by Sister Constance Carolyn Veit, l.s.p

As Ash Wednesday approached, I was thinking that this was going to be a Lent like most others. And then came the news on Feb. 11! Even as I pondered what a papal resignation signified, my thoughts drifted back to another season of high emotion – Lent 2005. A proud member of the JPII generation, I will never forget the images of John Paul II publicly living out his last days like a long and deliberate Way of the Cross.

Benedict XVI’s final papal Lent has an entirely different tenor. Much ink has already been spilled over the possible reasons and implications of his resignation, and one might ask what more can be said.

We Little Sisters of the Poor would simply like to offer profound thanks to God for the gift of Pope Benedict at a very challenging time in the life of the Church. We would like to thank him for the canonization of our mother foundress, St. Jeanne Jugan, in 2009 and for imparting a message of hope to our Sisters and elderly residents during a visit to our home in London in 2010. We are deeply grateful for his encyclicals and books and for his emphasis on the place of organized works of charity in the life of the Church.

We would also like to reflect on Pope Benedict’s example from the perspective of women religious dedicated to the elderly. In visiting our residents in London, Pope Benedict readily admitted that he came among them as a brother who knows both the joys and struggles of advanced age. During a visit to an old age home in Rome in late 2012, he identified himself as “an old man visiting his peers,” even exclaiming that “it is beautiful to be old!” Rare is the public figure who so readily admits his own frailty.

At the beginning of his pontificate, Benedict said that “Each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary.” In 2010, he repeated this message to the residents of our home in London and again in Rome. Directed at the infirm elderly, can we doubt that this message was uniquely intentional? It is worth pondering at any age but especially as one feels his or her strength and abilities diminishing under the weight of old age.

In his first encyclical, Benedict wrote about humility and service. Now he is showing us the way: “We are only instruments in the Lord’s hands; and this knowledge frees us from the presumption of thinking that we alone are personally responsible for building a better world. In all humility we will do what we can, and in all humility we will entrust the rest to the Lord. It is God who governs the world, not we. We offer him our service only to the extent that we can, and for as long as he grants us the strength. To do all we can with what strength we have, however, is the task which keeps the good servant of Jesus Christ always at work: ‘The love of Christ urges us on’ (2 Cor. 5:14)” (Deus Caritas Est, n. 35).

There can be no doubt that the love of Christ – and love for the Church – are urging Benedict XVI on as he pursues a life of prayer, hidden from the world.

by Father Raymond P. Roden

In the late 1960s when many religious sisters reclaimed their baptismal and family names, Sister Mary Marcellus, C.S.J., became Sister Mary Anne Ricioppo, C.S.J. Curiously, the name didn’t stick. It was one of those funny things in a time of whirlwind change that she continued on as Marcellus in spite of the formal switch. In Spanish, it was Marcella. Her sisters called her Marce.

Sister Marcellus, who died on Nov. 11, 2012, was one of God’s little ones. Her friendship with Jesus was such that she radiated Gospel simplicity everywhere she went and had no other agenda but that friendship. If you knew her, you knew you had an open invitation to a fiesta of prayer, laughter, music, teaching and community which made the Lord’s presence believable, visible. A brilliant teacher and devoted principal for over half a century, her kids were drawn by her holiness without realizing that holiness was what attracted them. She’d have preferred death to seeing harm come to any one of them.

Activity-packed days and evenings and many weekends were possible because of the stability of a Eucharistic center. Daily Mass with her parish community at Transfiguration Church, Williamsburg, and a daily hour of Eucharistic adoration with Sister Peggy Walsh, C.S.J., in their tiny convent chapel allowed life and service to roll along evenly, smoothly, for the most part. That hour of adoration ballooned into an entire month each summer, an extended time of prayer and hospitality for those who wanted to join sisters in prayer and quiet at the parish retreat house in Westchester County. A few weeks before, there would be the usual phone call to make sure I’d be there for a few days at least, for Mass, a meal and good conversation.

On a pilgrimage to Rome for the beatification of Charles de Foucauld in November of 2005, her joy was childlike. When Pope Benedict unexpectedly walked by at St. Peter’s Basilica about 10 feet away from us, the moment was received as a surprise gift. Delighted as she was to be in the Eternal City, Sister Marcellus knew where she belonged, knew who she was. She was a sister, a little sister spiritually, a sister to her good friends, young and old, back home in Brooklyn. She was Jesus’ little sister most of all.

Of course, there were stormy days too, and she could ask, as any of us could, “What’s this all about?” “What in the world are we doing here?” The good answer, God’s answer, always came, and she never, ever gave up.

An honest, faithful attempt at establishing a new expression of consecrated life, together with Sister Peggy and two other Sisters of St. Joseph, toward living the Nazareth life more fully brought her full circle to carry on with the life she was already living. Mysteriously guided by Abba Joseph, husband of Mary and protector of Josephite Sisters, and Blessed Charles for sure, there was now a new emphasis on the little way, the spirituality of littleness. This renewed commitment would play out in contemplative prayer and in hospitality shared with immigrant women recently arrived from Central America with no resources, in addition to her usual work in school and parish.

When her school closed, she knew the quality of education was going down the rabbit hole, so she had no trouble letting go. Sister Marcellus was in on one of our best kept secrets: You don’t necessarily need a school or a classroom to teach. “Where two or three are gathered in my name. . .” was personal good news for her. Right to the end, the people of once-abandoned Williamsburg kept on coming to her choir, her CCD program, her prayer, her caritas.

In her final illness, I spoke with her on the phone and told her I was sorry I couldn’t be around more. Kind and gracious as ever, as if nothing were amiss, she assured me that it was ok. “It’s just good to hear your voice,” she said. A couple of days before she went home to the Lord, I sat next to her bed in the convent, held her hand and prayed the Memorare aloud. Unable to speak and very weak, a quick squeeze of my hand was her grateful “Amen,” a final gesture of a consecrated woman whose life was eucharistic, always thankful, always giving, always in communion, joyful and very much hidden from a world utterly incapable of offering more.

Her wake, a 24-hour vigil, was held in the parish church. Former second graders came with their grandchildren. The pastor wept as he presided at her funeral liturgy. It was hard to believe we had been friends for 40 years.

Reading Pope Benedict’s book, Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week: From the Entrance Into Jerusalem to the Resurrection (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2011, pp. 362), provides an education for me in several areas, not only in the theology of the Old Testament and the theology of the New Testament but also in history and psychology.
Studying the book, I am impressed by both the breadth and depth of the Holy Father’s knowledge and vision. Joseph Ratzinger is the pope, but he is also a brilliant theologian, one whose insights often go beyond theology.
It pleases me to think that the Holy Father very much wanted to get this volume, the one that preceded it and the one that follows it into print. I have the impression that publishing this material was a project very close to the Holy Father’s heart. What comes across in the pages of this most recent volume, at least to me, is the pope’s passion for communicating his thoughts about and his insights into the mystery of Christ.
Commenting on the scene in St. John’s Gospel in which the Jewish officials’ demand that Jesus give a sign to demonstrate His authority and Jesus responds: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” Pope Benedict points out that Jesus is offering as a sign the cross and resurrection. The Holy Father notes that Jesus is justifying Himself through His Passion, that this is the sign of Jonah that He gives to Israel and to the world.
Pope Benedict continues:
“Yet this saying has an even deeper significance As John rightly says, the disciples understood it in its full depth only after the Resurrection, in their memory – in the collective memory of the community of disciples enlightened by the Holy Spirit, that is, the Church.
“The rejection and crucifixion of Jesus means at the same time the end of this Temple. The era of the Temple is over. A new worship is being introduced, in a Temple not built by human hands. This Temple is his body, the Risen One, who gathers the peoples and unites them in the sacrament of his body and blood. He himself is the new Temple of humanity. The crucifixion of Jesus is at the same time the destruction of the old Temple. With his Resurrection, a new way of worshipping God begins, no longer on this or that mountain, but ‘in spirit and truth’ (Jn 4:23).” (pp.19-20)
As I am writing this column I am reflecting on Thanksgiving, the wonderful American holiday we just celebrated. As Americans gathered to share a Thanksgiving meal, many felt the need to express their gratitude for all the blessings that God has showered upon them and their families. I suspect that some say grace before their meal and may make an attempt to list some of the blessings received, such as health, economic security, protection from physical harm and the special blessing of living in the U.S. But as we reflect on our relationship with God, we may realize that there can be no accurate or exhaustive listing of God’s blessings.
In relation to us, God is giver, and we are receivers. God’s graces and blessings are countless. The most important and marvelous blessing and grace is the Incarnation of God’s Son. This is a gift of love that we will never appreciate fully. The love that this expresses is literally beyond our grasp, beyond our imagination or our ability to understand. It is so easy to lose something of the awe that we should have when we focus our attention on God’s love for us, especially as that love is expressed through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus.
The truths of the faith may have been taught to us when we were young, and we may occasionally lose our sense of wonder in relation to them. We should try to increase our sense of wonder and awe. God’s love for us is awesome, and we don’t ever want to forget that. I find that reading the Holy Father’s book stirs my sense of awe and wonder. The pope successfully communicates his relationship with the Risen Lord and his love of Christ.
The contrast that the Holy Father calls attention to between the old Temple and the Temple of Christ’s body can highlight for us the importance of the Eucharist. It can help us expand and deepen our appreciation of the Eucharist, which is not merely a new prayer that Christians recited after Jesus’ resurrection. The Eucharist is the Risen Christ praying. Christ has become the new Temple of humanity. He has become the new house of prayer and sacrifice, the place where God and human beings encounter one another.

Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.

by Ed Wilkinson

What a week it has been!
Pope Benedict’s historic journey to Mexico and Cuba this past week was a huge undertaking.  Not just for the 84-year-old pontiff, but also for our local media here in the diocese.
The DeSales Media Group, which produces both The Tablet and NET television, made a strong commitment to covering the pope’s pastoral visit to Latin America. It meant weekend and overtime hours for everyone on staff.
Liz Faublas, the anchor of Currents, our daily cable news show, guided viewers through the five days of papal coverage. She was ably assisted by expert commentary from diocesan resources. We wanted to offer something that no one else was giving to viewers and we managed to do just that.
When the pope was in Mexico, we reached out to and received help from Father Ray Roden, who takes special interest in the history of the Church in Mexico. He and two native born Mexican seminarians, Jesus Ledezma and Hugo Rodriguez, were our on-air guests as Benedict visited Guanajuato and Leon. The visuals from the shrines and the basilicas were magnificent and Father Roden and his companions explained the significance and the history behind them.  The trio had recently been on pilgrimage and retreat in Mexico, so they were still filled with the excitement and refreshment that such a getaway provides.
As the Holy Father arrived in Cuba, we invited Msgr. Otto Garcia, the Cuban-born pastor of St. Joan of Arc, Jackson Heights, and former Vicar General, to our studio, along with Deacon Felipe Almendarez of Holy Name parish, Park Slope.  They provided the color and offered explanations that only natives from the island could supply.
Our liturgical expert, Father John Cush joined us when the pope celebrated Mass. After his expert commentary during the recent installation of the new cardinals, we knew he was the one we wanted to lead us through the special celebrations.
But that’s not all. Our in-studio performances were complemented by reports from the ground in Mexico and Cuba, where we invested in sending reporters and film crews. NET program director Ryan Stewart was in Mexico with producer Eli Soriano, a native of Mexico, and Father Jorge Ortiz-Garay, a Mexican-born priest who serves at St. Joseph’s Church, Prospect Heights.  In Cuba, Msgr. Kieran Harrington, Vicar for Communications, teamed up with Tablet reporter Antonina Zielinska and producer Will Fonseca. Their packages have been broadcast on Currents all week long as well as being used during our live coverage.
It was not easy getting into Cuba.  For the past month, we have been filing applications with the U.S. and Cuban governments to receive the proper credentials.  Those efforts have paid off with reports about the church in Cuba that you cannot see anywhere else but on NET and the pages of The Tablet.
Our hard working staff crew here in Brooklyn turned in a yeoman effort to transmit these images on your TV screens and produce the words on these pages. But this is what we are all about at DeSales, your one-stop media provider of church news.
We hope that you enjoyed our efforts. Your comments on how we can improve these services in the future are always welcome. DeSales is growing in ways we could not predict even months ago when we were established. We’re committed to going forward to bring you the most informative and most educational church coverage.