CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
FATHER JOSEPH HENCHEY, CSS
FOR HIS 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRIESTLY ORDINATION
Rome, July 1st, 1956
Category Archives: General
FATHER HENCHEY’S HOMILY IN COMMEMORATION OF HIS 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRIESTLY ORDINATION
Rev. Joseph Henchey, CSS
Homily in the anticipated commemoration of his
60th Anniversary of Ordination to the Holy Priesthood
[Rome, July 1, 1956]
Mundelein Seminary
May 4, 2016
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ. I thought I would comment tonight on the Communion Antiphons. “I have chosen you from the world,” says the Lord, “and appointed you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last, alleluia.”
INTRODUCTION
OLD AGE: GRACE & MISSION
And I want to say there’s really nothing to getting old. It just takes a while. Sometimes you know they call these the “Golden Years”. Well, that may be for our hard-working doctors and dentists but for us who are doing this to a task, ‘rusty’ might be a better metaphor.
You know this is that time of life when everything hurts and nothing works. I once thought of a prayer for an old professor, “Oh Lord, may I be judged on the many brilliant students I had – more than on my boring lectures.”
Many modern adaptations appear of Aesop’s Fables, animals talking to human beings to give them a lesson. One of these you may remember is in Kafka, his Metamorphosis. It’s a very ugly passage where he compares animals to people. But Alexander Solzhenitsyn had a wonderful idea in Cancer Ward and his old goat that I’ll tell you about the end.
The great American humorist, W.C. Fields, tells the story of the King of Beasts was renowned for his speed and his power. But he wanted also to be remembered as well for being crafty, being smart. So he circled behind two hunters and found their camp and enjoyed himself on their baloney sandwiches. [They really seemed like horseradish mustard!] Then he went to the top of the mountain and he roared, “I am the King of Beasts and I am crafty too.” The hunters, of course, heard this and came and killed the lion. So what is the moral of this? If you’re full of baloney, keep your mouth shut.
Anyway, I also remember George Burns who had a number of wonderful lines. He says, “You know it’s really great to be 90. You get a standing ovation for standing.”
Well, my great hero is Father Charles Meyer, formerly a member of this Faculty! When I entered the seminary for a 10-year hitch, he was already ordained a priest. So he’s 71 years a priest now this year.
Well, I want to tell you, in the long years of studying Saint Thomas Aquinas, it’s a very rewarding enterprise. And I wondered if somebody someday with more brains than I had could write a tract on the Eucharist and the priesthood. Saint John Paul II never tired of bringing these together as they were instituted together on the first Holy Thursday. And just think of the humble material element of the Eucharist which will contain the sovereign Lord of Heaven and earth. It could start out as old sour grapes and dry bread but God’s holy word of consecration transforms that into a real presence.
What is a material element of the priesthood? It’s a man who has been tried and proven and sometimes offering only sour grapes and old dried bread. But in the words of consecration, he is endowed with a marvelous life-giving, forgiving, capacity. In the theology of Saint Thomas, I was always amazed at Italian wine. In it is a deep interior passivity, of capacity to be consecrated. Well, so do we. And the other part of this comparison is: Italian wine gets better with time! And I really think that’s what happens.
Charles Dickens was only half right. He said, “These are the best of times and these are the worst of times.” These are the best times. Give us this day our daily bread. And as we sang all the way through Easter: … Haec est dies quam vere fecit Dominus – laetemur et exultemus in ipsa! – This is the day the Lord has made!! Let us rejoice and exult in it!] I wanted to impress you with my Latin, (??). How’s that?
Anyway, Saint Thomas will tell us again: these are the best of times for that which God wants to accomplish in us. So it’s the best of a possible world for the present divine purposes, no matter how terrible it is. How we worry about elections. This is the best time because God can create a universe out of nothing. So Saint Thomas said, “These are the best of times for what God wants to do on earth.”
STIGMATINE CHARISM
I’d like to say like a short word about my own Stigmatine Charism. You know, I’m only ordained 60 years, but I promise not to take a year at a time! I’ll talk of Mercy. My Founder [St. Gaspar Bertoni] was a diocesan priest of Verona, Italy Fr. Gaspar Bertoni. He came from a broken home, so he developed the old Franciscan feast of the Espousals, of Mary and Joseph. It’s a beautiful family festival we celebrate every January 23rd, indicating a real commitment to the Church, the Spouse of Christ.
He was also a priest for 53 years, 41 of which he was an invalid. And from this he developed his great devotion to the five wounds of our lord. So the well-known Icon of Mercy, the suffered five wounds of Good Friday redeem us. And the glorious wounds of Easter Sunday in his risen body become the Source of His sending us. As the Father sent me, I now send you. [Jn 20] So the Pierced One is a great drawing card for mystics like Augustine and many, many others.
A new era has come. A birth of the new Eve in blood and water indicating a new life has come. If you look at the icon carefully, the springtime of the blood ritual is in harmony with the autumn celebration of the harvest at the water gate. What does this mean? All of human life, spring and fall, is enveloped in God’s mercy.
The Tabernacle of the Trinity, which the Roman soldier opened with his lance, has opened to us the treasures of the Trinity. Augustine saw here the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The new catechism speaks about the open wounds mean Christ’s open heart. The heavens were opened and the scriptures were opened. Let us not harden our hearts and close them out.
In the five wounds, there is a shifting theological model, which is very interesting. The wounds of the hand and feet, [remembered by Luke the doctor??], are called “satisfaction and meritorious redemption”. But all that was inflicted on the body of Christ after his death: his pierced side, his burial, the terrible desecration of his dead body [which we see almost every night on the news] all of these are included under causal exemplarity with resurrection and ascension. A new creation has opened up, a new beginning!
So the great dogma of the stigmata would be redemption. We are redeemed. Thank God for its grandiose blessings and as Gregory the Great [if he was indeed the author of Hoy Saturday’s Exultet said, (O felix culpa – quae meruit talem et tantum Redemptorem!): O Happy Fault which merited such and so great a redeemer! Paradoxically, what a wonderful thing that it because of sin there is merited in God’s Mercy such a Redeemer such redemption.
This mystery is an enrichment to moral theology. If Christ has risen let your thoughts be above. It’s also an inspiration to spirituality. One of the things we all lack is a sense of totality. Like the ancient Shema Yisrael, the basic dogma is one God. The basic morality, love him and his – and the basic spirituality, totally.
The new catechism speaks about the scriptures being opened with Christ’s wounds and Christ’s side being pierced. This is the season we celebrate the Ascension into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He’ll come again in glory and all will see him [we read in the Apocalypse 1:7] – even those have pierced him – in faith, we will see him in contemplation and – God willing – in our studies. We will see this Son of God pierced through. Whoever sees me, sees the Father.”
This reminds us of that old American spiritual, “Were you there when they crucified the Lord?” We were. We caused it and we were redeemed there. So to look on him – means to study him, to experience him. And in the words of Dei Verbum [# 8]: faith can grow through contemplation, study, magisterium and experience.” The Acts of the Apostles sing of this joyful assembly. They return to Jerusalem with great joy. They were continually in the temple blessing God, worshiping the immolated lamb in Thanksgiving, a model of the Church in the Celestial Sanctuary.
The ascension of Christ does not mean inaccessibility. There is a perennial closeness, an ongoing presence of the Lord. And, in a new manner, this Mystery is now inviting each of us; while we cannot be transubstantiated, we need to be transformed and conformed more to the image of the wounded Christ.
So what we celebrate in every Liturgy is a Liturgy of Life. All of life is an offertory in Romans 12:1. “Make of your body an oblation to the merciful God. It’s a consecration. The Father consecrated me and sent me into the world. It’s a holy communion. I and the Father are one.” It is a Holy Communion – The Father is in Me and I in the Father … may they be one in us!
The great high priest has already risen, ascended into the celestial sanctuary. There he is presently and forever celebrating an eternal Thanksgiving as the Immolated Lamb, for the Father’s infinite mercy. The time of the feast of the Ascension through Pentecost is a challenge liturgically for all of us to participate in the life-long procession heading faithfully toward that celestial sanctuary. Ascension to Pentecost is one more liturgical challenge to persevere. The qualities of those who are in this procession to the heavenly temple, need a facility in God’s word, a confidence in his praise, fidelity and perseverance all along the way.
PERSEVERANCE: A GRACE AND SERVICE
And this leads me back to the Solzhenitsyn’s old goat. The image appears in his Cancer Ward – While he had to wait for his train he went to the zoo and he saw a beautiful doe there, a deer like we see every day. And that reminded him of the one nurse in the state hospital of Russia, who was always so kind to him. And then he saw an old goat standing on a rock, without moving, and he thinks out loud and says to himself, “That’s what you need to get through life. So it is, to become an old goat it just takes a while!
So Christian perseverance is not getting through it. It’s not Stoic acceptance. It’s Christian participation in the mystery and life of Jesus Christ. Where the great Kierkegaard praised so beautifully by John Paul II in Fides et Ratio [# 76, for those keeping score!] Praised by John Paul somehow we have to make Christ present to his people, in a contemporary manner.
The great appeal of the church has always been that anyone who stands firm to the end will be saved. And the Parable of the Sower of the Seed, as for the part of the rich soil that is the people with the noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest, through their perseverance. In the conclusion of Romans, “Everything that was written long ago, in the scriptures, was meant to teach us something about hope from the examples that scriptures gives of how people who did not give up were helped by God.” [Rm 15:4]
Your perseverance will win you your lives [Lk 21:1 – I have prayed for you Simon, that your faith may not fail…! [Lk 22:32] – Barnabas [son of encouragement]… urged them to remain faithful to the Lord with heartfelt devotion… he was filled with the Holy Spirit… [Ac 11:23] – … Paul encouraged the followers … [Ac 18:23] – You will need perseverance if you are to do God’s will and gain what he has promised…we are the sort of people who keep faith until our souls are healed… [Heb 10:36]
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Conclusion
The teachings Saint Thomas tell us that perseverance is three realities:
- The first one is the grace of final perseverance. This was a theme in the Council of Trent. Only God can give that, first grace and last grace and every grace in between is a grace.
The great Saint Alphonsus Liguori struggled his entire life with celibacy and he prayed every day that he would get the grace of final perseverance, so in that he’s a great model for all believers in praying for this grace of fidelity.
- Secondly, perseverance is a quality of every virtue. If you don’t stick to it and don’t repeat the lessons, you cannot learn. Some whiz kids used to get to the material the night before the exam and the material hardly made any impact on their minds and much less on their hearts or their lives. Stick-to-itiveness is something that’s asked of all of us each day. I remember it now as one of the great gifts of my formation years to have had as my professor, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, OP, and he used to have a great routine before the exams. [I’m a little late for this exhortation, but anyway, maybe next year.] He would say, “Look, you’ve got to read this book! Go down into the library. Pick this book up, put it on your head, rub it next to your heart and if the temptation comes to read it, give in!” So that was his regular pep talk.
And finally perseverance is a special virtue to remain faithful in the priesthood, and in all vocations, as best we can. That this is certainly a Grace of God, and in this wonderful Mundelein community we pray: Mary most faithful, pray for us.
Thank you for listening!
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ACCOUNT OF FABRO SYMPOSIUM
ACCOUNT ON FABRO SYMPOSIUM
April 1st-2nd, 2016
Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C.
A “Cornelio Fabro Symposium” was held in Aquinas Hall, Catholic University of America, in Washington DC, from April 1st-2nd, 2016. An American Stigmatine confrere was chosen by the organizers, to present a few thoughts from contacts in Rome with Father Fabro. This “Fabro Symposium’ was organized by the ’Cornelio Fabro Cultural Project’ for the sake of bringing more and more students in this young 21st century, to an appreciation of the treasure that the Stigmatine, Father Fabro, has been for the Church through much of the 20th Century and beyond.
The “Cornelio Fabro Cultural Project” was founded on April 11, 2002, by the Superior General of the Institute of the Incarnate Word [founded in Argentina], Father Carlos Miguel Buela. This group has as its immediate aim the diffusion of the thought and works of Fr. Cornelio Fabro. On March 7, 2004 the “Project” was officially presented together with the publication of the first volume of the Complete Works of Fr. Fabro. Presently 22 volumes of the 100 planned volumes have been published. In 2011 the “Cultural Project” actively collaborated in the organization of different initiatives for the celebration of the centenary of Fabro’s death [August 24, 1911-May 4, 1995].
Father Joseph Henchey, CSS participated in the Introductory Panel, and submitted an article for the Symposium. The title of this study is “Father Cornelio Fabro- A Stigmatine – Devoted to his Founder.” From initial studies of Fr. Fabro’s voluminous works, it seems that the following phases of development took place in Father Fabro’s brilliant mind:
[1] Early Studies in the theology of St. Thomas – the doctoral thesis of the young Father Fabro has since become a classic in the Thomistic world. This is his lasting work on ’Participation” – a major contribution to the understanding of the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas.’
[2] Mature Research: Through the war years and beyond, Father Fabro learned Danish in order to translate some of the extensive works of Soren Kierkegaard, a Danish Lutheran writer, often dubbed ‘the melancholic Dane!’ In more recent times, however, Kierkegaard has become an important ally to Catholic theologians. Some modern readers are suspicious, if not dismissive of Kierkegaard. However, the favorable mention of Kierkegaard by Pope St. John Paul II’s Letter on Fides et Ratio offers a further reason why Kierkegaard cannot simply be rejected out of hand. Father Fabro maintained that he had learned as much from Kierkegaard as he had from St Thomas Aquinas!
These scholarly studies led Father Fabro to study in great depth the phenomenon of modern atheism, now appearing in English Translation as “God in Exile” [Newman Press 1968, translated by the Canadian scholar Arthur Gibson – with an enthusiastic Foreword composed by the renowned scholar, John Macquarrie.
[3] Spiritual Fulfillment – these would Fabro’s Vatican II years and beyond, 1965-1995. He was appointed to be one of the Consulters in preparation for the Council. In this period, his fertile pen produced some truly extraordinary works: Prayer in Modern Thought; Gemma Galgani a Witness of the Supernatural [Published by the Passionist Congregation]; Times of the Spirit [2 volumes published by the Franciscans of Assisi.
Father Henchey translated three fine, substantial studies of Father Fabro regarding St. Gaspar Bertoni:
- An Ecclesial Priest: Blessed Gaspar Bertoni [1982];
- Gaspar Bertoni: Witness of the Supernatural [presented at Bertoni Symposium, Angelicum University Rome, October 28, 1989];
- Gaspar Bertoni: A life illumined by the Supernatural [published posthumously in 2009].
In his paper presented to the Symposium, Father Henchey offered a brief outline of St. Gaspar Bertoni’s life and spirituality. Father Fabro – no stranger to physical suffering himself – was deeply moved by the fact that from perhaps the age of 45 until his death at 76, St. Gaspar suffered atrociously and almost daily from poor medical treatment and the deterioration of a leg fistula that eventually developed into cancer. The Founder’s long years of immobility also brought on very serious and painful bed sores, along with severe arthritis
There is an unusual parallel in Kierkegaard’s dates – 1813-1855 – with St. Gaspar being at the Stimmate, 1816-1853. While they were contemporary, there is no indication that they had ever known each other; there is nonetheless a striking consonance of some spiritual principles shared by Father Bertoni and Kierkegaard.
Several key texts from Father Bertoni’s Spiritual Diary for Father Fabro would be these three:
[1] [Spiritual Diary] MP – July 30, 1808: [St. Gaspar’s Spiritual Model: [Assimilation – Communion – ‘Con: Suffering (Col 1:24) Crucified; Buried; Risen’] – Copy – Example – Filiation – Following/ Imitation – Heir – Inheritance – ICON: Col 1] – One Life – Recapitulation – Martyr – Union (GS 22) – Witness, etc.] – on the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola],
[17.] For the examination of conscience one should choose a Saint of the same vocation as a mirror. In this way one finds matter for confession every day. Whatever falls short of that Saint’s perfection is faulty…
[2] MP – September 15, 1808: [Apostolic Influence of St. Ignatius]
[41.] Introduction to the Spiritual Exercises. While visiting the altar of St Ignatius with my companions I felt much devotion and recollection with great inner cheerfulness and some tears – even though the visit was short. I had the feeling that the Saint was welcoming us and inviting us to work for the greater glory of God as he did. To work in the same ways: though not using all those means [‘modi’] that he was able to use. He seemed to tell us: “Onward, soldiers of Christ! Gird yourselves with fortitude! Pick up the shield of faith, the helmet of Salvation, the sword of the divine Word and fight against the “ancient serpent”. Make my spirit alive again in you and in others through you”.
[3] MP – October 9, 1808: [St. Gaspar’s 31st birthday] – A Eucharistic, Trinitarian Spirituality
[59.] Feast of St Denis and the Maternity of the Virgin Mary.
During the Eucharistic prayer of the Mass near the time of the memento, it seemed that my mind opened up to know with Whom was I speaking. I felt great affection and an enthusiasm of love in prayer. Then some outbursts of my heart for God and some impulses of my spirit towards God. I seemed to be like a person overwhelmed by the appearance of a great friend who had not been seen for a long time and on seeing him suddenly, he wants to throw himself at him and embrace him. Then I felt a desire that the vision could increase and an impulse to be able to reach the Supreme Good. Since I was in public I feared [the feeling of] some vanity and I [made an effort to] think of my most serious sins. As a consequence [I felt] an increase of knowledge of goodness and love which dissolved in most soothing tears which lasted until after Holy Communion. In the meantime, faith and confidence increased very much together with humility and loving reverence. Lastly, at Communion, a very intense devotion and sentiment similar to that of my First Holy Communion: an experience that I am not aware of having felt since. The recollection lasted for another hour and it remained for the rest of the evening.
A contribution from S. Kierkegaard for Father Fabro’s understanding of his saintly Founder:
Contemporaneity: A life-long influence for Father Bertoni was his daily sufferings from the age of 45 until he was 76, when he died.
There is, then this consonance of Kierkegaard with Fr. Bertoni which goes back to their common font, the New Testament. Furthermore there are traces of common readings of Catholic mystics, such as The Imitation of Christ, St. Therese, St. John of the Cross, Fenelon, St. Alphonsus de’ Liguori …[1]
This was a life, that of Father Bertoni, about half of which was spent on the Cross, with his long and painful illnesses, “… under the irons and the knives of the doctors …” as he himself often preferred to write, in a joking manner, especially to Father Bragato. This seems to demonstrate a capacity of endurance that amazed and moved even to tears the surgeons themselves. The documents speak of some 300 inflictions of deep lancing and incisions on his flesh in order to diminish a kind of cancerous growth which had invaded his right leg.
The characteristic or the authentic originality of Fr. Bertoni’s grasp of this seems to be that of being more lived than theorized. It seems to spring from that unconditional self-emptying of his soul into the Mystery of the Incarnation. This derives from that interior thrust of his of transcending every adherence to creatures, which is at the same time, as a placing of himself at the total disposition of the will of God for the salvation of his brothers and sisters, in every occasion and at all times.
A Life totally for the Church
The actuality of the figure and the undertakings of Father Bertoni can be summarized in two simple phrases: … A Man totally Evangelical and totally ecclesial. His was a soul permeated with the spirit of the Gospel, and devoured by his zeal for without boundaries. We learn from Father Lenotti that his principal study was Sacred Scripture, some of which he knew by memory. As a result his ordinary manner of speaking was fully scriptural. In the nearly iconoclastic fury which has attacked the sacred text on the part of some modern criticism, u.
Father Bertoni’s times were quite different from ours. However, the sufferings of humanity, the crisis of faith, the situation of the Christian on this world… seem to intensify all the more as these realities impact every age, at every turn of human progress. The manners of thinking change, and also the prospects of civility: the trajectory of life towards the gulf of death, and being overwhelmed by the same enigmas, no matter what the number and the qualities of elements that work in its mutating arch.
Today hope is much magnified, and this is good: however, for us, it has to be a Christian hope; it needs to address believers upward toward those immutable goods and yearn for that Augustinian Sabbath that will never end. Therefore hope must be nourished by faith, and must flow forth within its certainties’, and not get diverted into the earthly swamps rivet itself in some kind of a “foolish flight.” This needs to be a hope which enkindles one toward the elevation toward God and in the service of one’s neighbor.
Father Bertoni was one who was malleable, but firm at the same time. He knew how to ponder the signs of his times, he read and had others read the daily newspapers as something most useful from which one might draw new avenues for the apostolate. However, he observed in his Diary: “… It is necessary to enter into the house of another in a manner so that what we might learn then to lead others to ours.” This is a rule of realism and of boldness, it seems to us and not just another form of aggiornamento of the Church in this world, or some other format of ‘dialogue with this world’, which have often amounted tactics of equivocal compromises. What needs to be concluded from all this is a service of fidelity to the salvific Truth with respect to the mystery of freedom.
Rev. Joseph Henchey, CSS
April 4, 2016
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1] Translator’s Note: in these last few paragraphs, Fr. Fabro offers a real theological presentation of Holy Abandonment, and provides excellent sources for further reflection.
APPENDICES:
DOCUMENTS:
Fabro Symposium Presentation by Rev. Joseph Henchey, CSS
Fabro Trilogy – by Rev. Joseph Henchey, CSS
PROGRAM:
EVENT PHOTOS:
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Happy Easter!
Dear Friends of the Stigmatines,
As I write this message, it is the Feast of Saint Joseph! Our Holy Founder, Saint Gaspar Bertoni, gave us Mary and Joseph, as our Holy Patrons. May Saint Joseph guide and be with you each day!
We are entering Holy Week and the great Easter Season that extends through Pentecost. This is certainly a blessed time for us all. Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI offers us some wonderful insights into the Easter Feast and Season. In his book, Holy Days, Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts and Other Solemnities of the Church (pp. 52 & 53), he states:
“… death does not have the last word, because Life will be victorious at the end.”
This certainty of ours is based not on simple human reasoning, but on a historical fact of faith: Jesus Christ, crucified and buried, is risen with his glorified body. Jesus is risen so that we too, believing in him, may have eternal life. The resurrection, then, is not a theory, but a historical reality revealed by the man Jesus Christ by means of his “Passover”, his “passage”, which has opened a new way between heaven and earth (cf. Heb. 10.20). It is neither a myth nor a dream, it is not a vision or a utopia, it is not a fairy tale, but it is a singular and unrepeatable event: Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, who at dusk on Friday was taken down from the Cross and buried, has victoriously left the tomb. The resurrection of Christ is our hope! This the Church proclaims today with joy. She announces the hope that is now firm and invincible because God has raised Jesus Christ from the dead. She communicates the hope that she carries in her heart and wishes to share with all people in every place.
As always, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI writes so eloquently. He captures the essential Easter message of hope.
The Stigmatine Fathers are devoted to this Easter message. Our devotion to both the sorrowful and glorious Wounds of Christ invite us to bring the Easter message of peace and joy to all whom we serve. We are so happy and privileged to share the Lord’s message: “Peace be with you!”
Thank you for visiting us through this medium of communication. Please be sure of our continued prayers for you, your loved ones and all your intentions. As always, we ask you to pray for vocations to the Stigmatine Priesthood and Religious Life.
A blessed and joyous Easter Season!
The Stigmatine Fathers
Holy Spouses Province
Lenten Greetings!
Dear Friends of the Stigmatine Fathers,
As you visit our website, we are beginning the Holy Season of Lent – the Church’s time of retreat and reflection on our Lord’s deep love for us all. Due to our devotion to the Sacred Five Wounds (Stigmata) of Christ, we Stigmatines find Lent to be a great blessing that gives us a special time to honor our Lord’s suffering and Passion – all for the forgiveness of our sins. May this Lenten Season truly be a time of renewal for us all.
In his book, Holy Days – Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts, and other Solemnities of the Church, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI offers a beautiful reflection on Ash Wednesday and Lent. He states:
In his book, Holy Days – Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts, and other Solemnities of the Church, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI offers a beautiful reflection on Ash Wednesday and Lent. He states:
In his book, Holy Days – Meditations on the Feasts, Fasts, and other Solemnities of the Church, Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI offers a beautiful reflection on Ash Wednesday and Lent. He states,
At the beginning of Lent, which represents an intense path of spiritual training, the liturgy proposes three penitential practices that are precious to the biblical and Christian tradition – prayer, almsgiving and fasting – in order to prepare oneself to celebrate Easter more properly and thus to have the experience of the power of God who “triumphs over evil, washes away our sins, restores innocence to sinners, joy to the afflicted, extinguishes hatred, brings us peace and humbles the proud in the world” (Easter Proclamation). Lent recalls to us the forty days of fasting that the Lord underwent in the desert, prior to commencing his public mission. The Holy Scriptures and the entire Christian tradition teach that fasting is a great help to avoid sin and everything that leads to it. That is why, in the history of salvation, the invitation to fast recurs time after time. The faithful practice of fasting contributes to the unification of the human person, body and soul, by helping one to avoid sin and to grow in intimacy with the Lord.
In this Jubilee Year of Mercy, this message is echoed by our Holy Father, Pope Francis. He reminds us of the “wideness” of Jesus’ merciful love. The Sacred Stigmata of Christ is “proof of this love.” The Stigmatines – since 1816 – have proclaimed this message of hope. We thank you for supporting our mission and we pray that the Lord of Mercy will touch your lives anew with His gracious love.
May the Lenten Season be filled with many blessings for you. Please be sure of our continued prayers for you and all your intentions.
Lenten blessings,
The Stigmatine Fathers
Province of the Holy Spouses, Mary and Joseph
AN ACCOUNT OF THE CELEBRATION OF THE FOUNDATION DAY – NOVEMBER 4, 2014
In the small St. Joseph’s Chapel of our Retirement House, in Watham, MA, at 4:15 pm on this November 4th [“mid-term” election day in the USA], Fr. Gregory Hoppough, Provincial, was the main celebrant of a con-celebrated Mass for the community and the Lay Stigmatines, our assistants here on the property and friends.
Fr. Richard Scioli, Pastor of Sacred Heart Parish, Milford, MA – gave an excellent Homily on the Stigmatine charism – for the Church at large and for each Stigmatine. With the Scriptures, he compared this vocation to the small mustard seed – or the little bit of leaven which raises the batter.
This small ‘Gift” has proven to be a rich source of service to the Church – and right now it is beckoning to each and every Stigmatine to let this charism grow continually in our hearts.
Members came from as far away as Pittsfield MA – Springfield MA – and the Stigmatines from this community and two young priests from Thailand, Fr. Peter and Fr. Dominic.
Following the celebration of the Eucharist, all were served a delicious supper meal lovingly prepared by the staff of the house, and thoroughly enjoyed by all.
This was a fitting celebration of the Stigmatine’s 198th anniversary as a Community, remembering in our hearts, with much Thanksgiving for Nov. 4, 1816!
Rev. Joseph Henchey, CSS
Provincial Welcome
Dear Friends of the Stigmatines,
Welcome to our newly established BLOG site. Thanks to our dear friends and Lay Associates, Tereza & Vicente Lopes, we are able to communicate with you on this new level.
The Stigmatines endeavor to serve the Church through service to the Bishops of the world. Here in the United States, the Province of the Holy Spouses, Mary and Joseph, we have many ministries: parish ministry, retreat ministry, seminary formation, counseling and foreign missions. We ask you to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send us candidates for the Stigmatine Priesthood and Religious Life.
Thank you for joining us as together we give honor and praise to our God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Sincerely,
Father Gregory J. Hoppough, C.S.S.,
Provincial Superior