Greetings from Kenya, Nairobi in Africa

Greetings once again from me in Nairobi. I just wanted to share with you about a joyful celebration we had recently. Our first two Kenyan Sisters, Sr. Maria Kimani and Sr. Mary Manje, celebrated their Silver Jubilee and renewed their vows during a beautiful mass. Our novices made it more solemn with their liturgical dances during the entrance, offertory and recessional. The chapel was over flowing with relatives and friends, plus all of us. After taking pictures, we all went down to our big hall for a delicious lunch and entertainment by our novices.

Sr. Mary and Sr. Maria persevered and after making their two year novitiate, made their profession. During their Juniorate, they went for university studies in theology, spirituality and communications, etc. Before they made their final vows, they were sent to Rome for a five month preparation course, along with all the other sisters from the many different nations who were also preparing to make their final vows. On their return to Nairobi, we had a huge celebration at their parish where they pronounced their final vows.

During these past twenty five years, both Sr. Maria and Sr. Mary were very active in our mission and had fulfilled many different responsibilities. Sr. Mary had been the Junior formator for awhile, and was the superior both in Tanzania and Kampala for many years. Sr. Maria was the formator of the postulants and then was appointed to be our regional superior for three years.

It is such a great grace for me to have participated in the lives of these two beautiful sisters. They were the seed and beginning of a large community of  African sisters who, during these years, have joined them in our congregation. The first attachment shows our Nairobi community of Professed sisters and as you can see, we are from many different countries - Kenya, Nigeria, Congo, Cameroon, Rwanda, Pakistan, India, Italy and the United States. In the second attachment, Sr. Mary is on the left of me and Sr. Maria on the right.

I thank God everyday for having made me part of this beautiful community in which I was present and saw growing during all of these years, and I ask you to please pray for us. All of you and your families are remembered in my daily prayers. May God bless all of you in a very special way.

Yours in Christ,

Sr. Mary Augustine
Daughters of St. Paul,
Nairobi

Novena to Mary, Mother, Teacher and Queen of Apostles

The earliest devotion in the church was to Mary as Queen of the Apostles. This novena is before Pentecost as Mary joined the apostles in prayer awaiting the promised Paraclete. http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/prayers/Queennovena.html

The feast of the Queen of Apostles was established on the first Saturday after the Ascension by the Sacred Congregation of Rites at the request of the Pallottine Fathers. Mary initiated her mission as Queen of Apostles in the Cenacle. She gathered the apostles together, comforted them, and assisted them in prayer. Together with them she hoped, desired and prayed; with them her petitions were heeded and she received the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

Mary is Queen of Apostles because she was chosen to be the Mother of Jesus Christ and to give him to the world; she was made the apostles' Mother and our own by our Savior on the cross. She was with the apostles while awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit, obtaining for them the abundance of supernatural graces they received on Pentecost. The most holy Virgin was and always will be the wellspring for every apostolate.

She exercised a universal apostolate, one so vast that it embraced all others. The apostolate of prayer, the apostolate of good example, the apostolate of suffering--Mary fulfilled them all. Other people have practiced certain teachings of the Gospel; Mary lived them all. Mary is full of grace, and we draw from her abundance.

New Book & Media Center Launch in Africa

Launching - Paulines Books and Media Center, Gabriella House

The Bible and the Mystery of Marriage Theology of the Body Series

BULLETIN NOTICE REQUEST Please post the following announcement in your email, newsletters, web site and social media, beginning in April (continuing through May 18). Thank you!

Online Catholic Updating Series on the Theology of the Body, Pope John Paul's meditations on the Bible and the mystery of marriage.Internet webcast May 4, 11, 18; archived video accessible with registration (www.ustream.tv/channel/TOB-TV) Information: www.visit.pauline.org/chicago or call 312.854.9656

For more information visit Sr Anne Joan''s nunblog http://romans8v29.blogspot.com/

Easter: Coming out of ourselves

"With Christ we can transform ourselves and the world."  Pope Francis

"It was the evening of the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked because they were afraid.... Jesus came and stood among them. He told them, "Peace be with you."

Pope Francis reiterates the greatest need of the church, for saints. Evangelization presupposes that the Church does not want to be locked up inside herself, but wants to go “to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery. When the Church does not come out of herself to evangelize  she becomes self-referential and then gets sick."

"In Revelation, Jesus says that he is at the door and knocks. Obviously, the text refers to his knocking from the outside in order to enter, but I think about the times in which Jesus knocks from within so that we will let him come out. The self-referential church keeps Jesus Christ within herself and does not let him out....Put simply, there are two images of the Church: a Church which evangelizes and comes out of herself” by hearing the word of God with reverence and proclaiming it with faith; and “the worldly Church, living within herself, of herself, for herself....this should shed light on the possible changes and reforms which must be done for the salvation of souls.”

Blessed James Alberione, the founder of the Pauline Family, used the media to proclaim the Gospel.“He intuited the need to make Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life, known to the people of our time through the means of our time,” John Paul II explained during the homily delivered the Sunday after Easter when proclaiming Alberione blessed. Explaining the reason for the founding of the Pauline Family, the Holy Father recalled Blessed Alberione’s words about the media: “These means must be used by a group of saints.”

Holy Week and Holy in Weakness

Holy Week in Boston is about welcoming women
to join us in a most solemn week of retreat. 

Our new home on Staten Island.

Holy Week at the Daughters of St. Paul in New York this year is all about emptying and changing both physically and spiritually. I for one see my surroundings, a convent without pictures, statues, books, DVDs, and finally without tables, chairs, dishes, etc. as a metaphor for "dying to self." We are moving the convent this Holy Week while remaining in the midst of mission activity. This morning I picked up one of the unpacked books in my room "Into the Silent Land." I realized that silence at a time that is full of upheaval is necessary. After a time of prayer and contemplation I felt refreshed and ready to pack some more. Since life as usual has not stopped this computer is being used until I have to close it down and take the desk apart. Once again it is a metaphor for the spiritual life - a paradox. We are all bound together in our journey of struggle, chaos and fragmentation. Together we break the whole bread of Christ that feeds us as we become one. "God has taken unto himself the brokenness of the human condition," writes Martin Laird (Into the Silent Land). "Hence human woundedness, brokenness and death itself are transformed from dead ends into doorways." St. Paul said it like this: God's power is at full strength in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:8-9). What is being emptied in our former home on Delafield Avenue is entering into a new home at Richmond Terrace through the doors that are open to welcome community. Life reminds me about death and resurrection every day. I am also packing to leave for vacation and to move to another community. My insides are all jumbled over these simultaneous moves and goodbyes. As the Holy Week liturgies begin Jesus walks along side of us in our own Holy Week and transforms our weakness into new life through resurrection. This happens in our kenosis with Christ - emptying ouselves for the big move - the Trinity moving into us more fully!

Profile of Pope Francis

Francis and Benedict

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio the New Pope Elect - Pope Francis  Here is a biography of the new Bishop of Rome and our new pope! Please keep him in your prayers. He has taken the name Pope Francis. 

He was novice master in San Miguel, where he also taught theology. He was Provincial for Argentina (1973-1979) and rector of the Philosophical and Theological Faculty of San Miguel (1980-1986). After completing his doctoral dissertation in Germany, he served as a confessor and spiritual director in Córdoba.

On 20 May 1992 he was appointed titular Bishop of Auca and Auxiliary of Buenos Aires, receiving episcopal consecration on 27 June. On 3 June 1997 was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Buenos Aires and succeeded Cardinal Antonio Quarracino on 28 February 1998. He is also Ordinary for Eastern-rite faithful in Argentina who lack an Ordinary of their own rite.
Adjunct Relator General of the 10th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, October 2001.
He served as President of the Bishops' Conference of Argentina from 8 November 2005 until 8 November 2011.

Created and proclaimed Cardinal by the Bl. John Paul II in the consistory of 21 February 2001, of the Title of S. Roberto Bellarmino (St. Robert Bellarmine).
Member of: Congregations: for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments; for the Clergy; for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life ;Pontifical Council for the Family;Pontifical Commission for Latin America  (From XT 3M - Archdiocese of Sydney)

Hope for the Church (and for the Pauline Family!)

Sr. Tracey: Face Painter

4000 youths gathered on the grounds of St Joseph’s Abbey in St Benedict, LA this past Saturday for the annual Abbey Youth Fest- And it was amazing! Young people came from all over the Gulf South to celebrate their faith, to be inspired by awesome Christian witnesses, to pray and praise God, and to have fun. And this they did!

They listened to top-notch speakers, enjoyed great music, participated at Mass celebrated by the Archbishop. And after supper prayed Evening prayer and adored the Blessed Sacrament by candlelight! It was beautiful!

There was a Pauline presence, too, with our booth. We provided vocation materials and a selection of our books to help these young people on their faith journey. And Sr Tracey offered face painting. This popular attraction drew a continuous line of young people to our table, and was a great opportunity for evangelization.

Youth Fest at the Abbey

But I think the most amazing part of the day was the altar call. At the end of the Liturgy the Archbishop invited those young people who are considering the call to priesthood or religious life, or who are open to the possibility to come forward. Close to 300 young accepted the challenge and stepped forward. It was truly inspiriting, and it was evidence that Christ is calling and speaking to the young. Yes, there is hope for the Church, for the world and for the Pauline Family. A number of teens stopped by our booth, interested in learning more about our mission. Let us thank God for these young people with their generous and open spirits, and let us, most importantly, pray for them.  Sr. Laura, Louisiana

From the Statutes of the Pauline Cooperators: Who can be a member of the Association of Pauline Cooperators? Persons who understand the value of the Pauline mission and want to collaborate in its fulfillment, thus finding a precious opportunity to use their skills to fulfill their Christian vocation and enable the talents they received from the Lord to bear fruit. In welcoming his/her special call, the Cooperator adheres to the Pauline ideal and commits him/herself to incarnating it in daily life according to the directives of the Church, which invites the laity to “share more intensely in the spirituality and mission of various religious Institutes” (Vita Consecrata, 54).

“To pray and work for vocations: this is the principal form of cooperation. There is the apostolate of the press…. There is the apostolate of the Sacred Liturgy…. There is the pastoral apostolate of the priests and Pastorelle Sisters…” (From a manuscript of Fr. Alberione, 18 Dec. 1965).

Meet Winifred Loh, Pauline Cooperator

AWARE President Winifred Loh 
called for greater action to stop 
victim blaming and shaming.

Winifred Loh is a Pauline Cooperator from Singapore. She was in New York for meetings at the United Nations as President of Aware.org.sg. Margie Skeels, Pauline Cooperator at the United Nations, introduces Winifred. Marie Louise Handel concludes the interview and Sr. Margaret sums up the gathering from the Phoenix Garden restaurant in Manhattan.

Singapore

Ecosuffering: Change the World

EcoSuffering "Change the world."

I have recently been invited to give two presentations. One is for Divine Mercy Sunday and the other for a Lenten retreat. Both themes are on suffering. As I reflect on suffering the word eco-suffering came to me. It is St. Paul's take on the suffering of Christ that inspires this. Paul wrote, "I am glad when I suffer for you in my body, for I am participating in the sufferings of Christ that continue for his body, the church" (Col. 1:24).  Ecology is the the study of that relationship of living things to their environments  It comes from the Greek word oikos meaning house, dwelling place, habitation. This is the same root word for a house-church gathering. Ecology is about not wasting the treasures we are given and using them to the best of our ability. 

Any ecological movement recognizes that one environmental change affects another environment  Ecosystems can be regenerative. Ecological systems theory is "an approach to study of human development that consists of the 'scientific study of the progressive, mutual accommodation, throughout the life course, between an active, growing human being, and the changing properties of the immediate settings in which the developing person lives, as this process is affected by the relations between these settings, and by the larger contexts in which the settings are embedded'" (Voydanoff citing Bronfenbrenner). An ecosystem is a community of living organisms, their physical environment, and all their interrelationships in a particular unit of space interacting and interdependent relationships.  

I believe with Paul that in our sufferings we build up the Body of Christ. Since we live and move and have our being in the Body of Christ, suffering may be borne for the sake of the Body in union with Christ.  This Pauline theology breeds a spirituality of hope that offers to integrate the whole of life by broadening the understanding human suffering. “Christ conquered death not only by reversing its evil effects,” Teilhard de Chardin (The Divine Milieu) reminds us, “but by reversing its sting.”  In the ecology of suffering we join in God's plan of redemption as co-redeemers through the grace of baptism. 

"To attain holiness, then, we must not only pattern our lives on Christ’s by being gentle, humble and patient, we must also imitate him in his death. Taking Christ for his model, Paul said that he wanted to become like him in his death in the hope that he too would be raised from death to life. We imitate Christ’s death by being buried with him in baptism" St. Basil the Great.

Nothing is lacking in the saving death of Our Lord, yet He desires that we take an active part in His divine mission in and by our daily living. If this entails suffering we are active in deciding what to do with this pain. In discernment we may find that joining a group or finding someone to talk to will help us work through emotional pain. It may be that we are called to make a change in our life when there is relational suffering. With physical pain we may discern the type of pain management we need. Sometimes we have no options as we work through grief and loss toward acceptance of suffering. All of this is part of our human ecology of suffering - of being an active participant in the creative redemption of our God who loves us. As we move through pain and suffering we change our environment. Prayer, forgiveness, and beginning once again recycles what we may have considered waste. Paul says what he once considered gain is now waste (Phil. 3:7) and the reverse is also true - what he once considered waste is now gain. This is one of those paradoxes such as the ones we find in the beatitudes: "Blessed are those who suffer.... (Mt. 5:10). In ecology what we may have considered waste is recycled or made into compost. If you Google these words you will find that some communities strive to have a zero waste environment.  We can have zero waste because of the grace of Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Pedro Arrupe, Superior General of the Society of Jesus until his death in 1991, had solidarity with those who suffered because of his experience in Hiroshima. He was serving only four miles from the atomic bomb blast.  Fr. Arrupe believed the ministry to the suffering should not remain on the personal level but should also promote structural changes in the world.

Holy Restlessness: A new Lenten discipline

Paulines learning the language
of the digital camera

“How is it possible that thousands and thousands of people are bored with the church and pass it by? Why did it come about that the cinema really is often more interesting, more exciting, more human and gripping than the church? …It is because we talk too much about false, trivial human things….It are because we prefer quiet and edification to the holy restlessness of the powerful Lord God.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This is the same restlessness of all Paulines who have inherited the “holy restlessness” of Blessed James Alberione. During his lifetime Blessed James Alberione recognized new means of communication as ways that could reach people so that there would not be “a desert around the Master of life.” He also realized that the churches were not filled and the preaching was not reaching people where they lived, worked, played and in their intellectual pursuits.  Today media presents us new emerging challenges to evangelize in many forms. We Paulines continue Alberione’s  discourse with technology and communication first by learning the language of each medium and the culture in which we proclaim the Word, while continuing to be true to the gospel message which is not limited by language or culture. This is what St. Paul did as he journeyed to many parts of his known world speaking directly to cultures in their languages about the wondrous heritage everyone was now invited to in Christ Jesus. He said the the word of God is not chained (2 Timothy 2:9).
  

Blessed Alberione and Paulines with a "new" camera.

As early as 1939, the Founder had already prepared Paulines for the film apostolate asking them to pray for this intention in their hour of adoration. Mother Thecla Merlo, who also worked with the medium of film, immersed herself in Alberione’s spiritual formation for this project: discipline, sacrifice and the apostolic spirit, and guided the Pauline sisters according to three fundamental values: clear principles (broad vision), ardent desires (God’s glory and peace to humankind), and intense commitment to the interior life (humility and trust).

Alberione at Prayer

This lent, as a spiritual discipline, we can take time to learn a new language of media. It may be film, social media (twitter, etc), e-mail, media literacy, publishing (e-books), apps, or any new form that is presenting itself. Even if we don’t employ it for mission we can certainly pray for this medium – for the producers, creators, consumers – that the gospel of Jesus Christ may be spoken and enter into the hearts of those who seek God through these means. God is constantly communicating to us. God is the ultimate communicator in God’s Trinitarian communion. How can we deepen our communication skills – the languages used today – to share the good news of God’s love? What are the questions people are asking today? What is our call to witness? Communication includes the ability to listen, to be a sign of love, to be silent, to be prayerful and to proclaim the wonders that God has done for us.

  

"Celebrating" Lent

Sr. Alice, Sr. Julia, Sr. Tracey, Sr. Laura (blog post author)

Today was a big day for the folks in New Orleans. Its probably their biggest “feast”- For Mardi Gras is the last big “hoorah” before we head into Lent. And since the parades pass right in front of our house in Metairie, we joined in the fun today, along with some of our friends…   There was food, and lots of beads!!

The people were happy to see us joining in the celebration…. right before Lent begins...

Traditionally Lent calls for 3 practices: prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Prayer to help us be more focused on Christ who is our Way to the Father, fasting to help our bodies share in the sufferings of Christ, and almsgiving to draw our attention to those in need. And all of this is done as a preparation for the celebration of the Paschal Mystery, the very center point of our faith; the “source and summit” of the Christian life as Vatican II states…

Celebrating the eve of lent New Orleans style

And so we put aside our Mardi Gras beads and King Cake, and turn our faces to the Cross, and to the One who hangs there: our Master and Lord, who is Way, Truth and Life.

Prayer
Prayer nourishes our intelligence, stirs up our awareness, stimulates and strengthens the will.  What follows is greater generosity in our daily commitments. Blessed Alberione

Fasting
Rather than forecasting the future of the world and society on the basis of more or less solid arguments, let us contribute to the building up and reconstruction of society in Christ through our silence and our work. Blessed Alberione

Almsgiving
Let us learn from the Divine master how to direct our heart, how to love the Lord, how to love people.  let us acquire from the Divine Master His virtures: docility, industriousness, charity, patience and all the virtures that He exercised in His private life. Blessed Alberione

Blessed Alberione & Lenten Penance

Baptism of the Christ
 Artist Daniel Bonnell

In Hebrew, the verb to sacrifice means, literally, “to draw near”. It is not up to us to renounce our lives, but it is up to us to draw near to the Lord.

Don Guido. SSP

"Few spiritual teachers have presented  positive penance as much as Blessed James Alberione. For him all was oriented toward “....developing one’s energies and putting them at the service of the glory of God and for souls: teaching, the sacraments, dedicating oneself to the evangelization...”[1] So what is penance for Father Alberione? “It is an interior struggle, an effort to keep oneself far from sin and to progress in virtue. It is renunciation, detachment, a crucifixion, dying to self; at the same time, it is a conquest, an elevation, a new life, a true sanctification, a resurrection, an upright command of oneself, an education for the will, a setting out of the soul towards Heaven. The person puts good in the place of sin.[2] This is a marvelous synthesis the Founder proposes to us: distancing ourselves from sin while progressing in virtue; renunciation and rising to new life; crucifixion and new life; interior death and resurrection. They are opposites that follow a unique dynamic: not to obtain emptiness, but to reach fullness of life.

   Let us remain in communion of prayer, often using the invocation used by the Founder “O most sacred hearts of Jesus and Mary, grant me the grace to better know you, love you, imitate you. I offer you my heart, that it may always be yours”. [5]

 “The value of our sacrifice is determined not only by what we renounce, but also by the end for which the renunciation is destined. In Hebrew, the verb to sacrifice means, literally, “to draw near”. It is not up to us to renounce our lives, but it is up to us to draw near to the Lord.”[6]  May the Spirit give us the perseverance to walk in newness of life so we can live in God.

---

[1] San Paolo January, 1951

[2] G. Alberione  Brief Meditations for Every Day of the Year (BM) pp 252 ff.

[3] G. Alberione, Brief Meditations for Every Day of the year (BM) p 255

[4] See pages 252-265 of Brief Meditations for those given by the Founder on “mortification”.

[5] Cf, Pauline Prayer Book, page 180 ~Way of the Cross, 4^th Station

[6] Abraham J. Heschel, God in Search of Man  (Borla Press in Italian)

Meet Christin Jezak, Pauline Cooperator in Los Angeles

Christin in the Studio
http://www.veengle.com/s/Jezak.html

Christin as Mother Teresa

Christin Jezak began her formation as a Pauline Cooperator in Boston.  She is originally from Fall River and she moved to Los Angeles in the summer of 2011.  Christin made her Promise as a Pauline Cooperator on August 26, 2012 in the chapel of the Daughters of St Paul in Culver City.  Christin is an actress.  She enjoys the opportunities to share the Pauline Charism with people who work in the movie industry in Hollywood.  She invites them to join her at the monthly “Movie Bible Nights” hosted by the Daughters of St Paul at the Pauline Center for Media Studies in Culver City.

Christin's Person to Person Theatre
http://www.p2ptheatre.com/fr_home.cfm

Seven Pauline Novices in India
receive their habit before first vows.

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