The way of Spiritual Childhood – Fr. John Egan SAC

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Fr. John Egan sacThe ‘imitation of Christ’ was for Vincent Pallotti, his great desire and passion. He spoke of being transformed into the life of Jesus; to become another Christ. Being created in the image of God, he understood that his goal (indeed the goal of all baptized Christians), was to grow in the likeness of Christ, so as to be effective for apostolate. Now as Pallottines (as members of the Union of Catholic apostolate), our only rule is the life of Jesus Christ and the imitation of him.

We know that in his prayer, Pallotti reflected on both the hidden and public life of Jesus, placing before him the entire life Christ which even included aspects of his life not recorded in the Gospels. He recognized that also in his hidden life, Jesus could be imitated.

Pallotti in his writings has handed down to us, what’s known as the “Compendium, or Thirty-three Points”. This booklet contains a short summary of ascetical principles that embody the essence of our ascetical-apostolate attitude as Pallottines. Some of the rules in particular, have become a real attraction for me.

One of them is in rule number eight. Here Pallotti states that: “Our Lord Jesus Christ entered the world as a little child”, and that “Out of love for Him, we must form in ourselves a spiritual childhood, always living like children in the hands of our superiors and spiritual directors.” He emphasizes the necessity to practice all the virtues of spiritual childhood, such as “Candor, purity, kindness, modesty, the simplicity of a dove united with the prudence of a serpent.”

Rule number nine looks at the setting for the birth of the Divine Saviour in the “seclusion in a grotto at Bethlehem”. Here emphasis is placed on the need to imitate the Lord in his “littleness” and “in the love and practice of holy solitude, prayer, and holy silence”.

Reflecting on the above virtues often reminds me of another saint friend of mine, St. Therese, ‘The Little Flower’. Quite similar to Pallotti, this young girl from Carmel saw the value and importance of this Gospel child spirituality. Her ‘little way’ was one of confidence and trust, for just as a child receives everything from its parent, so too was her attitude to her heavenly Father.

Listen to what she says: “What pleases God is to see me love my littleness and poverty; the blind hope I have in his mercy.” Writing to her sister, Therese encourages her to have the same confidence as herself. I believe St. Vincent and St. Therese hold great treasures for us in the spiritual life, and I also believe that such treasures can also be ours.

Gospel childhood! This is what we are called to imitate. So let us fix our eyes on Jesus, to strive to imitate him in his humility his simplicity and his littleness; that we may become what we contemplate. Yes, to become small, to expect everything from God as a child of its parent. This was the way of our saints, and it can also be our way. It is a way to freedom, to joy and peace of the children of God.

Fr. John Egan SCA

 

ORDINATION OF PALLOTTINE DEACONS IN TANZANIA

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PALLOTTINE DEACONS 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Diaconate Ordinations yesterday, January 11th 2017, in Mbulu, Tanzania. The two men on the right of the top photo are Pallottines – on the extreme right is Stephen Lwebuga SAC and next to him is Norbert Mukabwa SAC.

Homily of Bishop Isaac Amani, Bishop of the Diocese of Moshi and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Mbulu; 11th January 2017.

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 6:1-7 and Matthew 9: 35-38

Dear Brethren,

We are gathered here in the Cathedral Church on this happy and joyous occasion to thank God for Stephen Lwebuga, SAC, and Norbert Mukabwa, SAC, who have requested to be ordained deacons.  Through a special ritual to be performed they will be empowered to render service on behalf of the Church and with the Church. Their presence here is an indicator that God cares for his people. This is an important day for the Mbulu Diocese and for the Pallottine family. We pray for God’s blessings upon their vocation journey. God calls them to serve his people. God has answered the prayer of his people to send labourers into his vineyard. He called them to give testimony to his Word and by their faith.

The Gospel today tells us how Jesus chose his disciples: “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”

The ministry of our Lord on earth makes up an integral part of your formation. Teaching, preaching and healing were three important ingredients in the ministry of our Lord in preparing his disciples to truly become salt of the earth and light to the nations. “When he saw the crowds he was moved with pity, for they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd”. Jesus was moved by the plight of his people. They were tired and scattered. In order for us to engage in proper evangelisation we need to read the signs of the times. True gospel preaching will address the real needs that face our people, such as: looking for and bringing back the one who has strayed, healing the wounded, feeding the hungry and affirming the weak ones. Jesus said to his disciples ‘the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Ask the master of the harvest to send workers to gather his harvest.’ The prayer of Jesus is still relevant in our times. There are many members of the Church who devote their lives to continuing the work of evangelisation in different ways. Parents play a crucial role in preparing their children in the way of faith through prayer, love of liturgies, love for God and people, and good manners while in the church. Adults have also a duty to lead a life full of love, justice and humility before God. Those who are consecrated are called to lead lives worthy of their consecration and to share the values of the Gospel. Our society need to hear the Word of God. The role of Catechists, who are teachers of the faith, and of the clergy, is to empower all the faithful to stand firm in their faith.

We heard in the first reading that as the number of disciples grew some people complained that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. To address the matter the twelve summoned the whole body of disciples to choose seven respected men, full of wisdom and spirit. They laid hands on them and prayed over them.   Their task as deacons was to attend to the needs of the community and the Apostles continued with the ministry of prayer and the Word. And we hear from this reading that the Word of God continued to spread, and the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased greatly.

Your ministry as deacons is to preach the Gospel. We need full-time workers in the vineyard of the Lord. The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. We need good and well-disposed ministers in schools, in small Christian communities, hospitals, prisons and in various Christian communities. 

We thank the Lord for calling these young men. They are being ordained as we celebrate 150 years of evangelisation in mainland Africa and 100 years since the first native Tanzanian was ordained to the priesthood. Your presence here is a testimony of God’s answer to the prayer of his people. We wish you God’s blessings and I ask you to collaborate with the priests in the parishes where you will be assigned to work. I wish to thank your parents for the good accompaniment and formation they gave to you their children. We wish you God’s blessings in your vocation.

Saint Vincent Pallotti: an enlightening and inspiring beacon in the Church

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pallotti-tapestry-fremendigenDuring the XXIst General Assembly of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate, on October 10th, 2016, the participants had the joy of meeting Pope Francis. On that occasion, the Pope did  not address only the Pallottine priests and brothers, but the entire Union of Catholic Apostolate (UAC). Francis said that Saint Vincent “has become an enlightening and inspiring beacon in the Church. His charism is a precious gift of the Holy Spirit, because it has given rise to and continues to call forth various forms of apostolic life and urges the faithful to engage actively in Gospel witness”.

The theme of light reminds us of the Encyclical Lumen Fidei (the Light of Faith), to which Benedict XVI also contributed in its structuring and the drafting of its content. Let us try to understand what it means to look at Saint Vincent as “an enlightening and inspiring beacon in the Church” in the light of faith. In the first place, faith is not illusory, is not a leap in the dark, but rather it objectively illuminates the personal and social history of the person. This aspect of light is necessary to faith and is rediscovered in the encounter with truth, because believing does not offend reason, but opens it to the light. The witness of faith that the UAC is called to give presupposes that it involves a faith which rather than living in superstition, bears witness to the truth. In this sense we recognise the importance of ongoing formation in order to give reasons for our faith.

The first part of the Encyclical poses the question of the means to knowledge of faith. If we want to understand what faith is, we consider the story of those who have guided their lives by faith, who have believed in the promises of God and have received what they expected from the faithfulness of God himself. This way of knowing faith as light distinguishes us from intellectualism and brings us the witness of those who have gone before us on the path to be followed as disciples and missionaries of Jesus Christ. On the abovementioned occasion, Francis said that we are called “with renewed vigour to reawaken faith and rekindle charity, especially among the most vulnerable segments of the population, that are spiritually and materially poor. In this, you are sustained by the example of so many of your confreres, authentic witnesses of the Gospel, who have dedicated their lives to serving others. I too got to know them during my pastoral service in Argentina and have fond memories of them”. In fact, 40 years have passed since the death of five Pallottines who were assassinated in St. Patrick’s parish, during the military dictatorship. They were true witnesses of Christ.

The second part of the Encyclical presents the relationship between faith and truth. The difficulty in dealing with this issue is the crisis around truth, and this theme is always looked at with suspicion of totalitarianism and fanaticism. We have witnessed terrible violence and deaths because of certain conceptions of faith.. However, it is reasonable to have faith since God keeps his promises and we can place all of our security in Him. This is because authentic faith is an expression of truth; it is not a fairy tale, a dream, but is capable of offering new light to the human realities in which God is present.

Thus, beyond being related to truth, faith also pertains to love, and love is not alone, since it would otherwise be solitude and egoism. In this way, it opens out to the encounter with the Other (God) and with others (others). This is why Christianity contributes to the common good: faith relates to truth and to love, for the building of the human community.

At this point, there is no danger of religious fanaticism because love is possessed as a fruit of faith, which is not imposed, is not violent and does not crush the person, but reaches the heart of every human being. This is the biblical concept of faith, presented as a listening to the voice of God in the depths of conscience (heart), so that one day we may see God face to face. The UAC has the mission of developing dialogue with contemporary society, of contributing to the building of a new social order, motivated by faith which enlightens the life of families and the world of work for the building of the civilisation of love.

The third part of the Encyclical presents the transmission of what has been received. Those who have opened themselves to love (God) and welcomed his voice, receive his light, and cannot keep this gift to themselves. This transmission comes about in contact, person to person, like a flame which kindles another flame. Therefore, it is impossible to believe alone; faith does not occur in an isolated relationship between the self and the divine, but by its nature opens out to a “we”, which means opening oneself to the community of the disciples of Jesus, the Church. Thus we have the unity of faith which finds its origin in one Lord, and is shared with all of the members of the community like a body. From here comes the importance of a profound ecclesial experience of belonging, capable of understanding the dramas and tensions of community life, not isolating oneself, but placing oneself on the path and in the footsteps of Jesus, even if the cross is heavy.

This same faith contributes to the common good, teaching that the light of the face of God illumines the face of our brothers and sisters. Through faith, nature which has been given by God is welcomed with respect and responsibility, we are always open to forgiveness which often requires time, patience and effort, because goodness is always more original and stronger than evil. Faith is also light for those who are suffering, since weakness and even death are illumined and can be lived as the ultimate experience of faith. The Church believes that everything which is human is illumined by faith in the Incarnation of the Word of God.

In conclusion, the model par excellence of faith is Mary, she who believed in God and in the fulfilment of his promises. The members of the UAC, in the footsteps of the Founder, cannot be but devoted to the Madonna. In the presence of Mary we feel at home, in the home of our mother who welcomes her children in their needs. Pope Francis said: “The Union of the Catholic Apostolate, the bearer of the charism of Saint Vincent Pallotti, offers so many opportunities and opens new horizons for participation in the mission of the Church”. Let us learn from Saint Vincent Pallotti to be an enlightening and inspiring beacon in the Church.

From the writings of Saint Vincent Pallotti:

Through this association, therefore, no one is excluded from taking part in the Catholic Apostolate, and of sharing in its merit, its undertakings and its rewards. Now what could be conceived of that is more pleasing to God than this purpose, or end, which the pious association proposes, that is, to work for, contribute to and pray for the conversion of souls? God has not created us in time except to bring us happy to eternity. His desire is to see all saved, illuminated by the light of his Divine Truth. To this end are directed the spreading of His graces and the exercising of his Providence (OOCC IV 124-125).

Questions for personal and community reflection:

  1. Faith becomes light for actions. Do we know and practise the social doctrine of the Church?
  2. The UAC is an association recognised by the Church. Do we work as an association or simply individually?

                                                                    

                                                         Fr. Denilson Geraldo SAC

                                                   Rome

 

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Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico

Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, 00187 Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org

MOTHER OF HOPE

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O Mary, Mother of Hope, guide and strengthen your children who are struggling with the difficulties and disappointments of life. Help us to keep our trust in God and never despair of His help, no matter how great our suffering may be.

You who stood by the Cross of Jesus, be with us in our times of sorrow, and through your motherly intercession, gives us the hope and courage to struggle on in the face of all life’s sorrows, failures and betrayals.

Save us from the sin of despair, and grant your protection especially to those who are depressed or suicidal, to those who are frightened, and to all those who are overburdened by the problems and sorrows of life.

Hail Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb,
Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Amen.

Mother of Hope, pray for us!

The statue of Mary Mother of Divine Hope is venerated in the Basilica of San Silvestro in Capite, Rome

 

THROUGH THE HEART OF MARY: New Year’s Day

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May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace. 

(Numbers 6)

maryjesusThree girls! A four-year-old who asks me who God is. She has no idea about Him or heaven or even Jesus. So, I tell her as best I can and she accepts my explanation without question. The second is six years old. She knows all about God, believes in Him but has little obvious interest in things religious. She’s a free spirit and possibly has no felt need of God yet.

The third is eight and she clearly knows her need of God, expresses that need. She has already arrived at that state of Beatitude – “Blessed are those who know their need of God.” The poor in spirit (Matthew 5).

Among her needs there is something to do with belonging. She is deeply in love with George Michael and his music and she’s happy that he wasn’t married. If he had been married he would be off limits even for her. But unmarried he somehow can belong to her in an exclusive way.

I think she knows well enough who she belongs to but there is a need for someone who belongs to her, someone who is hers and not anybody else’s.

You see it in people who live alone. They need someone to come home to them, to belong to them in their own place. Someone who, if they leave, will return and will want to return; someone who needs to return. A returning that is born out of belonging rather than out of obligation. But there are many to whom no one returns and no one belongs.

The emptiness created by this becomes a felt need for God, a space into which God can come and make His home. It’s not to say that God only comes to those who have nobody else but the profound state of human aloneness awakens the felt need for God that is actually in every person. It’s a need that remains unnoticed, covered over for a lot of many people’s lives.

Blessed are those who know their need of God and feel that need with every fiber of their being. Recently I met a drug addict and alcoholic who is battling his addictions. He is in a state of utter devastation. And I tell him not to give up hope, no matter how far he falls or how devastated he feels. His life is the place that Jesus comes home to.

This becomes the real stable and manger of Jesus in our time. It is very personal and current. It’s about now.

Jesus is born in us to become the light of God’s face that’s spoken of in the blessing of Aaron in Numbers 6. He is the face, the countenance of God that is lifted up to us within the limitations of our life.

In each of our lives Jesus is subject to the law of human nature, subject to the limitations of each of our lives (Galatians 4:4-7) – the frustrations, the addictions, the incapacities, the infirmities, the struggles with sin, the grief, the most intense of desire and longing. Whatever limitation you experience in your life, Jesus experiences it within you and redeems, delivers you. There will be a defining moment of grace when true liberty is gained.

And he cries within those limitations. Cries like a baby. The pure, unfiltered cry. This is the Spirit of Jesus that cries out Abba Father, the prayer of Jesus that St. Paul talks about. The most authentic prayer that happens when we ourselves do not know how to pray (Romans 8). He takes up the cry that is deep within the heart and soul of each one of us and brings it to the Father.

mangerIn the stable of Bethlehem, in the stable of our heart that cry goes through the heart of Mary the Mother. It is she who receives the cry of her Son, interprets that cry, understands what it means, ponders it (Luke 2:16-21), represents it, deals with it. She not only ponders and treasures the events and conditions of that first Christmas in Bethlehem but she ponders the events of your life and mine. Ponders and does something about them if we let her.

He also utters within us the cry of our greatest joys and fulfillment, the ecstatic cry of relief that comes with redemption. This is something only experienced by those who have allowed themselves the beatitude of their need for God at its most intense and demanding level.

New Year’s Day is the feast of Mary the Mother of God. It is world day of Peace in the Church. She is the Mother of Peace. May the year to come be blessed with the Peace she brings to birth in Jesus.

Eamonn Monson sac

EVIDENCE OF PRESENCE – Eamonn Monson SAC

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Three times in the liturgy of the Word on this fourth Sunday of Advent a simple, vital phrase is mentioned – “God is with us!” And that is the central message of this time, the central message of the whole season of Christmas. A reminder to each of us, lest we forget or even when we do forget that “God is with us.”

It is part of a prophecy given to Isaiah some 700 years before the birth of Christ and is repeated to Joseph in the gospel when the angel appears to him in a dream. Joseph would have been aware of the phrase from Isaiah but it must have been astonishing for him to realize that he would have a central part to play in the fulfilment of the prophecy, that he would be the father guardian of this truth, the protector of the reality of “God with us” in the person of Jesus.

Recently I was up in Shangannagh cemetery, a place where the silence speaks eloquently of sorrow and loss. And passing through a group of people who had gathered near a few graves that belonged to the one family and I overheard a man saying, “you’d wonder if there’s a God up there at all.”

You hear these comments and you wonder. I don’t have any doubt about God but when you hear a question like that you wonder how can it be answered.

I was down home the other day and went to the hospital to visit a neighbour who had fallen and fractured her hip. As I was entering the front door of the hospital I came upon Angela, an old friend. We are the same age, grew up for a number of years in the same street. I did her wedding. My visit to the hospital had nothing to do with her but she cried when she saw me, we embraced and she told me that her mother was a patient there. Very ill and would not be going home.

So, I went to see her mother and prayed with her, a woman of great faith and there was no doubt but that God was present in the prayer. His presence was palpable, a presence that made a difference. It’s not going to make her better in the long term but it lifted her and enlivened her to the degree that she got out of bed sometime later and sat on her chair reading the newspaper. “How precious your kind are” she had said to me. “We need more of your kind.”

It wasn’t about me. But what all of us felt and knew, what her family knew was that my arrival was providential, an act of God. This was evidence that God is with us. And how precise God can be! If I had been five minutes later entering the hospital I would probably have missed Angela and this particular expression of God’s presence would have been missed too.

What God is saying to us in advent and Christmas is that Jesus is the evidence that God is with us and it is necessary for us to be looking for the evidence of His presence. It’s easy to look for the evidence of absence but it’s a much more refined thing to look for the evidence of God’s presence among us. And while God does live above in heaven, the point of the birth of Jesus is that God is here, that God is at home among you, that He is present in the events that are happening in your life. And most importantly He is present in the people you are living with.

I celebrated Mass today in St. John of God Carmona services with adults who have various disabilities both physical and mental, together with family members and staff. They do not possess the obvious beauty and strength that is praised in the world. According to the developing philosophy of our time they would not even be allowed to be born and so this variety of expressions so God’s presence might not exist if the world has its way.

You might say at first glance that in them God has no beauty to attract us but when you look properly you see clearly that God is in fact in the face of each one of them, that He is present in the sound that each one utters, sounds that are incomprehensible to me but clearly understood by the love that listens – the love of parents and carers. Understood most clearly by God, the most loving of all loves.

And so, God is there. That is the true, objective fact. What is needed is for us to open our eyes and to recognize clearly what is actually there.

That is my prayer – that we will open our eyes and see “God with us”, that we don’t need to go any further than home. God is with you in your mother, in your brother and sister, in your father, in your child. He is with you in the troublesome one that you find hard to cope with and that is when our vision is called to go deeper, to go beyond the superficial and recognize with divine eyes what seems not to be there.

And then maybe we need to look where we find it hardest of all to see God – to see Him in ourselves because this is where we reject God most often. So, take aa look at yourself in the mirror and see there that God is present in you. We don’t have to wait until Christmas day for that message to get through. It is now, it is you, it is at home.

https://huruma55.wordpress.com/2016/12/17/evidence-of-presence/

 

Give Me The Light To Know Myself – Donatella Acerbi, UAC President

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theotokos1My God, I ask you now to grant me the grace, through the intercession of Mary and of all the angels and saints, lay and religious saints, to give me the light to know myself  (OOCC X, 264)

 A Blessed Advent to you!

One year ago, reading the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy (which is very beautiful), I was very struck by the expression which the Pope used to finish his thoughts in announcing the opening of the Holy Year on the day of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, December 8th, 2015. Here is how he spoke about Mary: “[God] turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love” (Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus, n.3).

… Mary, holy and immaculate in love …

These words continue to have a profound echo in my life. It sometimes happens that I repeat them like a kind of litany, in my prayers and in my activities, in tiredness and when making quick progress.

And now one year later, reading the Apostolic Letter closing the Jubilee Year (which is also very beautiful!), another phrase of the Pope resounded in my heart just as deeply: “We have to remember each of us carries the richness and the burdens of our personal history; this is what makes us different from everyone else. Our life, with its joys and sorrows, is something unique and unrepeatable that takes place under the merciful gaze of God.” (Pope Francis, Misericordia et Misera, n. 14).

… each of us carries the richness and the burdens of our personal history …

With amazement I realize that my story, our story is within the mercy of God. All of me, of us – joys and sorrows – is to be sung because His merciful gaze is in everything and in every fragment of everything.

… Mary, holy and immaculate in love …

… each of us carries the richness and the burdens of our personal history … :

they are two realities which call out to each other and unite themselves to each other. Mary, the All Beautiful One, and we,  all less than beautiful, can look at each other, continually loved by the mercy of God.

And there is even more: with faith we can dare to desire and with children’s hearts ask Mary to intercede for us with her mother’s heart before God so that we too may be made holy and immaculate in love.

… Mary, holy and immaculate in love …

… each of us carries the richness and the burdens of our personal history … :

are given to us by the Church, which teaches us to go to the heart of our charism and to take on the mission of our Pallottine Family with responsibility. In this year and a half I have also had the grace of visiting Brazil, Poland, Ireland, Germany, London, Italy, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and India. 

… go to the heart of our charism … :

in all of those places I saw that the Union is an authentic presence of the Church. And the Church is a communion because, as for the action of the three divine Persons, it is “a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Lumen Gentium, 4).

I have always felt, in fact, and for me this is our gift to the Church, that the life of the Union, that is, of our entire Family, is a fabric of relationships through which we learn that communion must be made flow through relationships, and that the charism of St. Vincent Pallotti still now reveals the newness of its content in this life of relationships. Because in the face of each one of us there is always the face of someone else who, in this life of relationships, first encountered, attracted and formed me, and so forth right back through history until arriving at the origin: the life of relationship between St. Vincent Pallotti and God, the Most Blessed Trinity.

… and take on the mission

of our Pallottine Family with responsibility …:

in each country I encountered people (among the priests, brothers, sisters, lay people, seminarians, candidates, young people, older people, the sick) who live deeply their conviction and their commitment to follow Jesus Christ and attract yet others to Him, calling all and uniting the efforts of all in service of the Church.

This is what Saint Vincent intended by the expression “co-founders” of his work. I recognise with gratitude that the gift of the Holy Spirit to Pallotti is still working here and now in his sons and daughters for the good of the Church and of humanity.

 “The pious Union campaigns under the most effective protection of the Immaculate Mother of God, Queen of Apostles, for two most holy ends: the first to obtain through the merits and intercession of the great Immaculate Mother of God all of the graces and gifts in order that the pious Union, in the moral body and in the present and future individuals, may always exist in the Church of God with the fullness of fruit and may be propagated quickly in proportion to the needs of souls in whatever part of the world; the second end is that all, lay people and secular and religious clergy of whatever order, state and condition may have in Mary Most Holy, after Jesus Christ, the most perfect model of true zeal and perfect charity” (cfr. OOCC I, p. 7).

For personal and communal reflection:

We are already near to Christmas. We gaze at Jesus who is born and recollect ourselves, united together, meditating on these words of the Founder as if we ourselves had said them:

 “My God, who are You and who am I? Who am I before You? What did you desire me to be before You?” (cf. OOCC X, 482);

 “Come Lord, do not delay, because I cannot be without You for a moment” (cf. OOCC X,  277);

 “And when I have nothing else to use for this end, I will never cease to pray that there be one fold, and one Shepherd, and thus I hope to arrive in Paradise to enjoy the fruits of the Apostolate of Jesus Christ for all eternity” (cf. OOCC I, 129-130);

 “The pious Union does not have a new objective, but the eternal law of charity” (OOCC IV, 317).

To the entire Union of Catholic Apostolate in every part of the world, a Blessed Christmas!

                                                                                Donatella Acerbi, 

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Segretariato Generale, Unione dell’Apostolato Cattolico

Piazza San Vincenzo Pallotti 204, 00187 Roma, Italia uac@uniopal.org

Fr. Jaimie Twohig SAC On His Vocation to the Priesthood – Medjugorje Messenger

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Around my teenage years I had a real sadness about me. I had everything that someone my age would want but I just had such an emptiness in my heart and I didn’t know what was causing it.  My Mam was always a person of faith and she ended up going to Medugorje in 2004 with a group from north Cork. When she came back the following week I could see that there was a difference in her. She seemed very happy and had a peace about her. And she would not stop talking about Medugorje! So she asked me would I go the following year and I said I would, I think in the hope that if I agreed she might stop talking about Medugorje.

Eventually the time came for the trip, and I travelled with my Mam and Grandad as part of the group from North Cork. I was very unsure about what kind of a place Medugorje was but I was open to the experience. It took a couple of days to get into the trip. I think it was around the third or fourth night when I had a great experience. We were at a prayer meeting, a healing service and I just remember feeling so happy. I had a real experience of the love of Our Lady for me and I was on cloud nine. In Medugorje Our Lady says “if you knew how much I loved you, you’d cry for joy”, that night I knew how true that was. This experience of Our Lady’s love changed my life and I knew something inside of me had changed. The other aspect of the week that had a big effect on me was the group. I always had the impression that if you were holy, you were boring! But this group had so much joy about them. They could pray so devoutly and at the same time have the craic as well. It was a real witness for me of the words of Jesus: “I came so that you might have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). When I came home from Medugorje my life had changed. I began to pray every day and the rosary became very important for me.My faith grew as I held on to the rosary every day. I also saw the Mass with new eyes and it was becoming more central in my life since the trip to Medugorje.

I started to go to youth 2000. Youth 2000 is a Catholic organisation for young people between the ages of 16-35 where young people grow in faith, centred around devotion to Our Lady and the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. One of the greatest things about youth 2000 was the witness of the priests. It was clear to see that they really loved their priesthood. I think the Lord used this to reiterate a call that I had previously felt but wasn’t ready to answer; the call to Priesthood. An authentic call to Priesthood is a gentle interior invitation from the Lord to follow Him. Medugorje again had a big impact on my vocation. One time when I was in Medugorje on retreat for Easter myself and five friends called into Vesna, a beautiful person, a friend of ours and a Medugorje local. She gave my five friends wooden rosary beads and she gave me white pearl rosary beads. I didn’t know the reason but I only found out years later that one of my friends asked Vesna why she gave me different rosary beads and Vesna replied ‘I only give them to priests’ and when my friend told Vesna I was not a priest, Vesna replied ‘he will be’.  

This call wasn’t going away so I eventually decided I had to do something about it. I eventually went on a vocations weekend to the Pallottine Fathers in Thurles. I knew the Pallottines for a long time and had been to the house in Thurles many times, but it was on this vocations weekend that I felt a really deep peace and I knew the Lord was calling me to be a Pallottine Priest. Stubborn as I am though, I didn’t want to make the leap of faith even though I knew what the Lord was asking of me. I loved my life, my family, my friends, my social life and I thought that if I answered this call I would lose all that. Although we shouldn’t give him too much attention we must remember that the devil is real and he is subtle and likes to plant seeds of doubt. But he is an insect compared to the Lord and the Lords grace and it was on a 21st birthday trip to Rome that Mam got me that I would experience a great grace. I was in Rome in the apartment we were staying in and I was in the back garden reading a beautiful book called “the sorrowful Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ” by Ann Catherine Emerich (I highly recommend it) and I remember reading about the scribes and Pharisees, men who were supposed to be signs of the love of God for their community but instead carried so much hatred for what was authentically holy, most of all the Holy One Himself, Jesus. As I read this I felt as if the Lord was saying to me ‘be my Priest, and don’t cause me this pain, be a Priest after my own heart’ (Not that I have perfected this by any means, im a sinner! But this is what us priests are called to) After such a grace, it was time now to repond to the Lord’s call. After I came home Rome from I applied to join the Pallottines and entered that September.

When I joined the Pallottines I had a deep peace, a peace which comes from knowing that you are in the place where God wants you to be. And still there was ups and downs along the way. The study was demanding and I found it difficult. I know that without the love of Jesus and Our Lady I would not have got through. Prayer was my anchor. Nearly every summer during my studies I went to Medugorje. Our Lady used this time to strengthen me and refocus me on what is important: Jesus her Son. I thank God that I was ordained a Priest earlier this year. I am forever grateful to God for everything in my life, for my family (including my biological Father who I met two years ago and am in contact with now again), friends, my community my vocation as a Priest and the amazing gift of celebrating the Holy Mass every day. God is so generous. And I am so grateful for Medugorje where I encountered Our Lady and her Son Jesus and the beauty of the Catholic faith.

The full article appears in the December edition of the Medjugorje Messenger

http://medjugorjemessenger.com/

JESUS IN THE EUCHARIST

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EUCHARISTIC PRAYER OF ST. VINCENT PALLOTTI

Jesus in the Eucharist
Our God and our King.
Jesus in the Eucharist
Our Creator and Redeemer.
Jesus in the Eucharist
Our Physican and our Medicine.
Jesus in the Eucharist
Our Food and our Grace.
Jesus in the Eucharist
Our Greatest Good and Happiness.
Jesus in the Eucharist
Infinitely loving and worthy of love.
Jesus in the Eucharist
You are the greatest and most holy of our mysteries.

Amen.