The Nativity of Mary

Our Lady of Victory at Naxxar parish, Malta.

Today we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Connected to this feast is the Immaculate Conception which we celebrated exactly 9 months ago, to emphasize the duration of a human pregnancy, even for Mary, being born of her mother Saint Anne. The feast of the Nativity started in the 5th century when a basilica was built in Jerusalem where St Anne lived and where Mary was born, traditionally around 12 BC. Saints Joachim and Anne had their own feast on July 26, but today we honor Mary’s birthday. Imagine the joy to see this little girl being born, in the obscurity of her town, with no Angels, no shepherds, no Kings, but that’s because she didn’t want to take the attention from her Son, who would be born 16 years later. 4 parishes in Malta are dedicated to the Nativity of Mary, Senglea, Mellieha, Xaghra on the island of Gozo and Naxxar, where my chapel is located and where I say Mass frequently in the parish church. Processions are held in each parish in the evening, and obviously the churches are dressed up to their very best.

Great Siege of Malta

Grand Master La Vallette leading the Knights and Maltese in victory.

For 200 years, the Knights had their headquarters in Rhodes, but suddenly they were homeless. They settled in Malta which became their homeland. The Turkish Sultan Barbarossa was taking over most of Europe and slowly slowly, the Turkish Armada was becoming a dominant force. In 1546 Barbarossa died, and Dragut assumed command of the increasingly powerful Turkish navy. In 1550 the Knights of St John, now known as the Knights of Malta defeated his fleet at Mahdia. For revenge, Dragut attacked Malta. The island was still relatively unfortified, but the few defenders put up such a stiff resistance that Dragut had to abandon the attack. However, both sides knew that the Turks would come back to Malta. In 1557 Grand Master L'lsle Adam died, and Jean Parisot de la Vallette became the new Grand Master of the Order of St John. Educated and aristocratic, La Vallette had once been captured by the Turks and made a galley slave for four years. He was 63 years old when he became Grand Master, and he would prove to be a great leader like L'lsle Adam. The Knights built fortifications around the island, many of which still stand till this day, massive walls that were practically impenetrable. 

But the Ottoman fleet approaching Malta was a mighty one indeed. It appeared as if an entire forest of armor was moving across the sea. With them came seemingly endless multitudes of the Sultan's finest Janissaries, regulars, and more than 4,000 layalars - religious fanatics who sought death over life. This Turkish force came to attack 540 knights, 1,000 foot soldiers, and a little more than 3,000 Maltese militiamen. The main fortification was Fort St. Elmo which was battered from all sides by Dragut and his troops. The Turkish Pasha then had the bodies of the knights who had died so bravely at St. Elmo decapitated, bound to crosses and floated out into the harbor in front of another Fort, St. Angelo. This was a brazen insult to the religion of the defenders. La Vallette also understood that this meant a fight to the death. In retaliation, La Vallette had a number of the Turkish prisoners executed and their bodies hung on the walls. Their heads placed in canons and blasted over to the Turks now at St Elmo.

Forts St Elmo and St Angelo, from the Vatican Museum Geographic Maps.

But the Knights and the Maltese stood strong, Dragut himself was killed and La Vallette injured but kept fighting with his men, helped also by another 8000 soldiers sent from Sicily. They arrived on September 8, 1565, and this day has always been regarded as Victory Day, a national holiday. It is also the feast of the Nativity of Mary. And so, just as on August 15, 1942, the Convoy of ships entered the Grand Harbor and saved the people from starvation and brought fuel to continue to fight against the Germans and Italians, September 8 will always be regarded as Victory Day, thanks again to the Blessed Mother’s intervention.

In one of the greatest examples of courage and endurance the world has ever witnessed, the Knights of St. John prevailed. Only 250 knights survived at Malta, and almost every one of them was wounded, maimed or crippled. Europe, however, was now free of the Muslim threat that had appeared so invincible. The capital city was named Valletta after the Grand Master La Vallette who led the Knights and the Maltese bravely in this Great Siege.

4 Saint Teresas

A detail of the stained-glass window.

I came across a beautiful stained glass window which I found very interesting as four different Saint Teresas are combined together as a heavenly allegory. We were so used to two Teresas for a few decades, but all of a sudden we end up with 4 well-known saints of the same name. One can see in this stained glass depiction the older Saint Teresa of Avila, canonized in 1622, on the right, welcoming the newest canonized saint Teresa of Calcutta, canonized last year, who is kneeling in her traditional sari. Then on the left is Saint Therese of Lisieux, the Little Flower, canonized in 1925. Standing in the center is Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, also known as St Edith Stein, the Jewish convert who died in the concentration camps during World War II, and was canonized in 1998. 

The complete window.

All four Teresas are also popular in our Catholic church and it’s good to see an artist combining their holiness in one window. I could not find its actual location, but at least we have a good image of this holy quartet. (please click to enlarge)

The inscription with the names of each Teresa.

St Teresa of Calcutta

St Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997)

It was 20 years ago today that Mother Theresa was called to her eternal reward. Her liturgical feast day is today. She was born as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu on August 27, 2010 in Skopje, Albania. She left home in 1928 to join the Sisters of Loreto, based in Ireland. She learned English and then left for India a year later, arriving in Darjeeling and taking her final vows on May 14, 1937. On 10 September 1946, Teresa experienced what she later described as "the call within the call" when she travelled by train to the Loreto Convent in Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat. "I was to leave the convent and help the poor while living among them.” Thus started the new order, the Missionaries of Charity, known by their white sari and blue trim. She would open many homes, orphanages, hospitals, and convents all around the world. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Mother Teresa died on September 5, 1997. She was always recognized as a living saint, and was beatified by Pope St John Paul on October 19, 2003 and canonized by Pope Francis on September 4, 2016.

The banner at the Vatican, the day of her canonization.

I honor her today by sharing this prayer which she composed and read every day.

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force -
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen.

Talk on the Maltese Festa

Feast of St Joseph at Msida.

Today and tomorrow I will be presenting a highly illustrated talk on the Maltese Festa season which is winding down during these days. In conjunction with the feast of the Nativity of Mary, being celebrated at Naxxar, besides three other parishes, this Power Point presentation will highlight several churches in Malta as they are dressed up in their finest during festa week. With hundreds of photos taken over the past 2 years, I will showcase the churches, statues, indoor and outdoor decorations, fireworks (without the noise,) and reveal many artifacts which most people would not have seen, since I'm always looking for the hidden, the unknown and look for a special angle to bring out the unusual and unfamiliar.

Feast of St Helen, Birkirkara.

The talks will be presented at the Courtyard in Hilltop Gardens, Naxxar today Monday September 4th at 7 PM, and again tomorrow Tuesday September 5th, at 10:30 AM. A notice appeared in the Times of Malta today with two of my photos, also reproduced here in this post, which you can see here:
https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20170904/social/Talk-on-Maltese-feasts.657216

To you, my child

If there could be only one thing in life for me to teach you, I would teach you to love......

To respect others so that you may find respect in yourself.

To learn the value of giving, so that if ever there comes a time in your life that someone really needs you, you will give generously.

To act in a manner that you wish to be treated; to be proud of yourself.

To laugh and smile as much as you can, in order to help bring joy into this troubled world.

To stand tall in this world and to learn to depend on yourself, and never depend on money or material things for your happiness.

To learn to appreciate people who love you.

To find peace and security within yourself.

To you, my child, I hope I have taught all these things, for they are love.

Scenes from a Procession

Statue of St Julian during the procession

St Julian’s feast was celebrated last Sunday in my hometown, and here are a few photos from the procession taking place in the evening. The mile-long procession meandered through the customary streets of the old part of the parish, with the participation of lay people carrying tall flags representing different confraternities, as well as altar servers and a priest carrying the relic of Saint Julian. 

The statue of the saint, crafted in 1893 was carried by 8 strong men at the tail end of the procession, followed by a marching band. The festa season is winding down now, and the last major feast is being celebrated on September 8, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Mother, a celebration that also commemorates the victory of the Maltese people against the Turkish Armada in the Great Siege of 1565. This feast is celebrated at 4 different parishes, Mellieha, Senglea, Xaghra in Gozo and Naxxar, where my chapel at Hilltop Gardens is located. So I will be participating in some events and possibly a procession on the eve of the feast. I will be also celebrating a Mass for emigrants in the parish of Mellieha on September 6. The last major feast this year is the Immaculate Conception in the town of Cospicua.

The Redeemer and the Redeemed.

A large decorative fan created by young enthusiasts.

How are we spending our life?

Throughout one full year, we see 12 months go by, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, and 31,536,000 seconds. And all this is a gift from God for us to use. We have done nothing to deserve it, to earn it, but it is given to us and to every human being. But how are we spending all this precious time? It’s amazing to know how different people spend different times in doing different things. But on average, our time is spent more or less in the same proportion with other people. For example, did you know that by the time you turn 70 years old, you will have spent nearly a quarter of a century sleeping.  And here’s how the average person spends his or her time if they live to be 78:

28.5 years sleeping – rest, but don’t be lazy!

10.5 years working – be happy with what you do, be creative.

9 years – social networking, TV, videos. Internet, etc.

6 years doing chores – at home, cleaning, work in your room.

5 years being entertained - have fun, make friends and be active in sports.

4 years eating – how much is it nutritious, and how much is junk food?

3.5 years grooming – all this to make ourselves presentable.

3.5 years being educated – and we complain because of too much homework!

3 years reading – newspapers, catalogs, IPads, Kindles and the Bible.

3 years talking – it’s what we say that matters, not how much.

2.5 years shopping – browsing, choosing, browsing some more.

½ year worshiping God – going to church, praying and attending religious events.

Remembering Diana

20 years ago today, the heart of the world stopped beating, as the entire world mourned for the tragic death of Princess Diana. I recollect that day by reflecting on the words of her brother Earl Spencer, in his moving tribute and eulogy he gave during her funeral.

"Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
Today is our chance to say thank you for the way you brightened our lives, even though God granted you but half a life. We will all feel cheated always that you were taken from us so young and yet we must learn to be grateful that you came along at all. Only now that you are gone do we truly appreciate what we are now without and we want you to know that life without you is very, very difficult.
We have all despaired at our loss over the past week and only the strength of the message you gave us through your years of giving has afforded us the strength to move forward. There is a temptation to rush to canonize your memory, there is no need to do so. You stand tall enough as a human being of unique qualities not to need to be seen as a saint. Indeed to sanctify your memory would be to miss out on the very core of your being, your wonderfully mischievous sense of humor with a laugh that bent you double.
Your joy for life transmitted where ever you took your smile and the sparkle in those unforgettable eyes. Your boundless energy which you could barely contain. But your greatest gift was your intuition and it was a gift you used wisely. This is what underpinned all your other wonderful attributes and if we look to analyse what it was about you that had such a wide appeal we find it in your instinctive feel for what was really important in all our lives.”

Jesus, my friend

I am the Light, and you do not see me.

I am the Way, and you do not follow me.

I am the Truth, and you do not believe me.

I am the Life, and you do not search for me.

I am the Master, and you do not listen to me.

I am the Chief, and you do not obey me.

I am your God, and you do not pray to me.

I am your greatest Friend, and you do not love me.

If you are not happy, do not blame me.

(written by St Francis of Assisi)

Praying for Houston

A man paddles his way with his son in rain drenched Houston.

We pray today for the residents of Houston Texas, who have seen their counties devastated by a severe hurricane and lot of flooding. These three photos speak about hope, devastation and struggle, which the Texans will have to face over the next few weeks, possibly months. We pray especially that the rain will stop soon, and that other communities will be spared more devastating damage.

A Nursing Home flooded with water.

Saving two toddlers from waist high water.

St Augustine

The lives of St Augustine and St Monica go hand in hand. As any mother and son who were either close to each other or clashing with one another, their lives are interconnected in many ways. St Monica’s feast was celebrated yesterday, and St Augustine’s is today. Any woman who spends her life praying for the conversion of her husband and her wayward son deserves to be canonized, especially after her own son becomes a popular Saint and a Doctor of the Church. Monica’s parents brought her up as Christian and married her to an older, pagan man named Patricius. He was a man with a great deal of energy, but also a man given to violent tempers and adultery. Her son St Augustine writes in one of his books that despite the prevalence of domestic abuse at the time, because of her obedience to him, Patricius never beat St. Monica.

She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband to the Catholic faith in 370. He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious Life. St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for 17 years, begging the prayers of priests who, for a while, tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did console her by saying, "it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received, strengthened her.

As a young man before his conversion, he taught in North Africa, Carthage and Rome. It was only when he arrived in Milan that his life started to change. In the summer of 386, after having read an account of the life of Saint Anthony of the Desert which greatly inspired him, Augustine underwent a profound personal crisis and decided to convert to Catholic Christianity, abandon his career in rhetoric, quit his teaching position in Milan, give up any ideas of marriage, and devote himself entirely to serving God and the practices of priesthood, which included celibacy. Key to this conversion was the voice of an unseen child he heard while in his garden in Milan telling him in a sing‑song voice to tolle lege ("take up and read"). He grabbed the nearest text to him, which was Paul's Epistle to the Romans and opened it at random to 13:13‑14, which read: "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying; but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." Ambrose baptized Augustine, along with his son, Adeodatus, on Easter Vigil in 387 in Milan, and soon thereafter in 388 he returned to Africa. In 391 he was ordained a priest and became a famous preacher, while 5 years later he was made bishop of Hippo. Augustine died on August 28, 430.

Retirement Age

Many people look forward to retiring at 60, 62 or 65. Others just keep going, doing whatever they’ve done all their life, and hoping that their health will help them in whatever they dream of doing in the future. So many people started hobbies and even careers when they were over 60. Socrates gave the world his wisest philosophy at 70. Cato began studying Greek at 80, while Petrarch started his study of Latin at 75. Michelangelo was designing structures while he was still 90, and painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling when he was 91. Johann Strauss was still composing after his 80th birthday, and Haydn wrote his oratorio ‘Creation’ after he was 67. Giuseppe Verdi wrote ‘Othello’ at the age of 74, then ‘Falstaff’ at 80 and ‘Four Sacred Pieces’ at 85. Titian produced ‘The Last Supper’ at 80 and the classic ‘Battle of Lepanto’ at 98! How about those writers....Milton wrote ‘Paradise Lost’ at 57 and ‘Paradise Regained’ at 63. Victor Hugo wrote ‘Les Miserables’ at 62 and George Bernard Shaw wrote his best plays after the age of 80. And Webster wrote his monumental dictionary at 70.

And as I turn 65 today, I am still going strong with my photography, watercolors, flute playing, cooking, writing regularly in local papers, posting on my blog daily, saying Mass daily and 5 Masses on weekends, and caring spiritually for a large Retirement Home. Please keep me in your prayers, as I assure you, you are all in mine.

Minister needed

One of the toughest tasks a church faces is choosing a good minister, accepting a new pastor. A member of an official board undergoing this painful process finally lost patience. He had watched the Pastoral Relations Committee reject one applicant after another for some fault, alleged or otherwise. It was time for a bit of soul-searching on the part of the committee. So he stood up and read a letter supposedly coming from yet another applicant.

“Gentlemen, understanding your pulpit is vacant, I would like to apply for the position of pastor. I have many qualifications. I have been a preacher with much success, and also had some success as a writer. Some say I’m a fairly good organizer. I’ve been a leader in most places I served. I’m presently over 50 years old. I’ve never preached in one place for than three years. In some places I have left town after my work has caused riots and disturbances. I must admit that I’ve been in jail three or four times, but not because of any wrongdoing. My health is not good, though I still get a great deal done. The churches I have preached in have been small, though located in several large cities. I’ve not got along well with religious leaders in towns where I have preached. In fact, some have threatened me and even attacked me physically. I am not too good at keeping records. I have been known to forget whom I have baptized. However, if you can use me, I shall do my best for you.”

The board member looked over the committee and said “Well, what do you think? Shall we call him?” The church members were furious and angry, “What!? Shall we call an unhealthy, trouble-making, absent minded ex-jailbird? Was the board member crazy? Who had the nerve to sign this application? Who had such colossal nerve to even apply?”

The board member eyed them all keenly before he answered. “It is signed ‘The Apostle Paul.’

Ring in a carrot

A Canadian woman who lost her engagement ring 13 years ago while weeding her garden on the family farm is wearing it proudly again after her daughter-in-law pulled it from the ground on a carrot. "I feel relieved and happy inside," Mary Grams said this week. "It grew into the carrot. I still can't figure it out."

Her daughter-in-law, Colleen Daley, found the ring while harvesting carrots for supper with her dog Billy at the farm near Armena, Alberta, where Grams used to live. The farm has been in the family for 105 years. Daley said while she was pulling the carrots and noticed one of them looked strange. She almost fed it to her dog but decided to keep it and just threw it in her pail. When she was washing the carrots she noticed the ring and spoke to her husband, Grams' son, about what she had found. They quickly called Grams. "I said we found your ring in the garden. She couldn't believe it," Daley said. "It was so weird that the carrot grew perfectly through that ring." Grams said she was eager to try the ring on again after so many years. With family looking on she washed the ring with a little soap to get the dirt off. It slid on her finger as easily as it did when her husband gave it to her. "We were giggling and laughing," she said. "It fit. After that many years it fits."

Mary Grams, 84, said she can't believe the lucky carrot actually grew through and around the diamond ring she had long given up hope of finding. Grams said she never told her husband, Norman, that she lost the ring, but told her son. Her husband died five years ago. The moral of the story: if ever you lose a ring in a field, sow carrots.

St Bartholomew

All that is known of St Bartholomew with certainty is that he is mentioned in the Gospels and Acts as one of the twelve apostles. His name means "son of Tolomai" (or Ptolemy) and scholars believe he is the same as Nathanael mentioned in John’s Gospel, who says he is from Cana and that Jesus called him an "Israelite...incapable of deceit, a person in whom there is no guile." He was a close friend of St Philip, because they are always mentioned together.

After the Ascension, Bartholomew went on a missionary tour to India. Other traditions record him as serving in Ethiopia, Mesopotamia, Persia and Egypt. Along with St Jude, Bartholomew is reputed to have brought Christianity to Armenia in the 1st century. Thus both saints are considered the patron saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church. However, it is in Greater Armenia that Bartholomew saw his end where he was flayed or skinned and beheaded by King Astyages. The famous Last Judgment painting by Michelangelo shows St Bartholomew holding the knife of his martyrdom and his flayed skin. The face of the skin is recognizable as Michelangelo's, as if the artist wanted to show how much he suffered under Pope Julius, who wanted the Last Judgment finished sooner.

St Bartholomew in Michelangelo's 'Last Judgment.'

Of the many miracles performed by St. Bartholomew before and after his death, two very popular ones are known by the townsfolk of the small island of Lipari, off the coast of Italy. When St. Bartholomew's body was found off the shore, the Bishop ordered many men to take the body to the Cathedral. When this failed due to its extreme weight, the Bishop then sent out the children. The children easily brought the body ashore.

The people of the island of Lipari celebrate his feast day annually. The tradition of the people was to take the solid silver and gold statue from inside the Cathedral of St. Bartholomew and carry it through the town. On one occasion, when taking the statue down the hill towards the town during a procession, it suddenly got very heavy and had to be set down. They managed to lift it but had to put it down a few more times. Within seconds, walls further downhill collapsed. If the statue had been able to be lifted, all of the townspeople would have been killed.

During World War II, the Italian Fascist regime looked for ways to finance their activities. The order was given to take the silver statue of the Saint and melt it down. The statue was weighed, and it was found to be only several ounces. It was returned to its place in the Cathedral of Lipari. In reality, the statue is made from many pounds of silver and it is considered a miracle that it was not melted down.

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis (1926-2017)

I want to salute today one of the greatest entertainers of all time, my favorite childhood comedian who made us laugh with his energetic and slapstick humor. Jerry Lewis died last Sunday August 20, aged 91. Incidentally I just wrote an article about him in a local newspaper a month ago, in the series of profiles I share with the Maltese, and people told me how much they enjoyed it, especially since they did not know about his philanthropic Telethon, where he raised over £2.6 billion for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Born Joseph Levitch of Jewish-Russian parents in New Jersey in 1926, he was introduced to comedy and the world of entertainment by his parents, his mother being a pianist and his father a Master of Ceremonies in a popular show. He appeared on TV for the first time with Dean Martin in 1948, and together they made 10 classic movies between 1949 and 1956, besides many TV shows. After they split in 1956, Jerry continued making one film after another, all with his inimitable slapstick humor.

Among his most popular films, we can mention At War with the Army (1950), Living it up (1954), The Delicate Delinquent (1957), Rock-A-Bye-Baby (1958),  The Geisha Boy(1958), The Ladies Man (1961), The Errand Boy (1961), It's Only Money (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), The Big Mouth (1967), Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968), Hardly Working (1981), The King of Comedy (1983), Cracking up (1983), and Max Rose (2013.) In all Jerry made 63 films, and frequently appeared on TV shows with Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, and an occasional reunion with Dean Martin. Between 1966 and 2010, every year on Labor Day weekend, on the first Monday of September, Jerry Lewis would host the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, a sickness that effects the muscles close to the bones, and this to help especially the young children, known as Jerry’s Kids, affected by this illness. Over the years he raised $2.6 billion for this cause. Another of our beloved, clean and family-oriented comedians is gone.

Hail Holy Queen

Coronation at Baker City Cathedral, Oregon, 1958.

Today being the feast of the Queenship of Mary, I thought of giving you a brief reflection on one of the most popular prayers or hymns of the Catholic Church. The Salve Regina, or Hail Holy Queen  was composed during the Middle Ages by German monk Hermann of Reichenau. It was always sung or recited in Latin especially among monks during Compline, the prayer that is said in the evening. It is said that St Bernard, while acting as legate Apostolic in Germany, on Christmas Eve, 1146, he entered the cathedral to the processional chanting of the anthem, and, as he genuflected three times, he uttered the words "O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria," and these words were added to the Salve Regina. The Salve Regina is traditionally sung at the end of a priest's funeral Mass out of reverence to Mary, the Mother of Christ, the High Priest, and all Priests. As a prayer, it is commonly said at the end of the rosary.

The hymn has been set to music by various composers, including Victoria, Palestrina, Josquin and Lassus. Handel and Liszt composed their own settings in later years. Schubert composed no less than four versions. In 1976 the words of the first verse of the Salve Regina were used as a repeating theme in the song Oh What a Circus in the musical 'Evita,' with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, Hail our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, Poor banished children of Eve; To thee do we send forth our sighs, Mourning and weeping in this vale of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, Thine eyes of mercy toward us; And after this our exile, Show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. 

Pope St Pius X

An actual photo of Pope St Pius X.

Saint Pius X was born on June 2, 1835, his name being Giuseppe Sarto. He was one of 11 children, and though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 3 miles to school each day. Pius X was a fervent reformer of Church practices and regulations such as the Canon Law, his most important reform, which for the first time codified Church law in a central fashion. He was a pastoral pope, encouraging personal piety and a life‑style reflecting Christian values.

Pope Pius X was a Marian Pope, because for him there is no safer or more direct road than Mary. He was the only Pope in the 20th century with extensive pastoral experience at the Parish level and pastoral concerns permeated his papacy. The Catechism of Pope Pius X is short and direct. His teachings were considered equally down to earth and practical. He favored the use of modern language in Catechesis. Frequent communion was a lasting innovation of Pius X, because before his time, people could only receive communion once a month and, on special occasions, on Sunday. He was also instrumental in introducing the custom of First Holy Communion for young children.

Like his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII (1878‑1903,) Pius opposed modernism, a school of thought, which claimed that Catholic dogma itself should be modernized and blended with 19th Century philosophies. Personally Pius combined within himself a strong sense of compassion, benevolence, poverty, but also stubbornness, and a certain stiffness. He wanted to be pastor and was the only Pope in the 20th century who gave Sunday sermons every week.

His charity was extraordinary, filling the Vatican with refugees from the 1908 Messina quake, long before the Italian government began to act on its own. He rejected any kind of favors for his family. His brother remained a postal clerk, his favorite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome.  He often referred to his own humble origins, taking up the causes of poor people. He used to say “I was born poor, I have lived poor, and I wish to die poor." Considered a holy person by many, public veneration of Pope Pius X began soon after his death. He died August 20, 1914 and was canonized in 1954, after his body was exhumed and displayed under a side‑altar where priests can celebrate Mass, many of which I was lucky to serve as an altar boy in 1966.

Lord of Life

Lord of my origin, draw me closer to You.

Lord of my existence, direct all my ways.

Lord of my calling, give me strength to go on.

Lord of my faith, preserve me from doubt.

Lord of my hope, keep me from despair.

Lord of my love, let me never grow cold.

Lord of my past, may I never forget you.

Lord of my present, be near me always.

Lord of my future, keep me faithful to the end.

Lord of my life, let me live in your presence.

Lord of my death, receive me at last.

Lord of my eternity, bless me forever, Amen.

Praying for Barcelona and Madeira

As we pray for the 14 victims killed by a terrorist in Barcelona, we pray also for the many injured in the attack. A minute’s silence was observed yesterday out of respect for the victims. We remember also the 2 victims killed in a knife attack in Turku, Finland.
Incidentally two days earlier, on the Portuguese island of Madeira, a huge oak tree crashed down on a popular religious festival in honor of the Assumption, killing 13 people and injuring 49 others. The tree fell while a large crowd was gathered near the island’s capital of Funchal as part of the Nossa Senhora do Monte festival. It’s Madeira’s biggest annual festivity and was being held Monday and Tuesday, drawing large crowds to a church on Funchal’s outskirts. The tree was a towering oak, which local media reports said was more than 200 years old. Regional authorities say they are investigating what caused it to come down. Of those injured, seven people had serious injuries. Of the fatalities, 10 people died at the site of the accident. A child died en route to a local hospital, where 2 other women died later.

A Clenched Fist vs an Open Hand

The Difference between a Clenched Fist and an Open Hand

A clenched fist represents anger,

 aggression, jealousy,

 rebellion, frustration,

hatred, superiority

and punishment.

A clenched fist is always ready to destroy and annihilate,

to hurt, kill and mutilate,

to inflict injury without regrets,

to show hatred, to challenge and to attack, to tear up plans,

 to criticize mercilessly,

 to show resistance to Peace,

to put someone down, to turn people away,

to destroy the spirit of a happy person, to discourage the

enthusiasm of a child full of life,

to have no respect for life,

to show opposition,  and to turn away from God 

An Open Hand represents love,

forgiveness, giving,

sharing, openness,

encouragement, hope,

patience and tolerance.

An Open Hand is always ready to show compassion,

to give advice, to share a smile and give a helping hand,

to feed the hungry and

alleviate thirst, to show leniency and concern,

to work and help clean up,

to change a diaper and nurse a wound, 

to heal a broken heart,

to applaud an effort, to give another chance,

to cheer up, comfort and console,

to reconcile with a friend,

to be open to life and growth, and to return back to God