Celebrating Mother Cabrini

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follow God's spirit, missionary, Mother Cabrini, serve God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Born in Italy in 1850, Maria Francesca Cabrini was the youngest of thirteen children in a family where only four of the thirteen survived to adulthood. Although prepared with a teaching certificate (cum laude) she was considered too frail for the religious life by the Sisters who had been her teachers. Had someone been privy to her inner strength and to her wish to serve God in China and India, she might have become famous for missionary work in the East. The story goes that during her childhood on visits to her priest uncle “she made little boats of paper, dropped violets in them, called the flowers ‘missionaries,’ and launched them in the waters of a nearby swiftly flowing canal to sail off to India and China.” (see http://www.saintoftheday.org) That was not to be for her, however, as her life unfolded.

Having been rejected by the Daughters of the Sacred Heart in Arluno, Italy, as too frail, she eventually became headmistress of an orphanage where she taught and drew a small community of women to live in the manner of a religious community. This group became the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, led by “Mother Cabrini” who wrote the Rule and Constitutions of the community and remained the superior general until her death.

Her desire to be a missionary to China had never waned. At the age of 37 years, she went to seek the approval of Pope Leo XIII to establish missions in China. The Pope urged her instead in a different direction. “Not to the East but to the West” was his advice and so Mother Cabrini went with her Sisters to New York City where life was not easy and the work was overwhelming, serving the Italian immigrants by establishing catechism and education classes as well as providing for the many orphans who had recently arrived in the City.

By the end of her life Mother Cabrini had established institutions across the United States, and in countries throughout Latin America and Europe. After her death, the Sisters achieved her goal of sending missionaries to China but that was not to be as she had dreamed. Because of social and religious upheaval, the Sisters withdrew. Her worldwide influence is a testament to her willingness to follow God’s Spirit wherever she was led, even if she needed a little help with her geography!

My Uncle, the Priest

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missionary, Redemptorists, St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although the Jesuits (Society of Jesus – see yesterday’s post) are most likely the best known religious order of men in the USA because of their presence in excellent institutions of higher learning, my familiarity as a young person was with the Redemptorists. The reason is simple; my uncle was a member of that order (the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer), a community dedicated to missionary work and devoted especially to Mary as “Our Mother of Perpetual Help.” While my uncle, Walter Cavanaugh, spent most of his priestly life in the United States, he was missioned to Brazil for a time and his stories of that mission and of his parish in Georgia in mid-20th century, that was described as having only six parishioners, left the cousins wide-eyed in our very young days.

Reflecting on what “missionary work” can mean, I read a quote this morning of St. Alphonsus Liguori, founder of the Redemptorists, that broadened the definition and seemed to fit my uncle’s personality quite well. Alphonsus said: Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with Him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends. As a priest he was known to be “good in the box”—shorthand for his capacity in helping penitents whom he encountered in the confessional and provided with the assurance of God’s abundant love regardless of what they confessed in the encounter.

I don’t know how my uncle chose the Redemptorists rather than the Jesuits, or the Franciscans or the diocesan priesthood and it’s too late now to ask anyone who might have known his motivation. I trust, however, that he was led by God’s Spirit to where he belonged and where he flourished, knowing with confidence, as did St. Alphonsus, that “Your God is beside you —indeed He is even within you.” Whether early in life or late, may all people come to live in that assurance and find themselves in the great love of God.

St. Dominic

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ascetism, charism, charismatic, Dominicans, Gospel, missionary, Order of Preachers, poverty, preach, simplicity, st. dominic, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today is the feast of St. Dominic, another of the great founders of religious communities. Dominic’s religious order is called the Dominicans but the formal title is “Order of Preachers,” thus the sometimes puzzling designation “O.P.” after their names. Dominic was a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi and much like Francis in his asceticism and his desire to spread the Gospel. Reminiscent of the love Francis had for the poor, Dominic sold all of his books to help his neighbors who had survived a great famine. Like Francis, Dominic saw the need for a new type of religious organization, one whose members did not stay behind the cloistered walls of the monastery but rather traveled among the people, in the way of the first apostles, to spread the good news.

I am always in awe, living in the 21st century, to think of these men and others whose mission was to travel far and wide in their day to preach and to battle the great heresies of their times. Dominic was born in 1170 and died in 1221, five years before Francis. Travel was primitive and slow but their vision was vast and both of their communities garnered large numbers of members in the first century of existence.

Thinking of these two charismatic men, my thoughts float back to the sense of charism. Each had a different gift and focus – Francis, “the little poor man of Assisi,” preaching poverty and simplicity in his personal life, shining always with the love of God, and Dominic, powerful preacher of the Word of God in Scripture. Such great complementarity! What gifts to the world that still have an effect today!

In our daily activities and in all our words spoken today, let us mirror God’s action in the world for the good of all!

 

 

 

 

 

It’s in the Genes

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God, heart, Ireland, Lorica of Saint Patrick, missionary, prayer, shamrock, St Patrick's Day, St. Patrick, St. Patrick's Breastplate, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Trinity

St Patrick’s Day (March 17th) has become – in the USA at least – one of those feasts some call “a greeting card holiday.” Shamrocks and other green decorations, store sales, parades and parties abound and last much longer than the actual 24-hour day. It’s quite an interesting phenomenon actually, especially for a country like ours that is such a melting pot of national ancestries. I often wonder what it feels like to folks who have no Irish blood coursing through their veins when they hear the staunchest defenders of this day shout, “Everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day!”

All of that said, and because I am the granddaughter of four Irish immigrants to this country whose love for the land, the history and the faith of the Irish people rests in the very heart of me, I turn today to an ancient prayer of St. Patrick for inspiration. The prayer is reputed to have been written by Patrick, who lived in the 5th century, as a hymn to strengthen himself with God’s protection in his work as a missionary in Ireland. It is long and inclusive of belief in the Trinity, all creatures of heaven and earth and his will to be guided by God in all things. Later translations begin with the words, “I arise today…” but the older, stronger version speaks more clearly to Patrick’s deep desire to be as close as possible to God and to remember God’s presence at all times as he says: “I bind to myself today…” I will not quote the entire prayer but offer the following verses as a witness to the bright side and depth of the heritage that I claim with gratitude and love.

…I bind to myself today the power of Heaven, the light of the sun, the brightness of the moon, the splendor of fire, the flashing of lightning, the swiftness of wind, the depth of the sea, the stability of earth, the compactness of rocks. I bind to myself today God’s power to guide me, God’s might to uphold me, God’s wisdom to teach me, God’s eye to watch over me, God’s ear to hear me, God’s word to give me speech, God’s hand to guide me, God’s way to lie before me, God’s shield to shelter me, God’s host to secure me…Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ at my right, Christ at my left…Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me. I bind to myself today the strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity. I believe the Trinity in the Unity, the Creator of the Universe.

Missionaries

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gift of our time, greater good, helping people, jesuits, joy, listening, Matthew, missionary, preach, sacrifice, St. Francis Xavier, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of the founding tenets of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) is the willingness to go anywhere in the world that there is a call to serve God. A hallmark of this service is the willingness to share the life of the indigenous people, adopting their language and living habits re: food, dress, etc. Today is the feast of St. Francis Xavier, a contemporary of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits in the 1500s. Francis was an academic in Paris who, at the age of 24 took to heart the question of Jesus: What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his [spiritual] life? (MT 16:26) It was Ignatius who asked Francis this question which appears for us in today’s lectionary readings. It took awhile, but Francis eventually joined Ignatius in his new community and after ordination as a priest in 1537 went as a missionary, sailing first to Lisbon and then to the west coast of India serving the poor as one of them wherever he went. He ministered especially to the sick, particularly to lepers, and while he often had no time for sleep or for prayer, his letters testify to the joy that always filled his life. He moved on to Malaysia and Japan, learning Japanese and establishing missions for those who would follow him. Although he dreamed of going to China, he became ill and eventually died on the island of Sancian, a hundred miles southwest of Hong Cong. In 1925 the Catholic Church declared him, with St. Therese of Lisieux, co-patron of the missions.

Commentary from americancatholic.org on this feast says the following: All of us are called to “go and preach to all nations” (see MT 28:19). Our preaching is not necessarily on distant shores but to our families, our children, our husband or wife, our coworkers. And we are called to preach not with our words but with our everyday lives. Only by sacrifice, the giving up of all selfish gain, could Francis Xavier be free to bear the good news to the world. Sacrifice is leaving yourself behind at times for a greater good, the good of prayer, the good of helping someone in need, the good of just listening to another. The greatest gift we have is our time. Francis gave this to others.

Who is waiting for your listening ear today? Who is waiting for mine?