Vol 12 Issue 51 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
December 21, 2019 ~ Saint Thomas, opn!

1.      What is the Holy Eucharist
2.      Fourth Sunday in Advent
3.      Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini
4.      Family and Marriage
5.      Articles and notices
Dear Reader:

As the readings are rather long, I will save a commentary for Christmas. As always, enjoy the readings provided for your benefit.—The Editor

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WHAT IS THE HOLY EUCHARIST

By Rev. Courtney Edward Krier

The Novus Ordo Missae

Saint Thomas Aquinas, in his Summa Theologica, part III, teaches the following which the Church has not rejected:

Question 60, Art. 7: In the sacraments the words are as the form, and sensible things are as the matter. Now in all things composed of matter and form, the determining principle is on the part of the form . . . Consequently, for the being of a thing the need of a determinate form is prior to the need of determinate matter . . . Since, therefore, in the sacraments determinate sensible things are required, which are as the sacramental matter, much more is there need in them of a determinate form of words.

This accords to what Pope Leo XIII wrote in his papal bull, Apostolicae Curae:

In the Examination of any rite for the effecting and administering of a sacrament, distinction is rightly made between the part which is ceremonial and that which is essential, usually called the matter and form. All know that the sacraments of the New Law, as sensible and efficient signs of invisible grace, ought both to signify the grace they effect, and effect the grace they signify. Although the signification ought to be found in the whole essential rite—that is to say, in the matter and the form—it still pertains chiefly to the form; since the matter is the part which is not determined by itself, but which is determined by the form.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, continues later: Question 64, art. 9: . . . some heretics in conferring sacraments do not observe the form prescribed by the Church; and these confer neither the sacrament nor the reality of the sacrament. And, concerning the words of Consecration: Question 78, Art. 3: Whether this is the proper form for the consecration of the wine: “This is the chalice of My Blood, etc.?

St. Thomas then states two objections to the true teaching of the Church as follows:

Objection 8: Further, as was already observed (Q. 48, a. 2; Q. 49, a. 3), Christ’s passion sufficed for all; while as to it’s efficacy it was profitable for many. Therefore it ought to be said: “which shall be shed for all,” or else “for many,” without adding, “for you.”

Objection 9: Further, the words whereby this sacrament is consecrated draw their efficacy from Christ’s institution. But no Evangelist narrates that Christ spoke all these words. Therefore this is not an appropriate form for the consecration of the wine.

He then states the true Church teaching:

On the contrary, the Church, instructed by the Apostles, uses this form.

I answer that, there is a twofold opinion regarding this form. Some have maintained that the words “This is the chalice of My Blood” alone belong to the substance of this form, but not the words which follow. Now this seems incorrect, because the words which follow them are determinations of the predicate, that is, of Christ’s blood; consequently they belong to the integrity of the expression.

And on this account others say more accurately that all words which follow are the substance of the form down to the words, “As often as ye shall do this . . .” Hence it is that the priest pronounces all the words, under the same rite and manner, namely, holding the chalice in his hands.

Consequently it must be said that all the aforesaid words belong to the substance of the form; but that by the first words, “This is the chalice of My Blood,” the change of the wine is denoted, as explained above (Art. 2) in the form for the consecration of the bread; but by the words which come after is shown the power of the blood shed in the Passion, which power works in this sacrament and is ordained for three purposes. First and principally for securing our eternal heritage…and in order to denote this, we say, “of the new and eternal Testament.” Secondly, for justifying by grace, which is by faith,…and on this account we add, “The mystery of faith.”  Thirdly, for removing sins which are the impediments of both these things, . . . and on this account we say, “which shall be shed for you and for many unto the forgiveness of sins.”

Saint Thomas then continues to explain why the above objections, 8 and 9, are erroneous.

Reply to objection 8: The blood of Christ’s Passion has its efficacy not merely in the elect among the Jews, to whom the blood of the Old Testament was exhibited, but also in the Gentiles; nor only in priests who consecrate this sacrament, and in those others who partake of it; but likewise in those for whom it is offered. And therefore He says expressly, “for you,” the Jews, “and for many,” namely the Gentiles; or “for you” who eat of it, and “for many,” for whom it is offered.

Reply to objection 9: The Evangelists did not intend to hand down the forms of the Sacraments, which in the primitive Church had to be kept concealed, as Dionysius observes at the close of his book on the ecclesiastical hierarchy; their object was to write the story of Christ. Nevertheless, nearly all these words can be culled from various passages of the Scriptures . . . Matthew says in chapter xxvi, 28: “For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is being shed for many unto the forgiveness of sins”. . . .

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, also known as the Roman Catechism, instructs: With reason were the words ‘for all’ not used, as in this place the fruits of the Passion are alone spoken of, and to the elect only did His Passion bring the fruit of salvation” (Chapter on the Eucharist).

The decree De Defectibus  was placed by Pope St. Pius V  in the “Missale Romanum” every priest used prior to Vatican II.  The reason was to instruct the priest as to what would constitute a valid and licit Mass and what would not in case of mishap or negligence. In the section concerning the words of Consecration, it is stated: If any omission  or alteration is made in the formula of Consecration of the Body and Blood, involving a change of meaning, the Consecration is invalid . . . .

Saint Alphonsus Liguori in his work on The Holy Eucharist writes: The words pro vobis et pro multis (for you and for many) are used to distinguish the virtue of the blood of Christ from its fruits; for the blood of the Savior is of sufficient value to save all men, but its fruits are applicable only to a certain number and not to all, and this is their own fault. Or, as the theologians say, this precious blood is (in itself) sufficiently (sufficienter) able to save all men, but (on our part) effectually (efficienter) it does not save all—it saves only those who co-operate with grace. This is the explanation of St. Thomas (Aquinas), as quoted by Benedict XIV [Footnote: De Miss. Sacr. l. 2, c. 15). Benedict here observes that St. Thomas (P. 3, q. 18, a. 3) seems to favor the opinion of those who make the essential form of the consecration of the chalice consist in all the words that the priest pronounces as far as Haec quotiescumque; because the words that follow, Hic est enim calix sanguinis mei, are determinationes praedicati, that is to say, sanguinis Christi, and consequently, belonging ad integritatem ejusdem locutionis, are de substantia formae.  St. Pius V caused the contrary opinion to be erased from the commentary of Cajetan.] (44)

Regarding the words, Mystery of Faith, Saint Alphonsus also writes:

The other words, Mystery of faith, the Roman catechism declares are taught by sacred tradition, which is the guardian of Catholic truths.  This divine mystery is called Mystery of faith not to exclude the reality of the blood of Jesus Christ, but to show that in it the faith shines forth in a wonderful manner, and triumphs over all difficulties that may be raised by human reason, since it is here, says Innocent III (De Alt. Myst. l. 4, c. 36), that we see one thing and believe another.  we believe, he adds, that the form that we read in the Canon was received from Jesus Christ by the Apostles, and that they transmitted it to their successors (Sane formam istam verborum ab ipso Christo acceperunt Apostoli, et ab ipsis Apostolis accepit Ecclesia—ibid. c. 5).  The Roman Catechism (P. 2, c. 4, q. 20), moreover, says, that the words of the consecration should be thus understood: It is my blood that is contained in the chalice of the New Testament.  This signifies that men receive no longer the figures of the blood of Jesus Christ, as was the case in the Old Law; but really receive the true blood of the New Testament.

In other words, the Holy Eucharist is Sacrament and a Sacrifice. There is no Sacrifice without the Sacrament; there is no Sacrament without the Sacrifice. There is no quibble for Catholics that since the Protestants do not have a sacrifice, that they do not have a sacrament even though the Protestants will agree they have no sacrifice, but claim they have the sacrament. Therefore, if the Novus Ordo loses that of being a sacrifice, it becomes, like the Protestants, being a sacrament. But the Sacrament is the real Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ; and one receives the Sacrament when one receives the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ in holy Communion (because really one participates in the Sacrifice that was offered in Mass by receiving the Body of Christ). Therefore, as the quotes above stated, in the Novus Ordo Missae there is no transubstantiation—changing of the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ—just a narration of the Last Supper event and the bread and wine remain bread and wine no matter what the laity in attendance want it to be or believe it to be. Sacraments are not signs of things past or future, but realities that are now present. The genius of the Novus Ordo Missae is that it is so constructed that it can mean all things to all persons—and it is presented as such. The Bible, presented as the Word of God, is elevated to the same level as the Novus Ordo Sacrament; the Novus Ordo Sacrament is demoted to the level of the Bible, removed from the tabernacle in the center off to a side room or altar. The Novus Ordo Sacrament is received in the hand as common food, not adored by the one receiving, given by laity to distribute and even given to Protestants.

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The Sunday Sermons of the Great Fathers

M. F. Toal

THE GOSPEL OF THE SUNDAY

LUKE iii. 1-6

Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip being tetrarch of Iturea, and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina; under the high priests Annas and Caiphas; the word of the Lord was made unto John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; as it was written in the book of the sayings of Isaias the prophet: a voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths. Every valley shall be filled: and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight; and the rough ways plain; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

EXPOSITION FROM THE CATENA AUREA

1. Now in the fifteenth year of the reign. . . GREGORY, Hom. 20 in Ev: The time in which the Precursor of the Redeemer received the word of his mission is marked by the commemoration of the names of the rulers both of the Roman Republic and of the Kingdoms of Israel, where it is said: In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea . . . Because he was come to announce Him that would redeem some in Israel, and many from the Gentiles, the time of this announcing is signified as well through the King of the Gentiles as by the Princes of the Jews. Because the Gentiles were to be brought together, but one person is recorded as ruling the Roman Republic, in the words: The reign of Tiberius Caesar.

2. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, etc., AMBROSE: The word being made, the voice follows; the word being formed interiorly, then follows the service of the voice; hence is said: and he came into all the country about the Jordan. ORIGEN Luke 2, Homily 2: Jordan means a descent. The river of God descends, a stream of wholesome water. What place more fitting to go to give baptism than the neighbourhood of the Jordan? So that should it happen that a man is moved to repentance, the contrite soul could quickly run to the nearby stream, to receive the baptism of penance. The Evangelist continues: preaching the baptism of penance unto the remission of sins.

GREGORY, Homily 20: It is plain to all who read, that John not merely preached the baptism of penance, but also bestowed it on many; yet he could not give his baptism in forgiveness of sins.

CHRYSOSTOM, Homily 10, 2, in Matthew: Since the Victim had not been offered, nor had the Holy Spirit yet descended, of what kind was this remission of sins? What does Luke mean by this: for the remission of sins? Because the Jews were ignorant and unreflecting, and had not weighed carefully the evil of their own sins. And since this was the reason of their tribulations, that they might acknowledge their sins, and make ready for the Redeemer, John came, exhorting them to penance, so that being thus disposed and truly contrite, they may be ready to receive forgiveness. Fittingly therefore, when he had said he came preaching the baptism of penance, he adds: for the remission of sins; as if to say: he persuaded them to repent of their sins, so that later they might the more easily receive pardon through believing in Christ. For unless brought to it by repentance, they would not seek for pardon. His baptism therefore served no other end than as a preparation for belief in Christ.

GREGORY: Of John it is written, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins; since he preached the baptism which could wipe out sins, but which he was unable to bestow. As he preceded the Incarnate Word of the Father by the word of preaching, so did he precede the baptism of penance, by which sins are forgiven, by his own baptism, by which sins could not be forgiven. AMBROSE: And for this reason many regard John as a Type of the Law, in this, that he could reprove sin, but could not pardon it.

GREGORY NAZIANZEN, Oratio 39: Let us here treat briefly of the different kinds of baptism. Moses baptized, but in water, in the cloud and in the sea; but this he did figuratively. John also baptized, not indeed in the rite of the Jews, not solely in water, but also unto the remission of sins; yet not in an entirely spiritual manner, for he had not added: in the spirit. Jesus baptized, but in the Spirit; and this is perfection. There is also a fourth baptism, which is wrought by martyrdom and blood, in which Christ Himself was also baptized, which is far more venerable than the others, in as much as it is not soiled by repeated contagion. There is yet a fifth, but more laborious, by tears; with which David each night bedewed his bed, washing his couch with tears (Ps. vi. 7).

3. The Gospel continues: as it was written in the book of Isaias, etc. AMBROSE: John, as harbinger of the Word, is fittingly called a Voice; the voice, as the inferior, goes before; the Word, which excels, follows after. GREGORY, Homs. 7 and 20 in Evang: Which cried out in the wilderness, that it may also announce to the lost and unhappy Israel the consolation of its Redeemer. That which he cries is told to us, when it is announced: prepare ye the way of the Lord. Everyone who preaches true faith and good works, what else does he do but prepare the way of the Lord to the hearts of his hearers; so that he may make straight the path for God, when he forms worthy desires within their soul by the influence of his own good words.

ORIGEN, Hom. 21: The way of the Lord must be prepared within our heart; for great and spacious is the heart of man, as if it were a world. But see its greatness, not in bodily quantity, but in that power of the mind which enables it to encompass so great a knowledge of the truth, Prepare therefore in your heart the way of the Lord, by a worthy manner of life; and by good and perfect works keep straight this path of your life, so that the words of the Lord may enter in without hindrance.

BASIL, in Catena G.F.: Because the path is a way along which those who have gone before have walked, and which earlier men have neglected, these words command those who have fallen from the zeal of those who went before, to remake it. CHRYSOSTOM: To cry out, prepare the way of the Lord, was not the office of the King, but of the Precursor; and so Scripture calls him a Voice, because he was a precursor of the Word.

CYRIL, Book 3 in Isaias, 40: But if one should answer to this and say: which way of the Lord shall we prepare, or, what paths shall we make straight, since many are the obstacles to those that desire to lead a virtuous life? To this the prophetic words make answer. There are certain ways and paths, which are by no means suitable to this end; since some lead over hills and mountains, and others lead down the slope. To meet this he says: Every valley shall be filled: and every mountain shall be brought low. Certain also of the paths are unevenly laid down, here they rise up, there again they drop down; and they also are dangerous in regard to this same purpose. As to this he adds: And the crooked shall be made straight and the rough ways plain. This is accomplished, spiritually, however, through the power of the Saviour. Before, the way of evangelical belief and living was difficult for men, because worldly pleasures bore heavily on the minds of all men. But God, made man, has condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. viii. 3), and all things have become straight and unimpeded, and easy, to this end; nor will hill or valley now stand in the way of those who wish to go forward.

ORIGEN, Hom. 22: For when Jesus came, and sent forth His Spirit, every valley was filled with good works and the fruits of the Holy Spirit; which, if any one possesses, not alone does he cease to be a valley, but he begins to be a mountain of God. GREGORY NYSSA, in Catena of G.F: By enclosed valleys is signified a peaceful manner of living, and one filled with good works; as in Psalm 64: and the vales shall abound with corn. CHRYSOSTOM, in cat. G.F.: Scripture gives to the vain and the proud the name mountain, and these the Lord has humbled; hills it applies to those who are without hope; not alone because of the pride of their own minds, but because of the sterility of despair; for the high hills bring forth no fruit. ORIGEN, Hom. 22 in Luke: Or, you can understand by hills and mountains the inimical powers which were thrown down by the coming of Christ. BASIL: As hills and mountains differ, in respect of size, in other things they are the same; so the powers of evil, are alike in their evil purpose, but differ from each other in the intensity of their malice.

GREGORY, Homily 20: Or, the valley that is filled will grow, the mountain and the hill that is brought low will dwindle away; because in faith in Christ, the Gentiles will receive the fulness of grace, and Judea, through the error of her pride which hath caused her to swell up, has been brought down. For the humble have received the gift which the proud in heart rejected.

CHRYSOSTOM, Hom. in Matt: Or, by this he declares that the harshness of the Law has been changed into the simplicity of faith, as if he says: no more do toil and grief oppress us, for grace and the pardon of sin make easy the way of salvation. GREGORY NYSSA: Or, He orders the valleys to be filled, and the hills and mountains laid low; desiring to show that the straight path of virtue is neither made void by sin, nor disturbed by any excess. GREGORY: Crooked ways are made straight, when the hearts of men, distorted by evildoing, are made straight by the rule of justice. Rough ways are made smooth, when cruel and angry men are led by the infusion of heavenly grace to the mildness of gentle conduct.

CHRYSOSTOM, as above: Then Scripture adds the reason of all these things: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God; showing that the power and the knowledge of the Gospel will be spread to the ends of the world, converting the human race from their animal life, and stubborn will, to clemency and gentleness. Not alone, therefore, the proselyte Jews, but the whole human race, will see the salvation of God. CYRIL, Book 3 in Isaias 40: That is, of the Father, who has sent His Son as our Saviour. Flesh in this context is to be taken for all humanity. GREGORY, in Homily 20: Or again; all flesh, that is, every man, cannot see the salvation of God, that is Christ, in this life. The Prophet therefore directs his eye to the last day of the Judgment, when all, the elect equally with the reprobate, shall behold Him.

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22: ST FRANCES XAVIER CABRINI, VIRGIN, FOUNDRESS OF THE MISSIONARY SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART (A.D. 1917) – (Transferred to December 23 this year)

AUGUSTINE CABRINI appears to have been what in England of the past was called a very substantial yeoman, who owned and farmed land around Sant’ Angelo Lodigiano, between Pavia and Lodi; his wife, Stella Oldini, was a Milanese; and they had thirteen children, of whom the youngest was born on July 15, 1850, and christened Maria Francesca (later she was to add Saverio to the second name, which is what Xavier becomes in Italian).

The Cabrini were a solidly religious family—everything about them was solid—and little Frances came particularly under the strict care of her sister Rosa, who had been a school-teacher and had not escaped all the dangers of that profession. But the child profited by Rosa’s teaching, and suffered no harm from her unbending discipline. There was perhaps a certain precocity about the child’s religion, but it was none the less real. Family reading aloud from the “Annals of the Propagation of the Faith” inspired her with an early determination to go to the foreign missions—China was the country of her predilection. She dressed her dolls as nuns; she made paper boats and floated them down the river manned with violets to represent the missionaries going to foreign parts; and she gave up sweets, for in China there would be no sweets so she had better get used to it. Her parents, however, had decided on Frances being a school-teacher, and when old enough she was sent to a convent boarding-school at Arluno. She duly passed her examinations when she was eighteen, but then came a great blow: in 1870 she lost both her parents.

During the two years that followed she lived on quietly with Rosa, her unassuming goodness making a deep impression on all who knew her. Then she sought admittance to the religious congregation at whose school she had been, and was refused on the ground of poor health; she tried another—with the same result. But the priest in whose school she was teaching at Vidardo had got his eye on her. In 1874 this Don Serrati was appointed provost of the collegiate church at Codogno, and found in his new parish a small orphanage, called the House of Providence, whose state left much to be desired. It was managed, or rather mismanaged, by its eccentric foundress, Antonia Tondini, and two other women. The Bishop of Lodi and Mgr Serrati invited Frances Cabrini to help in this institution and to try to turn its staff into a religious community, and with considerable unwillingness she agreed.

Thus she entered upon what a Benedictine nun has called “a novitiate of sorts, compared to which one in a regular convent would have been child’s play”. Antonia Tondini had consented to her coming, but instead of co-operation gave her only obstruction and abuse. Frances stuck to it, however, obtained several recruits, and with seven of them in 1877 took her first vows. At the same time the bishop put her in charge as superioress. This made matters much worse. Sister Tondini’s behaviour was such that it became an open scandal—indeed, she seems to have become somewhat insane. But for another three years Sister Cabrini and her faithful followers persevered in their efforts to build up the House of Providence, patiently hoping for better times, till the bishop himself gave up hope and ordered the place to be closed. He sent for Sister Cabrini and said to her, “You want to be a missionary sister. Now is the time. I don’t know any institute of missionary sisters, so found one yourself.” And quite simply she went out to do so.

There was an old, disused and forgotten Franciscan friary at Codogno, and into this Mother Cabrini and her seven faithful followers moved, and as soon as they were fairly settled in she set herself to draw up a rule for the community. Its work was to be principally the Christian education of girls, and its name The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. During the same year these constitutions were approved by the bishop of Lodi; within two years the first daughter house was opened, at Grumello, and soon there was another, at Milan.

The above few sentences are easily written; the actuality was rather different. There were such tiresome obstructions as objection to the word “Missionary” in the sisters’ title (“Inappropriate to women”), and the mother who invoked the law because of the “enticement” of her daughter. But the general progress of the congregation and the trust of Mother Cabrini were such that in 1887 she went to Rome to ask the Holy See’s approbation of her little congregation and permission to open a house in Rome. Influential efforts were made to dissuade her from this enterprise—seven years’ trial was far too little: and the first interview with the cardinal vicar of the City, Parocchi, confirmed the prudence of her advisers. But only the first. The cardinal was won over; Mother Cabrini was asked to open not one but two houses in Rome, a free school and a children’s home, and the decree of first approval of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart was issued within a few months.

We have seen that from early days Frances Cabrini’s eyes had been turned towards China. But now people were trying to make her look the other way. The bishop of Piacenza, Mgr Scalabrini, who had established the Society of St Charles to work among Italian immigrants in America, suggested she should go out there to help the work of those priests. She would not entertain the idea. The archbishop of New York, Mgr Corrigan, sent her a formal invitation. She was worried: everyone—except her old friend Mgr Serrati—was pointing in the same direction. Then she had a very impressive dream, and she determined to consult the pope himself. And Leo XIII said, “Not to the East, but to the West”. When a child Frances Cabrini once fell into a river, and ever afterwards she had a fear of water. She now, with six of her sisters, set out on the first of many voyages across the Atlantic; and on March 31, 1889, they landed in New York.

Everybody knows the huge numbers of Italians, Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Croats, Slovaks and others that have emigrated to the United States in relatively recent times. The religious history of these immigrations has yet to be properly written. It is enough to say here that at that time there were 50,000 Italians in and around New York City alone. The majority of them seem never to have learned the elements of Christian doctrine; not more than 1200 of them ever assisted at Mass; ten of the twelve priests of their own nationality had left Italy on account of misbehavior. It was much the same in north-western Pennsylvania. For most of them their economic and social conditions were to match. No wonder that the third plenary council of Baltimore and Archbishop Corrigan and Pope Leo XIII were very perturbed.

Nor was the sisters’ reception in New York much more encouraging. They had been asked to organize an orphanage for Italian children and to take charge of an elementary school: but on arrival, though warmly welcomed, they found no home ready for them, and had to spend the first night at least in lodgings that were filthy and verminous. And when Mother Cabrini met Archbishop Corrigan she learned that, owing to disagreements between “himself and the benefactress concerned, the orphanage scheme had fallen through, and the school consisted of pupils but no habitable building. The archbishop wound up by telling her that he could see nothing for it but that the sisters should go back to Italy. To which St Frances replied with characteristic firmness and definiteness, “No, Monsignor, not that. The pope sent me here, and here I must stay”. The archbishop was impressed by this straightforward little woman from Lombardy, and also by her credentials from Rome; moreover, it must be admitted he was a man of no great firmness of policy, liable to change his mind quickly and often. He now raised no objection to their staying, and arranged for them to be temporarily accommodated by the Sisters of Charity. Within a few weeks St Frances Cabrini had made friends with the benefactress, Countess Cesnola, reconciled her with Mgr Corrigan, found a house for the sisters, and made a start with the orphanage on a modest scale. By July 1889 she was able to revisit Italy, taking with her the first two Italo-American recruits to her congregation.

Nine months later she returned to America with reinforcements to take over West Park, on the Hudson river, from the Society of Jesus. The growing orphanage was transferred to this house, which also became the mother house and novitiate of the congregation in the United States. Its work was prospering, both among immigrants in North America and among the people at home in Italy, and soon Mother Cabrini had to make a trying journey to Managua in Nicaragua where, in difficult and sometimes dangerous circumstances, she took over an orphanage and opened a boarding-school. On her way back she visited New Orleans at the request of its archbishop, the revered Francis Janssens. Here the scattered Italians, mostly from the south and Sicily, were in a specially sad state: they included some wild, lawless elements, and only a little time before eleven of them had been lynched by infuriated but no less lawless Americans. The upshot of St Frances’s visit was that she was able to make a foundation in New Orleans.

That Frances Cabrini was an extraordinarily able woman needs no demonstration: her works speak for her. Like Bd Philippine Duchesne before her, she was slow in learning English and never lost her strong accent; but this apparently was no handicap in successful dealings with people of all kinds, and those with whom she had financial business (necessarily many and important) were particularly impressed. In only one direction did her tact fail, and that was in relation to non-Catholic Christians. She met such in America for the first time in her life and that was the root of the trouble: it took her a long time to recognize their good faith and to appreciate their good lives. Her rather shocking remarks in this connection in earlier days were the fruit of ignorance and consequent lack of understanding. But she was far-seeing and ready to learn, and did not reject things simply because they were new, as her ideas about children’s education show. It is obvious that Mother Cabrini was a born ruler, and she was as strict as she was just. Sometimes she seems to have been too strict, and not to have seen where her inflexibility was leading. It is not clear, for instance, how she thought she was upholding sexual morality when she refused to take illegitimate children in her fee-paying schools: it would appear to be a gesture that penalized only the innocent. But love ruled all, and her strictness was no deterrent to the affection she gave and received. “Love one another”, she urged her religious. “Sacrifice yourselves for your sisters, readily and always. Be kind to them, and never sharp or harsh. Don’t nurse resentment, but be meek and peaceable.”

The year 1892, fourth centenary of the discovery of the New World, was also marked by the birth of one of the best-known of St Frances’s undertakings, the Columbus Hospital in New York. Actually it had been begun in a small way by the Society of St Charles a little before, and the “take-over” was attended by difficulties that left with some a legacy of resentment against Mother Cabrini. Then, after a visit to Italy, where she saw the start of a “summer house” near Rome and a students’ hostel at Genoa, [* On the way back Mother Cabrini went ashore at Gibraltar and recorded seeing the “English canon of incredible size”. Undoubtedly a “big gun”.] she had to go to Costa Rica, Panama, Chile, across the Andes into Brazil, and so to Buenos Aires—a very different journey in 1895 from what it is today, though Mother Cabrini’s love of natural scenery did much to compensate for its rigours. In Buenos Aires she opened a high-school for girls: and of those who pointed out the difficulties and hazards of what she was doing, she enquired, “Are we doing this?—or is our Lord?” After another voyage to Italy, where she had to cope with a long lawsuit in the ecclesiastical courts and face riots in Milan, she went to France and made there her first European foundations outside Italy; and the autumn of 1898 saw her in England. Mgr (later cardinal) Bourne, then bishop of Southwark, had already met St Frances at Codogno and asked her to open a convent in his diocese, but no foundation was made at this time.

And so it went on for another dozen years. Surely were a patron saint more recent and less nebulous than St Christopher required for travellers, St Frances Cabrini would be first on the short list. Her love for all the children of God took her back and forth over the western hemisphere from Rio to Rome, from Sydenham to Seattle; by the time the constitutions of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart were finally approved in 1907 the eight members of 1880 had increased to over a thousand, in eight countries; St Frances had made more than fifty foundations, responsible for free-schools and high-schools and hospitals and other establishments, no longer working in America for Italian immigrants alone—did not the prisoners in Sing-Sing send her an illuminated address at the congregation’s jubilee? Of the later foundations only two can be named here: the great Columbus Hospital at Chicago and, in 1902, the school at Brockley, now at Honor Oak. Nor can the attendant trials and troubles be dwelt on, such as the difficulties caused by the Bishop of Vitoria (St Frances was first invited to Spain by Queen Maria Christina) or the opposition of factions in Chicago, Seattle and New Orleans, which last the sisters later repaid with their heroic work during the yellow-fever epidemic of 1905.

From 1911 Mother Cabrini’s health was failing: she was then sixty-one and physically worn out. But it was not till six years later that she was seen to be failing alarmingly. And then the end came with extreme suddenness. No human person was present when St Frances Xavier Cabrini died in the convent at Chicago on December 22, 1917. Mother Cabrini was canonized in 1946; her body is enshrined in the chapel of the Cabrini Memorial School at Fort Washington, N.Y. No doubt there were many saints in the United States before her, no doubt there have been, and will be, many after. But she was the first citizen of that country to be canonized, to have her sanctity publicly recognized by the Church of Christ. Her glory belongs to Italy and to America, to the Church and to mankind. It is hardly conceivable that anybody should do what she did, in the way she did it, without having been a saint, one who lived with heroic goodness: Pope Leo XIII saw this, and more, nearly fifty years before her canonization, when he said, “Mother Cabrini is a woman of fine understanding and great holiness . . . she is a saint”. (Butler’s Lives of the Saints)

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THE YEAR

AND OUR CHILDREN

Planning the Family Activities for Christian Feasts and Seasons

By Mary Reed Newland (1956)

3

ADVENT:

GIFTS FROM HANDS AND HEARTS

A gift that is fun to make is a Christmas Surprise Ball, and it is not so demanding that we need cease all conversation while we make it. It is adapted from a custom invented by German mothers to help dispel the boredom and discouragement that go with learning to knit. It is made with narrow streamers of crepe paper cut about one-half inch wide from a package of crepe paper. We like to start winding the paper in a Christmas Ball around a tiny figure of the Christ Child, an especially nice medal, or perhaps a small rosary. As the ball grows larger, other things are wound in: a thimble, a pretty button, a gilded acorn, tiny trinkets or charms, especially those symbolic of a patron saint or some Christmas legend.

The hard sugar decorations for birthday cakes on sale in the Five-and-Ten are charming as well as sweet, and they may represent the virtues as well as symbols of Our Lady under her titles in the Litany. A little girl named Rose, or one named for Mary the Mystical Rose—Mary, or Virginia, or Regina, or Loretta, would like a sugar rose in hers; a sugar violet is a symbol of humility. A white sugar dove reminds us of the Holy Spirit or of the doves that flew over Mother Cabrini’s house when she was born. All little girls named Frances would like that. There are sugar letter for initials and to spell out a child’s name or the names of Jesus and Mary and Joseph, and there are sugar numbers for a child’s age. It is a gift that is not only colorful and easily made and fun to receive, but one that is rich in meditation material.

A gift mothers like is a little bottle decorated with the Chi-Rho or the symbol for Baptism in Christ (a scallop shell with water flowing), and fitted with a sprinkler top for sprinkling holy water on the new-made loaves of bread or the Advent wreath, for the blessing of the garden on Rogation days, the blessing of herbs and flowers on the Assumption, and many more occasions. It would be a far happier dispenser of holy water than our mason jar with its water cloudy and a trifle grey from having so many floured fingers dipped into it for the blessing of loaves of bread.

A little girl who has learned to sew might make an apron with a pocket and a rosary buttoned in the pocket for mothers and grannies and very special aunts who are forever misplacing their rosaries and wishing they had them while they stir the sauce for a casserole, wait for a batch of cookies to brown or a load of clothes to come out of the washer.

Coffee cakes, cookies, candies, fruits and nuts—all the goodies prepared in a busy kitchen, wrapped and sent with Christmas love—these are not the least of the presents. We remind our friends that these are holy too if we send them with a gift card we have designed with this in mind. A pleasant addition to our good wishes for a happy and holy Christmas is the text to the blessing of whatever food it is we give.

From a Blessing of Bread and Cakes comes this prayer, which we use when we give Christmas coffee cakes (taken from Rev. Philip T. Weller’s English translation of the Roman Ritual):

Lord Jesus Christ, Thou the bread of angels, Thou the living bread of eternal life, graciously deign to bless this bread as Thou didst bless the five loaves in the desert: that all who partake of it may have health of body and soul. Who livest and reignest forever. Amen.

The Blessing of Cheese or Butter for those who give cheeses for Christmas:

Vouchsafe, O Lord, God Almighty, to bless and sanctify this cheese (or butter), which by thy power has been formed from the fat of animals. May thy faithful people who eat it be filled with thy grace, thy blessing, and all good things. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

And for those who live in fruit country, and give gifts of fresh fruit, the Blessing of New Produce (sometimes called the Blessing of Fresh Fruits):

Bless, O Lord, these new fruits N., and grant that all who eat of them in Thy holy name may obtain health of body and soul. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

To go in the Christmas wallet for a father is a special gift a nice print of St. Joseph, Patron of Fathers and Families. This will be a great comfort when he is fishing for the wherewithal to pay the family bills. Devotion to St. Joseph is guaranteed to keep many a father from losing heart over the difficulties of feeding and clothing and housing a family.

For boys there is a set of cut-out puzzles to be made with construction paper and paste. These wrapped with a package of colored construction paper and a pair of scissors hint at the things one can do with paper and scissors. We have made games using symbols and events in the lives of the saints. For example, mounted on a piece of forest green there is a rough cross in light blue, a yellow beehive, a large yellow bee or locust, a cinnamon-colored sword and a platter, a blue shoe with untied laces mounted on a yellow nimbus. These are cut silhouette-fashion with no embellishment with paint or pencil. Some are authentic liturgical symbols, others are clues to the saint’s life. Part of the fun is tracking down unfamiliar clues in Holy Scripture, the lives of the saints, even the library encyclopedia.

Any guesses? St. John the Baptist. The bee or locust and the beehive, because Scripture says he ate locusts and wild honey in the desert; the sword and platter for the manner of his martyrdom; the shoe with untied laces and the nimbus because he said:

One is to come after me who is mightier than I, so that I am not worthy to bend down and untie the strap of his shoes. I have baptized you with water: he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

The rough cross is one of the symbols of St. John the Baptist (it looks rather like a staff) always seen in pictures and statues of him.

Another is a series of clues arranged on bright red. A blue boat with a white sail, a green fish, a yellow key and a brown rock with a white church atop. St. Peter. We were tempted to put a sword and an ear on this one, but—next time.

Four of these, after they have been identified and used to puzzle others, can be arranged in a decorative panel over a boy’s bed and their symbols will push his mind to what they represent as well as remind him that the saints were far more virile than a lot of their pictures en nightgown suggest. Besides, they are excellent teaching mediums. Such texts as “Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church,” and “Whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven”—specific doctrines straight from Our Lord—are more easily learned when one must repeat the exact words and explain them in order to give the right clue.

PAPER AND PLASTIC SAINTS

Using the same kind of cut-outs, children can make the Christmas saints for pasting on a special window in a procession that grows in length as the days pass. There is St. Barbara on December 4, St. Nicholas and a schoolboy on December 6, Our Lady as the Immaculate Conception on December 8, St. Lucy and a schoolgirl on December 13, St. Elizabeth and St. Zachary and St. John the Baptist during Ember Week, the Holy Family and the shepherds on Christmas Eve.

On December 26 comes St. Stephen and on December 27, St. John the Evangelist, on December 28 a few of the Holy Innocents, very gay with martyrs’ palms and crowns because they are the first of all the martyrs; and on December 29, St. Thomas a Becket. On January 1 in golden letters is the lovely name Jesus. This was the day of His circumcision and the day He received His holy name. Then January 6 come the Magi with their camels and gifts and the star, and following them on the Sunday after the Epiphany is the feast of the Holy Family. We like to have Joseph holding the Christ Child this time, with Mary standing by admiring them.

Shadow boxes are easy to make and help thoughts stay close to the Christmas story. We have made them of old Kleenex boxes, macaroni cartons with their tiny windows, and picture frames to which we have fastened boxes, hanging them on the wall as shrines. The very littlest children can have a shadow box made with an old Christmas card pasted to the back of a macaroni box with its magic peephole. If these are hugged to death with too much enthusiasm, they are quickly replaced with another by even the busiest of mothers.

Older children can use plasticene figures they have modelled, or clay figures, or cut-out silhouette figures, leaving a generous flap at the bottom of these to insert through slits in the bottom of the box. Experimenting with lamplight, sunlight, candlelight is dramatic and meditative as well.

Window boxes or plants in large pots are wonderful settings for tiny figures of the Christmas story modelled or cut from colored papers. Gold paper angels and a gold star are lovely when hung by a thread from the branches of a favorite potted geranium or ivy. Things in miniature have a great fascination for small children. There is something snug and secret and comfortable about a very little scene.

Water clay, which dries hard without firing, is an excellent medium for Advent meditations, and the figures modeled are often fine enough to be given – painted or plain – as gifts. We need not always buy our statues. It is quite proper and fitting to model our own. Let the children consider this, not so much with the object of casting aspersions on manufactured things as such, but to help them see the greater integrity in handcrafted things. Most of the statues priced so that we can buy them are made by machines. A mold is made and into it is poured plaster or plastic, and after this is repeated hundreds and hundreds of times by the machine there are a thousand replicas of Our Lady and St. Joseph and the Christ Child turned out, packed in boxes, sent to stores and heaped on counters.

There is a great difference between this and taking the clay in your own hands, thinking about what you will make, praying to the Holy Spirit for help, and then lovingly shaping it this way and that, taking some off, adding some, until you have a creation of your own. Then it is not the work of a machine but of a boy or girl whose mother and father love them beyond all reckoning and who will treasure always something that was made by them.

One Advent, just for fun, Michael F. started to model the creche figures—but he was sure “they wouldn’t be any good.” When he was finished they were so beautiful in their dull green plasticene that his mother, who has impeccable taste, used them in a little stable she arranged of old wood with beautiful fir and pine, with cones and dried weeds and berries; and that was their family creche.

Dressing dolls as the Holy Family is rich and imaginative play for little girls all during Advent. Every journey into the stable at Bethlehem in your imagination makes it that much more familiar and real; and daily play at these things is a kind of prayer on the part of children.

There are Advent calendars for keeping track of the days, little doors that open on pictures and symbols and Scriptural texts noted by chapter and verse; these read aloud in the evening can be part of night prayers. Or we can choose our own Old Testament texts, perhaps those we read to accompany the figures on our Christ candle, and make our own Advent calendar for keeping track of them. Or perhaps we will want to make one to keep track of the daily Advent mortifications. Cut from dark green construction paper like a great Christmas tree, the decorations are bright-colored balls, birds, fruits, ornaments of all kinds pasted on, one for each day. This works out very well in a classroom.

All these things gradually prepare our minds for piercing deeper and deeper the reality of that night. The stable, the few shepherds, the star, all focused on the figures of a man and a woman and a tiny, tiny Child.

 (To be continued)

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Father Krier will be in Eureka December 26. He will be in Los Angeles January 7 and Pahrump January 9.

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