Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
Today the Church celebrates Our Lady of Guadalupe. In most countries it is an optional memorial. Here in the Diocese of Meath in Ireland today is the Feast of St Finnian, the patron saint of the diocese and so Our Lady of Guadalupe isn't celebrated liturgically at all. Under that title Our Lady is a secondary patron of the Philippines, since the country was originally part of the Archdiocese of Mexico.
The Daily Meditation published in Magnificat and online by Aleteia today is by the Servant of God Luis María Martínez who died in 1956 when he was Archbishop of Mexico. Here is the first part of it.
The Incomparable Love
of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Do we remember the first word that the Blessed Virgin pronounced on the summit of the Tepeyac? It was a word of love, a word of incomparable predilection: “My son Juan Diego, whom I love tenderly as a delicate little one.”
The Virgin did not just speak that word then, for she continues to speak it and will speak it until the end of time. It is necessary to repeat it: We are Juan Diego. He is not only the poor, unfortunate individual who looked at the hill filled with light, who contemplated the heavenly face of Mary, who heard her maternal and most sweet word as music from the heavens. We are Juan Diego. He is four centuries old. He will live until the end of time. And to the immortal Juan Diego Our Lady says: “My son whom I love tenderly as a delicate little one.” Do we feel the exquisite sweetness, the heavenly softness of that word of love?… The love of the Holy Virgin was not fleeting. It is not like the affections of our fickle heart, which change, fade, and suffer eclipses. No, the love of the Virgin is like the love of God. What Mary loved she continues to love….
The video was made in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City
The fifth stanza has these beautiful words:
Oh Virgen de Guadalupe, Oh Madre del Salvador, tu vientre, jardín sagrado, prepara la eterna flor. Mujer de la nueva alianza: restaura la creación.
O Virgin of Gudalupe!
O Mother of the Saviour!
Your womb, sacred garden
prepares the Eternal Flower.
Woman of the Eternal Covenant,
restore creation.
In the miraculous image of Mary on St Juan Diego's tilma (cloak), now framed in the basilica in Mexico City, she is pregnant, as indicated by the black sash around her waist. This was the custom of pregnant Aztec women. She is venerated especially as Patroness of the Unborn, [see here also] along with their mothers.
I'm certain that she protects their fathers too, ignored by those who want women to be able to have their children aborted and too often forgotten by those who fight to protect the lives of unborn children and their children. And the Prayer to Our Lady of Guadalupe on the website of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops doesn't forget them.
Virgin of Guadalupe,
Patroness of unborn children,
we implore your intercession
for every child at risk of abortion.
Help expectant parents to welcome
from God
the priceless gift of their child’s life.
Console parents
who have lost that gift
through abortion,
and lead them to forgiveness and healing
through the Divine Mercy of your Son.
Teach us to
cherish
and to care for family and friends
until God calls them home.
Help us never to see others as burdens.
Guide our public
officials
to defend each and every human life
through just laws.
Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life,
to speak for those who have no voice.
We ask this in
the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself.
Amen.
Las Mañanitas
The Spanish title of this Mexican song literally means, I
think, 'The Little Mornings'. It is sung as an early morning birthday greeting.
At the end of the Mass in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on her feast day
everyone sings it, facing the image of La Virgen.
The May-June 2013 issue of Misyon, the Columban magazine of the Columbans in the Philippines of which I was editor, published A Visit to Tepeyac, Mexico by Vissia Hernandez who lives in Metro Manila.
Patroness of the Americas, of Mexico, of Unborn Children and Secondary Patroness of the Philippines
The Story of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Opening
Prayer of the Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe
O God, Father of
mercies, who placed your people
under the singular protection of your Son’s most holy Mother, grant that all who
invoke the Blessed Virgin of Guadalupe, may seek with ever more
lively faith the progress of people
in the way of justice and of peace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns
with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
Las Mañanitas a la Virgen
de Guadalupe - Basilica de Guadalupe 2012
Las Mañanitas is a Mexican birthday song, sung very early in the morning to the celebrant. Every year after the solemn Mass on her feast day in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe some of Mexico's top singers and musicians face the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe on the tilma (cloak) of St Juan Diego and serenade her with Las Mañanitas.
Virgin
of Guadalupe,
Patroness of unborn children,
we implore your intercession
for every child at risk of abortion.
Help expectant parents to welcome from God
the priceless gift of their child’s life.
Console parents who have lost that
gift
through abortion,
and lead them to forgiveness and healing
through the Divine Mercy of your Son.
Teach us to cherish
and to care for family and friends
until God calls them home.
Help us never to see others as burdens.
Guide our public officials
to defend each and every human life
through just laws.
Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life,
to speak for those who have no voice.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself.
Amen.
Jesus, full of the Holy
Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate
nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished.The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command
this stone to become a loaf of bread.”Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does
not live by bread alone.’”
Then the devilled him
up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.And the devilsaid to
him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been
given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please.If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”Jesus
answered him, “It is written,
‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”
Then the deviltook
him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him,
“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’
and
‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a
stone.’”
Jesus answered him, “It
is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”When the devil had finished every test,
he departed from him until an opportune time.
Kyrie eleison, and Intercessions in different languages
Taizé - Pilgrimage of Trust in Rome Prayer presided by Holy Father Benedict XVI
St Peter's Square, 29 December 2012
I first posted this reflection on 14 February 2013 just after Pope Benedict had announced that he was stepping down. I can't help reflecting on this gospel in the light of Pope Benedict's announcement last Monday when he said, Well aware of the seriousness of this act, with full freedom I declare that I renounce the ministry of Bishop of Rome.
When the devil tempts Jesus with the promise of glory and power Jesus quotes from Scripture, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
Tomb of St Gregory the Great, St Peter's, Rome [Wikipedia]
In an audience in 2008 speaking about St Gregory the Great, who reluctantly had become Pope Gregory I, Pope Benedict said, Recognizing the will of God in what had happened, the new Pontiff immediately and enthusiastically set to work. From the beginning he showed a singular enlightened vision of the reality with which he had to deal, an extraordinary capacity for work confronting both ecclesial and civil affairs, a constant and even balance in making decisions, at times with courage, imposed on him by his office.
The following day Pope Benedict said, Gregory remained a simple monk in his heart and therefore was decidedly opposed to great titles. He wanted to be—and this is his expression—servus servorum Dei. Coined by him, this phrase was not just a pious formula on his lips but a true manifestation of his way of living and acting. He was intimately struck by the humility of God, who in Christ made himself our servant. He washed and washes our dirty feet. Therefore, he was convinced that a Bishop, above all, should imitate this humility of God and follow Christ in this way. His desire was to live truly as a monk, in permanent contact with the Word of God, but for love of God he knew how to make himself the servant of all in a time full of tribulation and suffering. He knew how to make himself the “servant of the servants.” Precisely because he was this, he is great and also shows us the measure of true greatness.
Pope Benedict, Zagreb, Croatia, June 2011[Wikipedia]
Pope Benedict points out that it was his reluctant predecessor who coined the phrase that has become one of the titles that goes with the papacy, Servus servorum Dei, 'Servant of the servants of God'.
The call to be pope is a call to serve. Canon law, No 332, allows for the possibility of a pope to step down. But until now no pope has taken that step for 598 years and the previous few instances of it happening have been surrounded by controversy.
Blessed John Paul II wrote a letter of resignation in 1989 to be implemented in very specific situations that might arise. But he chose to remain pope until his death, despite his increasing incapacity in the last couple of years. Many of us were moved by his last public appearance on Easter Sunday 2005, six days before his death, when this once very athletic man with a powerful voice could only stand at his window and give a wordless blessing. Was his temptation to leave office, a temptation that with God's grace he didn't yield to?
Was the temptation of Pope Benedict to cling on to his office of service when he judged that he wasn't capable of doing so? Did he, with God's grace, refuse to yield to that temptation?
None of us can ever fully know the depths of another person. But we can be touched by the actions of others.
Was it part of Blessed John Paul's vocation to teach us the value of suffering in old age, the value of accepting infirmity and disability, to refuse to yield to the temptation not to serve any more?
Is it part of Pope Benedict's vocation to teach us the value of letting go of authority in order to allow another to exercise that same God-given authority in serving the Church and the world?
Many adult children and their parents are faced with choices such as Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict have faced. It can be a source of great anguish when it is clear that an older parent needs full-time care, the kind of care that their adult children cannot give, the kind of care that means their leaving home. I have never been faced with this situation as my mother died suddenly at 55 and my father at 74. But friends have told me of their suffering in this situation.
As National Director of the rosary apostolate for almost sixty years, I realise that I had made a name for myself in certain quarters and that I had, as it were, built up a little kingdom of my own. Then one day I heard the news, that I was no longer to be in control. A big white van came down from the North to clear everything out of what was once my office, my home, my sanctuary to establish the Rosary Centre elsewhere. I confess that I felt angry. Like so many at this time of recession who find themselves redundant, or like those who have to move aside to let the young take over, I went through a process of grieving. I confess that I failed to recognise the times, or come to terms with my own declining years.
In the midst of a time of darkness, it was the Lord's own prayer that helped me. Unable to run around the country anymore preaching to the crowds, I took time to walk up and down the Gethsemane back-garden of a dear friend who understood my predicament. As I would begin the Our Father, it would slowly dawn on me, that it was not my name that mattered or my kingdom that had to be preserved . . .
We will be without a Holy Father for some weeks because at 8pm Roman time on 28 February Pope Benedict XVI will renounce the papacy. Before Easter, God willing, we will have a new Holy Father. [Pope Francis was elected on 13 March 2013.]
Lent is a time of prayer, penance and renewal for the whole Church and for each member, a time to prepare to celebrate the great Feast of Easter, the Resurrection of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Pope Benedict's decision 'sharpens' all of this for us. A time of renewal is also a time of gratitude. We can thank God for Pope Benedict's gentle ministry, one in which he kept reminding us that our faith is in a Person, Jesus Christ, God who became Man.
This Lent is a time for earnest prayer that each of the cardinals who will assemble in March in Rome to elect a new pope will desire to be fully open to the Holy Spirit so that the one they choose will be the one whom God wills to be our new Holy Father. Let us pray that they will not be tempted to see the election as anything other than a searching for God's will as to who should be the next Servus servorum Dei, 'Servant of the servants of God'.
Fr Kevin Mullins is a Columban from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, who has worked in Chile and in Britain. For the past seventeen years he has been in Corpus Christi Parish, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, USA. The parish, along with a presence in El Paso, is part of the Columban Border Ministries of the Region of the United States. Sainiana Tamatawale, a Columban Lay Missionary from Fiji is also in Corpus Christi Parish. Monika Lewatikana, another Fijian Columban Lay Missionary, worked in the parish for some years but is now on the Columban Border Ministries team in El Paso.
On Wednesday 17 February Pope Francis will visit Ciudad Juárezand celebrate Mass near its border with the USA.
A news report about Fr Kevin Mullins on 7 News, Australia, 2012
Fr Mullins has written about his experience in the March-April 2014 issue of MISYONonline.com. Read Tears and Light in Juarez. He also had an article in the July-August 2012 issue: Executions - a Common Event.
The feast day of Blessed Miguel Pro SJ is celebrated in Mexico and the USA on 23 November, which is also the feast of St Columban. Below is an article we published in MISYON, now MISYONonline.com, the magazine of the Missionary Society of St Columban in the Philippines of which I have been editor since October 2002.
I first learned about Blessed Miguel Pro back in 1955 when the Irish Independent had a special supplement to celebrate 50 years of the paper's existence. The supplement had a photo of an important event in each year of the paper's existence. The one they used for 1927 was the photo below taken just before Blessed Miguel was executed by firing squad, the moment when with crucifix in one hand and his rosary beads in the other he said very clearly, Viva Cristo Rey - Long Live Christ the King. That photo is the only one I remember from that supplement and it stimulated my interest in this great priest.
A contemporary martyr-priest, also 36 when he was murdered, is Iraqi priest Fr Ragheed Ganni, about whom I have written here a number of times, most recently last July.
Fr Ragheed Ganni (left)
(20 January 1972 - 3 June 2007)
Sister Mariana came to the Philippines in 2000. She is a member of the Hermanas Guadalupanas de la Salle founded in Mexico in 1946 by Brother Juan Fromental Coyroche, a De La Salle Brother from France. The Sisters follow the charism of St John Baptist De La Salle and are involved in the promotion of Christian Education. Their spirituality in the service of God inspires them to look to Our Lady of Guadalupe in her role as evangelizer of the people they serve. They arrived in the Philippines in 1984. Other countries in which they work include Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Italy, Madagascar, Peru and Thailand.
Martyr: we have often heard the deep meaning of this word. Witness: to suffer for the God who has kept you alive, and, if required, to give up your life also. The word makes us recall the Witness par excellence: Jesus Christ. The word ‘martyr’ recalls for us the many believers in the early Church who, rather than give up their faith and to show their love, trust and faith in God, faced death.
But here is a modern witness, facing his killers wearing a suit and tie. It’s November 23, 1927, during the religious persecution in Mexico. He is Father Miguel Agustin Pro SJ.
Pursuing his vocation
José Ramon Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez was born on 13 January 1891 in Guadalupe, Mexico, one of 11 children of Don Miguel and Josefa. As a child he had been dangerously ill for a year. Don Miguel held his son before an image of La Virgen de Guadalupe and said, ‘Madre mia, give me back my son.’ Despite not being particularly religious young Miguel found his vocation at 20 and entered the Jesuits despite his fragile health, which meant more suffering. His vocation involved leaving his loving family behind, fleeing to foreign lands, strange languages and customs, as he couldn’t study in Mexico because of the persecution. He studied in the USA, in Nicaragua, Spain and Belgium where he was ordained in 1925.
Father Pro had a number of operations for a bad stomach. He also suffered because of his concern for his family who went through great financial hardship during the persecution. His superiors assigned him to work at home in 1926.
His sense of humor
Returning to Mexico he showed with passion that he understood the words ‘The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.’ He knew well that any priest found propagating Catholicism could face the death penalty. Many were executed. But we see something really special in Father Pro – his ability to inject into his adventures the cheerfulness that characterized him: one word, one gesture was many times enough to see him escape from the police. In spite of the danger he never lost his sense of humor which he saw as a gift from God. As a child he was musical and a practical joker.
His disguise
Earthly powers weren’t able to stop his priestly zeal. His cheerfulness made him try one and another way of deceiving the detectives assigned to detect violators of the law. He wore many disguises in order to administer the sacraments, celebrate Mass or lead a recollection. There’s a photo of him dressed as a mechanic. On one occasion on his way to anoint an old person he spotted the detectives. A young Catholic woman whom he knew happened to pass by. He linked arms with her and the police thought they were sweethearts.
Persecution of the Church
Meantime, the persecution continued. Churches were closed, Catholic schools suppressed, convents expropriated, religious communities persecuted. So many priests, religious, lay persons died. This was Mexico, the land Our Lady visited on 1531 in her apparition to the indigenous St Juan Diego. It seemed that this land had changed its patron. But the blood of martyrs is the seed of new Christians, and the execution of hundreds was not enough to eradicate the Catholic faith from Mexican soil.
Sentenced to death
Now it was the moment Divine Providence destined for Father Pro to bear the supreme testimony of his faith. In November 1927, the authorities arrested Father Pro, along with his brothers Humberto and Roberto. The government authorities linked them to an assassination attempt on the presidential candidate General Álvaro Obregón through an old car that had once belonged to Humberto. (General Obregón had been president from 1920 to 1924 when he was replaced by his ally Plutarco Elías Calles who was the real power. General Obregón was assassinated after being re-elected in 1928.) The authorities were well aware that the brothers were innocent. But because they considered Catholic priests their enemies, the government saw in Padre Miguel and his brothers the perfect scapegoats. Without due process or trial, they sentenced them to death.
The government had a photographer to cover the execution to show up Catholics as cowards. The photos had the opposite effect and later the government made it a crime to possess them.
Martyr’s death
Father Miguel was given a couple of minutes to pray before his execution. He rejected the traditional blindfold and said to the firing squad, ‘May God have mercy on you. May God bless you. Lord, you know that I am innocent. With all my heart I forgive my enemies.’ Serene, he stretched out his arms in the form of a cross, holding a rosary in his left hand, a crucifix in his right. With his last breath he said quietly but clearly, ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ ‘Long live Christ the King!’ This cry was the assurance that the persecuted and suffering Church of Mexicans was owned by Christ its King.
The testimony of his life
The effect of the news was the opposite to what the government had expected. Thousands turned out for the funeral of Father Miguel and his brother Humberto — Roberto had been released. An old blind woman in the crowd who came to touch his body left with her sight restored. The fervor of the Catholic faithful grew stronger and their fear lessened because of the testimony of the martyrdom of this man of God, this committed priest, selfless in his generous ministry of the Word and the Sacraments; a creative, fun-loving joker, despite his serious demeanor in photos.
Sometime before his death he said to a friend that if he came upon any somber-looking saints in heaven, he’d do the Mexican Hat Dance to cheer them up. How well he used his gifts to live and die with passion for Christ and his Gospel. May we find in this witness, an inspiration to see that it is possible to live our faith with creativity and face the challenges of modern times in a concrete, loving way.
