Be born in us, INCARNATE LOVE.Take our flesh and blood and give us Your humanity.Take our eyes and give us Your vision.Take our minds and give us Your pure thought.Take our feet and set them in Your path.Take our hands and fold them in Your prayer.Take our hearts and give them Your will to love.
Along with Rome, Lourdes and
Guadalupe, Fatima is the most visited country as far as religious pilgrimages
are concerned. Very much like Lourdes and Guadalupe, the quietness of this
small little village was turned upside down when the Blessed Mother appeared to
3 young children, Francisco and his sister Jacinta Marto, and Lucia dos Santos.
Nobody would believe them at first, and they were almost imprisoned for
fabricating lies. But eventually, religious leaders, priests and bishops in
Fatima, Portugal investigated the whole story and found it to be true, with the
Vatican officially proclaiming that the apparitions were believable. Francisco
and Jacinta died shortly afterwards, but Lucia became a nun and lived into the
third millennium in a monastery in Portugal, being visited by 2 Popes. A
huge basilica was built on the spot where the Blessed Mother appeared to the
children, encouraging them to pray the Rosary, and pray for the conversion of
souls. She even gave the children some well-kept secrets, which were only shown
to the reigning Popes, but we know now that they spoke about the conversion of
Russia and other tragic events that took place over the years, and other
historic events which were predicted, like the end of World War I. Thousands of
pilgrims visit Fatima every year, and the devotion to the Blessed Mother and
the Rosary spread far and wide. The prayer that is said between each decade of
the Rosary was devised after the Fatima apparition: O my Jesus forgive us our
sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to heaven, especially
those who have most need of thy mercy.
I am sure you have all seen this painting sometime in
your life. It is known as the ‘Madonna of the Street,’ ‘The Madonna of Rest,’ and
also simply as ‘the Madonna of Ferruzzi,’ the name of the artist. The painting was made in 1896 by
the painter Roberto Ferruzzi (1853-1934). The story of how it came about is
quite striking. In Luvigliano, Angelina Cian, still eleven years old, was noticed by a painter, holding
her little brother in her arms. The artist was struck by the beauty and candor
of the scene, and decided to make a portrait of it, an oil on canvas which he
titled "the Gypsy". With it, the author won the second Venice Biennale
in 1897, in which he participated with the intent of representing a
"Maternity". Thanks to the extraordinary expressive sweetness, the
painting had an enormous popular success, so much so that the second name of
"Maternity" was changed, by popular acclaim, to
"Madonnina". The work was purchased for 30,000 lire, an astronomical
figure for those times. The Alinari brothers, owners of the well-known
photographic house, also bought the painting. However, before reselling it,
they reserved the right of reproduction of any kind. Unfortunately, traces of
the original have been lost. Purchased by an American during the Second World
War, it seems to have perished with the sinking of the ship that transported it
to America. Some argue because of a storm, others because of the torpedoing of
the Germans. We know of this masterpiece thanks to the photographic
reproductions of the Alinari Brothers, who made it known to us in a thousand
reproductions. Angelina Cian (the mother), in 1906, married to Antonio Bovo,
emigrated to the United States of America to look for a job. She eventually entered a convent and became a nun.
Then in 1984, in California, the mother in the picture, Sister Angelina Bovo, who was orphaned at an early age, wanted to know more about her parents, their country of origin and the reasons for their emigration to America in Oakland, California. She obtained permission from her superiors to travel to Italy to research her origins. Two elderly aunts, her mother's sisters, were alive: 88-year-old Aunt Elisa and 80-year-old Aunt Giulia. Aunt Giulia took her to visit the family home, the one where her mother grew up in Luvigliano. In one room there was a painting, the reproduction of the Madonna by Ferruzzi. "This Madonna is your mother," says Aunt Giulia. "I know," replied the nun, expressing faith in the Madonna, Mother of all believers.
I have always admired Norman Rockwell’ posters, as being patriotic, realistic and outright funny. Rockwell was born in New York City on February 3, 1894, and died in Stockbridge, Massachusetts on November 8, 1978, aged 84. He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom and was a prolific artist who painted hundreds of posters of American life in the 1920s, 1930s and beyond. Many of them have featured in the front page of the Saturday Evening Post. He is also noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boys Scouts of America, during which he produced covers for their publication ‘Boy’s Life’, calendars, and other illustrations. This poster I feature today is one of the funniest I found and shows a sailor being tattooed on his arm. The funny thing about it is, you can see from the detail shown hereunder is the list of girls he must have dated in his life. So, starting from the top of his shoulder, the names are listed in order, and repeatedly crossed out when he must have found another girlfriend while touring the many bays and harbors while in the Navy.
Today I am planning to visit an exhibition of artwork by Willie Apap, a Maltese artist who left us a large number of paintings, which have been exhibited until today in the island of Gozo. The show was organized by my sister-in-law Maria Cassar, and on show are over 100 works. I share with you today just one of my favorites. It's an ink drawing of St Francis of Assisi. It shows the saint as lover of animals with his hands lifted up as a number of birds hover around him, rejoicing in his presence. Born in 1918, Willie Apap studied at the Malta Government School of Art and then at the Regis Accademia di Belle Arti in Rome, where he eventually stayed most of his life, visiting Malta occasionally. His works include many with a religious theme, as well as scenes from Brazil, Argentina and Rome. He died at the age of 51 in Rome on February 4, 1970.
One day, one friend asked
another, ““How is it that you are always so happy? You have so much energy, and you
never seem to get down.” With her eyes smiling, she said, ““I know the
Secret!””
““What secret is that?” To which she replied, “I’ll tell you all about it, but you have to promise to share the Secret with others.” The Secret is this: "I have learned there is little I can do in my life that will make me truly happy. I must depend on God to make me happy and to meet my needs. When a need arises in my life, I have to trust God to supply according to HIS riches. I have learned most of the time I don’t need half of what I think I do. He has never let me down. Since I learned that `Secret’, I am happy.”
The questioner’s first thought
was, “That’s too simple!” But upon reflecting over her own life, she recalled
how she thought a bigger house would make her happy, but it didn’t! She thought
a better paying job would make her happy, but it hadn’t. When did she realize
her greatest happiness? Sitting on the floor with her grandchildren, playing
games, eating pizza or reading a story, listening to beautiful music,
watching a sunset, a
simple gift from God. Now
you know it too! We can’t depend on PEOPLE to make us happy. Only GOD in His
infinite wisdom can do that. Trust HIM! And now I pass the Secret on to you! So, once you get it, what will you do? YOU have to tell someone the Secret, too!
That GOD in His wisdom will take care of YOU!
This touching story told by a nurse. But I can assure you that something like this happens every day in many nursing homes. I’ve seen them myself often. It was a busy morning, approximately 8:30 am, when an elderly gentleman, in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would be able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his stitches and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had a doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease. As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised and asked him. "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are? He smiled as he patted my hand and said... "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is." I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life." True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.
This was quoted by Blessed Pope John Paul I during one of
the few general audiences he led at the Vatican on September 13, 1978.
‘Lord, take me as I am, with my defects and shortcomings,
but make me become, what you want me to be.
Lord, take me where You want me to go.
Let me meet who You want me to meet.
Tell me what You want me to say.
And keep me out of Your way.
As we celebrate today the feast of the beloved Francis of Assisi, may I remind you of the prayer attributed to him: "Make me an instrument of your Peace." As we reflect on it, I decided to add a few more phrases to this prayer:
Where there is disagreement, let me create consensus.
When I arrived in New York in the early 1980s, my first sports hero was baseball star Darryl Strawberry, a tall, slim yet strong outfielder for the New York Mets. I followed his every swing, which led him to hit 335 career homeruns, 1000 RBIs, earn three World Series rings (1 with NY Mets, and 2 with NY Yankees.) After 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, he has shared how his faith has helped him turn his life around and provided him much joy and strength. In his book Turn Your Season Around: How God Transforms Your Life, the former baseball star explains how rediscovering his faith allowed him to find the right path in life. This well-known baseball hero explained how his former life of fame and fortune led him down the wrong path. Despite all the material wealth, something was still missing. In fact, Strawberry explains, “inside I was broken.” He goes on to acknowledge his mom’s role in his transformation. As a very devout Christian, she felt her son was “lost in sin.” While many parents may wish to pray for their child’s continued outward success, Strawberry shared that his mom prayed that “God would knock me off my throne.” In finding his faith, Strawberry describes this as a victory for his mom: even though it was something she only got to witness in her eternal life. Yet, this victory is one that has brought so much joy to the sportsman. He now travels the country preaching the Gospel and his infectious love of God. In growing close to God, Strawberry has found that he gains strength in the joy of the Lord. And this ultimately has given him freedom inside, far from the baseball field and his former life of sin. In this video he talks about his life transformation and his discovery of his faith in Jesus.
Generations of Catholics have admired this young saint, called her the "Little Flower", and found in her short life more inspiration for their own lives than in volumes by theologians. Yet Therese died when she was 24, after having lived as cloistered Carmelite for less than ten years. She never went on missions, never founded a religious order, never performed great works. The only book of hers, published after her death, was a brief edited version of her journal called "Story of a Soul." But within 28 years of her death, the public demand was so great that she was canonized. Therese was born in France in 1873, the pampered daughter of a mother who had wanted to be a saint and a father who had wanted to be monk. The two had gotten married but determined they would be celibate until a priest told them that was not how God wanted a marriage to work! They must have followed his advice very well because they had nine children. The five children who lived were all daughters. When her other sisters, Marie and Leonie, left to join religious orders (the Carmelites and Poor Clares, respectively), Therese was left alone with her last sister Celine and her father. She wanted to enter the Carmelite convent to join Pauline and Marie but how could she convince others that she could handle the rigors of Carmelite life. When the superior of the Carmelite convent refused to take Therese because she was so young, the formerly shy little girl went to the bishop. When the bishop also said no, she decided to go over his head. Her father and sister took her on a pilgrimage to Rome to try to get her mind off this crazy idea. Therese loved it. It was the one time when being little worked to her advantage! Because she was young and small, she could run everywhere, touch relics and tombs without being yelled at. Finally, they went for an audience with the Pope. They had been forbidden to speak to him but that didn't stop Therese. As soon as she got near him, she begged that he let her enter the Carmelite convent. She had to be carried out by two of the guards!
But the Vicar General who had seen her courage was
impressed and soon Therese was admitted to the Carmelite convent that her
sisters Pauline and Marie had already joined. She knew as a
Carmelite nun she would never be able to perform great deeds. Therese took
every chance to sacrifice, no matter how small it would seem. She smiled at the
sisters she didn't like. She ate everything she was given without complaining
-- often given the worst leftovers. When Pauline was elected prioress, she asked
Therese for the ultimate sacrifice. She asked Therese to remain a novice, in order to
allay the fears of the others that the three sisters would push everyone else
around. This meant she would never be a fully professed nun. Upon their
father’s death, now Celine also entered the convent. Four of the sisters were
now together again. In this small convent they now made up one-fifth of the
population. Despite this and the fact that Therese was a permanent novice they
put her in charge of the other novices. Then in 1896, she coughed up blood. She kept
working without telling anyone until she became so sick a year later everyone
knew it. She died on September 30, 1897, at the age of 24 years old. After she
died, Pauline put together Therese's memoirs and sent 2000 copies to other convents. Within
two years, the Martin family had to move because her notoriety was so great and
by 1925, she had been canonized.
At this time of the year, my recollections go back to my time at St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts, where I spent a sabbatical with the Trappist monks in 2002. There I enjoyed living with them and working with them as I grew in faith and in appreciation of God's beauty in nature, especially as the fall season approaches.
The trees at the Abbey turn yellow, orange and bright red, especially the maple trees which were abundant and well placed so that nature lovers could enjoy this annual spectacle which starts in early October and by early November all the leaves are gone, and often the ground would be covered with snow and solid ice in some areas. So, for today enjoy these tree photos I took 20 years ago, obviously before the digital age, and so the photos are not as sharp, but worth sharing, nonetheless.
Today is the feast of the Archangels, Michael, Gabriel and
Raphael. Michael - the angel of judgment - is known as the
champion in the fight against Satan and the other devils as well as the
guardian of the faithful especially at the time of death. Frequently he is
portrayed crushing the devil’s head with a lance.
Gabriel - the angel of mercy -
is the messenger from God in St Luke’s gospel who foretold the birth of John
the Baptist, “Be not afraid, Zechariah, because your prayer has been heard.
Your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall name him John.” Six
months later it was Gabriel who appeared to Mary at the Annunciation saying,
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will
conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus.” Raphael - whose name means “God has healed” was sent by God to heal Tobias of his
blindness and to deliver Sara from the devil in the book of Tobit.
We tend to underestimate the presence of Angels in our lives. However, they are
gaining popularity as we see many angel pins on people’s jackets, posters and
paintings of various angels are showing up at card stores. And of course, at
Christmas, there are the angels on ornaments and hanging on nativity scenes. We
sing about the angels in several of the Christmas hymns. Angels were also
present at Jesus’ tomb when the women went to anoint his body and found the
tomb empty. But we are reluctant to accept their actual existence. This is
certainly a departure from our childhood when we prayed to our guardian angel
at least daily. As children we believed that there was truly one angel whose
job was to look after us, who would always hover around us ready to protect us
from all evil and to communicate our desires and needs to God. The feast of the
Guardian Angels in fact is in 3 days, October 2.
The Atacama Desert in northern Chile, one of
the driest regions in the world, has returned to being wrapped in a rug of
flowers dominated by violet and yellow with the beginning of southern spring in
mid-September. 'Pata de Guanaco' and 'Yellow Ananuka'
are among the 200 species that can bloom in an inhospitable environment with an
average of only 0.01 cm of rain per year, and years can go by in some parts of
the desert without seeing rain.
The secret of this irregular phenomenon is related to the "latent" seeds buried under the sand, which can live for decades while waiting for a minimum amount of water to germinate and then bloom. It takes as little as 15 cubic millimetres of rain for the flowers to germinate. This phenomenon occurs every 5 to 7 years, and when it does, similar photos can be treasured by anyone who is close to Copiaco in Northern Chile.
When we recite the
Creed during Mass or during the Rosary, we underestimate the fact that most
young children do not understand it well. So, someone came up with the idea of
devising a children’s version of the Creed, a simplified way of learning what we
believe in.
Werner von Braun (1912-1977) is well known as the father of modern space aviation. He is credited to have invented the Lunar Module (LEN) which landed on the moon in 1969. One day he received a letter from a woman who told him that God is against people leaving this earth to live somewhere else. Then she told him she’ll make a bet for $10 that man will never land on the moon. He answered her with this simple message:’ As far as I know, the Bible does not say anything about space flights and space exploration, but there are a few references against gambling and betting!’
We meet today a recently beatified priest. Fr Augustus Tolton lived between 1854 and 1897 and was born as a
slave. He wanted to become a priest, but American seminaries did not accept
colored students back then. But with the help of a Franciscan priest, he entered
the seminary in Rome and was ordained on Holy Saturday, April 24, 1886, at
the Basilica of St. John Lateran. He celebrated his
first Mass on Easter at St. Peter’s Basilica. He was hoping to go as a
missionary to Africa, but he was sent to the United States as the first black
priest ever. He was very eloquent, with a strong voice, beautiful sermons, and
worked hard against poverty, racism and the degradation of the black population, which was suffering back then, especially the harsh treatment towards the slaves. He was known
as ‘Good Father Gus.’ He died of a sunstroke aged 43 and was loved by everyone
who knew him. Pope Francis proclaimed him as Blessed in 2019.
This is one of my favorite prayers by St Pio of Pietralcina, (1887-1968) whose liturgical feast we celebrate today:
My dear Jesus, release from my mind and heart
Malta today celebrates its independence from Britain. This happened 58 years ago in 1964, although we remained a part of the Commonwealth. The list of rulers that governed Malta is endless, and this is a basic list of who were our Bosses over the centuries. Presently Malta is also a member of the European Union, which we joined on May 1, 2005. We adopted the Euro as our official currency on January 1, 2008. These are the rulers of the Maltese Islands:
Just yesterday we had a spectacular sunset, at the same time when Queen Elizabeth was being eulogized, honored, and later on buried. As if heaven was calling her and wanted to show through nature that she was being welcomed into eternal life and in a better place. Something similar happened back in January 2002 when my father passed away – I had just taken a photo of a beautiful sunset before he left us so suddenly. God sends us subliminal messages to show how much He cares for us. Between September and December, we usually get the best sunsets, as the sky turns orange and red and bright yellow, and if you’re lucky, you get some clouds to create these vibrant rays. Sometimes you’re lucky, but often it’s God talking through his masterpieces of nature.
Today we bid ‘So Long’ to Queen Elizabeth, affectionately known as Lilibet. With exuberant pageantry, solemn rituals and overwhelming eagerness from the millions who paid their respect to her, we now close this sad week and resume our lives. The inclusion of Christianity in many of her speeches became a growing theme of the Queen in the last quarter-century, as she included more explicit professions of her faith in Christ Jesus in her annual Christmas broadcasts. Pope Francis indicated this in his message to King Charles III on the day of his mother’s death: “I willingly join all who mourn her loss in praying for the late Queen’s eternal rest, and in paying tribute to her life of unstinting service to the good of the Nation and the Commonwealth, her example of devotion to duty, her steadfast witness of faith in Jesus Christ and her firm hope in his promises.”
Having lived in Malta on and off between 1949 and 1951, when her husband
was stationed in Malta on HMS Magpie, we in Malta somehow have a special connection
with her. She often said that she spent the best days of her life here among
us. The house where they lived in Guardamangia will be restored soon and
hopefully it will serve as a Royal Museum. And most probably Princess Anne was
conceived here in Malta, as the second photo shows. Prince Philip intuitively
placed two fingers on the bench when they took this photo, 8 months before Anne
was born. Maybe he was giving a subliminal hint that his bride was pregnant
again. Rest in Peace, Queen Elizabeth.
