Sisters of the Cenacle

The Church is in the midst of celebrating A Year of Consecrated Life as declared by Pope Francis in 2013.  The Year of Consecrated Life began on November 30, 2014 and ends on February 2, 2016.  It is a time to honor and to celebrate the men and women who live the consecrated life as religious sisters, brothers and priests.

My parish, St. Thomas Aquinas, has enjoyed a long-standing relationship with two religious sisters who are members of The Congregation of Our Lady of the Retreat in the Cenacle, more commonly known as the Cenacle Sisters.  Sister Susan Arcaro and Sister Barbara Young came to Atlanta in the early 1990’s in order to carry out the Cenacle’s particular mission of companioning men and women on their spiritual journeys.  They do this by helping people to recognize the presence of God in their lives through prayer, retreats, days of reflection and spiritual direction.  They began offering spiritual direction to individuals in the Archdiocese of Atlanta here at St. Thomas Aquinas in 1993.  Since then, their ministry has grown.  Today, they regularly visit seven parishes giving spiritual direction to more than 100 people. 

Spiritual direction, according to the Cenacle brochure, is “A privileged moment to reflect with another on your relationship with God and your response to God’s calls as they unfold in your daily life.  The focus of spiritual direction is your life with God as it is lived out in all of your experiences.  It is a process of coming home to your deepest self.”  Sr. Susan says that a person who participates in spiritual direction will typically experience a deeper relationship with God, a more grateful heart because of the awareness of the presence of God in his/her life and a holy longing for more and more God.   For more information on spiritual direction or on the Cenacle Sisters, visit www.cenaclesisters.org or email atlantacenacle@gmail.com.

Pope Francis expressed his expectations for the yearlong observance of consecrated life: That consecrated men and women would be witnesses of communion, of joy and the Gospel, and go evermore to the peripheries to proclaim the Good News. He told those living the consecrated life, "I am counting on you to wake up the world," a maxim that is similar to the mission of the Cencacle Sisters, which says, "We work for the transformation of the world by awakening and deepening faith with and for the people of our times."

Bread for the World

The word companion has its roots in the Latin com, meaning together with, and panis, meaning bread.  To companion someone literally means to break bread with one another.  This is what we do together every time we celebrate the Eucharist.  We break bread together.  The bread we break is no ordinary bread.  It is the body of Jesus, blessed, broken and shared.  Because it is extraordinary food, we who receive it are called to be extraordinary--to love and to serve as Jesus did, in extraordinary ways.  One parish family is doing just that.  Here is their story.

Robin Hagemeyer’s journey began when her daughter Corey went to Malindi, a town on Kenya’s coast, two years ago for a medical internship.  During her stay, she visited an orphanage and was appalled at what she saw:  28 children living in a 3-bedroom house with no clothes eating only five meals a week.   She called her parents who were planning a visit to Kenya and asked them to bring material goods for the children.  Weeks later, Robin and her husband Todd arrived with six suitcases full of supplies.   Once Robin and Todd saw the situation with their own eyes, they knew they had to help.  Since then, the Hagemeyer family, which also includes older sons Eric and Christopher, have helped raised enough money to feed, clothe and educate the now 31 children.  

Robin says she has noticed a huge difference in the children, “It’s really amazing to see the difference a year of real food makes in the life of the kids.  They look entirely different.  They looked almost skeletal when we were there before.  Some of the teeny ones are 7 years old but looked like 3-year olds because they’ve never had any nutrition.  Now their faces are filled out.   They look like real children.  The poverty there is something we can’t imagine.”

Robin says education is the key to counteract the poverty and secure a brighter future. 

Because the public school system in Kenya is unreliable, part of their resources goes to sending all 31 children to private school.  Five of the children attend a STEM boarding school north of Nairobi. (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Robin says the past two years have been life-changing, “I see Jesus in every one of these kids.  If you meet them, it’s hard not to, because they love you unconditionally.  They just want you to be with them.  They just want to know that you care.”  For more information, visit www.homeofhopemalindi.org, or email Robin:  rhagemeyer@mac.com.

Like the Hagemeyers, all of us are called to be blessed, broken and shared.  Today, the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, is a good day for us to ask where and to whom we are called.

Holy, Holy, Holy!

If there is one song that is sure to be sung throughout the world on the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, it is “Holy, Holy, Holy.”  The words of this hymn were written by Reginald Heber (1783-1826), the Anglican Bishop of Calcutta, to be used on this Solemnity.  The tune was written by John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876) and is called NICAEA, named for the Council of Nicaea, the Church’s first ecumenical council.  It was at that council that the Doctrine of the Trinity began to take shape. 

The hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” refers to a part of the Eucharistic Prayer that is normally sung and begins with the line “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts… ”  This part of the Mass, called the Sanctus in Latin, echoes two scripture passages, one from the prophet Isaiah and one from the Book of Revelation:

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple.  Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered.  One cried out to the other:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts! All the earth is filled with his glory!”

Isaiah 6:1-3

The four living creatures, each of them with six wings, were covered with eyes inside and out. Day and night they do not stop exclaiming:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come.” 

Revelation 4:8

Both of these passages portray a vision of heavenly worship.  When we sing the Sanctus, we too participate in this heavenly worship, as the priest’s introduction asserts:  “And so, with Angels and Archangels, with Thrones and Dominions, and with all the hosts and Powers of heaven, we sing the hymn of your glory, as without end we acclaim:  Holy, Holy Holy…”

We participate in the heavenly worship of God by virtue of our baptism.  We are baptized in the name of the Trinity, and are therefore given a share in the life of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  In return, we are called to share that divine life with others, as today’s Gospel testifies: 

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. 

Matthew 28:19-20

A New Experience...

Throughout the Easter season, our newly initiated adults have been engaged in the fourth period of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults called mystagogy, a Greek word meaning “to savor the mysteries.”  Today, the Solemnity of Pentecost, the period of mystagogy comes to a close.  Our newly initiated Catholics, called neophytes, or newly planted, have been reflecting on their journey of faith, especially on what they experienced during the rituals celebrated during Holy Week.  Here are some of their reflections:

Question:  What liturgical/ritual moment stood out for you?

• ·         Holy Thursday brought me back to everything I loved about the Church.  I remembered things from my childhood, including songs sung in Spanish.  Everything came together.  It was like being welcomed with open arms.  God is always there giving me what I need, but I don’t always see it.
• ·         During the foot-washing on Holy Thursday, I felt connected with the group.
• ·         On Good Friday, the meaning of the cross shifted from suffering to salvation.
• ·         Watching the baptisms at the Easter Vigil, I had the sense that we are all in the same family.
• ·         When Monsignor poured water over my head, time stopped.  I saw a bright light.  I felt like the only persons in the room were Monsignor and me.
• ·         The sprinkling rite was like a wake-up call, a spiritual realty check.
• ·         When Monsignor anointed me, I felt relieved.  I felt fresh, a sense of freedom, a new start.
• ·         On Easter Sunday, I felt spiritually clean.  I’m not usually affected by ceremonies, but this will take some time to process.
• ·         All the symbols helped me to see that God is everywhere, in everything.

Question:  How would you sum up your journey of conversion?

• ·         From worry to calm
• ·         From fear to peace
• ·         From focusing on material things to focusing on what is most important
• ·         From complacent faith to active faith

On this feast day, also known as the birthday of the Church, we give thanks to God for bringing forth new life at St. Thomas Aquinas.  We are grateful that God continues to call others into relationship with God’s very self and therefore, with the community of believers. 

Pentecost is a good time to reflect on what a difference our own journey of faith has made in our lives, and then to share it with others.  All of us, whether we have been Catholic for a long time or whether we are new Catholics, are sent forth this day this day to celebrate God’s new life with the world.

Ready for the World

This month, hundreds of thousands of students in high school and college will don their graduation caps and gowns and gather in an auditorium or stadium and listen to a commencement speech that attempts to empower, encourage, motivate, stimulate and inspire.  The best commencement speeches are those that challenge the graduates to think beyond their academic blackboards and hall of ivy.  Here’s a snippet from two addresses given in the last decade:

If you choose to use your status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people whose reality you have helped change. We do not need magic to change the world, we carry all the power we need inside ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.

J.K. Rowling, Harvard University, 2008

What’s worth spending your post-Penn lives trying to do or undo?  It might be something simple.  It might be something as simple as our deep down refusal to believe that every human life has equal worth… …That’s what this degree of yours is, a blunt instrument.  So go forth and build something with it.

Bono, University of Pennsylvania 2004

This week, Catholics around the world will hear what we might call Jesus’ commencement speech, challenging words meant to empower the disciples.

Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.Mark 16:15, Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Our formal education teaches us what we need to make our way in the world.  Jesus teaches us howto love and to serve.  The liturgy also teaches.  It forms us in the ways of being and gives us the tools to live out our faith.   Like a commencement speech, each liturgy sends us forth with challenging words:  “Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.