry the patient along the way of Its passage, under torrents of rain. The Lady Helpers fall on their knees around the patient and try to raise her head. Vain efforts, the head falls back and the eyes remain closed. At this moment the Blessed Sacrament arrives. All of a sudden the patient raises herself; her eyes open and become fixed on the ostensorium. She rises, she stands, she walks to meet the Blessed Sacrament. She falls on her knees at His feet. The ostensorium is placed on her head. She rises at once, and bare-footed, in the mud, her face beaming with joy, she walks behind the dais and it is with great trouble that she is prevented from climbing thus far as the Basilica; it is only in front of the Pilgrim's Asylum that she can be stopped.

We could also recall the cure of young Guy, from Montpelier. He had been cared for in the hospital for a long time without results. He had a lifeless, paralyzed, atrophied arm—the discolored cuticle came off in patches. With his good hand he raised the splint which held his bad arm and touched the ostensorium. Immediately he felt a violent shock and heat, power and life returned instantly to the paralyzed member. He removed the apparatus to find himself absolutely cured.

Beside him was a twelve-year-old child who had never walked; affected with suppurative tubercular hip disease. When the Blessed Sacrament passed before him, he seized the humeral veil with both hands and held back the priest who carried the ostensorium. In vain did they try to make him loose his hold. "No," he said, "I will not give in until I can get up cured!" And after struggling a few moments, he surely did rise before the wondering crowd, which rushed after him and carried him triumphantly.

I have said that we had reached sixty per cent for cures at the passing of the Blessed Sacrament; this proportion has been exceeded. In 1898 the pilgrimage from Arras found that all its patients were cured during the procession. For ten or twelve years, the great rendezvous where the deepest homage has been paid to the Eucharist is Lourdes.

These manifestations, which at first were limited to the National Pilgrimages, have been adopted by all the pilgrimages. They are loved by all peoples and form for the future a part of all great religious ceremonies. In the footsteps of our missionaries, with the devotion to Our Lady of Lourdes, they have reached and penetrated the most remote places.

Rebuilding The Catholic Church in Cambodia

More than 450 years ago, a Portuguese Dominican missionary first brought the Catholic faith to the Kingdom of Cambodia which later became part of the colony of French Indo-China.

The church never developed in Cambodia as dramatically as it did in Vietnam — also part of French Indo-China — mainly because Christianity was seen as a European, a “foreign” religion in a country where 94% of the people are Buddhist.

But there were small Catholic communities spread through large parts of the kingdom and they worshipped in substantial Gothic church buildings that would not have been out of place in Paris.

Cambodia gained independence from France in 1954, but eventually the kingdom was drawn into the Vietnam War (called the “American War” here) and was heavily bombed.

Then at the end of that conflict, the Khmer Rouge arose, an ultra-nationalist, ultra-communist group that wanted to rebuild Cambodia to its glory days of the 1100s when the Khmer people built Angkor Wat.

The Khmer Rouge wanted no “old ideas” such as religion to interfere with their plans for utopia, and both Buddhism and Christianity were targeted.

As the faithful were driven underground and the clergy killed or otherwise eliminated, the French Bishop Ramousse, about to be expelled from the country, hurriedly ordained Fr. Chhmar Salas, a Cambodian priest, as the first local bishop, but he soon died as one of the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

The Khmer Rouge attacked not only the church people but also the church buildings. There were 121 churches in Cambodia before the Pol Pot era. Of those, only two remain today, one because it was used as a barracks for Khmer Rouge troops.

Today the Cambodian Catholic Church is rebuilding, but it is very different from the church one would experience in Louisville. One big difference is the size. There are only 5,000 Cambodian Catholics in the whole country (the size of Missouri), out of a population of 16,000,000 people. There are also 15,000 Vietnamese Catholics who live along the Mekong River and about 1,000 foreign Catholics.

The new church is also developing according to a very different model, one that more closely aligns with Cambodian culture. The new church buildings are in a Khmer style, often similar to Buddhist temples, so that they are more welcoming to Khmer people who usually know almost nothing about Christianity.

Surprisingly for such a small country, Cambodia has three dioceses for just 20,000 Catholics — due to the difficulty of travel — but the dioceses here are called apostolic vicariates and prefectures because Cambodia is still considered a mission territory by the Vatican. Serving the church are seventy-two priests from about fifteen countries. Only eight of the priests are from Cambodia.

The restored Catholic Church in Cambodia lacks numbers and experience and even ordinary church structures such as a chancery office and a marriage tribunal, but it has young and enthusiastic people, a youthful and very active bishop, a good reputation among the general populace, and there is great promise for the future of the Catholic People of God here in Cambodia.

Credits : Maryknoll Missionaries 

Chant Brings Vietnamese Catholics Deeper Into Christ's Passion

While the Stations of the Cross are a worldwide Lenten devotion for Catholics, the faithful in Vietnam have an additional practice that blends ancient traditional chants with Catholic prayer and meditation on the Crucifixion.

“The ‘Ngam Nguyen’ are … a unique Vietnamese Catholic practice of intoning a series of meditations recounting the Passion of Christ,” said Fr. Anthony Le Duc, national chaplain for the Vietnamese community in Thailand.

Fr. Duc said that the intoned meditative chants, called “Ngam,” describe the suffering of Jesus.

Designed to help people enter more deeply into the experience and emotions lived out by Christ during his Passion, they have been adapted from folk traditions integrated with prayers prepared by missionaries who came to Vietnam in the early 16 -17th century.

There are a total of 15 Ngam meditations recounting the excruciating pain and suffering that Jesus underwent as he was arrested, put on trial, and crucified at Golgotha.

These meditations differ from the traditional Stations of the Cross because they focus mainly on what occurs at the trial of Jesus before Pontius Pilate and on the Cross at Calvary, while the stations focus largely on what happens in between these two events.

Ngam Meditations:

Beginning with Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, and concluding with Jesus’ side being pierced by a spear, the Ngam meditations seek to immerse participants into Christ’s passion.

The intoning is melodic, in accordance with the tonal nature of the Vietnamese language. Since the meditations recount the pain and suffering of Christ, the tone is extremely melancholy, which can well up emotions and often bring the listener to tears.

When intoning the meditations, the reader must follow strict rules, depending on whether there is a comma, semicolon, period, or other punctuation. If the reader comes upon the name of Jesus in the text, he must bow his head.

The recitation of the Ngam meditations—either in whole or as part of a series—takes place in many Vietnamese churches every day throughout the Lenten season, either as part of a post-Mass liturgy, or as a liturgical service on its own. The devotion starts with common prayers of the Church, followed by the meditations.

Between meditations, an Our Father and 10 Hail Marys are recited. On Good Friday, the liturgy concludes with a Lamentation and other prayers. The entire liturgy can take over two hours to complete.

The Vietnamese take this tradition very seriously, viewing it as both liturgy and art form. During the Lenten season, many parishes organize competitions, which only the most skilled readers dare to enter.

The reciter chants without any instrumental accompaniment. The person who goes up to intone, often stands or kneels in front of the altar with the book placed before him. On both sides, there are people to follow his reading. If the intoner makes a mistake, the judge strikes a wooden instrument. If he makes three mistakes, he must leave the competition and someone else will go up to reread the meditation.

“The meditation also represents a creative adaptation of the spirituality and the liturgy of the Church to a local context,” Fr. Duc said. “And it speaks to the great collaboration between foreign missionaries in Vietnam and the local faithful in inventing this Lenten tradition that has been going on for centuries.”

European missionaries accompanying merchants on newly discovered sea routes brought the Catholic faith to Vietnam in 1533. Later in the 16th century, the arrival of many members of the Society of Jesus (SJ), Order of Preachers (OP), Order of Friars Minor (OFM) and the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris (MEP) boosted evangelization efforts in the east.

These missionaries taught the truths of the Catholic faith to converted native Vietnamese catechists, who came from various religious background and cultural traditions. The natives then taught the locals Christian prayers using the local educational method of intonation of religious texts, which was used in temples and during devotional folklore chants.

In previous centuries, these meditations were written in the Vietnamese “Nôm” script, a derivation of the Chinese script. However, in the 20th century, the meditations were printed in the Vietnamese Latin script “(quoc ngu)” which made them easier to read.

Different dioceses have their own versions that may have minor differences in the wording, matching their local dialect. Apart from these differences, the texts have undergone few revisions in recent decades.

Fr. Duc explained that “Ngam Nguyen” texts employ mostly ordinary speech, even colloquial in places, done “perhaps in order to make it easy for the average faithful to understand.”

The Ngam tradition is present throughout Vietnam, as well as in migrant communities in the United States, Australia, and Thailand, among other countries.

There are more than 5.5 million Catholics in Vietnam today. In past centuries, Christians in the country have faced persecution. In 1988, Pope John Paul II canonized 117 Blessed Martyrs of Vietnam, including both clergy and laity.

The Mongolian Catholic Church ---- The Youngest Catholic Church In The World

What trigged the growth and expansion of the Catholic mission, however, was its involvement with society. The Soviet Union dominated Mongolia during most of the 20th century, so the Soviet collapse in the late 1980s left Mongolia's economy in turmoil, resulting in much poverty nationwide.

The missionaries soon found themselves involved with homeless people, in particular those who sought warmth and shelter in the underground drainage systems where heating pipes pass and rats and cockroaches proliferate.

The missionaries would make their way into every manhole of the city in search of its "residents," offering them food, medicine and love. As their ministry expanded, they recruited their neighbors to assist in the distribution of food. The new volunteers then began asking questions about these noble missionaries — and what motivated them to care for the least, the last and the lost — and some eventually made their way to the church.

Today, 28 years later, several dozen missionaries have come from Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. They follow basically the same missiological principles that the first missionaries employed, founding technical schools, orphanages, homes for the aged, clinics, domestic violence shelters and kindergartens.

These centers most often are set up in shanty towns and suburbs where basic services are lacking. The beneficiaries are people who are poor, and for every child the center enrolls, the Catholic mission is also able to reach out to the child's siblings, parents and extended family. They thus are in the service of the larger community, mainly in the diakonia ("service") ministry of providing care, healing and education.

Only after several years of this evangelistic outreach is a church built.

As the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conferences have often taught, mission in Asia begins with being with the people, responding to their needs, and witnessing to the values of the reign of God here on Earth. This before-death salvation brought about by the disciples of Christ serves as foretaste and sign of God's kingdom that is to come in heaven. It may be years before a local community emerges and a church established.

The Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul was built in 2003 and is modeled after the traditional nomadic tent used in Mongolia. 

The establishment of the church, therefore, is a slow process and its growth gradual. The parish priest begins everything anew, literally from ground zero. Baptism certificates are printed with serial numbers beginning with 001. A parish priest mentioned that his first two certificates were issued to a native couple who had been enquiring about the Catholic faith while working abroad. They were the first in his community to be baptized and, shortly after, married in the church as well and so were issued with a marriage certificate also bearing the serial number 001. It might take a while for the parish to reach certificate number 999!

Like much of Asia, the church in Mongolia will probably always remain a small minority in the land where Tibetan Buddhism thrives and the locals are innately oriented towards the shamanic spirituality of their nomadic ancestors. Discipleship in Christ is certainly not a numbers game, but the church's minority status is a reminder that it serves as salt of the Earth. Salt has to be used in small in quantities, Bunluen Mansap, the late bishop of Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand, was fond of saying. Too much salt in the soup renders it awful!

In the context of Mongolia, the church, as a pusillus grex ("little flock"), has to engage in its mission through what the Asian bishops call the triple dialogue: dialogue with the cultures, the religions and the people who are poor. In other words, it has to be sensitive to and respectful of the local cultures and in partnership with the other religions as it goes about ministering to the many disenfranchised people in society.

As it celebrates its 28th anniversary, the Catholic Church in Mongolia can only be proud of the inroads it has made in gaining the trust of the people. It is slowly but surely developing into a local church, having inculturated significant aspects of the Catholic tradition.

The Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul was built in 2003. It is modeled after the traditional ger (nomadic tent), with its circular shape and walls of thick felt. A Mongolian version of the Bible was printed in 2004 and includes common Catholic prayers, all written in the traditional Mongolian script.

The six parishes in the country and the 1,300 baptized natives rejoiced at the ordination of the first native-born priest 4 years ago, a young man baptized as a child  many years ago.

Saint Joseph -- The Blessed Patriarch and His Spiritual Role In Saint Josemaria Escriva's Life

Devotion to Saint Joseph was deeply rooted in Saint Josemaría's soul from a very early age. Recalling how in 1934 he had entrusted to the Holy Patriarch his efforts to obtain permission for the tabernacle in the first center of Opus Dei in Madrid, he remarked in 1971: "I already had deep in my soul the devotion to Saint Joseph that I have passed on to you."

And he strove to keep this devotion alive and ardent right to the end of his life, seeing it undergo an impetuous growth in his final years.

In the three points dedicated to Saint Joseph in his early work, The Way, we already see some of the theological reasons for his strong devotion. In no. 559, he writes: "Saint Joseph, father of Christ, is also your father and lord. Ask him to help you."

The strength with which he calls Saint Joseph the father of Christ here is significant.

In a later text, a homily given on March 19, 1963, dedicated completely to Saint Joseph,

He explains the sense in which he speaks of this fatherhood, following the well-known words of Saint Augustine in his Sermon 51, 20: "Our Lord was not born of the seed of Joseph. Yet of the piety and charity of Joseph a son was born to him, of the Virgin Mary, and this was the Son of God."

Saint Joseph's fatherhood towards Jesus is not a fatherhood according to the flesh, but a real and unique fatherhood that arose from his true marriage to the Virgin Mary and from his unique mission.
In the homily just cited, Saint Josemaría said: "for many years now, I have liked to address him affectionately as 'our father and lord.'"

And he explains: "Saint Joseph really is a father and lord. He protects those who revere him and accompanies them on their journey through this life—just as he protected and accompanied Jesus when he was growing up."

In the critical-historical edition of The Way, Pedro Rodriquez suggests that Saint Josemaría may have taken the expression "father and lord" from Saint Teresa of Avila, who had such a great influence on devotion to Saint Joseph, not only among the Carmelites but also throughout the whole Church.

In The Way, the consequences of this fatherhood are shown especially in Saint Joseph's influence on the "interior life." We read in no. 560: "Saint Joseph, our father and lord, is a teacher of the interior life. Place yourself under his patronage and you'll feel the effectiveness of his power." And in no. 561: "Speaking of Saint Joseph in the book of her life, Saint Teresa says: 'Whoever fails to find a Master to teach him how to pray, should choose this glorious Saint, and he will not go astray.' This advice comes from an experienced soul. Follow it." The reason Saint Josemaría gives for these two counsels is Saint Joseph's close and continuous contact with Jesus and Mary throughout his years at their side.

The three points cited from The Way place Saint Josemaría's approach to Saint Joseph within two essential coordinates: the truth of his fatherhood towards Jesus and the Holy Patriarch's influence on the history of salvation. These points testify to a mature theological conviction of the importance of Saint Joseph right from the earliest texts, reflected in the clear and firm way he calls Saint Joseph the father of Jesus with no vacillation whatsoever.

2. A solid prior tradition

With the sober and precise language that characterized him, Saint Josemaría forms part of a solid ecclesial tradition of theological reflection and devotion to the Holy Patriarch. His rich and solid reflections on Saint Joseph go hand in hand with a refined piety inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the awareness of treading on solid theological ground.

In 1870 Pope Pius IX, in the Decree Quemadmodum Deus (December 8, 1870), declared Saint Joseph Patron of the Universal Church, and on August 15, 1889, Leo XIII published his Encyclical Quamquam pluries dedicated to the Holy Patriarch. In this Encyclical, Leo XIII clarifies with great theological force the reasons why Saint Joseph can be considered the Patron of the Universal Church.
The first reason the Pope mentions is that Saint Joseph is the spouse of our Lady, and therefore the father of Jesus, the good—bonum prolis—of this marriage. For the Pontiff, the truth of the marriage between our Lady and Saint Joseph is accepted without any doubt and leads directly to the truth of Saint Joseph's fatherhood over Jesus. Both realities—marriage and fatherhood—form two essential features of Saint Joseph's divine vocation. He was called to carry out these two tasks desired in themselves by God, in their proper value. In this vocation we find the reason for the other graces received by Saint Joseph, the ultimate reason for "his dignity, his holiness, his glory."

For Leo XIII, Saint Joseph's marriage to our Lady is the key to understanding his exalted gifts, since the truth and perfection of this marriage "demands" the participation in its goods and, specifically, in the good of the offspring, although engendered virginally. The Pope calls this marriage "the most intimate of all unions, which from its essence imparts a community of gifts between those that by it are joined together," and says that Saint Joseph had been given to our Lady not only as "her life's companion, the witness of her maidenhood, the protector of her honor," but also as participant in her "sublime dignity." He is, then, "the legitimate and natural guardian of the Holy Family."

Leo XIII continues here a line of thought already expressed by Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, which found one of its clearest formulations in Saint Thomas Aquinas: between the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph there was a true and perfect marriage. Given our Lady's perpetual virginity, some ancient writers found a certain difficulty in considering this union as a true marriage.

These vacillations dissipated in favor of the authenticity of the marriage, among other reasons, because of the clear position taken by Saint Ambrose and by Saint Augustine.

However, authors as important as Saint Bernard (+1153) still showed great caution in affirming the marriage between Saint Joseph and the Blessed Virgin, or failed to view it as a key element in the theology of Saint Joseph.

The position of Saint Thomas Aquinas (+1274) offers no room for doubt: the union between Joseph and Mary was a true and perfect marriage, because it entailed the spousal union between their spirits.[
Nor should we forget that viewing the union between Joseph and Mary as a true marriage accords with the language used in the New Testament, which does not hesitate to call Mary the wife of Joseph. The New Testament also allows no ambiguity regarding our Lady's virginity, even in places where she is called Joseph's wife (see, for example, Mt 1:16-25); nor does it hesitate to call Joseph the father of Jesus, or to show him acting as such (see, for example, Lk 2:21-49).


3. Saint Joseph in the teachings of Saint Josemaría

From his earliest writings, Saint Josemaría describes Saint Joseph as a young man, perhaps a bit older than our Lady, but imbued with vigor and strength: "The Holy Patriarch was not an old man, but a young, strong, upright man, a great lover of loyalty, a man with fortitude. Holy Scripture defines him with a single word: just (see Mt 1:20-21). Joseph was a just man, a man filled with all the virtues, as was fitting for the one who was to be God's protector on earth."

Underlying these words is the conviction that God, on giving a vocation, gives the graces suitable to the one who receives it, and therefore he adorned Saint Joseph with all the gifts of nature and grace that made him a suitable spouse of our Lady and head of the Holy Family.

Saint Josemaría's emphasis on the youthfulness of Joseph finds support in three fundamental reasons: in reading Sacred Scripture with common sense (which presents his espousal to our Lady as something normal, and the marriage of a young girl with an old man would not have been viewed as normal); in the communion of spirits proper to marriage (the love existing between them); and above all in the conviction that holy purity is not a question of age, but rather stems from love.

"I don't agree with the traditional picture of St Joseph as an old man, even though it may have been prompted by a desire to emphasis the perpetual virginity of Mary. I see him as a strong young man, perhaps a few years older than our Lady, but in the prime of his life and work. You don't have to wait to be old or lifeless to practice the virtue of chastity. Purity comes from love; and the strength and joy of youth are no obstacle for noble love. Joseph had a young heart and a young body when he married Mary, when he learned of the mystery of her divine motherhood, when he lived in her company, respecting the integrity God wished to give the world as one more sign that he had come to share the life of his creatures."

For Saint Josemaría it was "unacceptable" to present Joseph as an old man for the purpose of silencing the "evil thinkers."


And it was equally unacceptable to doubt the truth of his marriage to our Lady, as well as to fail to take into consideration the love that existed between them.

The love between Saint Joseph and Our Lady :

Bishop Javier Echevarría is a valuable witness to how Saint Josemaría contemplated the relationship between Mary and Joseph, passing on his words addressed to Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico in 1970: "A family made up of an upright, hard-working young man; and a woman, hardly more than a girl: with a betrothal full of clean love, they find in their lives the fruit of God's love for mankind. In her humility she says nothing. What a lesson for all of us, so ready as we are to boast about our achievements! He reacts with the refinement of an upright man—what a hard moment it must have been when he discovered that his wife, so holy, was expecting a child. And as he did not wish to stain her reputation; he remained silent, while thinking how to resolve things, until God's light came to him, which he was no doubt asking for from the first moment. And without hesitation he accepts heaven's plans."

The authenticity of marriage brings with it the reality of conjugal love, the eagerness to spend life together and mutual self-giving; therefore it is only natural to view these features as very much a part of the marriage between Joseph and Mary. God added to that love the fruit of our Lady's womb: the Eternal Son made man, who chose to be born into a human family.

As we have seen, Saint Josemaría takes it for granted that the marriage between Joseph and Mary is a true marriage. This leads him to reflect on the love existing between the two spouses: "Saint Joseph must have been young when he married our Lady, a woman who had just emerged from adolescence. Being young, he was pure, clean, and very chaste. And he was so precisely because of his love. Only by filling our heart with love can we be sure that it will not rebel and go off the track, but will remain faithful to the most pure love of God."

For Saint Josemaría, love is the key to every person's life, as it was in the life of Joseph. There we find the reason for his fortitude, his fidelity, his chastity. "Can you imagine the reaction of Saint Joseph, who loved our Lady so much and knew her spotless integrity? How much he would have suffered on seeing that she was expecting a child! Only the revelation of God through an Angel calmed him. He had sought a prudent solution: to not dishonor her, to leave without saying anything. But what sorrow, since he loved her with his whole soul. And imagine his joy when he knew that the fruit of her womb was the work of the Holy Spirit!"