Friday, September 7, 2012 - Litany Lane Blog:
Lucid, Psalms 37,Luke 5:33-39, Blessed Eugenia Picco, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Lucid, Psalms 37,Luke 5:33-39, Blessed Eugenia Picco, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
Good Day Bloggers!
Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!
P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Something Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.
We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have
flaws but we also all have the gift knowledge and free will as well,
make the most of it. Life on earth is a stepping to our eternal home in
Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to
eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and
survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes
from this earth to Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual
gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...
"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012
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Today's Word: lucid lu·cid [loo-sid]
Origin: 1575–85; < Latin lūcidus, equivalent to lūc-, stem of lūx light1 + -idus -id4
adjective
1. easily understood; completely intelligible or comprehensible: a lucid explanation.
2. characterized by clear perception or understanding; rational or sane: a lucid moment in his madness.
3. shining or bright.
4. clear; pellucid; transparent.
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Today's Old Testament Reading - Psalms 37:3-4, 5-6, 27-28, 39-40
3 Put your trust in Yahweh and do right, make your home in the land and live secure.4 Make Yahweh your joy and he will give you your heart's desires.
5 Commit your destiny to Yahweh, be confident in him, and he will act,
6 making your uprightness clear as daylight, and the justice of your cause as the noon.
27 Turn your back on evil and do good, you will have a home for ever,
28 for Yahweh loves justice and will not forsake his faithful. Evil-doers will perish eternally, the descendants of the wicked be annihilated,
39 The upright have Yahweh for their Saviour, their refuge in times of trouble;
40 Yahweh helps them and rescues them, he will rescue them from the wicked, and save them because they take refuge in him.
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Today's Gospel Reading - Luke 5:33-39
The disciples said to Jesus, ‘John’s
disciples are always fasting and saying prayers, and the disciples of
the Pharisees, too, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus
replied, ‘Surely you cannot make the bridegroom’s attendants fast while
the bridegroom is still with them? But the time will come when the
bridegroom is taken away from them; then, in those days, they will
fast.’ He also told them a parable, ‘No one tears a piece from a new
cloak to put it on an old cloak; otherwise, not only will the new one be
torn, but the piece taken from the new will not match the old. ‘And
nobody puts new wine in old wineskins; otherwise, the new wine will
burst the skins and run to waste, and the skins will be ruined. No; new
wine must be put in fresh skins. And nobody who has been drinking old
wine wants new. “The old is good,” he says.’
Reflection
• In today’s Gospel we witness closely
a conflict between Jesus and the religious authority of the time, the
Scribes and the Pharisees (Lk 5, 3). This time the conflict is
concerning the practice of fasting. Luke narrates diverse conflicts
concerning the religious practice of the time: forgiveness of sins (Lk
5, 21-25), to eat with sinners (Lk 5, 29-32), fasting (Lk 5, 33-36), and
two conflicts on the observance of Saturday, the Sabbath (Lk 6, 1-5 and
Lk 6, 6-11).
• Luke 5, 33: Jesus does not insist on the practice of fasting. The conflict here is concerning the practice of fasting. Fasting is a very ancient use, practiced by almost all religions. Jesus Himself followed it during forty days (Mt 4, 2). But he does not insist with the disciples that they do the same. He leaves them free. This is why, the disciples of John the Baptist and of the Pharisees, who were obliged to fast, want to know why Jesus does not insist on fasting.
• Luke 5, 34-35: When the bridegroom is with them they are not obliged to fast. Jesus responds with a comparison. When the bridegroom is with the friends of the bridegroom, that is, during the wedding feast, they should not fast. Jesus considers himself the bridegroom. During the time when Jesus is with the disciples, it is the wedding feast. One day will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then if they wish they can fast. Jesus refers to his death. He knows and he is aware that if he wants to continue along this path of liberty, the authority will want to kill him.
Several times, in the Old Testament, God presents himself as the bridegroom of the people (Is 49, 15; 54, 5.8; 62, 4-5; Os 2, 16-25). In the New Testament, Jesus is considered the bridegroom of his people (Ep 5, 25). The Apocalypses speaks of the celebration of the marriage of the Lamb with his spouse, the Heavenly Jerusalem (Rv 19, 7-8; 21, 2.9).
• Luke 5, 36-39: New Wine in new skins! These words pronounced concerning the new piece of cloth on an old cloak and about new wine in old skins should be understood like a light which gives clarity on diverse conflicts, narrated by Luke, first and after the discussions concerning fasting. They clarify the attitude of Jesus concerning all the conflicts with the religious authority. Today, these would be conflicts such as: marriage between divorced persons, friendship with prostitutes and homosexuals, to receive communion without being married by the Church, not to go to Mass on Sunday, not to fast on Good Friday, etc.
A piece of new cloth is not sewed on an old cloak; because when it is washed the new piece of cloth shrinks and tears the old cloak more. Nobody puts new wine in old skins, because the new wine when it is fermented makes the old skins burst. New wine in new skins! The religion diffused by the religious authority was like an old cloak, like an old skin. It is not necessary to want to combine the novelty brought by Jesus with old customs or uses. Either one or the other! The new wine which Jesus brings bursts the old skins. It is necessary to know how to separate both of these things. Very probably, Luke gives these words of Jesus to orientate the communities of the years 80. There was a group of Christian Jews who wanted to reduce the novelty of Jesus to the Judaism of the beginning. Jesus is not against what is “ancient”. But he does not want the ancient to be imposed on the new, preventing it from manifesting itself. It would be as if the Catholic Church reduced the message of Vatican Council II to the Church before the Council, like many persons today seem to want to do it.
Personal questions
• Which are the conflicts about
religious practices which cause suffering to persons today and are the
cause of much discussion and polemics? Which is the subjacent image of
God in all these preconceptions, norms and prohibitions?
• How can we understand today the phrase of Jesus: “do not put a new piece of cloth on an old cloak? Which is the message which you can draw from this for your life and for the life of the community?
• How can we understand today the phrase of Jesus: “do not put a new piece of cloth on an old cloak? Which is the message which you can draw from this for your life and for the life of the community?
Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.
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Featured Item of the Day from Litany Lane
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Saint of the Day: Blessed Eugenia Picco
Feast Day: September 7
1867 - 1921
Beatified By: 7 October 2001 by Pope John Paul II
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| Blesses Eugenia Picco |
Anna Eugenia Picco was born in the little town of
Crescenzago, in the district of Milan, on 8 November 1867, the daughter
of the famous musician, Giuseppe Picco, and of Adelaide Del Corno.
Eugenia was raised mainly by her grandparents and saw her parents only
for brief intervals between tours, until one day when her mother
returned alone, without her husband, giving Eugenia to believe him to be
dead. After the mysterious disappearance of her father, she
remained with her mother and grew up in an irreligious and morally
corrupt environment.
"Dangers and occasions at home and outside", Eugenia
said when recalling those troubled years and that "instinctive" strength
to pray, to raise her gaze on high, in the silence of the austere
Basilica of St Ambrose where each day she would go to pray to God,
almost without knowing him. One evening in May 1886, Eugenia felt a call
to sanctity and from that moment on she aimed at perfection with a
faithful readiness without turning back. Thus at the age of 20, Eugenia
decided to seek Jesus and to be holy.
Providentially, the founder of the Congregation of the Little Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus
and Mary was already in Milan. He was tied by a long time friendship to
the Ursuline Sisters in Milan, to whom Eugenia had confided her desire
to become a religious sister. One of these sisters asked Don Chieppi to
receive Eugenia into his congregation. In 1887, Eugenia ran away from
home and was immediately accepted, understood and loved by the founder
of the congregation, the Venerable Servant of God
Agostino Chieppi. On 26 August 1888 she began her novitiate in Parma,
Italy; on 10 June 1891 she made her first profession in the hands of the
founder and, in 1894, she made her solemn profession.
After her profession, she accepted some important
offices, such as novice mistress, archivist, general secretary and
member of the council. As Superior General, from 1911 until her death,
she showed excellent governing skills and joyfully undertook to fulfil
her duties as well as tasks in the social field, mainly during the First
World War. She was a courageous woman and greatly enriched the
spiritual and cultural formation of the sisters, always faithful to her
life programme which was "Suffer, be silent, love". She joyfully
accomplished her duties as Superior General with serene and tranquil
perfection, in order to carry out God's will.
She was a mother to all especially to the poorest, the
little ones, the lowly ones whom she served with generous and tireless
charity. The needs and tragedies of her brothers created by World War I,
1915-1918, opened her heart even more to receive every cry, pain and
social or individual concern.
The Eucharist
was Eugenia's main support, the vital fulcrum of her interior life and
of all her work and apostolic activity; it was her great love, the
centre of her piety, the food, comfort and joy of her days filled with prayer
and fatigue. Christ instilled in her his zeal for the salvation of
souls, his burning desire to lead all to the House of the Father. It was
her constant love for Christ, burning within her, that explains her
constant charitable activity.
Of weak health, due to a degenerative bone condition,
which in 1919 led to the amputation of her right lower limb, she offered
herself, willingly, for the accomplishment of God's plan, ready for
every immolation, remaining always a smiling friend of Christ, her
brethren and the world.
This dynamism which concentrated all of her desires, all
of her will on God, this firm resolution to tend to perfection
expressed by a life of mortification, purity, obedience, heroism of
virtuous works, living the most humble ordinary things in an
extraordinary way, was the climate of Sr Eugenia Picco's life.
On 7 September 1921, she died in the odour of sanctity.
Sr Eugenia was seen by all as an example of extraordinary virtue and as a
model of piety, prudence, zeal and spirit of sacrifice, as well as a
wise teacher.
Biography provided by the Vatican.
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Today's Snippet : Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary
The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary are a group of Religious Sisters who were established in London, England, in 1903. There they are commonly known as the Chigwell Sisters. In collaboration with their associates, auxiliaries, co-workers and volunteers, the Sisters work with the poor of the world, both to identify and transform underlying causes of suffering and to meet their practical needs
Origins
The congregation has its origin in the French religious institute of the Sisters Servants of the Sacred Heart, founded by the Abbé Peter-Victor Braun in Paris in 1866. Braun, who was a native of Saint-Avold in the Lorraine region,
had moved there to meet the spiritual needs of the people of his region
who were flocking from the farms to the capital at the height of the Industrial Revolution in France to find work. He became a regular confessor at the famed Basilica of Our Lady of Victories in Paris.
In the course of his ministry,
Braun also served in a seedy quarter of the city where he became aware
of the struggle of the young women there who had come as unskilled
workers, especially when they were not able to find work in the
factories. He also saw single mothers struggling to survive with their
children. With the help of a small group of volunteers he opened a
hostel where the young women could find a refuge and place of support.
He also opened a day care center
so that mothers could find employment by which they could support their
families. Additionally home visits were done by his volunteer ladies to
the residences of the sick poor to care for them in their need.
By October 1866, Braun had reluctantly concluded that the work had to be entrusted to an congregation of professed
Religious Sisters in order to guarantee its continuity. Thus he
established three of these volunteers as a religious congregation under
the leadership of a Bavarian woman, Anna Katharina Berger, who had come to Paris already a member of a community of Franciscan Sisters founded by the Blessed Paul Joseph Nardini in Pirmasens. She was appointed by Braun as Mother Superior of the small community under the name Mother Mary Odilia.
Braun expressed his vision for the congregation in these words:
The purpose of our congregation is to bring the love and compassion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to all those we meet in our service of love.
Revolution and exile
The sudden outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 caused a major change in the future of the small congregation. Rumors of anti-Catholic atrocities by the Paris Commune
caused a group of the Sisters to flee to England for safety. They were
followed by a larger group, who brought with them Braun, who was
suffering from shock due to having ministered at the battlefront.
Because of her nationality, the co-founder, Mother Odilia, was forced to
return to her native Germany.
The refugees were warmly received by Cardinal Henry Edward Manning, the Archbishop of Westminster, who gave them a small house in the Stratford area of the city. The Sisters quickly established themselves in the East End of London
where they began again their mission of helping struggling workers and
their families. Their numbers in England grew, and the Sisters began to
serve in Scotland and Wales, where they provided medical care in mining
towns. They also opened schools where they taught the local children.
They began the tradition of the entire community going out on weekends
to visit the Catholic homes of the area.
Separation
After the upheavals of the Franco-Prussian War, and the subsequent
uprisings, with the establishment of peace in France by the late 1870s,
some of the French Sisters returned to their homeland. They
re-established the congregation there and its work.
After a generation, however, differences in vision began to emerge
between the English and French Sisters. Under the advice of Cardinal Herbert Vaughan,
in 1902 the majority of Sisters in England elected to separate from the
Servants of the Sacred Heart and to form a new congregation. They took
the name the congregation now bears at its formal establishment on 3
March 1903.
The Motherhouse of the new congregation was established in the London suburb of Chigwell, from which the Sisters are popularly known in England. Sister Winifride Tyrrell, born near Monasterevin in Ireland, who had served for many years as a principal in the Mile End neighborhood of London, was elected as the first Superior General.
Expansion
Under the guidance of Mother Winifride the early Sisters served the poor in industrial cities, towns and villages throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Their first Irish foundation was made in Cork in 1922, followed by Cardiff in Wales.
In the mid-1950s the congregation was established in the United States, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and in Zambia. At the start of the 21st century, the Sisters started to serve war-ravaged populations in Colombia and El Salvador. In 2001 they embarked on providing computer literacy to the street children of Cebu in the Philippines. The following year they began caring for AIDS patients in Kampala, Uganda.
Projects are developed to meet local needs. In general terms these
are aimed at the education and welfare of children and training and
health education for adults.
The congregation has now formed an association with both the French
mother congregation and another offshot based in Austria called the Federation of the Sacred Heart. It has the approval of the Holy See.
In 1939 the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts took over the Priory of St. Augustine, in Old Colwyn, Wales--originally built as a hotel--from a community of Augustinian nuns. They used it as a house of rest and nursing care for themselves. In 2010, the Congregation opened it as a House of Prayer open to all.
Mission Statement
We, Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, urged by the compassion of Christ and responsive to the anguish of peoples and planet, are called to help shape communities of gentleness, justice and peace that witness to the healing, liberating and empowering love of God.
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